How to Use LinkedIn for Business
Unlike Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn was developed for business use. Despite this there are still a large number of LinkedIn members who don’t use it to its full potential.
We’ve compiled our top 10 tips on how to use LinkedIn for business below to provide you with a good starting point;
- Fully complete your profile
If you don’t fill in all your profile details then people may think you have something to hide. You never know who may be looking at your LinkedIn profile so make sure it’s as professional and complete as possible.
- Optimise your website hyperlinks
You get 3 website links as part of your LinkedIn profile. It you edit these and click on ‘other’ in the drop down menu, you can then put in a keyword or phrase that will link to your website. This is very beneficial for SEO so for example you could have “Prestwick Airport Transfers” which is much better than having ‘My Website’ or ‘My Company’ as your linked text.
- Join industry groups
There are a huge number of groups on LinkedIn across a wide variety of sectors. It’s a good idea to join a few of these that relate to what your business does so that you can network with other professionals, keep up to date with industry news and join in topical discussions.
- Get involved with Q & A
There is an extensive question and answer section on the LinkedIn website. This provides you with the opportunity to come across as an expert in your field. If another LinkedIn member is looking for advice or information on something you know about, everyone will be able to read your answer which will raise your profile and credibility.
- Use LinkedIn for recruitment
Many of the world’s biggest organisations use LinkedIn for recruitment and there are approximately 55 million professional people who are members. You do have to pay to place a job advert on LinkedIn but it provides an incredible reach that many other platforms cannot match.
- Request recommendations
You can give yourself and your business more credibility if you have recommendations from other LinkedIn users. If there are clients, suppliers and ex-colleagues of yours on LinkedIn then you could ask them to write a recommendation for you in return for doing the same.
- Cast your net wide
LinkedIn is a global network of business professionals and you should try to cast your net wide by connecting with as many people who know you as possible. You just never know who might have some useful contacts for your business within their own LinkedIn connections.
- Add videos and presentations to your profile
LinkedIn allows you to upload presentations and videos to your profile which is another area that many people don’t utilise fully. You could use these to introduce your business, a new product, or to tell people more about you and your role within the company.
- Update your LinkedIn status message
Much like Twitter and Facebook, you can update your status on LinkedIn to let people know what you’re doing or working on that day. It’s possible to link your Twitter account directly to LinkedIn so that you don’t have to update your status message on each. (just be careful what you tweet).
- Make sure you get email notifications of LinkedIn messages
You may not have time to use LinkedIn every day so it’s important that you set up your account to receive email notifications when someone sends you a direct message. If you don’t set this feature up then you could miss out on something important such as a business referral if you don’t respond for a few days or longer.
If you liked this article you may also want to read my top 10 tips for Facebook
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