5 Step LinkedIn Marketing Strategy for Your Business

If you’ve been wanting to increase your use of LinkedIn to boost your company’s visibility, find new leads, and create more business, here are some helpful tips.

Mokina Jansen, writer for NetworkSolutions.com gives us a simple yet effective five step process for business to grow via LinkedIn.

Along with other social media platforms, LinkedIn marketing can be just what your business needs to get noticed by other businesses. LinkedIn is the perfect platform for your B2B marketing.

Jansen provides us with some statistics into who is actually using LinkedIn so she can make a strong case why we need to be utilizing it.

• LinkedIn users are educated — 46% have a college degree and 27% have a graduate degree.
• LinkedIn users are affluent — 36% of users earn more than $100K per year.
• LinkedIn users love the site — Around 25% use the website at least  thirty times a month.

Now that you understand the basic statistics of LinkedIn, you should start to be convinced that LinkedIn is a great place to focus your marketing efforts on.

Here’s the five step LinkedIn marketing strategy Jansen provides to help improve your visibility and get more leads to grow your business:

1. Your LinkedIn profile/account should be maintained on a regular basis.

LinkedIn will not be successful for your company if you don’t actually take the time out of your schedule to nurture your LinkedIn presence.  Whether you choose to spend time on it daily or weekly, get in the habit of sharing curated and original content as well as linking, commenting on, or sharing the content to your network posts. Jansen also suggests that you participate in groups and comb your network for leads

2. Expand your definition of who should be in your network.

If you’re already actively growing your network by sending personalized messages to your clients, people you met at conferences, events, etc. you’re doing a great job. However, it may also be a smart idea to network with your friends and social acquaintances — they have networks too — along with clients, vendors, and partners.

3. Join active groups and participate.

Instead of joining groups related to your industry or composed of your target audience, look for groups that are active with engaged members. Start joining the conversation, adding your viewpoint or expertise where appropriate. Don’t forget that you can also start your own conversations, but keep in mind you’re not there to sell your product/service, but rather to help others.

4. Consider advertising.

Perhaps this may sound surprising but Jansen believes that LinkedIn may be a better place to advertise than Facebook because LinkedIn users are highly encouraged to complete their profiles. At Facebook, you’re not, so what users share in their profiles is all over the place.

With that said, Jansen says that you’re able to highly target your ads to exactly who you want to reach — by industry, company, company size, location, title, etc. Once your start advertising, make it a habit to continually improve your ads to boost their effectiveness.

5. Look for leads and ask for introductions.

You’ve built your LinkedIn network for a reason… so use it! You can find leads within your network, in the newsfeed, on LinkedIn company pages, and in recommendations. Look for connections, and ask people in your network for introductions. Immediately follow up with that person and let them know why you’d like to meet them and how working with you will benefit them.

If your business would like to improve its LinkedIn or social media marketing strategy, let’s talk! We’re here to help.

Read the full article by Monika Jansen.