Why LinkedIn is so Important for B2B Marketing

Posted by David Terry on January 28, 2016

While Facebook and Twitter might boast the largest user base, LinkedIn is by far the largest social site for B2B networking and B2B business related content. Reporting over 400 million users as of October 2015, and as of November 2014 over 4 million company profiles have been created. If you haven’t started leveraging this amazing platform yet, you are quickly falling behind your competitors who are using LinkedIn to establish themselves as leaders in their industry, making important connections, and yes, generating valuable leads.

LinkedIn represents an important demographic for B2B marketers. With new professionals signing up at the rate of 2 per second, it’s obvious that LinkedIn should be a large part of your social media marketing strategy.

 

Exposure

One of the greatest benefits LinkedIn provides for business is exposure. Simply by browsing LinkedIn, other professionals can find your company and connect with you. If they like what they see on your page, they may even follow you to keep up with any content and updates you publish. This is why it’s so important to have a completed LinkedIn company profile.

Professionals wanting to connect in your industry will quickly form an opinion about your company based on the content on your profile. Is your description filled out with relevant information? Are you posting innovative and educational content, graphics, and video? Are you participating in industry related discussion and engaging with other LinkedIn users? Your answers to these questions will determine how successful you are on LinkedIn, and how much exposure you receive. According to the most recent statistics from LinkedIn, in order to reach 60% of your followers, you should be posting 20 times per month.

LinkedIn is also extremely SEO friendly, so it’s important to use relevant keywords in your company description and updates to make sure your LinkedIn page shows up at the top Google and other search engines, increasing your organic reach.

 

Engage

It is not enough to simply create a company profile and leave it at that. To increase your exposure and reach, get noticed in your industry, establish yourself as a thought leader, and share your insights - you must engage. Join industry groups, participate in (and start) discussions, and publish innovative posts on LinkedIn's publishing platform, Pulse. Comment on other posts with insightful and constructive comments, and you’re sure to be noticed as an active member of the site.

Don’t forget to keep your personal LinkedIn profile filled out and up to date as well, as this will be the link to your business for many professionals looking to network.

 

Thought Leadership

It’s important to increase your exposure and engage with other businesses and professionals on LinkedIn because you want to establish your company as a thought leader in the industry. Trust in a business comes from perceived authority. It doesn’t matter if you have more experience and knowledge than anyone else on LinkedIn, if you don’t prove it by sharing content and participating in discussions- how will anyone know?

LinkedIn has a powerful search function that can help you find other businesses, professionals, and content in your industry. Use it to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Create educational content and update your profile regularly, and connect with other thought leaders to get your business noticed.

 

Keeping Tabs

Not only can you use LinkedIn to establish your business as a leader, but you can use it to keep tabs on other leaders in your industry, AKA your competitors. Watching your competitors has some useful benefits:

  • You can learn from their mistakes
  • You can see what works for them and why
  • You can access their knowledge and insights
  • You can watch for trends in the industry
  • You can see who they are connecting / networking with

 

Generating Leads

Once you have resource hungry professionals following your updates, generating qualified leads from the content you post will come naturally. LinkedIn allows you to request recommendations - and don’t be afraid to do so. This only enforces your expertise and trustworthiness in the industry. You can also add CTA’s to your page, as well as a large and bold header you can use to promote product launches, content offers, or upcoming events.

 

Don’t be fooled into thinking that LinkedIn is only for networking. The potential, especially for B2B marketing is unmatched. A few of the benefits we outlined.

  • Increase your exposure to potential leads and recruits
  • Establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry
  • Increase your organic reach on Google and other search engines
  • Connect with other industry leaders and professionals
  • Keep up to date with industry trends and resources
  • Keep tabs on your competitors
  • Participate in relevant discussion
  • Share your expertise and insights to a professional audience

If you aren’t already using LinkedIn to it’s fullest potential, you need to start doing so sooner rather than later.  Your industry will quickly move on without you, leaving you in the dust if you don’t take advantage of this amazing tool.

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Topics: Social Media, B2B, Inbound Sales & CRM