LinkedIn is a professional social network and it allows you to make connections and find new business at a faster rate than you could ever achieve with traditional marketing. In fact, the only cost to making new connections on LinkedIn is time. In today’s digital landscape, being a little web savvy really goes a long way and LinkedIn can be used in your social media marketing strategy to reach people that you would like to connect with.

LinkedIn is the ideal Web 2.0 channel if you want to target specific people, looking for a new job, forming business partnerships, and growing the credibility of your business. Find below a couple of tips that can help you get the most out of your LinkedIn social media strategy.

LinkedIn business tips

Company page: Your company page on LinkedIn should be updated often. Everyone working for you should include it on their own profile because LinkedIn uses the statistics about your company from the profiles of your employees. The services of your LinkedIn company profile should be listed in detail. Include a quality logo of your company to your page and contact details where others can reach you.

Personal profile: Make sure all your employees complete their profiles thoroughly. Every section on your profile should be filled in and completed with the keywords on what you are doing. Make sure their profiles are 100% completed and when they post an update regarding your business, they should include a link back to your company page.

LinkedIn groups: Search and join a couple of groups on LinkedIn that are relevant to your industry. Also search for groups where potential clients might be. For example, for a digital marketing agency, join digital marketing related groups, but also groups that consists of members interested in digital marketing services.

Audience: On LinkedIn your audience should be very client focused. LinkedIn will often be one of the first things most potential clients see when they are searching for your business or brand name online. Every company page, profile, and group needs to be optimized for potential clients. This includes detailed descriptions regarding your company on each individual employee profiles.

Recommendations: These count as positive reviews and that your company has impressed others. On your LinkedIn company page, you can receive and send recommendations regarding your services and products.

Keywords: Face it, digital marketing almost always consists of keywords and on LinkedIn, the same. It is important that your employees and company page appear on LinkedIn searches for terms (keywords) that describes your company. Fill in every section of your employee profiles as well as your company page with keywords that you are targeting. On employee profiles, use the skill section to reinforce those keywords.

External links: Link to your LinkedIn company profile on your website, blog, and any other social media profile that you have. Include your customized LinkedIn URL on your business card. People must know your company exists on LinkedIn before they can visit it.

LinkedIn is the biggest professional social network with millions of members . Use this powerful Web 2.0 channel to increase your business visibility.