You probably already have a LinkedIn account, right? And you already have your professional profile ready with all the information that this network allows you to complete. LinkedIn has become our letter of introduction to companies or professional contacts. However, this is not the only use of LinkedIn. Before telling you about the foundations on which this network is based, let's take a look at its history.
The creators Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly and Jean-Luc Vaillant started working on this idea in 2002 and on 5 May 2003 they officially launched it. From the beginning it was conceived as a social network for work. In 2008 they launched its Spanish version and added a business focus through the possibility of creating company pages in 2010. In July 2011 it became the second social network in the USA, the first being Facebook. That same year LinkedIn began to compete with job portals and reached 130 million users worldwide. Over the years, this network not only continued to grow, but also bought the social news reader Pulse, the online survey startup Maybe, the companies Bright with its algorithm to connect companies and job seekers, among others.
Today, it is not only a contact management platform, but also serves as a marketing and personal communication tool, a job portal and an advertising platform. Now that you know a bit more about LinkedIn, let's see how it is used in the marketing world.
LinkedIn as a marketing tool: strategy for companies
LinkedIn aims to be the world's largest professional network, so not only professionals can promote themselves, but also companies, as they can use it to expand their business and network.
There are two types of LinkedIn profiles:
The professional:
this is a more active profile, as this is where networking, marketing and sales strategies are carried out. The key to this profile is knowing how to describe your know-how, and to build it and express it in your profile, we recommend you answer these questions: What makes you different as a professional? Why are your services the best option?The company profile:
this is a corporate and more static page, where you can include all the information related to the image of your company, such as the logo, the slogan if you have one, etc. If you have this page, we recommend that you include it at the top of your professional profile so that when people visit you, they can go directly to your company page.
The secret is to combine both to get the most benefits for your business.
5 benefits of using LinkedIn as a marketing tool
Here are some of the benefits you can access if you know how to exploit and use LinkedIn's tools. No matter the size of your company, make the most of this social network and grow!
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Your potential customers come to you
If your business does not have a company page on LinkedIn, you will be losing the opportunity for potential clients or possible collaborators to find you. This is a good tool to give visibility to your company and to you as a professional.
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Your web positioning grows
By creating a company page you are improving your organic positioning in search engines. Don't forget that what matters in this network is the number of active followers you have and the inclusion of your business keywords in the descriptions of both your professional and company pages.
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Networking has never been easier
By accepting a follower, you automatically have access to all their contacts. This allows you to find strategic partners with just one click and get all the information of your potential collaborators. Also, being a network oriented to the workplace is better segmented, which means that the contacts you have go hand in hand with your profession or similar. It is not like Facebook, where we have 3000 contacts and often do not know who they are or what they do for a living.
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The traffic on your website grows
The traffic that LinkedIn generates is qualified traffic and, so that it doesn't get out of hand, have an inbound marketing strategy ready. You will know who they are, what they do, how much experience they have in your sector and how good this experience is. We also recommend that you have a lead capture strategy ready to nurture your database.
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Create product pages
Keep in mind that you can only create product pages if you already have a company page, otherwise you will not be able to access this tool. Another important fact is that you can create up to 10 product pages for your company, so what are you waiting for? Also, the greatest benefit of this page is that it allows you to promote a specific product or service to a specific segment of customers.
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Create thematic groups
As a company, you can create topic-based groups to achieve specific objectives such as customer service, branding, interacting with your company's followers, promotions, etc. Today, information, knowledge or discussions on a particular topic are shared in more than 1,000,000,000 million LinkedIn groups.
what do you think about the benefits that LinkedIn as a marketing tool can offer? Don't forget that your network of contacts on LinkedIn has a strategic value because, by having access to all their professional information, you will be able to know if it is useful or not for your company. This gives you the possibility to build a specific target market for your sector and generate that your company's actions impact on these professionals.
As you have seen, LinkedIn as a marketing tool opens up infinite possibilities. And don't forget that, by relying on your employees' network of contacts and creating groups by topic of your services or products, you will increase the reach of your publications. This will position you as an expert in the field, you will be recommended, you will gain recognition within your sector and you will be a reference to which customers will turn to.
And you, what are you waiting for to get all the benefits that LinkedIn as a marketing tool has to offer?
