The business of a business is to make money. The way we market our business has to take into consideration the audience we are targeting. Any of the social network sites – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest – can connect you with people all over the world. LinkedIn, however, boasts an average user with an annual income in excess of £75,000. What does this tell you? It says, with LinkedIn, you are dealing with business people who are serious about business.
Forbes recognises the boost LinkedIn can offer when you’re growing your business. So why aren’t you taking advantage of this marketing tool in your business?
- Your profile is your face to the world. The first impression is the lasting impression. Complete your profile so that a search for your business name turns up information about every good thing you have to offer potential customers.
- Beef up your websites. Boring is boring. You want people to be inspired to click through the links on your website. Give them a reason to do that: visuals, text that pops, an irresistible call to action.
- Connect, connect and connect again. Some social media strategists will tell you to connect only with people you know and trust. That may be great advice, but do you really think your business can grow when you refuse communication with the other 85 million or more LinkedIn members around the world? Get as much data as possible and store it in a membership management system or bespoke data centre for ease of access.
- Pay attention to the man behind the curtain. Give your viewers a look at what goes on behind-the-scenes in your company. Blogs are extremely popular, as are amateur videos of company events or fundraising drives.
- Pay it forward. Don’t wait for others to come begging for you to help them out by recommending them to others. Make some recommendations without others asking. This increases your social bona fides and gets you the reputation of a good guy in the social media world.
- Make it a group thing. LinkedIn groups should be a focal point of your marketing strategy. Don’t just own your own niche-related group; join others.
- Don’t remain exclusive to LinkedIn. Connect to Twitter and Facebook. You’ll increase the visibility of your postings and your message will remain at the top of the feeds longer when your message gets cross-posted.
- Build a company profile like it’s on steroids. Potential employees. Freelancers. Industry experts. These are frequent searches on LinkedIn. Pump up your profile so it can be found by the people looking for what you have to offer.
- There’s an app for that. LinkedIn has a wide selection of applications that can work for just about any business, product, or service you have to offer. Find the apps that work well for you and use them.
- Don’t be a stranger. Post early and post often. More people read social media postings in the morning. Keep your postings and blog entries up to date. Don’t let your business be yesterday’s news.