Pressilla Nanyange

How to Use LinkedIn to Market your Business? Being the largest professional social media platform, LinkedIn is a powerful tool to market your business and its products and services. It is a place to engage with your customers at a personal level and build brand awareness. Here is how you can leverage LinkedIn to target potential customers and promote your business. Create an attractive profile When getting started with LinkedIn marketing, the first step is to create an attractive profile. Begin by uploading a clear and professional photo. It signifies that the voice behind the profile is a real person. After all, people do business with people. Do not use selfies or group photos. Another first impression is to incorporate your service or business in the cover photo. It is important you feel out every section of the profile as best as you could, the goal is to hit 100% completeness or close to it. So state your job history, education, skills and get former employers, colleagues, and customers to endorse your skills. Endorsements are social proof of value, they build trust. When a potential customer reads your profile, it needs to align with their needs or interests and convey trust. So instead of writing about how great you are, say something about how you can solve customers’ problems. Create a compelling Headline Instead of listing your current job title, create a value statement which can catch the eye of your customers. And when it comes to the skills section, always pick keywords your customers care about. Create an effective company page This page should allow customers to learn more about your business. However, they should be able to find it so optimize it for search by inserting relevant keywords in your company profile information. Incorporate phrases or words a potential customer would use when searching for your product or service. Make connections Build connections with professionals who may be interested in your company. You can start with current customers and then using relevant keywords search for more people and make more connections. And because LinkedIn allows you to make connections with your connection’s connections, it automatically links you to hundreds of potential customers. Publish engaging posts, articles, and videos These should be helpful and educational. But never salesy. And when replying to a customer’s comments, it is important to always sound friendly and professional, like you have a concise understanding of what you are talking about. It shows your expertise to potential customers. Comment on posts It’s not enough to simply post your own stuff. You should also comment on other people’s posts. It encourages interaction with those people and builds relationships with them. With over 500 million professionals from around the world, LinkedIn is the perfect networking site to demonstrate value to potential customers and promote your business.