The internet and social media have afforded numerous low-cost marketing options to startups and small businesses in recent years.
These opportunities have allowed small businesses to compete with larger firms by providing a vehicle for national and global promotion.
In today's digital world, most successful companies have social media pages as well as websites.
LinkedIn is specific to business networking and provides a great space for people to connect and network with colleagues and business prospects.
Whether a business wants to promote its services to potential employees or other companies, LinkedIn is an obvious choice.
Unlike other platforms that include a low-key, personal side, LinkedIn is becoming the gold standard for professionals seeking to do business with others.
LinkedIn is where you can find the internet's largest network of business all-stars anywhere in the world.
Setting up a LinkedIn page can be a valuable tool for your business's growth, but your success here relies on your commitment.
It starts with creating a page. The potential for building your professional network and your business's growth becomes exponentially higher the more time you spend expanding it.
Claim a LinkedIn Company Page
Before you can claim a company page, or do anything else on LinkedIn, you will need to create a personal user profile.
LinkedIn will request to access your email contacts so you can connect with them. It is a good idea to go ahead and make these connections.
This will help you grow your company page followers with your personal connections immediately after you build it.
Creating a LinkedIn company page is a simple process. It is possible that a page was already created for your business when a user-provided a work history that included your business.
If this is the case, then you will need to claim your LinkedIn company page. Until you claim your business page, it will be a generic page with only basic information.
While you are on that page, click the "notifications" tab and then select "claim." You will then be the admin for that page.
If the page does not already exist, click the "work" tab and at the bottom is a link to create a company page.
From there you will complete a basic profile for your company. Once the page is completed or claimed, you can begin customizing it.
Be sure to set a custom LinkedIn company page URL that is easy to remember and reflects your business's name or industry.
Building Your Company Page
You are not finished once you have claimed your page and provided the basic information. Your company page should go beyond the basic information you completed during the claiming phase.
It should look professional, have a logo, and provide detailed information about what services your business offers.
Unlike your website, your LinkedIn page has access to users from an established pool of professionals seeking information and expertise.
For this reason, your page needs to incorporate content that engages your potential clients as well as your followers.
Creating Engaging Content
Engaging content is information that your followers find useful. Curated content is material you have found on the internet that is worth passing on.
There is nothing wrong with sharing what you have learned so long as you don't plagiarize someone else's writing.
There are many different tips you can utilize to attract followers and keep them engaged once they have found and followed your page.
- Use keywords for search engine optimization (SEO). These words are relevant words that anyone would use in a search field to find content like yours.
- Provide links to experts in the field. An added benefit of this is they may notice your link to them and provide a link back in one of their articles.
- Create a newsletter to keep your followers updated and interested in what your company offers.
- Utilize schema as a social media platform tool.
- Use graphics and videos.
- Update often. Some experts recommend updating as much as several times a day. This does not just mean new content, but outdated content as well.
The value of LinkedIn to build your network of industry professionals and potential clients will only increase as more companies become aware of its potential to their success.
Give your business a boost by getting on board with an established LinkedIn business page. Show your commitment to your industry, leads, and clients.
