LinkedIn - Consumer Inbound Marketing with Social Media

Companies realize that the success of their brands largely relies on inbound marketing with social media.

Social media marketing means using websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others to promote products, services, and other opportunities that companies want to get into the hands of consumers or businesses.
LinkedIn is the primary social networking site for B2B marketers but somewhat secondary with the B2C arena. Statistics from LinkedIn show that only 51 percent of online marketers use this site for consumer marketing while a whopping 83 percent of those handling the same for B2B rely on LinkedIn.
With over 200 million members, LinkedIn is definitely a force to be reckoned with when planning inbound consumer marketing. In an effort to make it more engaging, following are tips for maximizing your LinkedIn company page.

Tips for Maximizing Your LinkedIn Company Page

Include Pictures on Your Page. As the ultimate advertising genius, David Ogilvy said years ago, perception is reality. With today’s advances in online marketing, the same holds true. Your cover image is the first thing to draw consumers to your brand(s).  Make sure the image has the elements necessary to generate curiosity to want to know more – a photo of products, mentions of promotions, or a quick one-line explanation of the brand. In addition to the cover image, make sure to include pictures of your brands in the products and services section.
Take Advantage of the Services Tab. Doing this is your shot to sell your “wares.” Showcase the benefits of what you have to offer. Posting blogs, featuring brands, and descriptions, or even asking a question to invoke a discussion are excellent platforms to feature your brands and abilities. Ask current users to share their experiences with your brands – nothing is better than testimonials and recommendations from current users who are familiar to other members via their LinkedIn connections.
Post Quality Content Constantly. By “constantly,” we mean at least once a week but if you have important updates, you can do it daily (if it makes sense). As with any form of inbound marketing with social media, updating your company page is crucial to its success. The updated content must be pertinent and provide useful information with an edge to it. LinkedIn research shows that its members are much more likely to want to read quality content from brands on LinkedIn rather than on other social networking sites like Facebook. Because LinkedIn is a professional social networking site, its users have a purpose when perusing it – they will take the time to read worthwhile content from which they believe they can benefit. Interesting content, even with a little humor, generates interest and drives consumers to share your information which ultimately drives them to your brands.
Focus on the Right Target Audience. With LinkedIn, you have the ability to target your brand to the right audience. This is where the fun begins. LinkedIn offers the Insights tab on company pages. The Insights tab provides admins of a company page with the ability to scan statistics like page views, unique visitors, page clicks and more. With page views, they are broken down by tab, visitor demographics by page and so on. Armed with this information, you can post various updates that are geared to specific target audiences. When experimenting with such targeted updates, it is important to remember that this works best with those companies that have a larger number of followers, a nice array of brands and various segments of an audience.
Promote Your LinkedIn Company Page. In order for your users to know about your LinkedIn company page, you have to promote that you have one. LinkedIn provides a widget that can be downloaded onto the home page of your website. When users go to your website, they can click on the LinkedIn logo and go straight to your LinkedIn page. Another way to promote it is to download another widget that allows followers to share content such as posts and blogs on other websites.
Analyze the Results. Because you can test content by updating posts of various topics, it is important to keep up with LinkedIn Analytics. Analytics allows you to review the performance and statistics on your page. You can see impressions, click through rates, and even an engagement rate.

Take Your Consumer Marketing to a New Level

Keep in mind that while LinkedIn is a professional social networking site, its members are people. These people use products and brands in every aspect of their lives. Whether they are interested in business or consumer brands, they bring a huge opportunity to get your brands in front of an audience who wants to be on the forefront being “in the know.”
LinkedIn is a valuable resource for inbound marketing with social media. Be sure to add it to your mix.

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