LinkedIn for B2B Marketers: 10 Tips for Profiles, Promotion and Posting

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Social media for B2B isn’t like B2C. A typical business-to-consumer brand needs a lot of visibility, so “brand awareness” may be the main reason they’re on social media. When this is the case, the brand may measure success in followers, likes and shares.

But B2B is different. Just being visible won’t cut it.

Here’s a quick way to think about the differences:

With B2B social media, connecting with the right people is far more important than connecting with a lot of people. Social media is less brand building, more networking. Less Facebook, more LinkedIn.

This is our little LinkedIn guide for B2B marketers.

This post is for you as a B2B marketer, not the brand you work for.?These LinkedIn marketing strategies will start with your profile, then move on to content promotion and outreach.

1. The best LinkedIn profile tip: Connect the dots

Probably, sometime later today, someone is going to look you up. They go straight to LinkedIn to find you, or they search Google and your LinkedIn profile ranks for your name.

Here are some of the moments that trigger a view of your LinkedIn profile.

• You sent them an email
• You left them a voicemail
• Someone mentioned you in a conversation
• They are in a meeting with you

Yes, in the era of Zoom meetings, your name appears below your head, so the people you meet with are looking you up during the meeting. You probably do this yourself, so don’t be surprised that others do it to you.

When they land on your profile, the first question is generally?“What do you do?”?Your profile will do a good or bad job of answering that question.

• GOOD: The answer is supported by all of the sections, working together.
• BAD: There are several answers, scattered around in a non-cohesive way.

Review your profile and make sure there is a thread that they can easily follow. The words in the headline are right there in the other sections, especially in the skills and endorsements section.

Heather Bennett

Creative Brand Coach

“Personal Branding is what separates a LinkedIn profile from a CV or resume.?The LinkedIn profile is much more than a list of accomplishments, jobs and experiences.?LinkedIn gives you the opportunity through personal branding to tell your story, to describe what motivates you, to explain how (and WHO) you can help and finally, to bring to life the early stages of the hiring courtship before any interview takes place.”

2. Profile picture

It is the single most important bit of your personal branding on the internet. Take a minute to confirm that it aligns with?these profile picture best practices.

• Your face is framed with the image (not too close up or too far)
• Your smile reaches all the way to your eyes (the so-called “Duchenne smile”)
• You add a splash of warm color (in your shirt of background)

Not sure if your photo will connect well with your B2B connections, prospects and candidates? Test it using?Photofeeler.

3. Get to 500+ connections

Anything below that 500 mark and you look junior. Or you look new to LinkedIn.

Once you reach this tipping point, you look as legitimate as anyone else on the platform. If someone clicks on the connections link on your profile, they’ll see how many connections you have, but who does that?

Growing your connections is about sending and accepting invitations.

Who to send connection invites to…continue to the full article.