Getting started with LinkedIn Part One – for small business owners

LinkedIn is the marketing hub of many social selling executives and solopreneurs. What about small businesses using LinkedIn to reach their goals?

For small business owners, let’s explore five simple ways to use LinkedIn that can build credibility and also increase relationship with your networks with key contacts.

Create a LinkedIn company page

In order to play to win on LinkedIn, in addition to maintaining an all-star personal page, you must have a LinkedIn company page to amplify your brand to distributors, association members, customers and others. A LinkedIn company page also lets you highlight your services, thought leadership and your employees to build your external credibility and community. Best of all, a LinkedIn company page is free.

Run your personal and small business Company Page as a PPC or SEO campaign

If your small business marketing strategy does not include a search engine optimization component, then it should, ensuring you are there when your customers are Googling your profile. By running your personal and LinkedIn company page and personal profile as a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign, you can increase your company’s and content ‘findability’. Include keywords in your headline, summary, anchored text, job descriptions and endorsements to be found on Google and LinkedIn searches.

Find and participate in a LinkedIn group with local ties

LinkedIn reports the average user joins 7 LinkedIn groups, so your customers, influencers and competitors are using this LinkedIn community. Over 70% of customers use groups to research, network and vet buying decisions. So, join all 50 of your potential LinkedIn groups to be as accessible as possible by other group members. And, regularly participate, in a non-promotional way, in 3-5 groups to network with other business owners, distributors and press.

Begin to blog on LinkedIn

It makes sense for every small business to post articles on their blog, website and on LinkedIn to reach and connect with their audience. It could be the same content on each platform since you will be connecting with different audiences on each site. Blogging is a new content networking tool and will help build your credibility and increase your business’ message’s reach when others share it to their network.

Leverage each employee within your small business

Train and leverage your small business employees as brand ambassadors to build your small business brand; telling your company story and accessing their incremental network.

Summary

You can’t be using the same Facebook and Twitter content and techniques with LinkedIn, even though it has the same customers. So, embrace your Linkedin channel to distribute your thought leadership to impact your small business, then you will be successful. Every social media platform, liked LinkedIn, has a separate social contract with the same customer.

Do you have a LinkedIn success story to share for your small business? if so please share below.