LinkedIn is a vibrant business community that has grown substantially over the past few years. It’s the platform that businesses feel most comfortable, because it’s cultivated a culture that invites and encourages professionalism across the board. Not only is this where job seekers go to find their next big career move or businesses the best talent, but where companies can share and converse about industry content. And while the social user base of platforms like Twitter and Facebook are beyond LinkedIn’s numbers, LinkedIn continues to grow strong: In 2011, it was growing at the rate of a new member every two seconds, even faster than Facebook and Twitter did in their heyday.
And when it comes to lead generation, LinkedIn is way ahead of other platforms on the B2B scale. In 2014, 80% of B2B social media leads came from LinkedIn. Think of your LinkedIn business page as a mini version of your website. You’ll want to use the same optimization techniques to drive people to it, both on and off the platform.
Build Brand Awareness
In 2014, LinkedIn underwent a major overhaul to make is easier for companies to increase brand awareness. It’s now easier to feature products and services, as well as recruit new employees. There are now different ways to build brand awareness and get results from B2B marketing strategies, whether you’re in the healthcare industry, SaaS industry, or any other B2B industry.
To begin, it’s important that you post useful updates on both your company and business pages on a daily basis. It’s also important that you stay active in several LinkedIn groups to help establish thought leadership in a particular area. You should be joining discussions, adding valuable input, and sharing solid content.
Being a part of a group can help you expand your business network and connect with customers. In addition to reaching more customers, you’ll also be in touch with a targeted industry of professionals who can connect you to other business professionals that will expand your network. Community engagement is a big deal for brand awareness on LinkedIn, and it can do wonders for your bottom line. Be sure to both participate and ask your own engaging questions to promote dialogue within different groups.
LinkedIn’s New Native Video
LinkedIn recently announced that it would begin rolling out its native video feature, allowing business owners to leverage video marketing on the LinkedIn platform. Most marketers believe that video has a higher return on investment than any other form of content marketing, and consumers are expecting more from brands when it comes to their video marketing efforts. With native video, your chances of getting discovered on LinkedIn will be higher, because as with all publishing platforms, native content is given priority ranking.
For the first time, companies in the B2B industry will be able to use video to discuss their products and services candidly in a setting where it’s most valued, expected, and appreciated. You can use native videos to highlight the company culture and attract potential employees; show off customer testimonials; broadcast business events; and display how-to videos for products. There’s an endless amount of ways you can use video to better position your B2B business, especially if you plan to get creative.
Use Keywords
It’s possible to leverage the power of LinkedIn so that your company appears both higher in LinkedIn search results and organic search engine results pages. When you’re building your company page, it’s important to use target keywords. Because LinkedIn is a vertical search engine, the more narrow the search, the more relevant the results. LinkedIn has its own search algorithm and ranks company pages on several factors.
Check out your competitors to see what keywords are making their pages stand out. For example, let’s say you’re an SEO specialist. Use the Advanced Search to search for SEO specialists at least thirty miles within your zip code. Look at the results for the top-ranking LinkedIn members in your areas, and check out the type of content they’re publishing and keywords they’re using. You should also make note of the groups they’re on and updates they post. This will give you an idea of how to rank similarly and appeal to those audiences.
There are some basic LinkedIn SEO best practices to help you achieve these results. You’ll want to write a keyword-rich company description on your page for starters. Your business website should also include a link to your LinkedIn page. Encourage your employees to connect with the business on LinkedIn as well. Businesses like Evernote do a great job of regularly publishing content, describing the company, and engaging with their audience.