Whether your business is large or small, using LinkedIn can prove to be an invaluable networking, recruiting, and marketing tool. What sets LinkedIn apart from most social media platforms, is that it is designed solely for professional interactions. While you may opt to connect with people you have a personal relationship with on LinkedIn, it is a place where many people are confident reaching out to colleagues and professional acquaintances they have a less personal relationship with. However, as a business owner, you will likely use LinkedIn differently than jobseekers. Below are just a few of the ways you can use LinkedIn as a business tool.
Recruiting
LinkedIn gives you access to jobseekers in your local area, nationwide, and around the world. This allows recruiters and HR departments to access a larger pool of qualified candidates, with minimal effort. Given the competitiveness of today’s job market, you may prefer some of your job openings to be less public than others, and LinkedIn offers the perfect way to maintain this balance. You can reach out to current connections for references to potential candidates, and you can quickly and easily browse potential hires at any time. LinkedIn is so effective that some businesses are able to eliminate their need for headhunters altogether.
Scope Out Your Competition
With more businesses expanding their reach to clients, customers, and jobseekers worldwide, the competition in your field comes from companies around the world. While you can always perform a basic Internet search to monitor your competition, your search results will be subject to SEO and pagerank, which are not always an accurate assessment of your global competition. However, when you search for businesses in your field while on LinkedIn, you will have access to a wider range of companies, direct access to their online profiles and websites, and you often have access to their current roster of employees as well.
Creative Marketing
While LinkedIn does not allow businesses to spam other users, there are still many ways you can use LinkedIn to market your organization. For example, you can conduct and participate in LinkedIn polls, or purchase ad space on LinkedIn. You can also post content and link to external posts in your feed, in hopes of encouraging more outside activity.
Network Worldwide
In life and in business, it’s all about who you know. Whether business-to-business, business-to-consumer, or business to a potential job prospect, networking can open new doors. As a business owner you may not want to reach out to too many random connections without a specific reason, but you can certainly contact people who you share connections with. You can also use LinkedIn to connect with other businesses in your industry to discuss opportunities for growth and expansion that can be achieved by working together.
Creating a LinkedIn account is fast, easy, and free. As a business owner, you may also opt to have access to the additional features made possible by purchasing a Premium Account. A Premium Account on LinkedIn is an expense that can be written off, and if utilized to its full potential, will pay for itself time and time again.
This article was provided by CJ Gordon, recent Computer Science graduate and social media marketing guru. If you’re looking for help with your online presence and branding, CJ recommends coolblueweb.