On Generating Demand For Your Brand On LinkedIn

Let us face some facts here.

LinkedIn is the most popular professional social networking site on the internet, and with numbers like:

• 26% growth rate over the past year (social Media Today),
• 277% effectiveness in lead generation over Facebook and Twitter (Kinsta), and a
• 95% chance of organic content marketing being successful (Influencer Marketing Hub).

... you would be remiss if you did not jump on your chance to invest in a LinkedIn strategy.

Although studies have shown that while LinkedIn has managed to grow at a rate of two users per second in the past year, a lot of LinkedIn’s users are not using the platform strategically.

But there is hope for companies and individuals that choose to put more focused effort into unlocking the LinkedIn code.

Here are a few tips to help you get started.

Tip #1: Focus on Your Personal Account for Maximum Engagement

You may already know this, but just as a refresher here it is: People like to engage with real people more than they do businesses, as demonstrated in this post by Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft (shared on his personal page) compared to a post of the Microsoft business page which has 14,229,873 followers

LinkedIn as a platform knows it and that is why you are only able to send connection requests and personal messages from your personal profile.

Business accounts are great for the visibility of your company’s website and for providing information about your business, but your real bread and butter is the engagement on your personal profile.

You want people to see there is a human behind the screen that they can engage with. That builds brand loyalty and makes them much more likely to engage with a business’ profile later.

Some quick changes you could make to your personal page now to set it apart from the dozens of inactive users’ people sort through every day:

• Keep your information up to date. It is obvious that you are a busy professional and may not remember to do a profile rebrand quarterly but try your best or book some time with me to do it for you and your team. Updating your information also increases your visibility, credibility, and relevancy in your market.
• Use a recent headshot. Make sure there is no distracting background and your face is visible.
• Create your vanity URL. This will make it easier for people to search for your page.

Just following this step alone will help you gain a competitive advantage, however that is not all.

           Tip #2: Develop your content.

There are lots of LinkedIn accounts that sit empty once the basic information is filled in. You do not want to do this.

Once users have found your profile, you want it to offer them some value. This could be in the form of a personal story. Why you started in your professional career. What motivates you in your personal life?

Something that gives your audience a peek at who you are and why you do what you do. This also gives you a chance to prove why your expertise is so relevant.

You can also use your posts to share an opinion around something in your professional sphere and get unfiltered feedback. Get your audience involved and they will be more likely to engage whenever you post.

Tip# 3: Reply to the Comments

Many LinkedIn users will post their content and then forget it. When you respond to comments you are giving your audience a reason to keep engaging.

It also increased the life of the post and increase visibility with a new audience. The people you reply to will be notified and they will have to go back to your post to read your comment and engage again.

Doing this every 12-24 hours will keep that engagement cycle going and encourage organic engagement with the post as well.

Here's a final tip. Be sincere about your engagement. People want to connect, especially after the year everyone experienced together, so you should not have to force a connection.

Be authentic in your representation and engagement will come naturally to you.

Generating demand and building brand awareness should be a continuous plan of attack for your company and marketing initiatives. By putting a strong strategy in place, you will be well on your way to being the "go-to" solution in your market for a long time to come.

ABOUT DEBORRAH ASHLEY

With over 20 years of brand-building experience, Deborrah is obsessed with helping leaders and companies strengthen how they market on LinkedIn to expand their reach & accelerate revenue.

She offers coaching and training for CMOs, marketing, and business development teams to compete in a digital-first world.  

Deborrah is the best-selling author of the book "InSIDER- How To Leverage LinkedIn To Stand Out As The Industry Leader". 

To inquire about working with Deborrah, please reach out on LinkedIn directly or email [email protected]

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