Get your business LinkedIn
As stated in previous blog postings, I have been looking to improve the digital marketing strategy of GBK. One social networking platform that I failed to consider however, was LinkedIn.
Here are some impressive statistics that prove it is one of the best marketing tools out there (Huffington Post, 2014):
- LinkedIn has over 364 million members in over 200 countries.
- Professionals are creating their accounts at a rate of more than two new members per second.
- With over 39 million students it is a great place for recruitment.
- It has profiles for employees from all the 2013 Fortune 500 companies as well as 94 of the Fortune 100 companies.
Its main purpose is to enhance B2B connections and is considered to be the most professional platform out there, with accounts owned by high flying entrepreneurs, CEO of major organisations, as well as some of the most famous business men and women of our time. Below is a link to Richard Branson’s personal page, who boasts nearly 8 million followers!
Hershberger (2012) states that LinkedIn provides a prime opportunity to enhance your SEO efforts, improve the perception of your brand by showcasing your business and its employees as experts in their field, as well as allowing you to become a key resource within your online community.
If you’re struggling to set-up a LinkedIn page for your business, why not take a look at this step-by-step guide put together by HubSpot.
There are numerous ways to use LinkedIn as a marketing tool, so I have put together just a few to help you out:
LinkedIn unveiled their new ‘Content Marketing Score’ on their LinkedIn Marketing Solutions page, which acts as a recommendation engine that allows you to monitor your impact on your follows through engagement metrics. It also shows you how you compare against you competitors. Another tool they provide is ‘Trending Content’ which ranks the topics that resonate most with specific audiences, allowing you to tailor your content to your target market. Both of these tools are a great example of how LinkedIn can help you to promote your business through their platform, monitoring your performance as you to so. I would thoroughly recommend that you take advantage of these, as a guarantee you competitors will be!
LinkedIn Groups
According to LinkedIn themselves, LinkedIn Groups “provide a place for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts, and establish themselves as industry experts.” Furthermore, when you establish yourself within a group, LinkedIn allows you to find influencers and prospects through the filtering option available. This is a great way to put your business on the map by allowing you to influence your particular industry.
In life, when something seems too good to be true, it usually isn’t. But this is not the case for LinkedIn. Cision (2013) do point out though that because it is used by some businesses as an advertising megaphone, you must brace yourself for the slew of of spam coming your way!
Finally, whilst researching for this post, I came across this article by Slutsky (2010) who put forward her argument as to why LinkedIn is here to stay, check it out!
References
Cision, (2013). LinkedIn for Business: Pros & Cons You Should Be Aware Of | Cision. [online] Available at: http://www.cision.com/us/2013/09/pros-and-cons-of-linkedin-for-business/ [Accessed 30 May. 2015].
Hershberger T. (2012) Using Linkedln as a Marketing Tool. ABA Bank Marketing [online]. June 2012;44(5):37. Available from: Business Source Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed May 30, 2015.
Slutsky I. (2010) Why LinkedIn is the social network that will never die. Advertising Age [online]. December 6, 2010;81(43):2-23. Available from: Communication & Mass Media Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed May 30, 2015.