Best Downloadable Guide to Using Linkedin

Did you know LinkedIn has over 774 1000000 users beyond the earth? This metric lone makes the platform one of the elevation social networks today.

Is your business using LinkedIn to its fullest potential to meliorate brand sensation, build your network, boost leads and conversions, and increase acquirement? With new social networks sprouting upwardly constantly, LinkedIn is a platform that's often underutilized. The truth is, LinkedIn can exist a powerful addition to your social media content strategy.

This guide is chock full of LinkedIn tips you can brainstorm implementing immediately to help you learn how to employ the platform to amend make awareness, share your marketing content, and abound your concern.

1. What Is LinkedIn Marketing?

2. LinkedIn Marketing All-time Practices

3. How to Use LinkedIn

What is LinkedIn marketing?

LinkedIn marketing is the process of using LinkedIn to make connections, generate leads, amend brand awareness, foster business organization relationships and partnerships, share content, and bulldoze traffic to your website. LinkedIn is an integral part of many successful marketing strategies today because of how effective it is in expanding professional networks.

When you use LinkedIn to market your business organization, you gain access to useful features related to analytics, connections, and brand-building, just to proper noun a few. (Don't worry, we'll review all of these in-depth momentarily.)

Why is marketing on LinkedIn of import?

When information technology comes to social media marketing, you may be tempted to put all your resources toward the large three: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Those are great platforms for reaching your target audience, merely excluding LinkedIn is doing your business concern a huge disservice. As the world's largest professional network, LinkedIn generates leads 227% more effectively than Facebook and Twitter, and then information technology'southward an essential platform for your business when it comes to marketing.

Only kickoff, here'southward a quick primer for those of you who may exist new to LinkedIn.

About LinkedIn

LinkedIn launched in 2003 with a focus on networking, building careers, and sharing ideas. The platform enables its members to connect and share content with other professionals including colleagues, potential employers, business organisation partners, competitors, new employees, and customers.

This is why having your business on LinkedIn is so powerful — the platform is a fantastic marketing tool.

For a quick guide on the tips below, check out our video on "How to Apply LinkedIn for Business and Marketing."

Now, allow's review the ways you can use LinkedIn to market place and grow your business.

LinkedIn Marketing All-time Practices

1. Employ hashtags.
2. Know when to use a LinkedIn Profile vs. a LinkedIn Page.
3. Create posts of varying lengths.
4. Share external articles on the platform.
5. Keep your publishing schedule consistent.

LinkedIn allows you lot to drive traffic to your website, identify quality leads, share your expertise through idea-leadership content, and grow your network. It's likewise a great fashion to market place job openings and concenter new talent to your company. These are just some of the reasons why LinkedIn is an ideal platform for all businesses to marketplace on. Hither are a few more than tactical ways you tin comprise LinkedIn into your social media content strategy.

1. Utilise hashtags.

Hashtags are often used to add together accent to your LinkedIn post, only they actually serve a purpose that tin change your marketing strategy for the amend. These uncomplicated phrases preceded past a hashtag symbol are goldmines for tapping into new audiences, industries, and niches. Just using too many, or worse — the wrong ones, can hinder your reach.

That ways y'all'll want to strike a rest between relevant and popular hashtags by doing hashtag research on LinkedIn. Apply the search bar to query a broad hashtag start. For example, if you lot piece of work in growth marketing, first past searching #growthmarketing to come across how many people are post-obit the hashtag, and how often it is beingness used.

From here, first with iii to five hashtags that accomplish the audiences you desire to speak to. These hashtags should vary in the number of people following them, so don't become too fixated on loftier numbers. Related but lesser-known hashtags can narrow your accomplish to an audience who would be likely to engage with your LinkedIn content.

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2. Know when to use a LinkedIn Profile vs. a LinkedIn Folio

LinkedIn Pages are able to exist followed without sending a connection and waiting for blessing. That ways when a LinkedIn user shares your Page with their connections, those individuals will be able to follow your page and come across your business' content right away which has the potential for loftier engagement. LinkedIn Pages and LinkedIn Profiles serve different purposes in LinkedIn marketing. Pages are public and used primarily by businesses. Profiles are private and used by individuals. Each of them works with the LinkedIn algorithm, but you'll have different tools that yous tin leverage to grow your audition.

LinkedIn Profiles tin be followed every bit well, but what makes them unique is the ability to have one-on-one, private conversations with connections who request to join your network. If you're a consultant, work in direct sales, or prefer to have an individualized approach to your business, y'all'll want to take a LinkedIn Profile to capitalize on this feature.

Both of these LinkedIn entities tin work in tandem to create the ultimate marketing workflow. For example, you tin can listing yourself as an employee of your business by list your business' LinkedIn Page as your employer on your personal Profile. That way, when a visitor lands on your Contour, they'll see your Page, too.

3. Create posts of varying lengths.

Quick, assuming posts pack a punch on LinkedIn. Long-course stories capture the readers' attention and lead to a longer dwell fourth dimension on the app. Both of these types of posts should accept a identify in your LinkedIn content programme.

You don't desire to become known as the person who just shares monologues considering your network won't always accept time to read them. Forth the aforementioned lines, too many short posts tin come up across as lacking substance which could make you seem less authoritative as a thought leader.

Varying the length of your posts (as well every bit adding images and videos) can proceed your content fresh and relevant to your network. Yous'll have content that gets people excited to encounter what gems you drib side by side.

4. Share external articles on the platform.

Unlike other platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn's algorithm supports external links to blogs and websites. So long as the content you mail service has value and is relevant to your audience, you'll discover success posting other people's content on the platform.

Although you lot don't have to worry about formally crediting the author if y'all're linking direct to their website, it's non a bad idea to tag them in your postal service or use their hashtag to give credit. Sometimes, they'll share your mail service with their own followers, or comment under the post which introduces your Profile to their audience. How cool is that?

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5. Keep your publishing schedule consistent.

Known as the platform for having one of the longest content lifespans, LinkedIn is a platform that doesn't need a 'circular-the-clock publishing schedule. What it does need is a consistent one.

Whether y'all publish every day, every other twenty-four hour period, or fifty-fifty once a week, your network will come up to look your content regularly which builds trust. Choose a schedule that makes sense for your business organisation and stick to it for a calendar month. See what days and times are yielding the best date and make those part of your publishing schedule.

Below, we'll cover some effective means to utilize the LinkedIn platform. These tips can be tailored to your needs — whether you take a personal LinkedIn page, business page, or both — no matter your industry or size. However, you'll notice some of the points nosotros're going to embrace are more suited for businesses looking to boost make sensation or share content while others are more tailored towards those looking to recruit and hire new talent.

How to Use LinkedIn

1. Customize your public Profile URL.
2. Add a LinkedIn groundwork photo to your Profile.
3. Add together, remove, and rearrange sections of your Profile.
4. Optimize your LinkedIn Profile for the search engines.
5. Add a ProFinder Badge to your Profile.
6. Have advantage of the web log and website links on your LinkedIn Contour.
7. Check your Network Updates (or share your own).
8. Be identifiable.
9. Check out who'due south viewed your LinkedIn Profile.
10. Design all aspects of your LinkedIn page.

1. Customize your public Contour URL.

Make your Profile look more professional, and easier to share, by customizing your LinkedIn public Profile URL. Instead of a URL with confusing numbers at the terminate, information technology will look nice and clean like this:

http://www.linkedin.com/in/amandazantalwiener.

You can do this by clicking View Profile and then clicking Edit Public Profile and URL. Here you lot can alter your URL to anything you'd like — such as your first and final name or business name — assuming information technology hasn't already been taken past another LinkedIn user.

2. Add together a LinkedIn background photo to your Profile.

Give your LinkedIn Profile a little bit more personality past adding an on-brand background photo. Although one is automatically provided to you, yous can update information technology to showcase your personal brand, special interests, or grab the eyes of hiring managers and recruiters.

LinkedIn recommends a background photograph size of 1584 10 396 pixels, and it must exist a JPG, PNG, or GIF file nether 8MB.

3. Add, remove, and rearrange sections of your Profile.

You can edit and reorder sections of your LinkedIn Profile to highlight specific pieces of data in whatsoever way you run across fit. When y'all're in edit manner, but hover your mouse over the double-sided arrow in each section. Your mouse will plow into a four-arrow icon, at which bespeak you can click, elevate, and driblet to some other position on your Contour.

4. Optimize your LinkedIn Profile for the search engines.

Search engine optimization (SEO) isn't limited to blogging — you lot can as well optimize your Profile to become discovered by people searching LinkedIn for key terms you lot want to be institute for. You can add these keywords to diverse sections of your Profile, such as your headline, your summary, or your work feel.

Download a free SEO starter pack to learn everything you need to know about optimizing your business' content.

5. Add a ProFinder Bluecoat to your Profile.

You might consider adding a ProFinder Badge, which is used to identify freelancers within LinkedIn'due south ProFinder. This service matches contractors with projection managers who are seeking help. Freelancers can display a ProFinder badge on their Profiles to bear witness prospective clients their skills, expertise, and recommendations.

LinkedIn offers two badge themes for yous to choose from:

vi. Take advantage of the blog and website links on your LinkedIn Profile.

You can add portfolio links and social networks to your LinkedIn page. Links to your content and business information can also be added to your Profile to increase clicks. This characteristic allows you to draw greater attention to specific areas of your folio to drive traffic elsewhere.

For case, if y'all produced a podcast, yous can share links to your episodes on LinkedIn (east.1000. SoundCloud tracks) to promote your work.

7. Check your Network Updates (or share your ain).

Found on your LinkedIn homepage, Network Updates are essentially LinkedIn's version of the Facebook News Feed. Cheque this feed periodically for a quick snapshot of what your connections, customers, competitors, and others are up to and sharing. Y'all can too share updates of your own, such as details nigh your products or services and noteworthy content your business has created and published.

You may choose to sign up for email notifications or sort by "Acme Updates" and "Contempo Updates" to filter your feed in any way you choose.

viii. Be identifiable.

Your LinkedIn connections should recognize your Profile the moment they await at it. A smashing way to brand your Profile easily identifiable is by ensuring your Contour's name, headline, and other simple identifiers are easy to see.

Note: Y'all should always accept your Public Contour setting enabled besides, to be visible and identifiable for your audience.

ix. Check out who's viewed your LinkedIn Profile.

Learn a little about your audience members, potential leads, and customers who are viewing your Profile and marketing content that you lot're sharing on LinkedIn.

How? With the Who Viewed Your Profile feature.

This tool, which is accessible in the main navigation via the Contour drib down, enables you to place the exact people who have visited your page. Y'all can meet how you stack up confronting the Profile views for your connections, other businesses like yours, and more than.

ten. Design all aspects of your LinkedIn page.

The design of LinkedIn pages has changed a lot over the years. Make sure yours is fix correctly and optimized for the latest layout, featuring a compelling and high-quality banner image.

Take a look at what HubSpot's Visitor Page looks like for inspiration:

Employ guides and templates to observe the best means to design your LinkedIn page for optimal business organisation, marketing, and professional person networking.

How to Market on LinkedIn

1. Employ Saved Searches and Search Alerts in LinkedIn Recruiter.
2. Listing job opportunities and recruit new talent with LinkedIn'southward job postings.
3. Take advantage of LinkedIn Endorsements.
4. Use Open up Profile to send messages to people you lot're not continued to.
5. Export connections.
6. Customize your Connections to grow your professional network.
7. Join LinkedIn Groups.
8. Create your own LinkedIn Group.
9. Communicate with your LinkedIn Group.
10. Share your LinkedIn condition updates on Twitter.
11. Leverage @mentions in your status updates.
12. Create LinkedIn Showcase Pages
13. Post company condition updates and target them.
14. Check out LinkedIn's Content Marketing Score & Trending Content resources.
15. Experiment with LinkedIn Sponsored Content & Native Ads.
16. Share content through LinkedIn's publishing platform.
17. Add together a Page Follow button to your website.
18. Analyze your LinkedIn marketing performance.

1. Use Saved Searches and Search Alerts in LinkedIn Recruiter.

If you lot use LinkedIn Recruiter, you can use Saved Searches to save your search criteria — if you lot're marketing job opportunities via LinkedIn, this is a great addition to your tool belt.

With the characteristic, you lot can relieve as many searches as you want and receive alerts when new candidates lucifer your filter refinements and criteria. You tin elect to receive daily or weekly search alerts from the system nigh relevant results via the Recruiter homepage.

ii. List job opportunities and recruit new talent with LinkedIn's task postings.

And speaking of your business' open job opportunities, don't forget to add and market your new positions on the LinkedIn Jobs page.

Hither, candidates tin can larn about your business and openings past searching for specific keywords such equally chore championship, manufacture, location, salary, experience level, and more.

iii. Take advantage of LinkedIn Endorsements.

LinkedIn offers a feature chosen Endorsements — this allows you to recognize people you piece of work with past endorsing their skills.

You can promote and endorse the skills of the people yous piece of work closest with to assistance refer them for other piece of work, make their Profiles more impressive, show your support, and more.

4. Use Open Profile to send letters to people you lot're not continued to.

To branch out and make new connections with potential partners, customers, and other industry leaders, you might desire to ship them a personalized message.

With the exception of fellow LinkedIn Group members, the platform simply allows you to send messages to people with whom you share a first-degree connectedness. Merely did you know some people let you transport them letters anyway, fifty-fifty if y'all're not connected?

Here's how that works: The ability to exist part of the Open Profile network is only bachelor to Premium account holders, simply it allows those users to be available for messaging by any other LinkedIn member regardless of membership type.

Additionally, there are options for sending messages to those with whom you're not yet connected, like to sending a request to connect with a note (though we don't recommend overusing this technique). Additionally, if yous have a premium business relationship, you can utilise InMail.

five. Export connections.

Now, it'south no hugger-mugger that you can use the connections you brand on LinkedIn to drive traffic to your site and grow your base of operations of paying customers. Exporting your connections — to a contact management system, for example — is a great place to start.

Under your Advanced Settings, you can commencement exporting your LinkedIn connections.

half-dozen. Customize your Connections to grow your professional network.

LinkedIn offers features to help you abound your professional network and make valuable connections. There are several ways to practice this depending on what you're looking to achieve.

Here are some examples:

• Add together, view, and remove connections depending on their level of value to your business.
• Control who can see your connections — maybe you do or don't want your competitors to see that list of people.
• Leverage your second and tertiary-caste connections to grow your network and build new relationships.
• Import and sync your contacts from your email and other sources to stay in bear on with colleagues, partners, leads, and customers beyond the board. These connections will see your content in multiple places and then they acquire more about who you are every bit a business, deepening their relationship with your make.

7. Bring together LinkedIn Groups.

LinkedIn Groups are a great style to make connections with people who work in, or are interested in, your industry. They serve every bit a hub for y'all and other members to share content, grow your contact list, establish yourself as an expert in the field, and heave make sensation.

At that place are several other benefits that come from joining LinkedIn Groups. For case, by joining Groups related to your industry and participating in discussions within those groups, y'all'll inspire thought leadership in your industry.

Additionally, by joining Groups, you can view complete Profiles of other members of the same group without existence connected. Besides, if yous're a member of the aforementioned group equally another user, LinkedIn allows y'all to send up to 15 free 1:1 messages to beau group members per month (typically, you tin can only do this if you lot're a first-degree connection).

8. Create your own LinkedIn Group.

Consider creating a LinkedIn Group of your very own, like HubSpot did with the popular Inbound Marketers Grouping.

You can use your group to establish yourself as a idea leader in your manufacture, grow a community of advocates, generate new marketing content ideas, promote brand sensation, and generate new leads.

9. Communicate with your LinkedIn Group.

And on that note, there are more reasons to create your own Group on LinkedIn. In fact, ane of the perks of managing a LinkedIn Group is that LinkedIn makes it simple to interact and communicate with the members of the Grouping you're in charge of.

Yous tin either send letters to group members or create a group postal service. Sending messages allows you to write a member of your group directly, or share content with them, from your group's folio. This is great if you have something to share with a specific person in your group. Creating a group mail service allows you to share any content you'd like on your group's page which is platonic for initiating a discussion.

10. Share your LinkedIn status updates on Twitter.

Add together your Twitter account to your LinkedIn Profile so you can share status updates beyond platforms. This is also a corking way to heave your Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections.

For example, if you're posting an update to LinkedIn that you'd also like your Twitter followers to come across, y'all can easily syndicate that update to Twitter past selecting the Public + Twitter option in the dropdown bill of fare within the LinkedIn update composer.

11. Leverage @mentions in your status updates.

Desire some other LinkedIn user or company to see your status update? On LinkedIn, you tin can tag — or @mention — users and other companies in your condition updates much like the way information technology works on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Include the @ symbol immediately followed by the user'due south/ company's name in your status update or post. As a effect, that user/ company will be alerted that yous mentioned them, and their proper noun will also link to their Profile and Folio in the status update itself. This is a great way to boost engagement and interaction on your content equally well as improve brand awareness.

12. Create LinkedIn Showcase Pages.

LinkedIn Showcase Pages are niche pages that branch off your business' page to highlight specific initiatives and campaigns or feature specific content you're working on.

Call up of Showcase Pages as extensions of your main page that allow you lot to promote specific products or cater to your marketing personas — this provides a more than personalized and targeted experience for your page visitors. This is a neat mode to expand your network on LinkedIn because other users can choose to follow your Showcase Folio(s) even if they haven't followed your principal page.

xiii. Mail service company condition updates and target them.

Publish Status Updates for your business on your LinkedIn folio for your followers to see. This keeps your LinkedIn connections engaged and in the loop regarding your concern' latest developments, piece of work, content, and updates. In your condition updates, you can share written information, images, videos, documents, and more than.

You can too post Targeted LinkedIn Condition Updates tailored towards specific people and groups within your audience. To practice this, use criteria such every bit company size, industry, task part, seniority, geography, linguistic communication, or by including/ excluding company employees.

These targeted updates volition appear on your page — or Showcase Page — as well as on LinkedIn for the targeted users (specifically, in their Network Updates feed).

fourteen. Cheque out LinkedIn's Content Marketing Score & Trending Content resources.

Yous can learn how impactful your organic and paid LinkedIn marketing content is with the platform's Content Marketing Score and Trending Content resources.

Your Content Marketing Score tells you lot your affect on LinkedIn by measuring overall audition appointment with your content. Trending Content tells you which topics you are posting and sharing content near that are resonating with specific audience groups on the platform, allowing yous to optimize your content for greater impact.

xv. Experiment with LinkedIn Sponsored Content and Native Ads.

If you lot're looking to complement your organic LinkedIn marketing efforts with some paid advertizing, LinkedIn Ads are a smart choice. One of the biggest benefits of LinkedIn advertising: the targeting options.

LinkedIn's PPC ads let yous target specific chore titles, job functions, industries, or company size, to name a few — you know, the people who are more likely to desire/ need what you sell.

If you want to get started with LinkedIn'southward advertizing platform, check out our free guide to advertising on LinkedIn.

16. Share content through LinkedIn's publishing platform.

Good news! You no longer have to exist a LinkedIn influencer to publish new articles on LinkedIn. Publishing is available to all users on the platform. Experiment with how this feature can back up your marketing goals by creating content and promoting information technology on your business' LinkedIn page.

For case, y'all might experiment with syndicating content from your web log to LinkedIn — this fashion, you tin promote subscriptions to your blog via LinkedIn.

17. Add a Folio Follow button to your website.

Add together the LinkedIn Company Follow push button to your website to promote your company's LinkedIn presence and the content you share on the platform. When your website visitors follow your LinkedIn page via your site, they'll automatically become connected to you lot and be able to view your visitor's latest updates on the platform.

Using this method, yous tin can heave your engagement and number of connections on LinkedIn by driving traffic to the platform directly from your website.

xviii. Analyze your LinkedIn marketing operation.

And then ... how are your LinkedIn marketing efforts faring? Analyzing your efforts and making necessary adjustments is critical to your success on the platform.

LinkedIn has in-depth page analytics also every bit reporting tools for businesses to evaluate overall performance. There are specific data about how effective your status updates, content, and reach are besides as details almost your page's appointment and followers (like audience member demographics).

LinkedIn Marketing Options

LinkedIn allows you to drive traffic to your website, identify quality leads, share your expertise through thought-leadership content, and grow your network. It'southward also a great way to market job openings and attract new talent to your company. Using ads volition dilate all of these benefits to make them even more useful for your concern. There are four different types of ads you tin can utilize on LinkedIn, each one is crafted to help you attain different goals for your business.

i. Sponsored Content

The LinkedIn homepage for users features a news feed that is custom to each profile'due south network. Sponsored content will show up in the LinkedIn news feed and reach a highly engaged audience. This content is labeled as "promoted" so it stands autonomously from the regular news feed. Sponsored content can include single image ads, video ads, carousel ads, or event ads.

2. Sponsored Letters

Each user on LinkedIn has an inbox to connect with other users. But 48% of businesses utilise messaging to appoint with potential leads, then there's a bang-up opportunity for you to exist ahead of the curve with it. At that place are chat ads that are in the style of "cull your own path" and message ads which are direct messages to potential leads.

3. Lead Gen Forms

Converting leads is the goal of your ads, and easily collecting their data makes the process streamlined for them and your business. These are pre-filled forms that aid you collect and record leads on LinkedIn.

4. Text Ads

The LinkedIn platform has a right rail that can too feature ads. These can be text, spotlight, or follower. These are smaller, more than condensed ads compared to the sponsored content.

Market Your Business organization on LinkedIn

Are you ready to get started marketing your business organization on LinkedIn?

With so many updates and additions to LinkedIn on the horizon, we can't expect to see how the network continues to make itself an integral resource and platform for marketers, job seekers, candidate seekers, and other professionals. Get started marketing on LinkedIn past experimenting with ane of these all-time practices.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in Baronial 2017 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Originally published Oct 4, 2021 12:15:00 PM, updated October 25 2021

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