LinkedIn is best known as a professional networking and job-hunting site, but it doesn’t just benefit individual users. In the era of social media, LinkedIn offers a unique value proposition, making it more important, in some cases, than other social media platforms – especially for companies in the B2B sector. While Facebook, Instagram and TikTok offer access to a large base of users, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. Because it facilitates business connections, it allows companies to share and tell their stories. Companies that leverage LinkedIn open doors to a variety of opportunities that websites alone or other social media platforms can’t offer. Why should companies be on LinkedIn? We have 7 reasons outlined below.
1. Position experience
Setting up a company LinkedIn page gives a business the ability to define its company’s unique story. It also provides the opportunity to show and tell a company’s expertise and leadership through consistently posting and interacting with other business profiles and content relevant to the business. When a company shares informative and engaging content with its followers, it lets its target audience better understand the who and what of the business, while sharing what sets the company apart from others.
2. Showcase achievements
LinkedIn is an ideal platform for businesses to showcase company achievements. Leadership and service awards and key milestones are great reasons for celebration, but this news needs to be shared for others to be in the know. Achievements can include hitting a new sales record, closing a new deal, securing a new client, starting a new project or industry recognitions. Sharing award announcements, company news and accomplishments shines a light on company growth, the key people making it happen and inspires others to take notice. Showcasing achievements attracts attention, which attracts new business opportunities and partnerships.
3. Expand public relations efforts
Utilizing LinkedIn to leverage PR is simple, but many companies fail to do so. Whenever the company or its people get mentioned or featured in the press – share links or images to the company page. It is great to have your company is featured in a business article or to have one of your managers interviewed on a podcast, but if you want more people to see it, share it. LinkedIn gives stakeholders and connections the ability to see it and share it with their network that may have otherwise missed the press coverage. Finally, expanding your PR effort not only allows you to reach more people, but it also helps increase credibility.
4. Market products and services
Like other social platforms, LinkedIn offers a strong visual component, which allows the sharing of photos and videos. For companies marketing products and services, showing vs. telling is an effective tool for grabbing the attention of a target audience. Showing products or services in action is not only more memorable it allows potential customers or referral sources to better understand the benefits. Photos and videos showing products in use or employees at work demonstrate what a business does and what it provides that will benefit customers and clients.
5. Develop business partnerships
One of the most valuable tools LinkedIn offers is the ability to target a specific audience. This is especially effective for paid ads and boosted content. For example, if your business is interested in getting in front of sales managers in a specific industry, it is possible through LinkedIn. If your goal is building partnerships, referral sources and increasing sales, you’re no longer limited to connecting with people at an event or meeting. LinkedIn provides the tools for developing business connections and educating targeted groups of individuals about your business without leaving the office.
6. Attract and engage employees
One of the most popular functions of LinkedIn’s tools for recruiting and engaging employees. According to Hootsuite, 61 million people use LinkedIn to research and apply to jobs every week. The LinkedIn job board is extremely effective for companies that are hiring. It allows managers to list job openings and utilize LinkedIn to find the best candidates. Job seekers are also able to search posted jobs and submit applications. Current employees can share openings on their own profiles to help attract qualified candidates and job seekers can look for connections that may offer introductions to new job opportunities.
Online networking and content sharing through LinkedIn offers companies the opportunity to engage with existing and potential employees. Highlighting employee accomplishments and milestones such as work anniversaries and promotions invite employee engagement and build stronger relationships. Lastly, a strong display of company pride among employees on LinkedIn also helps attract and retain staff.
7. Improve SEO ranking
Both company and individual LinkedIn pages have highly ranked optimization for Google. This means that when a person searches a company name, product or service on Google, a company with a LinkedIn page will come up higher on the results page than one without. This effect is amplified with a properly optimized LinkedIn page. When copywriting for a company LinkedIn page, users should use relevant keywords and keep the page as up-to-date as possible. Considering Google is the most common way for people to conduct research, raising visibility is a significant benefit to establishing a company LinkedIn account.
Crafting a social media strategy is a must in today’s market for both B2C and B2B companies. LinkedIn is unique in that it isn’t just about creating and sharing posts in the hopes of gaining traction. The content strategy for LinkedIn is more about targeted messaging and it is geared more for companies in B2B markets than any other social media platform. If you aren’t sure where to begin or would like to outsource your content strategy efforts, we would love to talk about how we can help. Feel free to contact marketingworx today for a complimentary meeting.