Get more out of LinkedIN!

LinkedIn has long since been much more than a professional networking site. It’s a powerful business tool that can drive recruitment, source new customers, build valuable relationships, and expand your brand’s reach.

Over the years, I’ve used LinkedIn to recruit top talent across Europe, the UK, and North America, find investors, connect with new business partners, and acquire customers.

I’ve even built an entire business community, The Yorkshire Mafia, which became something of a phenomenon, all through the power of LinkedIn.

But succeeding on LinkedIn takes more than just having a profile. To truly stand out and maximise the platform’s potential, you need to be strategic, and perhaps most importantly, authentic - which seems harder than it should be...

Here are some key strategies that have helped me and can help you grow your business on LinkedIn.

1. Optimise Your Company Page

Your company page should one the front door to your business. But LinkedIn doesn't quite work like that Your personal profile is often better at generating engagement.

However, if someone’s a prospective client, partner, or employee, it’s your Company Page is one of the first places they’ll look to get a sense of who you are and what you do.

• Complete Your Profile: Make sure every part of your profile is up-to-date and complete. This includes your logo, website, location, and a compelling ‘About’ section that clearly defines what your company does and what makes you unique.
• Engaging ‘About’ Section: Write your ‘About’ section in a way that draws people in. Be specific about your mission and values, and don’t be afraid to showcase what makes your business stand out.
• Showcase Products and Services: Use the "Featured" section to highlight key offerings or company achievements. This is your space to show what your business is all about.

In my experience, a well-crafted company page can act as a springboard for all your LinkedIn activities. When I built The Yorkshire Mafia on LinkedIn, the community’s LinkedIn presence became the hub that brought people together and helped develop it into the thriving business network it has been for the past 16 years!

2. Amplify Your Reach through Employee Advocacy

One of the most underutilised tools on LinkedIn is your team. Your employees are your biggest advocates, and their individual LinkedIn networks are often much larger than your company’s reach alone.

In any business where I have an interest, we encourage all staff to actively engage on LinkedIn—not just for their own professional development, but because it benefits the business.

• Encourage Employees to Share Content: When employees share company content with their personal networks, it adds a level of authenticity and humanises your brand. At my recruitment firm, all of our staff hold Recruiter Licences, allowing them to fully leverage LinkedIn as a key part of their roles.
• Create Engaging, Shareable Content: Make it easy for employees to share posts by providing content that’s engaging and relevant to their networks. Whether it’s success stories, industry insights, or company updates, employees are more likely to share content if they feel it adds value to their connections.
• Employee Spotlights: Celebrate your employees on LinkedIn. Highlight their achievements, thought leadership, or interesting projects. It’s a great way to engage your audience and makes employees feel valued.

Employee advocacy can dramatically boost your visibility. When your employees are engaging with your content, their networks see it too, and this amplifies your reach exponentially. After all, content shared by employees generates 8 times more engagement than content shared by company pages alone.

We ask employees to post about our events and get-togethers. Their combined networks are large than mine...

3. Post Consistently and Share Value-Driven Content

LinkedIn is a content-driven platform, and consistency is key to staying visible. The more valuable your content, the more likely you are to attract and engage your audience.

• Develop a Posting Schedule: Establish a regular posting schedule, whether it’s daily or weekly - and try to stick to it. I'm pretty bad at this (work in progress). Consistency builds trust and helps your audience know when to expect updates.
• Share Value-Driven Content: Content that educates, informs, or solves a problem generally perform well - so long as they're not to dry. Having a strong opinion on whatever you're talking about really helps.
• Use Visuals: Posts with visuals, such as infographics or videos, tend to capture more attention and drive more engagement.

4. Engage with Your Network

Engagement is key on LinkedIn. It’s not just about broadcasting content—it’s about building relationships and engaging in meaningful conversations.

• Respond to Comments: When people take the time to comment on your posts, respond thoughtfully. It fosters dialogue and shows that you value their input.
• Join other people's conversations: Engage with content shared by your peers or sector thought leaders. This helps you stay visible while building relationships.
• Support Your Team: When your employees post content, engage with it. Like, comment, and share their posts to show your support and amplify their message.

LinkedIn is about building connections, not just followers. Engaging with your network is how you start turning connections into real relationships.

5. Showcase Employee Expertise

In my experience, showcasing employee expertise has been one of the most effective ways to humanise a business and build credibility. When employees share their thought leadership, it reflects well on the company as a whole.

• Encourage Thought Leadership: Empower employees to share their knowledge. Whether it’s writing articles or sharing insights in their area of expertise, this can significantly increase your company’s credibility. Lily Deal does this well.
• Employee Spotlights: Use your company page to feature key employees and celebrate their accomplishments.

6. Use LinkedIn Analytics to Measure Success

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. LinkedIn’s analytics tools give you insight into how well your posts are performing and who’s engaging with your content.

• Monitor Engagement: Track likes, comments, shares, and other engagement metrics to see what resonates with your audience.
• Audience Insights: Look at your audience’s demographics to better understand who’s following your page—this can help you tailor your content to better meet their needs.

7. Be braver

So you've posted something on LinkedIn and go 10 likes? That means that circa 900,000,000 didn't see it or didn't care.

• Posts with attitude and/or strong (not offensive) opinions get good traction.

8. Headshot

Don't be shy. The algorithm seems to promote posts that carry a headshot. Pick a photo that you like and add it to the post... and see what happens.

• Be visible: I've slapped my mugshot on this article. If I can do it...

9. What would you suggest?

Conclusion

Apart from making a telephone call (big fan), LinkedIn is obviously one of the most powerful tools available for growing a business.

To get the most out of it, you need to be strategic, consistent and authentic.

Optimising your company page, posting valuable content on your personal profile updates, engaging your employees, and building relationships all contribute to long-term success.

But perhaps most importantly, be yourself.

As I’ve found in supporting clients build teams across Europe, the UK, and North America, as well as growing The Yorkshire Mafia, LinkedIn is a platform that really thrives on authenticity. People want to connect with real people.

In the words of social media pioneer Guy Kawasaki,

The essence of social media is knowing your audiences and engaging them in something they love.”

As always, positive contributions are welcome!