What do you call a place surrounded by established companies, business influencers, marketing giants and other corporate employees? You guessed it right – LinkedIn. In the generation of social media marketing, LinkedIn’s presence has ignited the profile of many companies to great heights. This business and employment oriented networking site has skyrocketed in terms of users, engagement, leads as well as popularity.
Why LinkedIn is Superior without any Doubt?
Any doubt about the superiority of Linkedin over other social marketing sites? All will be subsided if you take a look at these points which makes it far better than the other social media giants like Facebook and Twitter.
• It’s all about business – Unlike other platforms LinkedIn’s only focus is the professional world; not the personal scheme of things. Although it may be argued that both Facebook and Twitter have a huge role to play in digital marketing, but both of them are more personal than the former.
• It’s much more real – Facebook has over 1.79 billion active users whereas Twitter stands at only 379 million active users. Apart from these enormous numbers, both the social media sites have been populated with fake profiles and identities. LinkedIn, on the other hand, has 467 million users with very few fake profiles and false information on it.
• Opportunities – Unemployment has been one of the major crises in the world. The opportunity that LinkedIn provides has changed many people’s lives. A LinkedIn profile works as a resume which in turn helps to attract new jobs and opportunities for the users. In America employment was revived during the recession period via LinkedIn’s service.
• Growth Rate – Other than the clichéd like, comment and share, LinkedIn is a powerful platform for Business. B2B marketing, increasing leads, enhancing brand awareness and creating new partnerships are some of the reasons why it is definitely the most effective social networking site for growth in career and business.
What is Digital Marketing?
The art of using digital channels to market different products and services is called Digital Marketing. If you own a business, then you need to promote it in such a way that the customers become willing to pay for your product or service. Digital marketing is of utmost importance for small business owners because it gives them an opportunity to compete with the big firms.
How does it help a Business?
• It creates a direct path of communication between your firm and your customers.
• It is much more effective form of marketing in terms of cost. The investment required for this is very low.
• Real-time customer services are provided through digital marketing.
• It makes the process of analyzing the behavior of the client through various analytics highly convenient.
7½ Ways You Can Use LinkedIn for Digital Marketing
Now comes a brief description of those 7 ½ wonder ways by which you can reach the pinnacle of success with Linkedin:
1. Create an Attention Grabbing Profile
The first thing that your client sees is your business profile. Make sure it is beefed up with the following things.
Adequate information regarding the business.
Make it keyword centric to make it easy for people to find your business profile using search bar.
Upload a clear and engaging profile image.
Make the summary box of your profile informative as well as attractive to attract the viewers.
2. Use Paid Advertising
LinkedIn’s advertising program is of great benefit for every business. Sponsor updates help to promote their ads in the news feeds of others. The biggest advantage is that you can target any particular industry using your preferred demographics. Give something of value to the customers instead of force feeding them the product or service.
“In advertising, not to be different is virtually suicidal”- Bill Bernbach
3. Target Your Audience
An untapped area of LinkedIn for digital marketers is the search bar. The advanced search feature can help businesses to find potential clients and leads. Even if you are not using the premium account, LinkedIn’s search options help to narrow down the specific requirements for your business. You can use demographics like the company, education, position, gender, location and various other options.
4. Expand Your Email List
The difference between big businesses and small businesses is the lack of effort put into the email list. Personally, message users use call to action in your posts and expand your email marketing list.
“If you aren’t building out on your list, you are missing out on the future of your business” – Vikki Fitch
5. Content is the King
Publishing quality content can be of great help for your business. Create such an engaging content that it reaches the target audience. You must ask yourself two things before posting any content on LinkedIn:
First, is it of any value to the readers?
Second, is it meant for the target audience of your business?
Once your content starts adding anything valuable to the reader’s mind, then it makes you a recognized expert in that genre for your readers.
6. Join Your Niche Groups
Joining groups and communities is another neglected area of LinkedIn’s digital marketing strategy. Join your niche groups and engage in conversations to build relationships. Create a group yourself and provide valuable answers to the questions of your users. The key point of finding success in LinkedIn groups is to stay as an active user.
7. Build a Brand
Digital Marketing is mostly used to sell a product of your business instead of building a brand for your business which converts your potential customers into loyal customers. Create an engaging and professional company page, use custom LinkedIn URL, hire employees who add value to your firm, etc. The above mentioned are some of the important points to consider while building a brand in LinkedIn.
7½. Why aren’t You Using Premium Yet?
If you haven’t brought the LinkedIn premium account yet, you are only using half of its features. Features such as InMail, Profile Visitors, and Effective Search make it a must for every business owner. There are four premium schemes available on LinkedIn – Job Seeker, Business Plus, Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite. Half of the current small business owners have brought the premium feature; it is up to you on which half you wish to stay.
