Welcome to the first post in our ‘Platform Breakdown’ series, featuring the ever-so-popular channel known as LinkedIn. LinkedIn: a social profile that most business professionals know they should have, but aren’t sure what to do with it.

Have you found yourself gazing at your LinkedIn personal or company page, and wondering how you can use it to it’s full potential to reach future customers? Or have you avoided the process of setting up an account altogether because you’re just not sure where to start? No matter where you are with your LinkedIn page right now, it is our mission to help you learn how to properly use this powerful tool to reach and interact with your customer-base.

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn, put simply, is a social platform that allows you to connect with individuals in a professional capacity. It is, by far, the largest business networking site in the entire world –meaning you have the potential to reach customers both near and far! A few fun facts about LinkedIn:

• There are over 467 million users currently on LinkedIn
• It is quickly growing, with 2 new users joining every second
• Users in the US = 128 million
• Users outside the US = 70%
• Geographical reach: 200 countries and territories

Why Use LinkedIn?

With access to millions of business professionals at your fingertips, it is up to you to take the reigns and use this social channel to your advantage. But how, you ask? One word: networking. LinkedIn allows you to join groups, follow favorite brands, reach out to potential customers/employees through direct messaging, prospect, uncover upcoming events in the area, and much more. You now have the power to “link” yourself to virtually anything –with the touch of a button (and without picking up the phone or moving from your office chair…or couch!).

LinkedIn offers one social website where you can focus solely on business networking and gaining leads, without all of the additional mumbo-jumbo associated with social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Setting Up Your Profile

If you don’t already have a professional profile on LinkedIn, it is important that you set one up now by visiting www.linkedin.com.

1. Upload a professional photo
2. Add a professional headline
3. Create a general summary
4. Add previous work experience & education
5. Add in your skills
6. Complete all additional information as instructed by LinkedIn
7. Start connecting!

For a more detailed version of how to fully optimize your LinkedIn profile, click here.

Tips for Small Businesses on LinkedIn

Despite what you may think, small businesses have the opportunity to benefit greatly through LinkedIn if used properly. Here are a few tips that can help you make the most of your LinkedIn personal and company page and start getting leads today!

• Support Brand Recognition – Make sure your profile images and cover photos match across all social channels (ie: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) in order to give your current and future customers immediate brand recognition when they come across your page.
• Publish your own posts – you are a wealth of knowledge and LinkedIn is a prime place for you to share that knowledge with other business professionals. Think of LinkedIn as a place where you can “blog” and share your insights. Make sure you have posts of at least 500 words plus an image. Repurpose these articles on the “blog” page of your website and post to those “LinkedIn groups” you joined for full optimization and more exposure.
• Link to other pages – This will give you more credibility. Likewise, the more linking you do to other quality websites, the more likely you are to receive links back to your own website. In turn, this increases your SEO and rankings on Google, plus offers your website and your company more credibility to end-users.
• Grow your following – post helpful articles (both internal and 3rd party) to constantly feed your connections with insightful information. People are constantly searching on LinkedIn. Give them answers to their questions! The more engagement you receive on the articles you share, the more exposure (and following) you will gain in the long run.

Get your message out and start improving your LinkedIn profile today!

Need help getting started setting up or optimizing your LinkedIn personal and company pages to reach their fullest potential? The team at Brand It Marketing Communications is here to help! Give us a call at 419.363.2817 or email hello@branditonline.com for more information.