29 Apr 7 Ways to Optimize Your LinkedIn Company Profile for B2B Conversions
While LinkedIn only drives 14 percent of social media traffic compared to Facebook’s 54 percent, the professional social network has a higher conversion rate and is more effective for B2B conversions.
With over 28 million unique monthly visitors, LinkedIn is the most business-focused social media platform for professionals. The LinkedIn statistics are incredible:
- LinkedIn has the highest user engagement. Did you know that only 1 percent of LinkedIn users drive 26 percent of the site’s traffic? This means that the active community on LinkedIn is extremely involved and open to networking with professionals like you!
- LinkedIn users want your solicitation. In real life, we hate the idea of cold calls and solicitors. However, LinkedIn users overwhelmingly state that they welcome business proposals online.
- Your profile is viewed by people you don’t know. On social networking sites like Facebook, your friends and family are your main audience. On LinkedIn, however, coworkers only account for 25 percent of views. The other 75 percent is comprised of other professionals in the industry, recruiters, networkers, and much more!
Since LinkedIn fosters an atmosphere conducive for networking, professionals and brands should optimize their profiles for business-to-business conversions.
With an audience of 200 million users, LinkedIn is the social platform for brands to impress fellow businessmen.
How to Harness the Power of LinkedIn
The key to harnessing the power of LinkedIn is growing your visibility. Whether it’s your personal page or company page, visibility is what creates opportunities for networking. By optimizing certain elements of your LinkedIn presence, you’ll increase visibility while clearing the funnel for B2B conversions.
1. Go Visual
To keep up with the social media trends spearheaded by Facebook and Pinterest, LinkedIn has decided to become more visual. Like Facebook, it’s possible to incorporate a banner image for your company’s LinkedIn page as well as incorporate video.
Practice basic branding techniques by using your logo wherever possible and keeping the tone consistent with your brand.
2. Optimize the “About” Section
Most companies simply copy and paste the “About Us” section from their website onto their LinkedIn profile. However, this strategy is a mistake for those seeking to network on LinkedIn.
While the “About Us” on your site might be targeted towards a general audience, this section on your LinkedIn profile is aimed at the B2B market.
3. Use LinkedIn Polls
Asking thought provoking questions about trending news in your industry distinguishes your brand as a thought-leader in the industry. Not only do you engage your current followers, you’re increasing your reach as the polls spreads across connections immediately.
If you’re a member of any groups on LinkedIn, begin discussions based on the results of the poll. This tactic is focused on widening reach and establishing thought-leadership.
4. Share Links
Many brands like to share accomplishments, new products, and press releases on their social media sites. However, consider using LinkedIn as a platform for blog posts and articles that aren’t necessarily written by you.
In other words, make your brand a hotspot for industry news, valuable information, and knowledge in your field. By positioning your brand as a source of information, you attract leaders and businesses in your niche that could later turn into B2B conversions.
5. Feature Your Employees
Again, featuring employees takes advantage of the visual element. People want to see the faces that are behind your brand.
Showcasing employees makes your brand more personable and allows visitors to check out their pages as well. Remember, potential B2B customers might be more likely to connect with the profile of an employee than the business itself.
6. Use the Careers Listing
Posting job openings on the company’s LinkedIn profile might seem unrelated to B2B conversions, but it helps increase visibility. Furthermore, keeping the careers listings updated lets visitors know that the page is regularly managed.
7. Create a Group
While most professionals and brands join groups for exposure, why not create your own? This truly establishes you as a thought-leader and as the group grows, so does your authority.
Instead of making the group self-promotional, add value to the discussion by focusing the group on industry news, best practices, new ideas, obstacles, and similar topics of interest.
The Advantage of Networking on LinkedIn
Networking on LinkedIn provides an advantage that other social media sites can’t match: its users are open to conducting business with you online. Aside from networking, LinkedIn users are also more likely to spend online. The average salary for LinkedIn users is $87,000, which towers above the average for other social networking platforms.
Because LinkedIn users are prepped and more likely to positively respond to your marketing efforts, the ROI is potentially greater and worth the investment.
Also remember that the analytics function on LinkedIn offers a unique feature specifically for businesses. Aside from the basics of monitoring traffic and various insights, you can compare your company’s performance to its competition.
By using this information, you can adjust your strategy to be competitive in the LinkedIn B2B marketplace.
