058. Is LinkedIn Right for Your Business? (Opinion)

Is there value in LinkedIn?

From the outset, we were always a little sceptical when it came to the use of LinkedIn within a business. Understanding that in most cases it is the premier tool in recruitment and headhunting, and therefore has been used for a substantial period to get the best staff through the door. Beyond that, much like many other companies we dismissed it entirely as a marketing tool.

Minds, especially ours, can be changed! So here are some of our favourite uses for LinkedIn within a business and some reasons why it may be a great platform to add some additional value to yours.

As mentioned, LinkedIn is brilliant for the recruitment industry, it offers a means to find almost anyone; you wouldn’t believe how difficult that can actually be without it. The first piece of advice is, link yourself with all those who you do business with, they will endorse your abilities and skills and this is vital further down the line, no one is going to hire someone who is hopeless at their job, are they? On LinkedIn, your endorsements are right there centre stage. Once you’ve linked with all your genuine friends, colleagues and customers/suppliers, here comes the interesting stuff…time to find more business!

So, if you are, for example, a graphic design company and you design specifically for the sports sector, LinkedIn is the perfect tool to find the CEO and Directors of the companies you would most like to do work for. So find those people, exhaust the contacts you already have and start to build a rapport. We hate to sound like we are giving lessons in schmoozing, but you know, ‘like’ some videos, interact with their content, get yourself and your company noticed.

Create, create and create some more content!

Good content is pivotal when it comes to social media success across the board and LinkedIn is certainly no different. However, we would always suggest keeping the content you create strictly of a professional nature. Building blogs and infographics that your connections would find interesting and relatable is a certain way to become a popular account. If someone visits your page for knowledge or insight it is more likely that they would recommend you in the future.

Be on-trend!

Being a fashionable business is such a vital trait in the world of social media. It’s become increasingly clear that people nowadays have trouble dealing with businesses that feel more archaic. Personally, we advise touching on as many trends as possible, for example on ‘national coffee day’ ask questions relating to the trend itself, ‘Flat white? A shot of caramel? how do you take yours?’. Trendy businesses are popular businesses, no matter how basic or mundane it may seem.

Stand out…in a group!

LinkedIn groups are something that should never be overlooked. Establishing yourself within a group as someone who offers thought-provoking or interesting information will always strengthen your profile, this, in turn, will send more people back to your business and reinforcing your position as a company ‘in the know’. Once you’ve got yourself involved within some LinkedIn groups, avoid at all costs posting ads for your business, admins hate adverts as it devalues the informative nature of the community they have built.

If you haven’t built a profile on LinkedIn, it’s time to do it today!