LinkedIn was once just a hiring tool where businesses would recruit talent and job seekers would post their resumes, hoping to be noticed by potential employers. That may have been its initial objective when it was created in 2003.
Over the years, LinkedIn has grown into the world’s largest professional network and has become a sales and marketing platform, besides being a hiring tool. Large and small businesses alike now have a presence on LinkedIn. Unlike other social media platforms where people log in to view ‘fun’ stuff and catch up on the latest gossip, LinkedIn has managed to maintain its professional status.
LinkedIn simplifies your user experience by providing tools that save time on actions that’d otherwise have been done manually. For instance, LinkedIn scraping tools extract information from a user profile by copying and pasting it. See the best LinkedIn scrapers here.
With a large number of professionals and businesses on board, LinkedIn has become a powerful tool that you can use to make business connections and scale your business. Let’s have a look at some ways you can do that:
1. Use Personal And Business Profiles To Attract Connections
Company profiles on LinkedIn get highly ranked on search engine lists. To start, create personality profiles of your employees and yourself complete with each person’s qualifications and designation in the company. Let people know what they all do and what problems they can solve. People are more comfortable doing business with people they feel they know and can trust.
Your business profile should be a simply worded biography free of jargon. It should contain useful information about your business and showcase your work using presentations, videos, and published content. Only upload high-quality images because your target audience is comprised of high-profile business people who have a keen eye for details. This will display your professionalism to your audience. Remember to use keywords that relate to your business in the profiles and update them regularly.
2. Increase Your Network
It’d take a long time or be humanly impossible to reach all your connections manually. LinkedIn cloud automation tools make it easy to automate functions like sending connection requests and follow-up messages, as well as sending messages to prospective clients.
On LinkedIn, there’s no limit to your connections. Your colleagues, family, and friends’ connections can also become your connections. You can find connections by following people’s blogs or connecting with people in the same industry as yours. Your connections will eventually generate leads, which will in turn create opportunities. Remember to keep your profile public.
3. Publish Your Content And Interact With Other People’s Content
LinkedIn has also become a content platform. When you consistently publish content regarding your industry, you’ll get noticed and people will begin to take you seriously.
Share blog posts, news, and anything that relates to your industry. Don’t forget to add a call-to-action at the end of content that guides your audience to the next action. Also, add your company contacts and other social media handles for convenience even though they’re in your profile.
Just as you want your content to be consumed by others, you should also read and interact with other people’s content. Interact by commenting, giving recommendations, or asking questions that lead to discussions. By doing so, you’ll spread your presence and penetrate further into your industry.
4. Join Your Industry Groups
Being active in these groups and sharing your area of expertise will enhance your credibility and authority and increase your network. These groups can be a platform to get insider secrets from more established companies as well as a place to air your professional opinions.
You can also find valuable insight on matters concerning your industry and be able to point out what needs to be done differently. Interact with people in these groups by participating in discussions, answering questions, and commenting on what’s posted in your feed.
5. Nurture Recommendations And Endorsements
Endorsements and recommendations can attract prospective clients to your company page, especially if they’re done by people who matter in the business world. To attract recommendations, be the first to recommend and endorse other businesses or people that you hold in high regard. In time, the favor will be returned.
Conclusion
LinkedIn has managed to stamp its authority in the business arena, judging by the number of its users. Having a presence on LinkedIn will create business opportunities through networking and will enable you to keep on top of things in your industry. You’ll also be easily found especially on search engines because of the high ranking accorded to LinkedIn profiles. Lastly, you’ll appear more credible to prospective clients because people tend to trust businesses with a presence on LinkedIn.