Alexis Kestler
LinkedIn allows you to connect and share content with other professionals – your colleagues, employers, partners, competitors, employees, and customers.
LinkedIn is being called the largest professional network counting 706+ million users around the globe. It’s present in more than 200 countries. This platform allows you to connect and share content with other professionals. That can be your colleagues, employers, or potential employers, business partners, competitors, employees, and customers. This is the reason why you should put your business to LinkedIn – it is a fabulous marketing tool.
Even LinkedIn encourages marketing as something that should not be neglected. On their pages, you can find a very useful guide on How to market on LinkedIn.
What is LinkedIn Marketing?
That is a method of using this network to connect, generate followers, create or improve brand awareness, maintain professional relationships and partnerships, share relevant content, and drive traffic to your website (or somewhere else). It is an important part of many businesses and their marketing strategies nowadays.
LinkedIn was established in 2003 as American business and employment-oriented online service. It functioned as a website and mobile app. It was essentially used for professional connections, including companies posting job offers and job seekers posting their CVs.
We will provide you a quick guide to start using this network for marketing purposes.
Editing your Profile
Just as in most social media networks, you can add your profile photo and cover photo. The cover photo feature was presented in 2014 as a possibility to add a personal touch to users’ profiles. Keep in mind that LinkedIn is a professional network, and choose your photos according to that.
You can check profile photo guidelines here. Unlike other networks, your photo must show your likeness and your headshot. Otherwise, it can be removed. So, as you are creating your profile (not a business page), you can not use your logo or something similar. Your photo can be removed up to three times and if you still didn’t learn the lesson after that you will not be able to upload it anymore.
You can see the cover photo or background photo guidelines here. It is only editable from your computer, and there are some recommendations about the size. The recommended background photo is a size of 1584×396 pixels, and it must be a JPG, PNG, or GIF file under 8MB.
Customizing your URL
The interesting feature LinkedIn has to offer is customizing your public profile URL. That means you can (re)edit your profile URL and make it look like a pretty link. That is useful if you are sharing it as your CV profile. A customized URL can have 5-30 letters or numbers. You can change it up to 5 times within a period of 6 months, but we don’t recommend you do that. Consider it as an address where people can find you, so why would you change it all the time?
Using the ProFinder Badge
A ProFinder Badge is used to promote your freelancer services. Using it means you will be easier identified through ProFinder. ProFinder is a service that connects freelancers with managers or other users who are looking to hire somebody to help.
You can create a ProFinder Badge on your profile to show your skills, experience, and credentials. Unfortunately, it can’t be added to your LinkedIn profile, but you can put it to your website or blog. It will show your name, profile photo, and the services you offer, and it is linked to your profile.
Adding Links and Social Media
You can add links to your website, online portfolio, and your social media networks to your LinkedIn profile. You can also add links to other business information or content you want users to click on. This is called “the introduction card” and you can add up to three links. It can be a great way to draw attention to the areas you want to promote.
You can edit and rearrange different sections of your profile, depending on what you have filled, or what you want to highlight. You can drag-and-drop the sections in any way you think they’ll fit. With a little sense of design, you can make your profile look great! When you are in edit mode, hover your mouse over the arrow in a specific section and you can click, drag and drop it this way.
LinkedIn Recruiter
If you are advertising job opportunities, you can use LinkedIn Recruiter. You can use the search option which allows you to enter criteria and apply filters. Your searches can be saved, and you can create daily and weekly alerts. This way you will be notified when candidates meet your criteria and it can save you a lot of time.
There is also something called LinkedIn Talent Solutions, where you will post your openings. That is the place where users will learn about your business, the job they can apply to, location, needed experience, salary, etc.
Posts and Newsfeed
Quite alike to Facebook, LinkedIn has a news feed that is made of content people you follow did create. It has similar reaction options also – like, celebrate, support, love, insightful and curious. You can comment, share, and send posts in a message. While we’re at messages, you can only send them to people you are connected with if you are not a premium user.
You can create posts and share them with your connections or anyone. It is possible to input hashtags into text, so if you put your post to public, you may be able to reach some new connections. You can also put photos, videos, and documents in your posts, or even write an article. Posts have some various options: you can input custom text, or choose between celebrating an occasion, looking for an expert, share someone’s profile, add a job, create a poll or offer help.
Manage your Connections
Once you establish a lot of connections, you have an option to export them and create a base. Also, you have an option to edit your connection list by adding, removing, or viewing it. This list can be public or you can control who can see it.
It is not just about exporting, you can also import people from your email list, your phone contacts, or some other way. This is a great way to start with LinkedIn because you will be able to connect with people you already know. Especially if they are from your business email or phone list.
Groups
You can join groups, also similar to Facebook. This is a great way to connect and talk to people who are involved in the industry you are interested in. You can share content, add connections, show your skills, and promote your business. By participating in discussions, you can show what you know and establish yourself. Also, you could learn things you don’t know and get some help.
By joining groups, you are able to see the profiles of other members in a certain group (without being connected). Also, you can send 15 messages to these non-connections per month. A good reason to find some interesting groups, right?
Anyone can create a group, so can you. Then you will be able to interact with the members, send messages, and create group posts. You can contact members and share content with them directly from your group page.
LinkedIn has so many features and options that we could go on with this post forever. But its meant for someone who is just starting to explore its opportunities. No matter what your business is about, it is a network on which you must be present. This is where all the marketers, job seekers, recruiters, and other professionals are. So, find yourself a spot.
