No question: LinkedIn is indispensable for companies today. With around 600 million registered users, the platform is one of the most significant social networks in the world. Companies that are active here can take advantage of a whole range of benefits that the platform offers. These benefits not only impact the recruitment of new employees and young talents, but also contribute to success with customers: Especially B2B companies can draw attention to themselves, position their brand, signal their expertise, and engage with important individuals within and outside their existing network. But how exactly can companies implement these advantages for themselves and why should they by no means refrain from using this platform for their purposes?
1. Become an Opinion Leader
The platform stands out primarily for its great potential in terms of reach. Companies and their key stakeholders have the opportunity here to signal their expertise and present their perspective on things - and thus become opinion leaders. Through well-founded contributions with added value, other LinkedIn users can be provided with an interesting perspective and important information. Those who ensure that their contributions are of high quality, innovative, and well-founded will be revisited by users when it comes to providing a statement or assessment on specific situations. A good positioning can attract attention and build reputation. The fact is: By providing content with substantive added value in the form of relevant content, potential customers and business partners can be reached. This works particularly well here, as LinkedIn, similar to Facebook and Twitter, offers companies the opportunity to achieve reach through multiplication: If a member pays attention to a post with a like or a comment, this post suddenly becomes visible to all contacts of that member. In this way, individuals relevant to one's own industry can be reached, who are not yet part of the existing network. However, not only can companies and their representatives benefit from sharing their own content: Through groups, they can also network with other opinion leaders, gain important advocates, and build more influence. Overall, LinkedIn offers a great opportunity to strengthen the community's trust in one's own expertise.
2. Generate Leads
Becoming an opinion leader doesn't bring in money, right? Wrong! LinkedIn is so significant for B2B companies today mainly because interested observers can quickly turn into leads and thus paying customers. Because: Those who attract attention with relevant content and offer informative and entertaining added value also provide insight into their expertise, their way of working, and their views. For potential customers, this means that they can better assess who they are dealing with. Producing and sharing high-quality content, preferably in an accurate, professional, and friendly manner, therefore becomes the best advertising. In addition, the platform offers great opportunities for direct contact: If interested members within or outside one's own network become aware of a post, they can easily and quickly leave a comment or send a direct message - and contact is established. The cumbersome search for email addresses or phone numbers is a thing of the past. This significantly reduces the barrier to contact and ensures direct communication with potential customers.
3. Attract Talent
But it's not only B2B customers who swear by the popular platform. Job seekers have also long since discovered the platform for themselves. Companies can place their job postings in LinkedIn's job portal and attract applicants through a detailed and engaging company profile. Job seekers can also get a much better idea of what the company stands for, how it works, and what it values through the company's posted content. This makes it easier to gain the trust and sympathy of applicants than with standardized job postings on major portals, where applicants do not get a deeper insight into the company's philosophy and way of working, and the important information tends to get lost among common phrases. Additionally, since employees of the company can also be found directly on the platform, contact with applicants is uncomplicated through a direct personal message. Asking questions and getting to know each other feels much more personal and natural than, for example, through an anonymous form.
4. Maintain Network
The right relationships are crucial in business - the experts seem to agree on that. And here too, the popular social platform can help, because: LinkedIn allows for casual contact to be maintained with acquaintances made at conferences, meetings, and other professional events. Unlike Facebook, these contacts can be added to one's own network without having to disclose personal or private information. Sharing or publishing a post can then be the reason for renewed contact. The good thing is: LinkedIn is a global network, similar to Facebook. This way, international acquaintances can also be conveniently monitored and managed in one place. Also, recommending and referring contacts to others works very easily on LinkedIn: Individuals for whom a post or contact might be relevant can simply be tagged under the post.
5. Low Activity
Believe it or not: only 3.75% of users regularly create content on LinkedIn - crazy, isn't it? But how can companies make the most of their presence on the platform? Some tips and tricks can help.
Optimized Company Description
A comprehensive, easily understandable, and accessible company description allows both customers and applicants to get an accurate impression of the company. When the right keywords are included, the company can also be found by all interested parties. For more information, the link to the company's website should always be included.
User-Friendly Information Presentation
The information should always be well-structured and presented in a way that is easily scannable, so that it can be easily grasped at a glance. By the way: Very formal language and complex expressions are out of place. Instead, a professional yet friendly tone should be chosen.
Added Value and Quality Instead of Pure Marketing
The internet is full of people who want to sell something. It is therefore important not to turn your content into a pure sales brochure, but always to offer informative added value that brings important insights to other users or reports something new.
Consistency and Regularity
Those who produce content regularly have the best chances. They generate an audience that is already looking forward to new posts. It makes sense to give the posts a distinctive look, for example by always using the same filter for photos.
Experiment with Different Types of Content
There are many ways to convey your message: Whether with photos, texts, an article, a video, or an audio recording - the possibilities are endless. And they should be used! Therefore, it is okay to get a little more creative with your own posts. This also helps to attract relevant target groups in the flood of content and optimize your own digital selling.
