LinkedIn Guide to Success
LinkedIn has become the main social network for companies and professionals around the globe, and now that it has been announced that it’s being acquired by Microsoft, it is more necessary for those looking for short term success, to be part of it.
Being a LinkedIn member does not guarantee success on its own, this is why I want to share some tips and strategies that have worked for our Company in terms of lead generation, increasing engagement and improving and managing our profile and conversions. LinkedIn has a conversion ratio 3X higher than Facebook and Twitter.
Start with your personal profile. The first impression is the one that lasts. So, make sure your profile is always updateed and catchy. This can be achieved with a great profile picture, which needs to look professional and portray your skills and personality. I recommend it to be B&W or grayscale since this way looks more elegant.
A good profile picture must be consistent with a good background photo (or cover photo as known in other social networks). It should portray your experience, knowledge and talents, and, in case your company page is linked to your profile, it should remark your company’s services, no matter you are the CEO or an employee, since employee advocacy is very important for brand awareness in this network.
Don’t ever forget to include your contact information such as links to your social profiles, contact numbers and email. This way it will be easier for a potential customer to contact you. Your experience and knowledge must be remarked, so include your work experience, education and skills, as well as a summary of your company, so contacts in your network be aware of what you and your company have to offer.
As in any other social network, contacts are what really matters. LinkedIn provides us with tools to import contacts from email accounts such as Outlook and Gmail or other Social Networks so you can build your desire audience from your base contact list. Over this base, you can add more related contacts with the characteristics you require for your objective audience. LinkedIn counts on 433 million members around the world with a rate of 172K new members each day.
To create your company page, you need to go to LinkedIn Company Pages and fill the form. It is mandatory for you to have your own company domain and email, since personal accounts are not permitted. A Premium account is necessary for better searching and filtering new contacts. This allows you to define search parameters for contacts and companies, this way building the right audience for your market niche.
Your Company page should have the same characteristics as your personal profile. An impacting logo and a background photo easy to understand that includes the services or messages you want to communicate assures more views and followers. Encourage your employees or representatives to use it as their background photo in their own profiles to get the message to more contacts in their networks.
With 2.100.000 groups in LinkedIn you have a huge opportunity to extend your network and share relevant information for you and your audience with millions of users around the world. You can also, create your own groups and start conversations on the topics and with the audience of your interest.
Don’t forget to post 2 or 3 times a day from your profile and your Company page, and try to publish no less than 20 posts per month to assure your unique audience increases 60%. Curated content is OK, but original content is better for a greater audience. In this case PULSE, an awesome functionality on LinkedIn, helps you share the content you create with the world. Although you can publish content in your language, in order to be able to post on Pulse, your profile must be in English, so you need to set your profile language by clicking on the option “language” in the “Account and Settings” tab. Always include Support content in your posts. Images increase 98% and videos 75% the comments rate, while links increase 200% the engagement rate among your audience.
Remember the best times to post on LinkedIn are before and after working hours, it means between 7 y 9 am and after 6 pm. Since this times may be your same times offline, I recommend using applications to schedule posts. I personally, use Buffer, a free app that allows schedule posts on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook in its basic version. Besides, it allows you to post GIF images which is not possible directly on LinkedIn nor Facebook.
Another awesome tool provided by LinkedIn to build Brand awareness and positioning is SlideShare, a functionality that allows you to upload and share presentations, infographics, documents and more, and share them with millions of users worldwide. Create and post an impacting Corporate Presentation, share infographics and documents with relevant information for your audience. Knowledge is power.
To Access Groups, Pulse and SlideShare, just go to the “Interests” tab in your profile and click each one from the dropdown list.
And last but not least, here is a strategy that I think may work for you to increase your sales and conversions. Use the Message or In Mail options to contact your audience. In one hand Messages allow you to send messages to contacts in your network. You can send automated or personal messages for Birthdays, anniversaries, promotions or job changes, or as I recommend, you can use messages to communicate your company offers, services and products, including support images as attachments. In the other hand, In Mail is a paid option that allows you to send messages to people outside your network. A strategy I use is looking for new contacts using predefined parameters in the advance search option and once they accept the request, a message is sent (using both Messages or In Mail) including the company’s information as well as pictures as attachments, including services and key messages. Some reply the message indicating they are interested in our company’s services or requesting more information, thus creating conversions and generating sales.
I am sure these tools and strategies Will help you to succeed in LinkedIn and achieve the Brand your market niche and objective audience, increasing your sales. For further information, please feel free to follow our company page Estrategias Inc