LinkedIn is now much more than a platform to search jobs and find potential employees. It was the case long ago when LinkedIn came into existence. Today, it’s way more than that. There are millions of companies on this professional social media platform and a couple of million groups – small and large discussing various topics day and night. Organisations and communicators can use LinkedIn in many more ways and much to their advantage. We share a few tips.
Corporate Page
The corporate page on LinkedIn offers an amazing opportunity to tell your brand story. And the best thing about LinkedIn is that the audience you reach out to is all serious and worth every eyeball.
To make your company page a must-see destination for your followers and to attract new followers you need to keep it dynamic.
Think of the company page as much more than a static web page. It is a publishing platform waiting to be all utilized and explored. The followers want to see new things. Update it as much as possible. Share all the latest events, announcements and trends.
Every visitor wants some sort of value when he or she comes and spends time on your page.
80/20 Rule
80/20 rule is good to follow while updating any corporate page on social media and the same applies to LinkedIn pages as well. 80 percent of the posts shared should consist of useful information and interesting things, stories, photos, videos and links. The self centered, promotional content should not be more than 20 percent of the content dissemination on the page.
Engaging Groups
The groups on LinkedIn provide an amazing opportunity to practice thought leadership and to find other thought leaders and influencers.
- Best Engagement Practices
Ask questions. Throwing questions and seeking advice from the fellow group members is a good way of engaging with them. Most people join a group because they feel an affinity—they share something in common. And each person has his own and unique piece of information, knowledge or experience to share from. People love giving advice; hence seeking it could be a great idea to start with and get people talking.
Have an attentive group manager who will ensure members keep discussions respectful and spam-free. It may certainly involve a lot of labour but it’s all worth the pain. The admin keeps the group clean and spam free and also maintains decorum. The steering of the conversations also remains in the hands of the admin and that’s another key to a successful forum.
- Worst Engagement Practices
Marketing and promotion is the worst thing to do on groups.
Smart way of doing the same is by establishing yourself as a thought leader, an influencer and a credible source of information and advice. Once established, smartly, indirectly and subtly pass on the marketing links. People will buy for sure but wouldn’t pass you out as a marketer.
Personal Profile
The personal profile on LinkedIn also offers an amazing opportunity to tell your story. And the most important aspect of a LinkedIn profile is the summary that comes right under your name. It’s like a calling card that is a must fill for all. Many users refrain from filling that summary and fail to understand its importance. That’s the place where you announce how you are different from others. There must be millions of people doing the same job that you are doing. There is a huge population out there with the same qualification as that of yours and may be from the same university. What defines and separates you from the lot? It’s this summary. When you are looking for a job or simply networking or throwing an event and want to invite the right people the first thing they are going to do is check your profile and surf through the summary only.
- Optimize Profile
Just adding a few words to your headline and summary can take you from the bottom of the search results to the top, and eventually help you land that dream job or that speaking opportunity that you’ve been aspiring for.
The keywords in your headline greatly impact search. Say someone is looking for a public relations consultant and you haven’t optimized your profile by putting those words in your summary or your headline, you’re going to come up lower in the search results.
- Use Rich Media
Add power point presentations, videos, web links to your profile. Whatever relevant interviews, appearances or presentations you’ve made in the past or the articles written by you, columns published, award functions videos, etc – share the link in the relevant sections. Add the link and the image or the snapshot will appear on its own. It makes the profile much lively and comprehensive.
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