How a LinkedIn strategy can boost your small business

Many small businesses and sole traders concentrate their social media marketing on Facebook and Instagram as they are seen as easy to use and access. This often leads to LinkedIn being neglected, as few small business owners see the benefit of investing their resources in something that their target audience might not use.

People see LinkedIn as “a place to use when job hunting”, or “a great way to engage with decision leaders and increase sales”. I’ve used it for both purposes, but, since starting my own business, I have started to see how powerful LinkedIn can be.

If used correctly, LinkedIn can be a brilliant, inexpensive marketing tool for small businesses to drive leads and sales. A thorough LinkedIn strategy will benefit small businesses to achieve their objectives whether generating leads or raising brand awareness.

I get asked about LinkedIn strategy a lot by clients and potential clients. So, I will use this blog post to highlight a few points to include in your LinkedIn strategy for your small business.

Firstly, as with all business strategy, you will need to define your goals and profile your audience before setting up your LinkedIn company page.

LinkedIn Company Page

Your company page is THE starting point for any business starting out on LinkedIn. Include everything that people might want to know about your business and services. Include your logo as your profile picture and a branded header image to let people know it’s you. Key words are also a great opportunity to target people looking for what you offer.

Content

The most important part of any social media strategy is content. However, for LinkedIn, relevant, engaging content is key. Updates should help people in some way, whether it is to educate them, solve a problem or a point of discussion. Like any social network, LinkedIn likes engagement, and the more engagement on your update, the more people it will reach.

Interacting with your network

LinkedIn has such a large network of professionals. You have access to your own network plus your network’s network plus anyone who works for your company or went to your university.

There is huge potential from interacting with these people by engaging with their updates to help them whilst growing your network and generating leads.

For example, if you’re a landscape gardener, engaging with councils, schools, care homes and construction companies will generate leads.

Participating in LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn has groups for everything, and if your area of expertise is missing, you can create one yourself. Engaging with groups will help to boost your status as a trusted authority in your chosen field.

Publish Articles

LinkedIn Articles provide an opportunity to share:

• Thought leadership.
• Professional experiences and anecdotes.
• Industry insights and expertise.
• Advice for other professionals.
• Opinions on developments in your field.
• Content marketing messages in support of your brand.

LinkedIn posts are limited to 1300 characters, however, articles can be 125,000 characters. Publishing an article on LinkedIn is free and with the right, relevant content, you can reach the decision makers for organisations that you want to work with. If influencers find your article content interesting and engaging, people will start to see you as a trusted authority.

Get your team involved

Employees are often the best advocates for a business. If you have a team, get them to engage with your business page’s content, and each other’s content. Encourage them to share your business updates in their own unique way, showing their personality and expertise. Leveraging your employee’s LinkedIn networks this way is a great way to attract a wider network to engage with your business profile.

Lastly Experiment!

Experiment with post types; short updates, long form posts, text only, or include videos, photographs and stories. Try different times, morning, day time, lunch time, evenings. Show your personality as well as professionalism, share updates about your interesting weekend, anything relevant to your business and objectives. With trial and error, eventually, you will find the winning formula for your business.

LinkedIn Strategy for your small business

I hope this blog has given you some ideas to consider when creating your LinkedIn strategy. If you would like to know more or need help creating your LinkedIn strategy, please contact me!