Being proactive on LinkedIn creates awareness and builds a solid reputation for your business. Active interaction on LinkedIn can position you as an expert in your industry and showcase your business's objectives. 

media update’s Nakedi Phala takes a look at the ways you can improve your participation on LinkedIn to add value to your business’s page. 

The more you polish your business profile, the more your business gains credibility — and the more you attract audiences to your profile. 

1. Optimise your LinkedIn business profile 

For your LinkedIn page to perform better, you need to improve on your consistency by: 
  • Diarising the times that you post content 
  • Posting content that relates to your business
  • Updating your audience when making changes to your business or LinkedIn profile.
Unlike other social media platforms, LinkedIn is a platform filled with professional audiences from different career backgrounds — so your interaction with your audience needs to be in accordance with their interests and the industries they’re in. 

2. Stay up to date with LinkedIn’s algorithm

To be able to measure your marketing strategy for your LinkedIn business profile, you can look into the platform’s algorithm. Its primary objective is to determine which content needs to be prioritised on the platform.  

It also shows you the statistics of each post (impressions, engagement, etc.), which, when compared, allow you to see which posts garner the most engagement and are received the best by your audience.  

Essentially, your LinkedIn page is arranged by the ‘Top Updates’ — this is based on your activities, such as interactions, likes, comments and shares.

LinkedIn’s algorithm prioritises the following: 
  • Question-based content  — improves conversations, especially open-ended questions.
  • News-related content — improves the audience's general knowledge about your business.
  • Industry-based content — informs followers about changes and new business ventures. 
However, the best way to have the platform’s algorithm work in your favour is to communicate. For example, if your business is hosting or attending an event, communicate this information on your timeline with your followers. 

“Event coverage represents an opportunity to educate and entertain your audience, reeling in those ever-so-important ‘likes’ in, during and after the event,” says Brent Barnhart in an article for Sprout Social. 

3. Advertising on LinkedIn 

LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to advertise your products and promote your business — simultaneously. For example, if you create a video advert and post it on LinkedIn, your followers and their followers are likely to see it if it has been liked or shared.

This increases the chances of more people visiting your profile or engaging with your posts (or even commenting on the ad).  

LinkedIn has three types of advertising available to brands:
  1. Targeting advertising — This allows you to select audiences by industry, job title, area, education level and years of a company or individual’s experience
  2. Native advertising — This represents “a natural progression, as LinkedIn entrenches itself deeper into the world of professional publishing. After all, paid media is a part of most good content marketing plans. The pinpoint accuracy of LinkedIn’s targeting capabilities makes advertising a must — especially if you take a content-driven approach”. 
  3.  Lead collection — This is where audiences are given the option to fill out forms using their LinkedIn profiles. This is vital if you want to distribute market-gated content. 
Advertising your business or its products on LinkedIn offers you flexibility as opposed to traditional advertising. And, advert statistics are readily available and accessible through a smart device like a smartphone, tablet or computer anywhere anytime — no more waiting. 

4. Share exclusive content on your LinkedIn profile 

Sharing exclusive content is simple, you just have to strive to be unique from others without compromising your business objectives. Although LinkedIn is a professional platform, this doesn't mean you can’t have a bit of fun with your content; for example, you can post a couple of year-end function pictures on your profile, allowing staff to like or share the pictures. 

Let’s suppose you run a business that specialises in sales of clinical equipment and your business just released the latest machine. You can then share short video clips of the prototype and, in the caption, include information detailing the improvements and how it will make life easier for medical practitioners. 

In essence, exclusive content for LinkedIn should: 
  • reflect your business’s objectives
  • engage your audience
  • contain error-free content
  • educate your followers 
Great content consists of marketing elements that get your audience talking about your business or products. This is a great way for you to attract more followers and possibly create your own community on the platform. 

Which LinkedIn feature do you use to benefit your business? Let us know in the comments section below. 

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Wondering if your business marketing tactics will work on Twitter? This article has the answer: How to use Twitter for business: A five-step guide for beginners
*Image courtesy of Vecteezy