Tips for Reaching Customers on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has evolved a great deal over the last few years, steadily releasing new features to its growing network of users. But unlike some of the more popular social networks, LinkedIn usually doesn’t generate widespread press coverage when it changes — certainly not the kind of buzz achieved by Facebook’s new timeline feature, for instance.If you haven’t signed in to LinkedIn for a while, or if you’re one those increasingly rare business professionals who has never set up profile at all, now might be a good time to (re)acquaint yourself with LinkedIn and what it has to offer. The site allows users to research and connect with stakeholders and decision-makers at other companies. If you’re a business-to-business company, chances are you can find and connect with your target market on LinkedIn.

Among the many new features released over the past few years was a revamp of LinkedIn Company profile pages. Now, in addition to your own professional profile, you can create a robust LinkedIn microsite for your business and build a list of followers for your company.

If you need help getting started, a recent blog post from business2community.com includes an impressive list of 25 (yes, 25!) tips to help you activate your company profile page and build a follower base.

As with any new marketing initiative it can take a bit of time to set up, but as the blog post indicates, it is well worth the effort: a recent study by Hubspot showed that traffic from LinkedIn converts into leads at almost three times the rate of any other network.

What about you? Are you active on LinkedIn personally or for your small business company page? What successes have you had? Please share your experiences below!

What Next?

LinkedIn is just one of the social media platforms to use in small business marketing. To learn more, read our other articles on social media marketing.