Social Media Update - LinkedIn 2020

Hey Doctor Digital, I’ve got a LinkedIn profile, but I don’t really do much with it, I keep hearing people like you and Gary V talk it up. So how can it help me and my business?

Doctor Digital Says

Yes, Gary V and I are both pro LinkedIn, and LinkedIn is also pro LinkedIn, especially for businesses. LinkedIn used to be more of a glorified electronic business card portal, with the chance to sniff around potential job candidates and see what your old high school buddies were up to professionally. That all began to change when we collectively understood better the power of network effects, and how this could be used in a B2B sense just like it was on Facebook and Instagram, and users of LinkedIn began to really drive its value.

Let’s get back to basics – digital marketing basics that is. LinkedIn has 500m users, of which 61 million users are senior-level influencers, 40 million users are decision makers and around 7 million users are C-level executives. So if you are looking to get in front of influencers, this is your treasure trove of decision makers. According to LinkedIn, business pages filled with all the required information on the platform enjoy 30% more weekly views. This is true for business pages and personal pages, so make sure all the relevant information about your business us up to date in order to attract users.

Make sure you have a branded banner image, a professional profile picture and pour all you can in the 'About Us' section of your business profile on LinkedIn including your website URL, location, industry, company size, number of employees and anything else you think is relevant. Don’t forget to add relevant keywords related to your business to your profile so as to attract users searching for businesses like yours on LinkedIn and Google, and make sure your staff are all on LinkedIn and connected with your page as well so they can contribute to your content.

Many people ask me what the best way to use LinkedIn is. Like any social platform, the purpose is to create community and networks that relate to your business sector. The simple act of genuinely liking, sharing and commenting on people’s posts is one way of beginning to establish your own views and opinions. The next is to produce some native content for LinkedIn so others can read it, share it, and like and comment on it. Using LinkedIn Business Pages, brands can now re-share content shared by their employees and any post that mentions them on LinkedIn. You are able to re-share great product reviews and customer testimonials about your business to the world. It’s just like how you re-tweet tweets but for LinkedIn. Simples!

As LinkedIn profiles are so highly authenticated, LinkedIn has always had a strong influence on SEO. When you not only have a fully complete profile, but also are providing content that is being shared and used, it creates even better search rankings for you and your brand. Plus this is how you develop your brand (and you) as a thought leader in your industry, and build trust for people who may be looking to use you and your services. Articles are great, and so are infographics and of course video, all of which is easy to upload directly in the platform.

LinkedIn has been strongly developing its product for B2B customers, and in 2020 it is not a stretch to say it is an essential tool for developing business networks, new clients, finding staff and building a profile of your skills and abilities. LinkedIn has rebuilt their company pages to offer a multitude of new features that make connecting easier than ever. You can now associate your personal LinkedIn Page with hashtags to join conversations about your business or industry, there’s also a customizable call-to-action button just like Facebook’s Business Pages. LinkedIn has also upped their game on their mobile app, reflecting the majority usage patterns of mobile first, which enables all of the same features you have on the desktop version.

Perhaps one of the strongest features of LinkedIn now is their advertising and lead generation features. Because of the detailed, authenticated information collected on every user to complete their profile, LinkedIn is way ahead of the game when it comes to deep demographic segmentation. This targeting capability at the most granular level helps advertisers present on the platform target those users who are most likely to engage with their ad content and helps them boost conversions. These targeting options are available for all the ad formats available to advertisers on LinkedIn. The Lead Generation forms are succinct and pre-populated so it is easy to encourage people to fill in the rest, and give you what you need to open and close the deal.

Like Facebook, LinkedIn has a control centre for all of its ads where you make and measure your outcomes. The LinkedIn Campaign Manager is the place where you’ll get in-depth information about how all your LinkedIn advertisements are performing on LinkedIn and around the web. You can also get insights into who is engaging with your ads within the Campaign Manager itself to inform future ad campaigns. The Campaign Manager also lets you pause and A/B test underperforming campaigns.

LinkedIn Analytics has a comprehensive analysis of performance and is broken down into three categories for easy use: Visitors, Updates and Followers. The Visitors tab will tell you everything about how many users are visiting your business page on LinkedIn, who they are and where they came from. The Updates tab will enlighten you about how your individual posts are performing on LinkedIn, including impressions, clicks, likes, comments, shares and the overall engagements your posts receive. The Followers tab will tell you everything about the followers you’ve lost or gained in a specific time frame, who they are, where they work and other information they’ve given to LinkedIn to make your understanding of them more nuanced.

LinkedIn is much more than just a platform which job seekers and recruiters use to find their perfect match, it’s an advertising powerhouse that you can make use of to build awareness, showcase yourself as an authority in your business niche, build meaningful relationships with the most influential people around the web (like Gary V and Doctor Digital) and generate leads, customers and collaborators for your business.

Want to know more about how to use Linkedin? We have a factsheet for that.

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