How to use LinkedIn
How to use LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a powerful online networking tool with about 562 million users. Using it to promote yourself and the company you work for is not only about who you know, but about who your connections know!

It’s the new age ‘word of mouth’ which is one of the most successful forms of marketing there ever has been and ever will be.

Your company’s website is the equivalent to their shop window, (unless they have a shop window as well). It holds the keys to a good first impression and should convey the most important messages that they want people to know at that very moment.

Similarly, your LinkedIn profile is YOUR personal shop window. Whether you are looking for a job or not, people are viewing your profile and judging you and the company you work for based on how it looks, how up to date it is, what your profile picture is like and more. So, as a representative of your business, you hold great power over your brands reputation.

How can you boost your company’s online reputation?

First of all, make sure you have one. People (including new prospects and new recruits) like to know who they are working with, so ensure that you put a face to the name, particularly if you work in sales or are customer facing.

A nice, clear, close up picture of yourself in neutral clothing works well. LinkedIn is a professional social platform, so leave your holiday snaps for Facebook and Instagram, be as you would be for a business meeting with one of your most important clients.

Your experience

Each of your job entries can be linked to a company page if that company has one, so make sure yours is linked to your most current employer. By doing this, you will not only increase potential traffic to your company’s LinkedIn page, but you will be visible to visitors of the company page amongst the list of employees that are proud to work there.

It is also really important to ‘leave’ a company on LinkedIn if you have left them in real life. There’s nothing worse than congratulating someone for 10 years at a business they left years ago!

Finally, you can include a brief description of your company under your experience, using company keywords which will make your company more visible in search engines or in LinkedIn search results.

Your profile cover photo

This is an opportunity for you to do your bit for your company. You could change your cover photo to match the one that the business you work for uses on its company page. It reflects

your interests in your company, the fact that you feel proud enough to work for them and tell the world about it.

Website links

Each of your work experience sections allows you to share links to URLs of your choice. Put your company’s web address on the list and increase the chance of click throughs to the website.

Build your own network

Don’t be afraid to connect with more people. Your existing customers may be more than happy to be one of your LinkedIn connections, so start adding them. You can grow the reach of your company’s LinkedIn page by circulating the content within your own network. Link with other employees and suppliers. Growing your network enables your company to continually build it’s reach on LinkedIn in an organic way.

Share content

Your marketing team are busy creating content to enhance your websites visibility on Google, so give them a helping hand by circulating this content on your own social media platforms. It creates a buzz around your industry with interesting content and makes you look like you go the extra mile for your company.

When you share the content, don’t be afraid to add your own take on the article or a short summary of the content to entice the reader to read on. Always try to add value as that is what the LinkedIn algorithm prioritises in listing its content.

Use images and/or video with your posts

If you are going to post unique content, articles/posts with images have been shown to have better results. Use websites like Pixabay.com for free stock images, or Canva.com if you want to get creative.

If you or your business are interested in learning more about LinkedIn, get in touch, lets grab a coffee.

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