LinkedIn: The Underrated Powerhouse for Business Success

When it comes to social media platforms, LinkedIn is often overshadowed by its flashier counterparts like Facebook and Twitter. However, for business professionals, LinkedIn is the true hidden gem. It's where business gets done online. For your organization, your LinkedIn Page is the hub of your online business presence. It’s where you can amplify your brand, carve out thought leadership, and make meaningful connections. But all of this is only possible if your Page gets seen. Followers are the key to organically growing your LinkedIn footprint. The more followers you have interacting with your Page content, the more followers you’ll get.

Complete Your LinkedIn Page

Before doing anything else, make sure your company’s LinkedIn Page is complete and distinctly appealing to the audience or member persona you want to attract. Pages with complete information get 30% more views, and if the content on your company’s Page is clearly useful to people within your target audience, those visiting will of course be more likely to click “Follow.”

For tips on completing and optimizing your LinkedIn Page, you can find pointers here.

Be Findable: Draw Traffic from Outside LinkedIn

Did you know you can optimize your LinkedIn Page for search? Follow our guidance in the linked article to ensure your Page is fully discoverable on search engines like Google. Drawing attention to your LinkedIn Page from outside the platform is a big win. You can also drive traffic to LinkedIn by placing a Follow button on your company’s website and adding a link in your email signature. Both of these actions are “set it and forget it,” making it simple for others to redirect to your company’s LinkedIn Page.

Be Sticky: Stay On-Brand

Make it easy to get noticed over and over again. Consistently branded content (colors, logos, and tone of voice) will register faster with members who see your posts appear in their feed. After a few outstanding and recognizable encounters with your brand, they’ll be more likely to follow your Page.

Be Consistent: Post Content Regularly

Keeping a steady flow of fresh content on your Page will give it more visibility on member feeds. Pages that post at least weekly see twice as much lift in engagement, which in turn leads to greater organic reach, making it more appealing to potential followers. Tap into the Content Suggestions feature if you’re short on ideas.

Be Flashy: Make Use of Video and Visual Content

Make sure your content mix includes plenty of eye-catching visuals. Unique imagery, and especially videos, tend to stand out more on feeds, helping your brand (and Page) get noticed. In particular, we find that custom image collages drive heightened levels of engagement on the platform, so don’t be afraid to upload a series from your latest event or another photo op!

Be Relevant: Publish Thought Leadership Content from Within Your Organization

C-suite executives and decision-makers at all levels are always on the lookout for innovative and compelling thought leadership that can inspire the course of their own business. The thought leadership space can be crowded at times, but if you produce quality content that drives curiosity and good conversation, your thought leadership will stand out from the rest. For more ideas on creating thought leadership content, check out this guide.

Be Engaging: Respond to Post Comments

Obviously not every comment merits a response, but it’s a good idea to reply to every question or thoughtful contribution to posts on your Page. Not only does this help drive higher feed visibility for the posts, but members will be more likely to follow a Page that actively engages its community.

Be Responsive: Adjust Your Content Based on Page Analytics

Page admins can access a robust set of analytics that provide demographic information about your followers and visitors, as well as engagement data for your updates. Use these insights to figure out what’s resonating versus what’s not and align your content with what your visitors want.

Encourage Employee Involvement

Your team members will be your strongest allies in growing a Page following. Encourage them to spread the word with friends and colleagues who are interested in what you do. When employees tag your Page in updates and share with their networks the benefits of following your Page, it can provide a big boost. Also, be sure your employees are properly mapped to your Page (by citing it accurately in their Work Experience), because every time your employee makes a new connection on LinkedIn, the new connection will be prompted to follow your Page.

Enlist Help from Customers and Brand Advocates

Do you have customers who are adamant about your brand? Or people in your circle who are driven to advocate for you? Let them know that increasing your LinkedIn following is a priority, and see if they might be willing to help out by posting about your organization to their networks.

Engage with Relevant Thought Leaders in Your Page Updates

Are there influential people in your industry, and non-competing companies, that you respect and wish to be associated with? By @mentioning them in your updates, you’ll have a better chance to get in front of their network, since they’ll be able to reshare your post to their followers. Just make sure not to overdo it, as this tactic can quickly become spammy in abundance.

Coordinate with Influencers

Co-creating content is a staple for many influencer marketing relationships. When deployed on LinkedIn, you can use this tactic to mutual benefit: the influencer gains recognition with your brand’s audience and vice versa.

Launch a Follower Ad Campaign

LinkedIn Page growth is a popular objective for brands advertising on the platform. Run a Dynamic Ad campaign using the Follower Ad format. By tapping into LinkedIn’s powerful targeting capabilities, you can use this method to gain highly relevant followers.

Encourage Executives and Prominent Leaders to @mention Your Page

The most prominent figures in your business serve as critical voices, and they often have large professional networks. When they frequently talk about and link to the company’s LinkedIn Page, it helps drive traffic and followers.

Create and Maintain Showcase Pages

A Showcase Page is an affiliated extension of your company’s LinkedIn Page, designed to highlight a specific sub-brand, business unit, or initiative. Creating them, when warranted, develops multiple points of discovery and entry for your main Page. Don’t dilute your LinkedIn presence by creating Showcase Pages for every product, or for different regions; it’s better to utilize this feature for broader (yet distinct) verticals or business lines.

Analyze Your Competitors’ Pages

Competitor analysis is important in all aspects of digital marketing, and this is no different. You should review what others are doing on LinkedIn, not so you can replicate these practices, but the opposite: so you can identify the white space and provide something members won’t find elsewhere.

Grow Your LinkedIn Page Following and Take the Lead

The advantages of a great LinkedIn Page with a large and engaged following are innumerable. No matter where your Page currently stands, there are almost always opportunities for further growth and expansion.

For small businesses looking to further nail down their LinkedIn Page presence, download the LinkedIn Pages Action Plan for Small Businesses and unlock powerful insights.

For more mature enterprises looking to take their LinkedIn Page to new heights, download the LinkedIn Pages Enterprise Playbook and see how pros like Microsoft, Adobe and Oracle have built massive online communities.