How to Use LinkedIn For Marketing: A Bright and Beautiful Beginner’s Guide

Does the thought of LinkedIn send shivers down your spine?

I hate to say this, but, depending on your business — it should.

Why?

Because I said so! (Oops! For a second there, I thought you were my kids.)

As a mompreneur, solopreneur or just plain ‘ole entrepreneur, LinkedIn is the:

  • Online résumé employers and potential clients look for
  • Unparalleled online lead generator
  • Best way to show off your knowledge base and
  • Place to research jobs, companies and industries

It goes without saying, because LinkedIn ranks so high in searches and has become an industry standard, that you should have a LinkedIn profile that showcases your brand and would impress potential employers.

Since your profile already looks great (right?), this post will provide you with some ins and outs for using LinkedIn for marketing, including:

  • Company Pages
  • LinkedIn for marketing
  • A word or two about LinkedIn analytics plus
  • Pro tips to get you started right now

Let’s get going with LinkedIn for marketing.

What is a LinkedIn Company Page?

A LinkedIn Company Page is an important tool for educating potential clients and collaborators about not just you, but your company’s products and services.

Company Pages allow you to:

  • Share your brand
  • Promote career opportunities
  • Build a follower community for your unique brand
  • Generate referrals and
  • Expand your reach for your content

Creating a Company Page is easy. Just log in to your personal account and click on the “Add a Company” link.

LinkedIn offers two great resources to help you get started and make the most of your Company Page.

They are:

  1. A Company Pages “microsite” and a
  2. 16 page PDF explaining how to organize you and your team to get the most out of LinkedIn Company Pages

Before you get into all the technical details, I want to give you a general idea of how to use LinkedIn for marketing.

LinkedIn for Marketing

Marketing on LinkedIn has its own special flavor. You start by asking yourself why people go to the site.

The major reasons are:

  • Job hunting
  • Head hunting and
  • Networking

Not everyone understands the importance of creating a regular LinkedIn presence that helps build authority and influence.

To market on LinkedIn you need to be:

  • Insightful
  • Useful and
  • Consistent

You can do this by setting a regular schedule of commenting and posting. The trick is, you need to get to know the people with whom you are interacting and provide them with truly useful content.

Start by identifying people and industries that are directly related to your own marketing and business development goals.

A great way to do this is through regular participation in LinkedIn Groups. Research a few key groups and commit to making an impact within them.

Once you are comfortable with that, create your own LinkedIn Group.

Nurturing the Group will provide you with a platform for sharing webinars and other special offers once you have established your authority and expertise. This will form the foundation of your content-based conversion funnel (the path people take to go from finding out about you to purchasing your products and services).

Differentiate your individual and company presence by using your personal Profile to establish yourself as an expert and then lead people to your Page.

Keep your Page lively by regularly posting Company news, special offers and engagement opportunities such as polls.

LinkedIn Company Page Analytics

I know, for beginners it can take a while to get into the swing of analytics. However, as your knowledge and know-how grow, you will want to take advantage of them.

LinkedIn has recently upgraded its Company Page analytics, offering tons of information you can use to refine the type of posts you publish.

Here’s my suggestion: Make a commitment to check your analytics once per week. This will just get you in the habit and prepare you to go deeper, later.

“Future Pro” Tip: Set an alert on your phone to make sure you do this every week. In no time flat you will have built your “analytics muscle.”

You can find your Company Page analytics on the second level navigation on every LinkedIn Company Page.

Pro Tips

Here are a few tips to get you started right on LinkedIn and LinkedIn Company Pages:

  • Use a great image for your Company Page cover photo. Good design will attract readers and followers your Page.
  • Provide fresh content and interesting links at least 2 times per day, preferably in the morning and after work.
  • Make sure your Company Description is keyword rich and starts with a strong lead because this lead is visible in Google searches.
  • As you establish your LinkedIn presence, make sure that every comment and update you make on LinkedIn ties back to your brand’s message.
  • Think about yourself and your brand as an authority. Whatever you do, you do the best. Make that message clear to the rest of LinkedIn’s 200 million members.
  • Create a video introduction to your company or a demo video for your products. It doesn’t have to be too fancy, but it will definitely add that something extra with which not everybody has.

Your Turn

Now it’s time to create a Company Page and start fully leveraging the power of LinkedIn. Share your questions and challenges in the comments.

Citations

Dougherty, Jim. How to Use LinkedIn for Content Marketing. Vocus. June 10, 2013.

Summers, Nick. LinkedIn launches new Company Page analytics for tracking follower growth, post performance and more. The Next Web. July 31, 2013.

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