There’s LinkedIn all of us know, and then the LinkedIn for those in the know. The one all of us know is the professional networking site, good for staying in touch with colleagues, job hunting and keeping a finger on the pulse of industry trends. All great things.
But the LinkedIn for those in the know? It’s filled with marketing tools, growth opportunities and potential connections you may never have known were even possible. Allow us to explain:
LinkedIn is the best platform to grow your business
Hands down. With more than 760 million users (260 million of which are considered active), it’s a lead waiting to happen. It’s a partnership waiting to happen. It’s free brand awareness and it’s a positively invaluable addition to any digital marketing strategy.
Whether you’re a small company, a large company, selling to consumers or selling to other businesses, LinkedIn’s suite of commonly used and less commonly used features can take your operation to a whole new place.
LinkedIn is a trust builder
Every marketing decision you make as a business depends on your ability to scrutinize and separate the pretenders from the real thing. Oft underutilized by decision makers, LinkedIn allows you to review suppliers, accountants, lawyers, contractors and more to uphold a certain level of accountability.
It goes two ways: You build your community’s collective trust level by providing honest reviews, and your business benefits from other leaders doing the same. Naturally, the cream rises to the top, and next time you need to look outside your ranks for some function of your business, you’ll know exactly who to call.
LinkedIn is a magnifying glass
LinkedIn’s sorting and filtering mechanisms have grown better by the year, allowing you to search by company, function, seniority level, years of experience and more. Finding good people has never been easier.
It also allows for a number of signal boosts that can prove out a potential employer’s or collaborator’s seriousness and professionalism: The more complete and targeted the profile, the more likely they are to show up in your results. Diamonds are always waiting in the rough, but thanks to LinkedIn’s ability to sift through thousands of names, companies and positions in a flash, there’s plenty of diamonds right out in the open, too.
LinkedIn is a megaphone
The moment you start posting as a business or individual on LinkedIn, your thought leadership becomes search-engine-friendly. Much as we’d love if everyone had a LinkedIn presence, the reality is that Google snaps up far more eyeballs than any social network could dream of.
Because LinkedIn indexes and prioritizes top-performing posts, you have the chance of getting yourself and your business noticed in places outside the network. Casual searchers, industry leads and even news outlets have been known to deep link to well-thought LinkedIn posts, which could quickly boost your audience if you earn a high-traffic placement.
LinkedIn is an analytical tool
It may not come with the breadth and depth of Google Analytics, HubSpot or any other CRM tool, but LinkedIn’s Page Analytics tools allow you to take a closer look at who’s browsing your offerings, how they browse and where they’re coming from.
It could be critical to finding new leads, too. By reaching out to the people viewing your profile with something as simple as a Hello-and-what-can-we-do-for-you, you’re entering into a low risk, high reward outreach that takes as little as a minute. Few marketing tools can provide that type of return with that little time expenditure.
LinkedIn is still becoming
Unlike other social networks which some see as reaching to create new features and capabilities, many up LinkedIn most recent updates have been well received as handy tools for marketers and business. New options are arriving every quarter, like stories, real-time reactions, sponsored messages and showcase pages designed to highlight your company’s most successful initiatives.
It’s on you to take advantage of them as they roll out, but the good news is that the interface is already user friendly for new and experienced LinkedIn users alike. So get out there and start building your presence on the world’s largest professional social network.
We’ll see you there.