When building and scaling up a business, there are different strategies that an entrepreneur must adopt. When it comes to the communication side, among the many strategies that one must choose, Linkedin Marketing is a smart option to build an online presence and create strong networking.
As Wayne Breitbarth states in his book, ‘The Powerful Formula for Linkedin Success,’ this social media is all about trustful connections and unique experiences that you can – and should – share with your networking.
But, first, let’s understand what’s Linkedin and how it was invented.
What Linkedin Is?
Linkedin is the largest professional social network in the world. Through it, you can find a job, a collaborator for your company, expand your Network, share professional experiences, strengthen your image and stay on top of everything in the business world.
The difference between Linkedin and other social networks is the focus on connecting professionals, while other networks like Instagram or Facebook are focused on entertainment.
Another interesting issue is that, as it is an international network, you can look for job opportunities and exchange information with people from all over the world.
Linkedin’s business model basically consists of generating revenue through the sale of advertising, recruitment solutions, and a subscription that allows the subscriber user some more advantages. There are courses, job vacancies and search tools within the network.
Linkedin Marketing: The birth of the social network
The story began when Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Eric Ly and Konstantin Guericke were together in their living room in December 2002. Together, they thought of the concept of an online professional network.
They created Linkedin and put it online on May 5, 2003. And then, they invited 350 of their contacts to join their network.
At the end of the first month, there were already 4500 Linkedin users who used the network to exchange knowledge, news and opportunities in the job market. Most impressive is that half of the people were outside the United States.
The website’s rapid growth and innovative idea attracted external investors. After a year of its existence, it had more than 1 million users.
The year 2007 was remarkable for the social network. Some changes further boosted the growth of this social network.
They hired Dan Nye as Executive Director and Jeff Weiner as CEO. Furthermore, they made some updates to the platform, making it possible to insert a profile picture and the implementation of Linkedin Answers, which allows users to talk about topics of interest to them.
At this point, they achieved the milestone of 15 million people registered on Linkedin.
Linkedin has always been on top of market news, constantly updating itself. One example was when it launched services for mobile phones.
When the company went public, it was the most successful since Google.
Today, more than 740 million people are using Linkedin and investors value the company at the value of 1 billion dollars.
Building Your Network & Using Linkedin In Your Favor
According to Breitbarth, the number one power of Linkedin is that “it takes connections that would normally be invisible and makes them visible.” In other words, Linkedin grew into a platform that provides based on unique experiences that the individuals share on the website.
It’s not only the largest resume database globally, but it also has three levels of connections that can help you and your company build a network based on people you know and trust.
Kevin Bacon’s theory is a way to understand how Linkedin works. According to the American actor, you are at most six people away from anyone. That embraces your friends, neighbors, Beyonce, the President of the United States and someone on another continent.
On Linkedin, it show’s how far you are from someone. Those who are within your network are on the 1st level. Therefore, with this social networking, “you’ll not only have those 200 to 250 first degree contacts; you will also gain the ability to know who their Number 1‘s and their Number 2’s are. Your contacts’ Number 1’s and Number 2’s then become your number 2’s and number 3’s”.
At this point, the number of people in your Linkedin network can get incredibly large. That means you can track down people you are interested in doing business with. The idea here is to expand the horizon.
But, in the competitive sea of the business world, you need to find how to stand out from all the other people who are using Linkedin to build connections. But, how to do it? Well… that’s when Linkedin Marketing comes to the stage!
Understanding Linkedin Marketing
On the internet, each social network has peculiarities. On LinkedIn, it’s no different.
Today, you can create articles, share videos and news, share your achievements with your network. You can also share new jobs, open positions, and your company’s achievements.
However, it is important to understand that Marketing on Linkedin cannot be given like any other network. The purpose of the network is professional. That is, its users have more serious dilemmas.
Games, games, and pictures of cute pets may not be as engaged as other platforms.
This video will give you a great background.
Now, let’s take a look into several actions that you should have in mind for your Linkedin Marketing strategy.
1. Define your target audience
This is the first step for every marketing strategy. This is when you define who you want to achieve with your strategy. Is it C-levels? Fashion photographers? Up-and-coming designers?
Making sure that you have in mind the person you’re talking to – or want to – will guide you into the content creation and actions.
2. Enjoy the visibility
Unlike Facebook or Instagram, Linkedin does not use an algorithm to select the content displayed to a Company Page or personal account followers. This is based on the engagement of each post.
This means that everything you post will be delivered to your followers. Therefore, it is almost certain that they will be achieved at some point.
Therefore, it is essential to show yourself present on the platform. Thus, people who follow you will recognize your brand as a reference in your niche market.
3. Create relevant content regularly
It doesn’t have to be every day, but having a content strategy will make your business and personal profile outstand.
However, it’s important to remember that the content must follow the company values and personal characteristics. In other words, make sure that you’re exploring your unique experiences and building trustful connections.
The most common inbound marketing practices also apply to LinkedIn. Therefore, think of the tool as a sales funnel. Your followers are the leads, so you need to nurture them.
The production of content must be done regularly, establishing the ideals and positioning of the brand in the market.
In addition, it should bring useful information and help users solve problems.
Also, remember to tailor the content to your persona – just like we’ve mentioned previously. Helping them with their pain, dilemmas and mishaps can certainly make them look for your business when looking for solutions.
As with content marketing, the trend is that this generates a relationship with people and an increase in the follower base.
E-books, blog posts, slides, videos and surveys are formats that marry very well with the network.
4. Use SEO resources
SEO on Linkedin? Really? But wasn’t that for blogposts?
Well, keep in mind that SEO stands for ‘Searching Engineer Optimization. People use Linkedin to do research. Therefore, if you follow SEO rules, you’ll ensure that your content is tailored-maid to be found.
But also, this tool helps you and your company to be on the top of research pages on Google. So, if someone searches for a certain topic and you have an article or a post about that on your Linkedin page, Google will show it and this person will get to know you and your business.
5. Analyse the metrics
You already know that one of the biggest benefits of the web is that everything can be measured, analyzed and reformulated on it.
LinkedIn is no different. The platform also has its own analytics tool. To access it, enter your Company Page and click on analysis. There will be available data about visitors, updates and followers.
With that, you can check if your current strategy is working – or not. You can track down your performance and reformulate the actions that you’ve been taking.
Linkedin allows users to check:
- range;
- clicks on links;
- comments;
- shares;
- likes;
- demographic data;
- geographic data;
- follower growth rate;
- more engaging types of content; and
- most.
The Takeaways
Linkedin Marketing relies on the basis of any other communications strategy.
Focusing on your personal and achieving them with curated content and good information is the goal with social media.
This helps not only to build your brand awareness but also to ensure your authority on a certain topic.
Be smart, strategical and assertive. That will unlock a sea of possibilities on Linkedin in a way that you would’ve never imagined.
Learn also about storytelling marketing. You can apply it to your content creation and build strong connections with your audience – on Linkedin, Instagram and other social media.
