LinkedIn for Small Business Expansion
If you’re a successful business or entrepreneur, chances are that you’re probably using LinkedIn and several other forms of social media. When thinking of social media, one would typically think of personal sharing. However, LinkedIn focuses on professional networking. Whether it’s to build a group of contacts, advance as an individual within his or her career, or to simply recruit employees; LinkedIn is a vital tool for business in this technological era. As a form of social media that is constantly expanding, it’s hard to imagine what the site looked like and offered to its users years ago — it was practically an entirely different site.
As larger businesses utilize LinkedIn, smaller businesses are also jumping on the bandwagon. Small businesses find great success by using LinkedIn; it would be foolish to not participate in such a strategic social media platform. Here are four tips on how you can be a successful small business in the LinkedIn world:
1. Personally brand yourself
Clients will naturally want to look for you online. To ensure that they come across good content about the business, setup your LinkedIn in a way that showcases who you are. Take advantage of this by adding pictures, videos, presentations, sales sheets, etc., that you’ve created to tailor to your business’ best interests.
2. Marketing is free
You can increase your business’ brand awareness by boosting your presence in search engine results. LinkedIn can be used as a catalyst to drive people to your company’s website. You do this by adding specific key words for when people may look up your company.
3. Networking has its bonuses
The people in your LinkedIn network can promote your next sale. LinkedIn has advanced search capabilities that allow small businesses’ sales teams to know exactly which companies they need to connect with, look into existing relationships that may open up doors for them, and find the right people to reach out to. It’s all about who you know and who they know.
4. Attract talent
Nowadays social media is trending within the business world and is used by both large and small businesses alike. LinkedIn is a good place to look when trying to attract potential employees. It allows you to publish job postings and also gives you the ability to search for potential candidates. Proactively searching allows for you to find employees that directly fit your needs and wants. Then, all you have to do is directly reach out to them and receive “first-dibs.”
It would be in both you and your business’ best interest to take advantage of these tips to conquer the LinkedIn spectrum of social media. With these tips in mind, there’s an abundance of opportunities for small businesses to influence their online presence. With a rate of two new members per second, LinkedIn is a social media platform that has grown rapidly in the past few years and continues to grow. The platform is moving in a direction where it will be necessary for your business to have a presence if you want to reach a new, professional audience.
What have you been using LinkedIn for? Are you satisfied with the platform and its newest features? Let us know in the comments below!