5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a LinkedIn Strategy and Employee Training

I’d like to share a story with you.

In my line of work, I frequently hear stories about mistakes businesses have made when it comes to LinkedIn. Recently, I was talking to a close to a billion-dollar company about their LinkedIn presence and what they told me was truly a marketer’s nightmare.

Both the marketing and sales team leads at this company were familiar with LinkedIn. The company had a LinkedIn Page and the team leads were confident that their sales and HR employees were active on LinkedIn and knew what they were doing. However, upon doing some research, we realized that only 50% of the employees were even connected to the company’s LinkedIn Page. Even worse, only 10% had been active on LinkedIn in the last month. And of that 10%, no coherent messaging was being delivered or strategy employed. Bottom line ... thousands of brand ambassadors were being left in the dust and the sales lead generation and recruiting activities that they thought were happening were virtually nonexistent.

Here's another one ... smaller company ... right around 200 Million in yearly sales, had their Corporate Page set up as a Personal Profile. Result? None of the almost 200 employees could properly connect to the page and list the company as their current employer on their Personal Profiles and zero corporate content was being shared. Here are a few Pages best practices you may find helpful.

Stories like this aren’t uncommon. Oftentimes, team leads assume that everything is running smoothly in regards to LinkedIn. But just because they know what they’re doing on the platform doesn’t mean that everyone else at the company does.

The good news: when businesses fully understand LinkedIn, they can unleash an unending list of business benefits.

But they need to create a LinkedIn strategy and provide employee training first.

In my research, I have come across something quite interesting.

There are many articles out there talking about why businesses should have LinkedIn accounts, but few detailing why having a LinkedIn strategy is important.

Here is why it’s crucial to have a LinkedIn strategy for your business:

Increase visibility

When businesses use LinkedIn without a strategy, there is no guarantee that they will increase brand awareness. However, when approached strategically, LinkedIn can help companies to increase their visibility. This, in turn, raises brand awareness to their target audience and helps to establish positioning within their industry niche.

Create a legitimate presence

There are many companies that use LinkedIn without a strategy- and it’s obvious. These are the businesses that created a corporate Page years ago, have provided limited company information and a handful of posts. When someone comes across a business Page like this, it doesn’t seem very legitimate. On the other hand, companies with active Pages and key employees posting plenty of relevant and helpful content appear to be industry experts. Businesses who implement a LinkedIn strategy are able to gain the trust of their audience.

Generate high-quality leads

An important piece of your LinkedIn strategy is connecting with the right people. If you strategically connect only with high-quality leads, you can rest assured knowing that your content will get in front of the right people. If you connect with anyone, purely for the sake of building numbers, you can find yourself deflecting spam at every turn and running unsuccessful secondary outreach campaigns while getting little interaction on your content.

Run successful LinkedIn ad campaigns

?The implementation of a solid LinkedIn strategy can help businesses decide what processes to put in place before launching a campaign in order to ensure its overall success.

Gain insights from and about your audience

When your business has a LinkedIn strategy in place, and all hands are on deck to share your corporate content, you can glean insights into product feedback and the services you offer. You can reach out to your network asking for suggestions on how to improve processes or get ideas for products that you may not currently offer but are something the market is looking for.

When you create an ad campaign, you are able to target the exact individual who may be looking for the product or service you provide. Professionals come to LinkedIn to find answers, stay on top of industry trends, and build relationships. When you provide solutions to those people in need, then you are golden. Taking a deep dive into what your potential client or employee wants, sets you up to deliver the content or ad strategy which resonates with them. All of the individuals and information is here. It's up to you and your team to take the time to tap into it.

Without a solid LinkedIn strategy, it’s impossible for your business to flourish on LinkedIn. And that would be such a waste. LinkedIn has so much to offer to both businesses and individual professionals. If you invest the time up front to lay the groundwork, you could create a high-quality lead generating machine, become a thought leader in your industry, and increase your company's revenue as a result of your efforts. However, all of this is possible only if you put strategy before tactics.

Want to Start Winning on LinkedIn?

Rise above the noise - Connect with customers - Grow your business.

Receive exclusive insights, and be the first to know about invitation-only, offers and events.

More from Kim:

LinkedIn 101: Maximizing Your Profile

How Do I Make LinkedIn Work For Me? Us?

One Very Important Thing To Keep In Mind Before You Reach Out To Potential Clients

7 Tips to Create Thought-Provoking Content on LinkedIn

For the original article and a complete library of articles that offer tips, trends, and insights, join our complimentary VIP community here.

Kim has attracted an audience of over 235,000 professionals from around the globe on LinkedIn and is the CEO of Linkability, Inc. She is a dynamic Entrepreneur, Global Business Communications authority, and three-time business founder. Linkability is a strategy and consulting firm that provides world-class Intrepreneurs, Entrepreneurs, and organizations with consulting, services, and products that helps to grow robust networks and drive tangible results in sales, marketing, and thought leadership positioning.

#Linkability #smm #corporatebranding #thoughtleadership #linkedintraining #corporatetraining #remotework #linkedin