Whilst there are many social platforms to utilise in order to grow your business, there's a good reason that LinkedIn is widely regarded as the ultimate B2B relationship building tool. It offers the highest engagement and reach per follower ratio among social platforms, making it crucial to make sure your company and personal profiles are optimised.
Visibility is key to securing investments, partnerships, and sales. Consistent and effective activity on LinkedIn helps you and your company stand out as industry leaders. Potential partners, investors, or clients will often search for you on LinkedIn before contacting you elsewhere, so make sure your profile makes a great first impression.
Here's our guide for boosting engagement, growing your impressions and mastering your LinkedIn strategy.
Building an effective LinkedIn strategy
Start by identifying your goals, whether it’s brand awareness, an increase in website traffic, community engagement, attracting investors, or increasing sales. Once you know what you want to achieve, you can adjust your strategy accordingly. Understanding your audience and their demographics is also vital, and your 'analytics' page will give you most of the information you need to tailor your posts according to your audience. You can learn more about how to navigate your LinkedIn analytics here.
Importance of personal branding on LinkedIn
It's been reported that 92% of people trust individuals more than companies, and a strong personal brand can enhance business credibility. LinkedIn is the platform where you can build your personal brand in a businesslike setting.
Sharing your expertise, personality, and knowledge will build trust with your audience so don't be afraid to voice your opinion. Share relevant, valuable content like speaking engagements, workshops, or podcasts that demonstrates your passion for what you do and positions yourself and your company as industry thought leaders.
Focus on the visuals
It's crucial to remember that LinkedIn is a visual platform, and it's likely that many of your business connections will get their first impression of you from your profile. Your profile photo is more than just an image and communicates how you want to be perceived as a founder, wether that's serious, fun, or creative. Avoid selfies and instead use a high-quality, up to date professional profile photo where your face is in clear view, remember that if people recognise your face from your profile photo they are more likely to approach you at industry events!
Make sure to choose a clear, professional 'header' image with your latest company logo, this is an excellent opportunity to build brand awareness. You can even add a CTA in your header image. For example, if you are launching an app and have a QR code to download it, this would be the place to use it.
Crafting a strong bio
Your bio is where most people will land first when finding your profile. LinkedIn usually only displays the first line, so make sure it's a good one that hooks visitors and encourages them to carry on reading.
It helps to follow a structured format for an effective bio. For example; start with a hook to grab attention within the first three lines, explain your mission, highlight your expertise and skills, showcase past accomplishments, and include a call to action. Keep your sentences concise and use bullet points for easy scanning. The aim is to write a concise bio that immediately explains what you do or offer. Remember also that LinkedIn uses your bio in it's algorithm so include keywords in your summary to improve search visibility.
Content creation and engagement
As a general rule, aim to post about three times per week, adjusting as needed to maintain consistency and quality. Focus on content pillars that reflect your expertise, interests, and broadly appealing, relevant subjects. Mix educational and promotional content with brand awareness posts, and show vulnerability to build authenticity. Link posts to events like World Ocean Day or International Women’s Day for additional relevance.
When writing posts, start with a captivating hook, use short phrases and bullet points, and end with a clear call to action. Sharing "day in the life" posts can give followers a behind-the-scenes look at your business. You can also use tools like Notion, Airtable, or Sprout to create a content calendar to make sure you stay organised and consistent with your posting.
Extra tip: Don't just post and ghost! It's crucial to engage with any commenters on your post to drive more impressions. You can also connect with those that comment to build out your network and encourage further interaction.
Main takeaways:
Optimise your LinkedIn profile with a professional photo, clear background image, and a concise, keyword-rich bio.
Maintain consistent and effective visibility by posting regularly, aiming for about three times per week.
Build a strong personal brand by sharing relevant, valuable content and positioning yourself as an industry thought leader.
Craft engaging posts with captivating hooks, clear calls to action, and a mix of educational and promotional content.
Consider using a content calendar to plan and maintain consistency in your LinkedIn activity, ensuring a steady flow of quality posts.
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