In a society where being online is everything, connecting on a site with over 700 million members can be a very powerful tool to grow your business. LinkedIn was established in 2002 but became increasingly popular in 2010, and it has now become a standard for both individuals as well as businesses to connect and conduct daily business. 

There are many benefits to using LinkedIn in your daily business activities. No matter the company size, we can all use social media to share content with LinkedIn groups and individuals as a social media marketing tool to grow our company.  So let’s discuss the benefits of having LinkedIn for your business, five easy steps to creating your company profile page, and tips for making your business stand apart from others on LinkedIn. 

Build Your Brand

The first benefit of using LinkedIn is building your brand awareness. There are a lot of start-up costs when starting a business, and launching a website can be on the list of expenses. Creating a LinkedIn profile is a free tool that you can use to connect with various professionals and companies either in your local area or nationally.

Maintain Your List of Contacts

Networking is another integral part of growing your business.  Prior to the days of social media, networking was primarily done in person.  What that meant was a lot of shaking hands, collecting business cards, and remembering names.  And while business cards can be a helpful way to jog your memory, as time goes on, it can be harder to remember why Suzy, the CPA you met at a networking event, was going to be so crucial to helping your business grow.

This is where using LinkedIn can be very powerful. Once you connect with Suzy the CPA, you will continue to see what she publishes online, things she shares, and others who “like” or “follow” her making it more difficult for you both to forget one another. What else can this do?  It can help you also see Suzy’s contacts and allow you to grow your connections and online presence. 

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Tap into New Industries

In order to be successful in any business you plan to start, you will need to professionally network with all types of businesses and business owners in order to help expose your product or service to your target audience.  The great thing about LinkedIn is that it allows you to connect with others in all types of businesses who you may not run across in your normal day-to-day activities.  But the key to making the right connections is making sure you have an up-to-date and relevant profile for your industry.  We’ll outline the steps below to create a professional and eye-catching profile.

Tips for Making Your Business Stand Apart on LinkedIn

1. Write an Effective "About Us" Section

   The “About Us” section is 2,000 characters or fewer on your page that will tell anyone viewing your profile exactly what they need to know about your organization. On this page, you will state: Who you are, where you are based, the services you offer, how people can contact you, and what your values are. 

   This will allow LinkedIn users to get a feel of what your company is like. When taking this time to create your “About Us” section, you can look at a variety of different pages to get inspiration for how you want your page to look.

2. Post on Your Page Regularly

   Posting content to your account regularly is a powerful tool to promote your company and stay relevant on your connections’ daily feeds. As reported on LinkedIn, “Companies who post weekly see a 2x lift in engagement.” 

   LinkedIn posts allow for greater character limits than most other social media. Utilizing this, you are able to engage in a variety of ways. LinkedIn does suggest adding an image to your post or articles because it increases engagement for your posts. 

3. Sharing/Commenting on Existing Content

   Another LinkedIn best practice to use is sharing and commenting on your connection's posts. If you engage in posts from others, in return, your connections will share and comment on your posts. 

   In doing that, their connections and their connections’ connections will see it. This creates a large pool of people viewing your content. In return, you will appear in more searches, thus creating more business for yourself.

4. Host Virtual Events

   Another way you can engage with your connections on LinkedIn is by hosting virtual events. LinkedIn makes it easy to promote online events by creating an event landing page. From there, you are able to share all of your events created with your followers. 

   Before the day of each event you host, anyone you have invited will receive a confirmation email and notification. During the actual event, there are interactive tools such as the Livestream chat that you are able to utilize to communicate with your guests in attendance. 

   You can host a plethora of events, from mixers that give your connections a glimpse of the culture your company has to informational webinars that educate your peers on something that you may be highly educated on.   

5. Build a Product Page

   Utilizing all of these tips and tricks is very useful, but if your connections do not know what product you are offering, then using these tips virtually becomes useless. LinkedIn allows you to create a products page you are able to explain the overview of your products. 

   On this page, you are able to post videos, collect reviews of the services you have done, and explain the benefits of these services or products.

Key Takeaway

The way people market their company has changed immensely from 20 years ago to today. Being able to adapt and utilize the technologies created, such as LinkedIn, can be vital to the success of your company. Today we discussed the benefits of having a LinkedIn, 5 easy steps in creating one, and ways to distinguish your business from others. 

When you decide you are ready to take that leap and begin your business, Midland Forms can help you with the process. We are here to get your business established so you can take it to the next level with your LinkedIn page. Contact us to learn more about the possible opportunities creating your business has or click here to see if your entity name is available.