Back to Basics: LinkedIn Best Practices for Companies

Linkedin has grown to become an extremely helpful social media marketing tool for professionals and companies all over the world to engage and interact with job seekers, brands, recruiters, and industries.

As the world’s largest professional network, the social network has garnered over 259 million users in 200 countries, with 84 million in the U.S. (as of Oct 2013). In comparison to Twitter’s 500 million users and Facebook’s 1 billion users, that’s quite enough for the site to establish itself as a powerful influence in the social media world.

Take a look at a quick run through of all the basic features companies need to know and add to their company page.

The Basics

Main purpose: Allows professionals and businesses to show their professional (rather than personal) image.

LinkedIn is great for businesses to:

• Keep in touch with business contacts
• Find and build relationships with partners and service providers
• Post job openings / Check references
• Receive industry news / ask & answer industry questions

Getting Started on LinkedIn

1. Complete Profile

Like most other social networks, you can create a company profile that lists your products and services LinkedIn measures your profile strength from 0-100% which can be viewed on the right hand side of your home screen. Add a brief summary about your company and be sure to include images and video if available. Completing your LinkedIn profile is the first step and establishes a strong foundation for your products, services, and business.

Tip: Have employees complete their personal profiles and have them include your company page on their profiles.

2. Make Connections

Next, you’ll need to make those connections. LinkedIn’s algorithm data makes it easy to mine through and find those who could possibly connect to you or your contacts. Additionally, LinkedIn will help you look for contacts you may know by connected to your email contact list, which creates credibility and jumpstarts a following for your page.

Tip: For users you know but don’t know well, include a short and sweet message in the box provided (but not generic) when making a connection with a contact. They’ll most likely accept your request.

3. Join Industry Groups

LinkedIn allows you to join up to 200 groups. Groups are spaces where individuals can learn from other professionals and experts, share content, ask for advice, post and share job listings with others in their industry. To search for a group, type it into the search bar at the top of your page. Groups are tailored to brands, associations, societies, industries, and causes. Create or join to groups to establish credibility and expertise in your industry.

Tip: Groups are important marketing tools, but don’t go into selling mode. Have conversations, discuss, ask questions, and post helpful tips and content to reach leads.

4. Keep Your News Feed Active

Create updates on company announcements, updates, and industry related content/news/articles; just make sure that it’s professional. All news updates will be featured on the LinkedIn homepage and on your profile, which makes the feature an incredibly valuable marketing tool.

Tip: Don’t just post, but like and comment too. This benefits your news feed more and makes it more likely for users to reciprocate.

5. Take Advantage of Showcase Pages

Showcase pages were introduced in Oct 2013 and lets companies create niche pages for their variety of brands, products, and services. For example, Adobe makes products that cater to marketing professionals and creative professionals. They have a showcase page made for each industry, which allows them to share more relevant, detailed content for each.

Tip: When figuring out whether or not to use Showcase pages, think of what types of content you’ll want to post on each page. Will you posting different things that interest different people? If not, it might be better to stick with one page to not confuse users.

About Small Screen Producer

Small Screen Producer is a full service, marketing firm located in Houston, Texas that specializes in online digital media marketing through a 4-step process. Step 1: WE PLAN a custom web presence strategy for your business through website design and development, mobile development, social media account creation and branding. STEP 2: We then POSITION your brand through Pay-Per-Click advertising and search engine optimize tactics that include on-page and off-page SEO that are Google and Bing approved. STEP 3: We then PROMOTE your brand using an Inbound marketing strategy or a content marketing strategy to help you accomplish your marketing goals. We do this through blogging, video production, infographics, call-to-actions, landing pages, and free educational offers. We help you build trust and rapport with your customer base. STEP 4: We then PROTECT your brand’s web presence with a reputation management program that monitors social media and on line reviews. Get started today with a free online marketing assessment of your company’s web presence. Your company deserves it.