Linkedin has more than 600 million users worldwide. Every second there are 2 new members. In Poland, it is more than 3.5 million people. According to Kozminski University, 97% of Polish managers are on Linkedin. Why should you have a profile on this portal? What benefits can it bring to you and your company?
Linkedin will allow you to:
Build an image as an expert in your industry (personal branding)
Build awareness about your brand
Reach decision makers in companies and attract new customers (lead generation)
Build a strong network of contacts
Network yourself
Communicate with your current and future customers, colleagues, partners
However, before you start your activities on Linkedin, it's a good idea to determine at what level you are currently at in terms of your activity on this portal. Measure your Social Selling Index, a 0-100 ratio that measures your presence on Linkedin in terms of 4 criteria (profile, networking, communication, Linkedin search, where you can score 25 points for each criterion). You will do this by clicking on this link and the "get your score free" button. Revisit this index and measure it from time to time. This way you'll be able to assess how much progress you've made over time as your activity on Linkedin increases.
Your Profile on LInkedIn
First of all, start by building a good-looking profile on Linkedin. This will make you look professional and inspire confidence in the eyes of potential clients as well as your current contacts. Post a good-looking photo showing you as a professional, and include a background photo consistent with what you do and your company's corporate identity. Be sure to include a catchy headline and keywords specific to your industry, which will ensure that you are better indexed in Google searches and get the attention of potential customers.
Post a professional summary full of your accomplishments, your competencies, what you do, keywords specific to the industry you work in. The professional summary can be both textual and interactive. If you have videos, presentations with your company's offerings, animations, add them to your summary. This will surely enrich your profile on Linkedin, lend credibility and convince potential clients to you.
Prepare a profile on Linkedin in at least two languages, Polish and a second foreign language in which you communicate most often. Also create a unique URL for your Linkedin profile, it's the only one of its kind in Poland, so it's a good idea to get it before others.
Remember that social media is about transparency and the power of recommendations, so your profile should include acknowledgements of competence by other users and recommendations. Put a link to your Linkedin profile in your email footer, on your business card. This will actively build your network.
Networking on LinkedIn
Linkedin is first and foremost our professional business network. Let's build it actively, so let's invite every new person we meet on Linkedin. Thanks to the fact that we successively build our professional network on Linkedin we have someone to communicate to about our offer, products, market trends, successes, in a word about everything that is happening in our industry, in our company. We can accumulate a maximum of 30,000 contacts on Linkedin. If you want to accept invitations from others and are open to building contacts put the word LION which means "Linkedin Open Networker" in your header.
QR Code feature of our profile on Linkedin
In 90% of my business meetings, the people I meet with do not have business cards with them. This is where Linkedin comes to our aid. All we have to do is enable the QR code feature of our Linkedin profile and present our code to our interlocutor or scan their link code to their Linkedin profile. An additional advantage of this feature is, of course, cost and environmental issues in addition to, of course, a good impression :)
Feature "Find Nearby"
When you attend a conference, event, training, trade show use the "find nearby" option. All you have to do is enter your network in the Linkedin mobile app and activate the find nearby function at the top. With it, you will be able to identify people attending the same event as you, who are in your vicinity. There is only one requirement. These people must also have this feature enabled so that you can find each other
Communication on Linkedin
Already 20 years ago, Bill Gates said "Content is the king." Today, this statement becomes all the more relevant. Remember to post at least two to three times a week on your Linkedin profile during the hours with the greatest organic reach, that is, between 12-14 p.m. What should I post about? This is a question I hear often during my training sessions or meetings with clients. Publish content related to your business, industry, educate, help, inspire. Create unique content full of keywords related to your industry, build your image as an expert.
Linkedin's algorithm is a combination of man and machine, meaning that in addition to bots, the content you publish is also analyzed by humans. So publish systematically interesting content, use graphics/photos with your company's logo, use hashtags and comment on your own content triggering other Linkedin users to respond. All this will give you a wide communication reach.
An additional advantage of communicating on Linkedin is the publication statistics based on which you can make your business decisions in terms of sales. To which companies to direct your offer or in which city to conduct an advertising campaign.
Post published on LinkedIn
Detailed statistics of post views
Also get involved in industry discussion groups on Linkedin, help others solve their problems, this way you will expose your image and the knowledge you have. You will draw the attention of others to yourself. Remember that you can join 50 newsgroups on Linkedin, and you can also send free 15 messages per month to members of the same group
Lead Generation on Linkedin - Social Selling
Linkedin is also a great place to acquire new customers. By skillfully using it, you can accelerate your sales funnel by up to six times. Using Linkedin's search engine, a paid subscription to Linkedin Sales Navigator, or Google's boolean search method, you can very quickly identify decision makers in companies and start building relationships with them that may later result in a partnership. I will describe this method in more detail in an upcoming post on my blog.
Skillful use of the opportunities provided by Linkedin can result in greater awareness of your brand, recognition, building the image of an expert, a solid base of professional contacts that will significantly contribute to the growth of your sales.
Want to learn more about the opportunities Linkedin offers in the context of your business? Sign up for one of my Linkedin Workshops
What are your experiences with using Linkedin in your daily business activities? Share them in the comments below.