HIWTSI So-Me: LinkedIn (Your Secret Weapon)

Ah, LinkedIn.I’ll be honest with you guys, I didn’t realize just how important this platform was until I started trying to market myself as a social media consultant. In the last two months, I’ve gotten a first-hand crash course in JUST how important LinkedIn is for marketing your business. Today, I want to share some of those lessons with you.Let’s get to work. 

Wait, Isn’t LinkedIn For Finding Jobs?

That’s what we all learn, isn’t it? Through high school and college, I thought LinkedIn was a place to upload your resume, talk about your skills, and look for jobs. And, to an extent, it’s all of that.But it’s so much more. 

Okay, So What Is It Then?

LinkedIn is the ultimate business-to-business (B2B) marketing and networking platform. And I don’t say that lightly. It’s the perfect place to connect with like-minded professionals and expand your business network. 

Why Is LinkedIn Good For Small Businesses?

LinkedIn is good for small businesses because it provides a platform for you to establish yourself as an authority on your business. Anyone who read my last post about why having a blog is important knows that sharing your knowledge with your virtual community is highly beneficial. It shows potential clients and partners that you know what you’re doing and, essentially, makes your first impression for you.LinkedIn allows you to publish your own short- and long-form content on their platform. Short-form content is a post. It’s sharing a major win or an article you find interesting. This content is very similar to what you might find on Facebook.Long-form content is where LinkedIn really shines, in my opinion. They give you the opportunity to post your own blog-like articles on their platform. This is a great way to elaborate on your skills and knowledge without necessarily having your own blog. For some great advice on how to write an eye-catching, easy to read article on LinkedIn, check out this post I found that really helped me when I started writing them a couple months ago!

Do I Need To Pay For It?

It depends on how you want to use it.Not the answer you were looking for, I know.LinkedIn Basic is free. It makes up a majority of the accounts on the platform and I’ll be honest with you right now: it’s what I have. Everything I talk about in this article is available to Basic accounts.It’s no surprise, though, that LinkedIn offers a paid service called LinkedIn Premium (LP). LP gives you the opportunity to do a few key things. The first is that it lets you message anyone on the platform, even if they aren’t connected with you. This can be helpful if a lot of your business involves cold calling. Another thing LP allows you to do is see every person that has viewed your profile over the last 90 days. This could be useful if you’re looking for new clients - go to the people who have already shown interest in you. The last major thing LP gives you is access to LinkedIn Learning, their online library of courses ranging from how to make a spreadsheet to how to conquer online marketing. This, to me, is the most valuable part of the deal. If I ever upgrade my account, this will be why.But, again, I want to reiterate that you don’t need a Premium account to be successful on LinkedIn. 

How Do I Make The Most Of LinkedIn?

The best way to make the most of LinkedIn is to use as many of its features as you can. First and foremost, you want to make sure you’ve optimized your profile. A few ways you can do that:

• Make sure your profile picture is professional (no group photos or selfies)
• Your Headline should tell people what you do for a living (make it short and sweet)
• Use the rest of your Intro section to tell people where you currently work and where you’re located
• Your About section is where you really start to shine! In concise, professional language, tell people about yourself and why you do what you do
• Treat your Experience section like a resume. Don’t just add where you worked and what you did, tell potential employers and clients what you did at that company to give them a better understanding of your skills

If you do all of those, you’re well on your way to a great LinkedIn profile.Another way to optimize your presence on the platform is to get in front of people. You’ll notice that your home page is full of posts from colleagues. However, if you look closer, you’ll see that many are NOT from your network but from others that people in your network have engaged with. Now, it’s confusing for me to write this so I can only imagine you’re trying to connect the dots in your head too. Let me give you a great example.As I was writing this post, I signed in to my account to make sure I was using the correct section titles. The first post I saw when I signed in was something from my father’s company. Now, I don’t follow Rhode Island Real Estate on LinkedIn or interact with their posts, but my father does. Because he is part of my network and he liked their post, it appeared in my feed as something I may be interested in.It also works in reverse.This means that, if you post your own content on LinkedIn (and make sure it’s value-driven, nobody wants to see a picture of your lunch!), you have the potential to reach not only your network, but your network’s networks!Remember earlier when I said I was going to tell you why LinkedIn especially is so good for small businesses?This. This is why.