How to Leverage Your Business Using LinkedIn
LinkedIn is more than just a place for inspirational quotes and flexing your job experience… This platform—primarily used for professional networking and career development—is also a great place to leverage your business.
The best part? You don’t have to rely solely on paid advertising when it comes to LinkedIn! (That’s a win in our book). While organic marketing on LinkedIn takes more time and effort, the results are well worth the investment.
Interested in learning more? Here are our best tips on how to leverage your business using LinkedIn.
What is Organic LinkedIn Marketing?
First, what is organic LinkedIn marketing? Simply put, organic LinkedIn marketing is your ability to reach a desired target audience without using paid ads or marketing (i.e. no pay-per-click, also known as PPC).
Now, let’s dive into how to do it.
Connect with Individuals in Your Industry
When it comes to organic marketing, it’s absolutely essential that you have a social element driving your marketing efforts.
This means making connections with individuals who are in similar industries and/or positions (aka individuals who will actually care about the information you put out!)
Why? Your content will resonate even deeper with these connections.
So, how do you start building your network? The search bar on LinkedIn is a great tool that can help build connections. Using the search bar, you can search for:
- People
- Companies
- Groups
- Posts
- And more!
Don’t Shy Away from Thought Leadership
LinkedIn is known for rewarding those who engage in thought leadership. But what is thought leadership? Thought leadership is defined as “the expression of ideas that demonstrate you have expertise in a particular field, area, or topic.”
Use your industry knowledge to your advantage; become a thought leader! This effort can have an even bigger impact if you’ve grown your social network intentionally as mentioned above (this means all the right people will see your awesome insights!)
Use Video Content to Your Advantage
We’ve said it a million times over… Video content is GOLDEN—especially in today’s day and age! Why? Video is a great attention grabber. Plus, it keeps things authentic and personable!
Think: Would you rather read 300 words on a page or watch a real person speak for one minute on camera? We’d choose the latter. So, use video content you have to your advantage on LinkedIn.
Interested in learning more? Read on in our article “Want to connect with your prospects? Use video.”
Don’t Be Afraid to Engage
You want people to engage with your content, right? So, don’t be afraid to do the same… Practice what you preach!
Next time you’re scrolling through LinkedIn, consider: Is there a piece of content that you think your audience would like? If so, share it and add some of your insights or thoughts in the caption. Have you enjoyed something that someone posted? Let them know in their comments!
Comments and reshares are a fantastic opportunity to showcase your own expertise while also getting your business’s name out there.
Use Hashtags
Just like any other form of social media, hashtags are a great tool you should be taking advantage of on LinkedIn. Using hashtags can increase your chances of showing up on someone’s feed as well as the ability to be found by search.
For example, in a piece on the importance of SEO and content marketing, hashtags might include #SEO #ContentMarketing #DigitalMarketing #Marketing and so on.
Let People Know You’re on LinkedIn
Shout it from the rooftops! People should know what social media platforms your business is on. Let people know that you’re on LinkedIn by cross-promoting it on your other profiles (i.e. Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc).
Define and Maintain Your Brand Voice
Every brand has its own unique voice. At Digital Storyteller, we believe that each of our clients has a primary and secondary brand voice, split 90% to 10%. The 12 brand archetypes are as old as Greek tragedy (sadly, we can’t take credit for making them up…) and include:
- The Innocent
- Everyman
- Hero
- Outlaw
- Explorer
- Creator
- Ruler
- Magician
- Lover
- Caregiver
- Jester
- Sage
Want an example or two? Harley Davidson is a great example of an outlaw brand voice, whereas Disney is the magician archetype. An example of a ruler is Rolex; Chanel would be a lover.
Make sense? Not quite? Read on to learn more about our unique Brand Storytelling Sessions that we conduct to define brand voice.
Post Consistently
No one wants to follow an account that posts for Thanksgiving and then not again until Christmas. Make sure that you’re posting consistently to LinkedIn (and all of your social media platforms, for that matter!)
To reap the rewards of organic content marketing, you have to be consistent. At Digital Storyteller, we estimate that it takes between six to 12 months to see the results of organic marketing. This is why so many people today decide to go the paid route instead… They are impatient and in search of a quick fix.
Our best advice? Whether you’re posting once a day or once a week, create a content calendar and stick to it.
Don’t worry – We’ve made it easy for you. Click the link below to download our full content calendar template!
Download our FREE Content Calendar Template
Still feeling overwhelmed? Reach out to our team today! When you partner with Digital Storyteller, you gain access to an entire team of marketing experts at a fraction of the cost. Think content specialists, a client success manager, graphic design team, social media team, SEO specialists, and more!
Want to learn more about what a partnership looks like? Read on to learn what to expect when working with an outsourced digital marketing agency (including how much it costs!)
