LinkedIn Strategy

Boosting your Brand with LinkedIn: Debunking Common Myths

LinkedIn is an incredible tool for individuals to connect with other professionals, to hunt for a new job, or to stay tuned to the latest news in the industry. However, often people forget that LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for advertising and building your business’s brand. 

If LinkedIn isn’t at least a part of your marketing and social media strategy, you are likely missing a bid opportunity to reach potential clients in a brand safe social media channel.

You may have avoided focusing your social media strategy on LinkedIn for a number of valid reasons. It may make sense for your business to spend your resources and time on something else. You may flat out think LinkedIn isn’t important. 

On the other hand though, there are a number of times where businesses ignore LinkedIn for reasons that are wrong. As a result, we are taking a deeper look at some of the common myths we hear from clients about LinkedIn.

Myth 1: My customers aren’t on the platform.

For business-to-business sales, the benefits may seem obvious. LinkedIn is known as the number one social network for lead generation. According to Forbes, an “estimated 40 million business decision makers (i.e. the people who seal the deals and sign the contracts) spend their time on LinkedIn.” 

Additionally, Omnicore reports that … 

  • It is the #1 channel B2B marketers use to distribute content at 94%.
  • It makes up more than 50% of all social traffic to B2B websites & blogs.
  • 91% of marketing executives list LinkedIn as the top place to find quality content.
  • 92% of B2B marketers include the platform in their digital marketing mix.

However, if you aren’t a business-to-business focused company, you may be rolling your eyes at the idea of LinkedIn helping you reach your target audience. However, professionals are people too, and LinkedIn has a massive general consumer audience with money to spend.

In fact, more than half of LinkedIn’s audience has a college degree and forty-nine percent make more than $75,000 per year. To learn more about this platforms unique demographics, check out Omnicore’s full report or see the list below:

Myth 2: LinkedIn is just for career milestones and announcements.

LinkedIn has become a thriving community for professionals and businesses to share content including industry perspectives, blogs and more. This content is not just about celebrating a year at company ABC or announcing a new hire. 

In fact, “more than 100,000 organic articles are published weekly on LinkedIn, many of which are written by top-level executives at brands around the world,” according to Buffer. AdWeek even wrote a feature on how LinkedIn has become a hot social network.

If your business writes blogs posts, it is worth the extra effort to post these to your profile. Even that small thing is better than nothing and can bring users back to your website.

Myth 3: LinkedIn may build my brand, but it won’t lead to actual sales or profit.

Did you know that LinkedIn has three times better conversion rates than Facebook or Twitter? From that perspective, it is important to balance your social media strategy and not just stick to one platform.

One of the key benefits of the platform is that there is arguably less bombarding a user or potential customer or client when using the platform. The platform has been established as a brand safe and professional environment. This means that content viewed here will more likely be consumed by an attentive and engaged audience.

Start building your brand!

LinkedIn is a free, powerful tool you can start using right now to advertising and build your brand. You can explore the paid advertising options. However, simply building an active online presence for your business will have a big impact. There is a large audience of engaged consumers and business decision makers ready to spend money on your products and services. You just have to take the time to show them who you are.

If you’d like to learn more about Adventure Ad Agency social media strategies, contact us here or call us at 1-864-400-9920. To learn more about the latest advertising trends and strategies, check out more of our blog.

LinkedIn: What It Can Do For You

Creating a LinkedIn account is an exciting and necessary step in entering the professional world. When you join LinkedIn, you are joining a professional community for social networking that will allow you to interact and connect with colleagues, friends, and even future employers. You will be opened up to a world of new possibilities and opportunities to see how other professionals represent themselves, but at the same time, you will be faced with deciding how you want to present yourself.

Just like with your resume, cover letter, or interview, how you present yourself on LinkedIn is key. Almost all employers research their interview candidates through LinkedIn before hiring them. Here are a few key tips to make sure your LinkedIn profile will impress.

  1. A picture is worth a thousand words. Make sure you include a picture of yourself on your profile. Also, make sure it is a good picture that is suited towards your career ambitions and has no distractions in the background.
  2. Do NOT just copy and paste your resume. When future employers look at your LinkedIn account, they will likely have your resume in front of them. If you literally copy and pasted word for word your resume, not only will your potential employer feel as though you did not customize your resume for them, but they will also think you are lazy. This is not to say they cannot have overlap and be similar, as your experience is your experience, but there should be a conscious effort to be distinct.
  3. Clutter is the enemy. This is not your college application. You do not need to fill out everything LinkedIn prompts you to fill out. Instead, you should only fill out what is important and relevant to the industry you are in or the job you are working towards. Utilize your space.
  4. Order matters. You can control the order in which the sections of your profile on LinkedIn appear, so be sure to put the most important material at the top and the least important on the bottom.
  5. Recommendations and endorsements are powerful. Do not be afraid to go out and ask friends, previous or current employers, or professional mentors for recommendations or to endorse your skills. This is what will set you apart from your competitors, and it is what makes LinkedIn even better than your resume. Work samples are also great additions that can be provided through LinkedIn and cannot be provided always with a resume.
  6. Create a custom URL and optimise search engine searches. You can make yourself easier to find on LinkedIn by going to settings and creating a custom URL for your profile. This will make it cleaner and easier to share. You can also input key terms to help personalize your profile to be found when the terms are inputted in a search engine with your name.
  7. Take advantage of the professional network. Join groups related to your industry. Stay posted on the news, and follow potential employers’ companies to show interest.
  8. Finally, keep it updated. You should not just create your profile and walk away. It is important to update it regularly as you grow and gain more experience and more connections. Also, it is helpful to share, post, and comment on articles related to your field regularly to show engagement.

These quick eight tips are just the beginning of ways you can get the most out of you LinkedIn account, but if you follow them, you are surely on the road to success. There are many additional ways you can personalize your profile, and the more personal and distinct your profile is the better. Just be careful – there is such a thing as too much. Contact us today if you need further assistance!