LinkedIn is not just for professionals seeking a network of professionals and career opportunities; it’s also a place for businesses—your business. A lot of focus is put on social media for marketing purposes, but that often tends to be Facebook and other social media platforms. But LinkedIn consistently has been the place for B2B marketing and lead generation more than any other platform. In fact, research provided by LinkedIn indicate impressive statistics. For instance, of all B2B marketing leads sourced from social media, 80 percent are from LinkedIn. And there’s more: 92 percent of marketers leverage LinkedIn, 59 percent of marketers generate leads from LinkedIn, and 46 percent of social media traffic to company sites are sourced from LinkedIn.
The moral of this story is simple: if you don’t have a LinkedIn account for your business, these statistics suggest that for you 2018 marketing efforts, you should get a LinkedIn account today.
Finding the LinkedIn Account Right for Your Business
There are several premium accounts from which to choose, with three specific for businesses, including the Premium Business, Premium Hiring, and Premium Sales. Each has their specific starting prices on a monthly basis and each provides individual perks. You need to determine which is best for you, your business, and your business’ goals.
Getting Started with Your LinkedIn Pro Account
Once you signup a Pro LinkedIn account that is geared towards what you need, you want to set up the company page. For starters, you must have a company email address because LinkedIn does not accept generic addresses like accounts with Gmail, Yahoo, or another similar account. Once you establish the company page, you need to take a few more steps before you really get started.
- Provide basic information in the company page overview section. These details will show up when someone hovers over the company name on LinkedIn. Use descriptive, active language. Be clear and concise. And overall be engaging.
- Customize your company pages. You don’t want to be like everyone else, you want to stand out with your specific, unique story and express company culture.
- Determine what other purposes for which you want to use LinkedIn. Do you want to hire people or advertise products? If so, LinkedIn offers robust, creative tools to do so. Remember, with LinkedIn, you have the world’s best professionals at your fingertips. There are 500 million members, and of that number, 61 million are senior-level influencers and another 40 million are decision makers. There’s a lot of hiring and advertising potential with those kinds of numbers.
Leveraging LinkedIn for Your Business’ Website
After your company’s LinkedIn pages are established, you can incorporate those pages in your website for your business. LinkedIn provides a number of plugins so that you can connect LinkedIn to your website. Plugins include the following:
- Share
- Follow Company
- Member Profile
- Company Profile
- Company Insider
- Jobs You Might Be Interested In
- Alumni Tool
- LinkedIn AutoFill
If used effectively, these plugins can be strategic tools to generate leads for your business marketing purposes in 2018.
Get Connected to LinkedIn Today for Your 2018 Marketing Efforts
LinkedIn is not your ordinary social media profile. You can market your business elsewhere, but the statistics and tools clearly make LinkedIn the place to be. LinkedIn offers exceptional opportunities for businesses as much as it offers the same for individual professionals. Get your business connected to LinkedIn today and start marketing for future growth.
