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With over 30 million companies, LinkedIn has proved itself to be a great social networking tool for generating leads, identifying market segments, liaising with like-minded professionals. etc.

However, to achieve these spectacles on LinkedIn, you need to develop your brand. You need to devise a strategy to engage in discussions, keep improving your brand performance, etc. 

As small businesses have expanded and generated a stellar number of leads on LinkedIn, you must utilize this platform correctly to achieve the same results. 

Following are a few best practices that can help you define your business on LinkedIn: 

Create a company page

As a growing business, the first step you need to consider is LinkedIn profile optimization to change the way your profile is being perceived among professionals. 

It begins with creating a company page with an impactful LinkedIn headline that serves as a way to introduce your business to professionals on LinkedIn. 

To optimize your profile, you need to fill all the required details and utilize all the sections. Further, make sure you update the industry as per your services. 

For instance, if your business is career resources related, then the industry category should be “education”. 


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Further, here are a few things you should tackle with extreme care:

  • Profile image: Set your company logo as a profile image, a company page/individual profile with a professional image is 6% more likely to be viewed.
  • Banner: Make your page concrete with a cover photo. However, the picture should be related to the services you are providing. For example, for a marketing agency, pointers w.r.t the marketing services should be present. 
  • About us: In the about us section, write your company’s description. Talk about your achievements, your goals, etc. Keep in mind that this serves as your brand voice, so write it accordingly.  Think in terms of what defines your business. 

Tips for engagement and network expansion

After creating the page, you need to make sure you use it to improve your network base. Let’s say your page is amazing but you constantly need to post great content on your page. You can schedule posting the content through the DrumUp Chrome extension.

However, on account of having a smaller connections base, anything you post will not do well. 

So, here are a few tips that can help you improve engagement and develop your brand: 

  • Network expansion: Expand your network and make sure you connect with the right professionals. If your page is about career resources then connecting with a professional from the cosmetics industry is not ideal as it will not be very helpful. Further, allow access to your email list to connect with people you may already know. 
  • Sharing content: For sharing content, media, engagement, etc., you should use the 4-1-1 rule. This rule helps you limit your user activity and shared content with the target interests. 
  • Legitimacy: To showcase your services as a legitimate practice, utilize the recommendations and endorsement features of LinkedIn. These features improve your credibility as you receive these from a third party. 

Leverage groups 

One of the best ways to promote a business is via groups. Though you cannot indulge in frowned upon promotional activities. However, providing constructive tips that help professionals and other businesses on LinkedIn can help you improve your presence and attract a good number of professionals to your page.

Here are a few tips that can be helpful while tackling the group aspect of your profile:  

  • Join groups that are in-line with your interests, and engage with professionals as an industry expert with tips and practices that can benefit them. 
  • Send a personalized request to professionals connected to these groups. Though make sure that you are only reaching out to people who can be prospective clients. 
  • Create a group of your own to establish yourself as an industry expert. Promote this page by kickstarting discussions and sharing media content.  

Connect with your employees 

Connect with your employees who have a LinkedIn profile. Further, motivate the staff who are not on LinkedIn to join. 

Update your career page, ask your employees to update their professional experience section, and add the company.

Here, the idea is that the page’s performance and visibility will improve as it will be seen by the professionals in your employees’ network. 


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Some harmful practices 

There may be harmful practices that people unknowingly engage in. It could be sharing content that is not professional or indulging in promotional activities. 

For instance, maybe your content marketing practice is being perceived as an advertisement. Or, the articles you are writing on LinkedIn looks like just a way of selling your product. You need to identify these mistakes that can be harmful to your business. 

Here are a few things you must avoid: 

  • Avoid spamming professionals with the same message. Though following up is an ideal practice, you need to make sure you are not sending the same message again. 
  • You should include keywords on your page to improve its visibility when someone searches for that function on LinkedIn. However, make sure you do it correctly without harming the content’s legitimacy. 

Author Bio

On a quest to help professionals across the world land their dream jobs, Aditya lives and breathes Hiration — a platform to help job-seekers find their way in the treacherous job market — where he’s a Co-Founder, CTO, and the unofficial CPO (Chief Problem-solving Officer). He likes to code away his days and nights when he’s not busy disrupting the career space.