With more than 575+ million users worldwide, most of us are familiar with the popular professional social networking tool known as LinkedIn. What many of us don’t know, however, is that LinkedIn can be used both personally and professionally for B2B lead generation. That’s right—the tool isn’t just for growing your professional network. It can also grow your business.
Hubspot reports LinkedIn is 277% more effective at B2B lead generation than Facebook and Twitter, making it a force to reckon within the social media space. Let’s look at ways that you can drive leads using both your business page and personal page on LinkedIn.
How to optimize a LinkedIn Business Page for B2B Lead Generation
Your business page is your company’s identity on LinkedIn, so you want to make sure it’s good. Even though most people view LinkedIn as a place to build your individual profile and grow your own network, LinkedIn company pages are growing in importance more and more every day.
If you want to know how to create a LinkedIn business page that will generate more leads, here are a few tips:
Run Ads
LinkedIn has a Self-Service Ads Program that can be extremely beneficial for generating leads. LinkedIn Ads can also help you grow your following on your company page You can learn how to run paid ads on LinkedIn very quickly on your own; plus, it’s inexpensive. LinkedIn users are also very receptive to ads as long as they’re relevant; so the investment is totally worth it.
Build Your Reputation
This point is more about the plain and simple fact of why having a company page on LinkedIn is important. If a user visits your website first (maybe they found you when performing a search on Google), they might look just to see if you have social media accounts. A company with a well-rounded presence across all social media platforms seems more reputable to a consumer.
Join LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups offers one of the best ways to make the most of your LinkedIn experience as a B2B business. LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 groups, so you need to focus your time and effort on the groups where you can add value and have engaging conversations with people in your target market.
A few tips:
- Choose groups that have at least a few hundred members
- Visit your top groups a few times a week
- Start your own discussion
- Weigh in on popular discussions
The more groups you join, the bigger influence you’ll make. And, it can help you generate leads.
Optimization Your LinkedIn Business Page
It’s also important to optimize your company page on LinkedIn if you want to put your business in front of the right people and increase your social media presence. This means a few things:
- Publish at a minimum a few organic posts per month from your business profile
- Focus on ad management regularly (regularly run new campaigns and different types of ads)
- Update your profile on a quarterly basis (new profile and cover images, update information when necessary, and invite new people to like your page)
Optimizing your profile for search, social, content, and influence will drive more engagement and more leads.
Why a Personal Profile on LinkedIn Is Also Important for B2B Lead Generation
Even though you are just one person, your personal profile may prove to be even more important for B2B lead generation than your business profile.
While you can think of Instagram and Facebook as personal social networking tools, LinkedIn is a professional networking tool. Whether you’re an employee, a business owner, or a freelancer, LinkedIn is the place to go for professional opportunities. LinkedIn offers professionals across all industries to make connections with people, gain more insight about their industry, and gain valuable knowledge to help them in their careers.
The following tips will help you grow your personal social media presence on LinkedIn while also generating leads for your B2B business.
Look to Build Influence
One of the best ways you can generate leads on LinkedIn is by positioning yourself as a thought leader. If you own a business, you already have enough credibility to put your thoughts out there for the world to see. If you want to know how to become a thought leader on LinkedIn, it’s simple—post as much content as possible. Whether you’re posting short updates or in-depth articles, the more content you post, the better. When you’re building influence within your network, you’ll attract leads naturally.
Build a Rich Personal Profile
Most people are on LinkedIn to make personal connections, not follow hundreds of companies. It’s still great to optimize your company page, but your personal profile is where you’ll really have an opportunity to wow prospects.
A few tips to get you started with your personal profile:
- Be clear about what you do and how you can help prospects
- Make your headline more than just your job title; also use it to show how you can add value and to say something about you as a professional.
- Turn your summary into your story; this is a chance for you to get personal with prospects. It may be the first thing they read about you, so bring to light why your skills matter, what you can offer, and why they should care.
- Choose the right profile picture and head photo/background photo
- List your relevant skills, awards, and achievements
- Keep your profile up-to-date (new skills, achievements, job titles, etc.)
- Endorse your colleagues; they’ll usually endorse you back and this looks great on a personal profile
- Request recommendations from colleagues
- Frequently share media and marketing materials
LinkedIn Connections—Grow Your Network
Of course, none of the stuff you do on your personal page matters if no one is seeing it. That’s why it’s so important to grow your network and connect with as many people as you can. Make sure you carve out time each week to send connections requests. Also, sync your profile with your email address book so that LinkedIn suggests people you should connect with. When you do this and start connecting with people regularly, LinkedIn will help you grow your network.
Utilize InMail Messaging
Last but not least, on your personal profile, be sure to utilize InMail messaging if you have a premium profile. InMail is a great way to send a direct message to a potential customer or to someone you want to connect with. It can be short and casual, and it’s a great way to start a relationship with a prospect that could eventually turn into a lead and hopefully into a customer.
In the fifth-annual DemandWave State of Digital Marketing Survey, B2B marketers were surveyed and placed into categories based on job level, industry, and company size. More than 80% of respondents were VP, Manager, or Director level employees that worked at small to medium-sized businesses. Some of the most common industries among those surveyed were software, manufacturing, and healthcare. As you can see, no matter what types of prospects you’re targeting, chances are, they’re on LinkedIn. As a B2B sales rep, you should jump at this opportunity and utilize InMail messaging to speak with key decision-makers who matter.
LinkedIn isn’t just another social media platform, it’s something you should use to your advantage to grow your business. Are you interested in learning more about ways that LinkedIn could help you generate leads? At Abstrakt Marketing Group, our social media marketing team uses proven B2B lead generation tactics to give your business and personal LinkedIn pages a boost. To learn more about our services, contact us today.
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