LinkedIn – When to Use it. Best Practice.

Where Facebook is the friends network and Twitter is the quick information network, LinkedIn is the professional social network. It is where people have display profile pictures of themselves in a suit and post about articles that make them appear professionally involved and switched on. Aside from this it is an invaluable tool to network, engage in discussions and plant your professional services right where your audience are the most alert.

 

LinkedIn by the numbers

LinkedIn is the second most used social media website in Australia, rising above the likes of Twitter. Due to its professional user base and purpose, the content and interactions here are of a different nature to that of other social networks.

• LinkedIn is home to over 65 million professionals, around 4 million are Australian
• Over 50% of users have decision making authority within their business
• Over 15 thousand Australian businesses have a LinkedIn page
• When it comes to professional skills, there are 108K members with health care listings, 55K in community and social.

Courtesy of SolomoIT

When should I put my Business on LinkedIn?

The short answer – if your services are of interest to the professional world, and if your content can help them better assimilate the ideas that drive value to your business. Just like other social networks, if the effort you’re putting into providing insightful knowledge does not result in clients appreciating your offering more, there’s not much point.

Hopefully the above statistics give you a fresh perspective to the opportunities available for your business regardless of size or niche. If you don’t have oodles of time (who does?) you can still get some visible results from just an hour a week. (See our Investing in Social Media article)

Company Pages – Best Practice

Tell a brand story, then connect

Even on LinkedIn people will skim over the details. In your company description tell a story of what your business means and how it came to be. Don’t go too overboard and leave some room for people to want to find more information. Once you’ve done this and have added your logo you should be following likeminded ‘influencers’ and popular thought-leaders within your industry. Learn from their delivery, learn from their sympathetic language, and then add your own thoughts!

Scope your content and audience

Don’t be afraid to reuse sections and content that has been previously successful, several topics have seasonal interest and will be all the talk again in the near future. Scoping your audience also means sharing your LinkedIn page link on other social properties, your website, and outgoing emails. Friends, colleagues, other departments, clients, they should all have something interesting to read when they get to your page.

Don’t oversell it

LinkedIn is not the place to constantly tout promotional details or discounts, it is an opportunity to get your professionalism out there on a more personal level. Company updates and information are fine, especially when you’re able to connect it to some interesting advice content or a hot topic, but you need to give back before you receive. Think one directly company related post for every four pieces of strong value creating content for your readers.