LinkedIn is you at your professional best.
It’s the best place to be (after maybe Twitter) if you are looking to build influence in the business world among other business professionals. When using LinkedIn, be
aware that there are two types of pages with distinct functions: personal pages, and professional pages.
As an individual, you can build your personal brand by sharing relevant, high-quality news articles on your news stream. Reach out to contacts to see if they can endorse your skills, and keep your profile information up to date with your most recent accomplishments.
The main benefit of your personal LinkedIn page, however, is as a way to publish your own original thoughts. Published content follows a blogging format, so if you’re already writing a blog, publish any content written by you on LinkedIn with a link back to your company
blog. Encourage your employees to do likewise. If your employees have awesome profiles on LinkedIn, it speaks well for the quality of work your company can bring to your clients, as well as providing a positive way for you to reward and celebrate the talent within your corporation.
Your business page
Use your business page in a similar manner to Facebook, but with a more professional focus. If you see an article that is relevant to your industry, share it (and the more prestigious the news source, the better).
That said, you don’t need to be strictly business-formal at all times. Many companies fall into the trap of being overly professional, to the extent that their LinkedIn pages make them seem like corporate robots. Don’t be afraid to be human. Share things that matter to you and the people in your company, even if they’re a little off-topic. Let your followers know that there’s a real person, with tastes, interests, and opinions, running your company business page, and they’ll respond by engaging more genuinely with your content.
And as we said before, take time to promote your employees: celebrate their professional accomplishments with your company, and use your company page to share those stories.
The bottom line:
Embrace all the qualities of professional content creation and customer service: quality, relevance, and timeliness. But don’t forget to be warm, funny, and human.
Want to build your brand on social media? We can help you get there.
In our ebook, we share our industry knowledge on how to find your audience on the top four social media platforms for businesses. The only question you need to ask is: Are you social?
