LinkedIn is a powerful tool for small business owners looking to generate more leads. But many business owners don't know how to use LinkedIn to its full potential. With over 65 million active users, LinkedIn is a great way to connect with potential customers and partners. In this blog post, we'll share tips on how to make the most of LinkedIn for lead generation.
Optimize your profile
It’s vital to optimize your profile on LinkedIn to get found easier via search. It will increase your visibility and get you found by prospects, employers, and recruiters. It’s significant to ensure the headlines you use and your copy use the right keywords to help people find you. Don't leave your profile incomplete!!
Join groups or start a group
The fastest way to grow your business on LinkedIn is by joining groups or starting a group. It will help to connect with people you have similar interests, professional or not professional. You can invite thought leaders in your industry to establish a relationship and perhaps even gain access to their network.
One of the best ways to get prospective leads is by participating in the groups. It’s advisable once you’re in a group, to post regularly but don’t spam the group. It's easy to participate without spamming the group daily. Share ideas, ask questions & stories, and comment on other posts with your opinion! It’s vital to build your credibility as an expert in your field by providing your input. By building up your credibility in the community, you will be able to attract new prospects for business.
Create a company page
It’s vital to create a company profile on LinkedIn when you want to build credibility and engage with other businesses. It's free to create a LinkedIn company page, so why don't you have one? It can form a basis for your employees to network with your customers. In the process, it helps the company generate more leads and creates a new revenue stream.
Put a face to the name
This one should be a given. When you have a photo on your profile, people will know that they are connecting with a real person. A meaningful & attractive picture makes them realize that this isn't just an online identity but rather someone who has a personality worth getting to know.
Go Premium
You can decide to pay and get access to premium memberships on LinkedIn. It has privileges that will help you or the company gain access to multiple features that non-members don’t have access like the ability to directly message people who aren’t in proximity to your existing network. This can boost your marketing effort and lead to getting prospects for your business and generating extra revenue.
Seek out endorsements
Getting positive endorsements and reviews is another way of building credibility in your field. It influences the buying decisions of customers. It’s advisable to give endorsements to the people in your network and don’t forget to ask for endorsement in return!
Create a portfolio
The best way to showcase your work is by creating a portfolio on LinkedIn. It’s advisable to show the best sample of your work to attract potential clients. Depending on your work, the samples can be SEO articles if you're a content writer or professional photos if you’re a photographer, and so forth.
Blog!
In order to get the most out of LinkedIn, you should post regularly. This will help build engagement with others, in addition to being seen as an active member who has committed their time to the platform.
You can do this by blogging directly on your LinkedIn posts, or creating a post promoting your blog posts. However, Linkedin loves to keep people on their site so I wouldn't recommend adding a direct link to your blog within the post.
Instead, publish about half to two-thirds of the actual blog post to LinkedIn, then add 3 dots at any point you want to stop and urge people to click on your profile to then visit your website!
Bottom line
LinkedIn is a powerful social media tool for businesses of all sizes. It’s the perfect platform to connect with potential customers and create relationships that can turn into sales down the road. And while it may seem like a daunting task at first, it will get easier to generate leads on LinkedIn as time goes on.