How to Use LinkedIn to Grow Your Business

LinkedIn is the leading professional networking site in Canada and for good reason, this network crossed the threshold of 500 million subscribers worldwide in 2017. More than a simple online CV, LinkedIn has become THE platform for generating business for your company.

If your goal is to improve your brand image and make your services known, LinkedIn is an excellent way to achieve this. objective. This professional network offers the possibility of interacting directly with its target audience, which is why LinkedIn must occupy a prominent place in your online marketing plan.

We present in this article several elements for successfully developing your business thanks to LinkedIn.

LinkedIn in figures

Mathieu Laferrière, author of the first work in French on LinkedIn (LinkedIn for beginners, 2009) is an expert on the platform. The book was updated last year, it is now available under the name (LinkedIn Business, 2017). Mathieu Laferrière is from Quebec, he is also the only one to provide concrete data relating to the use of LinkedIn in Quebec and even in Montreal.

In his 2017 statistics, we learn that Canada has 12.9 million LinkedIn members, including 1.8 million in Quebec. By comparing these data to the active population of Quebec in April 2017 (i.e. 4.47 million people), we can conclude that more than one active Quebecer in 3 is present on this professional network.

The platform is available in more than 200 countries and in more than 21 languages around the world, with nearly 40% of active users on a daily basis. It is important to mention that Microsoft carried out the acquisition of this social network in 2016 for the sum of 26.2 billion dollars (USD), which gives us a good idea of the influence of this social media in the digital world.

Source: Mathieu Laferrière (2017 statistics)

Why create a LinkedIn Company Page

Launched in 2003, the professional network experienced significant expansion by developing its functionalities. LinkedIn makes it possible to establish contact between companies and professionals and to find business partners. Many Very small and small businesses use LinkedIn which offers them the opportunity to make themselves known at low cost. The same goes for communities and associations that want to promote their mission. LinkedIn is also seeing great success with large businesses using it to strengthen their digital identity and manage their online reputation. The advantages of having a LinkedIn Company Page are numerous, because it allows you to:

• Improve the organic SEO of your company;

• Promote your services, products and events;

• Develop your professional network;

• Keep in touch with your employees and Former employees; brand

• Publish job offers and recruit new employees;

• Treat sound branding and promote its corporate culture.

As you know, LinkedIn has nearly half a billion members across the globe, so there is a good chance that professionals in your sector are present there. However, before creating a LinkedIn Company Page, check that your field of activity is well represented in the professional network.

The reason is simple: successful communication on social media requires time and energy. It is impossible to be effective on all social media, unless you have an employee on your team dedicated to this task. If your target audience is more active on Facebook or Instagram, don't waste your time and instead invest your valuable efforts in these social media.

As an indication, here are the top 10 sectors most represented on LinkedIn: information technology and services (4,4%), construction (3,3%), retail (2,8%), financial services (2,5%), computer software (2,3%), marketing and advertising (2,3%), human resources (1,5%), management consulting (0,9%), internet (0,8%), professional training and coaching (0,8%). These areas of activity represent 25% on LinkedIn, which means that the remaining 75% is divided into a multitude of varied sectors.

Image: Pixabay

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Best practices on LinkedIn

There are two distinct ways to communicate effectively on LinkedIn: using your professional profile or your company page. Please note that the two are complementary and can be used simultaneously. Here we offer you some best practices to adopt for a successful LinkedIn strategy.

• Complete your personal profile

All information must be indicated on the profile, which must contain a presentation (2000 characters maximum), your experiences, your field of activity and your geographic location. The presentation text must be adapted to the audience you are targeting and encourage professionals to contact you.

• Share publications

Whether on your professional profile or via your LinkedIn page, it is necessary to remain proactive and share publications regularly. Make sure to use quality texts and eye-catching images. It is recommended to establish an editorial calendar to ensure the regularity of publications. In addition, LinkedIn offers the possibility of adding videos and Slideshare presentations. Don't hesitate to use this multimedia function to ensure the visibility of your company and demonstrate its credibility.

• Promote your expertise

LinkedIn allows you to integrate up to 50 professional groups. This is a great way to broaden your horizons and reach more people. The platform explicitly displays your profile to users, hence the importance of providing all the necessary information. Be proactive in groups, ask questions, bring your expertise when the opportunity arises, help people who are looking for information and you will see, your efforts will pay off in the end!

• Find subscribers for your page

Unless your business is extremely well-known, acquiring subscribers happens slowly but surely. Share your business page URL everywhere you can, including your other social media. On your website, add a button to give users the opportunity to follow your page, do the same for the newsletter and in your email signature, particularly if you communicate regularly with clients.

It is particularly recommended to ask for the collaboration of your employees who can comment on and share the publications on your LinkedIn Company page. As with any social media, you also have the option of paying for shared news to appear in the news of targeted people. However, LinkedIn ads are known to be up to 20 times more expensive than those on other social media.

• Measure the performance of your page

LinkedIn provides you with several tools to measure the audience of your page and the performance of your shared publications. You can then identify the statuses that generate the most engagement, track the reach of publications (impressions) and obtain qualitative data about your subscribers in order to adjust your LinkedIn strategy accordingly.

Image: Pixabay

SEO optimization for a LinkedIn Company page

As you may have noticed, search engines not only display your website, but also your social media pages in their results. This gives us an idea of ​​the importance of content optimization work on social media to obtain good organic SEO.

SEO works in the same way on LinkedIn, which will display the most relevant results and whose content has been optimized. There is a good technique to ensure that your company page rises in the LinkedIn results. Start by drawing up a list of keywords associated with your page and do not hesitate to do a study of the competition by analyzing the pages of the companies in first position in order to draw inspiration from them.

Publish qualitative content regularly to keep your page active. LinkedIn has some analysis tools that will allow you to position yourself on the network to better guide you in your choices in terms of strategy.