Contrary to popular belief, there is a lot more to LinkedIn than a fancy place to present your experience. LinkedIn actually has the potential to be one of the most powerful social media marketing tools for small businesses that know how to use it. Social media is all about garnering as much relevant engagement as you can to serve your purpose. When most people think of the networking benefits of LinkedIn, they tend to only think of the looking for a job aspect and forget about the business owner side.
Whether you’re a big or small business, it’s important to know how to make the most of your LinkedIn profile in order to give people the full picture of who you are and what you offer. Companies looking to do business with you, as well as potential employees, want to know whether you’re a company worthy of their time.
If you’re looking for social media ideas for small business owners, there’s a lot of resources out there. For LinkedIn, specifically, though, this article will share how to make the most of your small business’s LinkedIn profile.
Necessary Elements
Most of the top social media tips for small business owners focus on getting the word out, as this can be difficult when you’re just starting out. LinkedIn has features that can help you with that. Before these features can be helpful, though, there are parts of the profile that often go overlooked. These parts are necessary to create the full picture of who you are. Members tend to be less trusting of profiles that aren’t fully filled out. Not only should your profile be complete, but it should be completed with accurate and up to date information. (Don’t worry, you don’t have to know advanced LinkedIn marketing to be able to complete any of this.)
- Professional Profile Picture – Whether you choose to use your company’s logo like many companies do–this is smart if you want to be known by your logo–or something that better represents how you want to be known, make sure the image you choose is clear, professional, and eye-catching.
- Complete summary – The summary is a great opportunity to add a personal touch to your page. You should keep it short and captivating. Remember though, it should also convey who you are and why you started this business.
- Tagline – The tagline is another opportunity to set yourself apart as a business by telling people how you uniquely serve your customer.
- Connections – If you just created your LinkedIn page, obviously you won’t have a lot of connections, but you should be trying to build these as fast as you can. The more connections you have, the more credible and successful you will come across.
Good To Haves
- Join groups – LinkedIn has a ‘group’ feature that is for like-minded professionals and businesses. Joining groups relevant to your industry and engaging with the posts within them is a great way to get noticed. Also, learn trending industry topics while you’re at it.
- Utilize recommendations – There is a whole section of any LinkedIn profile that is solely for testimonials. Reach out to customers or partners you have done business with and request they provide one for you. The more recommendations, the better, because it establishes trust and credibility.
Special Features
There are a lot of underutilized LinkedIn marketing services, because business owners simply aren’t aware of them. For example, in recent years, LinkedIn has added a feature for premium members that is really helpful for small businesses. This service allows small businesses and freelancers to add their services to their profile. If you use the right keywords here, your page will show up when people are looking for specific services.
Always be on the lookout for special social media marketing services for small businesses so that you’re immediately aware of features that can help you market yourself. LinkedIn is just one way to get the word out, but there’s a vast amount of additional ways.
Conclusion
Despite the widespread popularity of social media for business, many are still wary of it. As with other forms of social media in life, there are definitely pros and cons of social media for business. If you hate social media but need it for business, LinkedIn is a good place to get your footing and see the benefits. You could also hire a social media manager for small business specialization. There’s a lot of social media dos and don’ts for business, so that’s another benefit to hiring a social media manager. A quick web search of ‘social media marketing companies for small business’ will give you plenty of affordable options to choose from.
One of the most important social media marketing tips for small business owners is to establish who you are before anything else. If you don’t have a firm grip on who you are, it’s very difficult to sell yourself to others.
