LINKEDIN STRATEGY

LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform for business owners and professionals. With over 700 million users and 50 million companies represented, LinkedIn provides a unique opportunity to connect with customers, future employees, potential clients, and industry leaders. By utilising LinkedIn strategically, you can build your brand, connect with your target audience, and become seen as a thought leader in your space.

1. OPTIMISE YOUR BRAND’S PAGE

The first step is to set up your company’s brand page. Include as much valuable content as possible. Use a high-quality profile picture (usually your logo), and a banner image that reflects your brand’s identity. Write a compelling company tag line and company description that encapsulates your company’s main products and services as well as your company culture and values.

2. DEFINE WHO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS

Next, you need to determine your target audience. It’s important to note that because LinkedIn is primarily a platform for professionals and business owners, your target audience may differ slightly compared to your primary audience.

Who are you trying to reach? People in similar or parallel roles to your industry will most likely form your target audience.

3. CREATE A LINKEDIN CONTENT AND/OR LINKEDIN MARKETING PLAN

Now that you’ve clearly defined your target audience and niche you can begin to put together a content and/or marketing plan. It’s important to tailor your marketing strategy to your target audience:

  1. What type of content will you post (video, text, imagery, downloads)?
  2. What is your communication style and tone of voice?
  3. Use hashtags to tag organisations and individuals.
  4. Frequency of posts. How often will you post?
  5. What are the optimum times to post in order to achieve maximum reach of your target audience?
  6. Keep it interesting. Varying your posts will keep your target audience engaged. Does your content plan have a theme? Posting the same post type all the time can be repetitive – experiment with and diversify your content and post type. Make sure you are clearly saying what you want to say, and that your communication method will appeal to your target audience.

Content Creation:

Do you know what you want to say and how you will say it? Developing a content plan will help you determine what you will post.

LinkedIn allows a wide range of content, including video, imagery, and written content, including blog posts as well as shorter updates. Trial a variety of post types to find what engages your target audience best.

Remember that your content should be interesting, and should add value to both your industry and your target audience. Sharing your wisdom, experience, and updates about your brand are all value-adding ways to connect with your target audience and industry.

Refrain from directly trying to sell on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a networking platform and should rarely be used for generating revenue.

4. INVITE CONNECTIONS TO FOLLOW YOUR PAGE

(TARGET AUDIENCE INVITES ARE PREFERABLE)

Grow your page following by inviting personal connections from your personal LinkedIn page to follow your company’s page. This strategy can create a flow-on effect when mutual and industry connections meet.

  1. If you don’t have many personal connections, add connections from your target audience. If you don’t know them, send them a friendly message once they accept.
  2. As mentioned above, LinkedIn should rarely be used as a platform to make sales. Don’t try to sell to anyone on LinkedIn within the first 2 months of connecting with them – it can look very unprofessional and connections may question your brand’s integrity. Inviting potential future leads to connect with your page is a better strategy to achieve engagement.
  3. If you have a personal LinkedIn page and you want to use it daily, purchasing the LinkedIn premium version can be a worthwhile investment. This allows you to add 250 connections to your company page each month.
  4. Invite employees/senior staff members to be admins on your company LinkedIn page. Employees can then invite 250 connections to follow your company page, which will help increase your reach.

5. LINKEDIN ADS

Once you’ve mastered your content and how to grow and engage your target audience, you may want to invest in LinkedIn ads to promote your business page.

LinkedIn ads can also be useful for recruiting employees.

LinkedIn offers several paid ad types designed to address your business needs and goals.

Be sure to define what you are trying to achieve before selecting the best ad type for your business: