If you’re waiting for a sign, here it is: Get yourself on LinkedIn! LinkedIn isn’t just another social media platform. It’s a little different from the rest, and the things that make it different also happen to make it a great option for growing your business. Unlike those other platforms—looking at you, Instagram and TikTok—LinkedIn has its roots in facilitating professional networking online. 

And while you can totally use Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and other platforms to grow your business’s online presence, LinkedIn typically reaches a different audience than the others. (For instance, your content may not reach a million random teenagers, but it may get in front of a couple hundred adults with discretionary business funds. Which do you prefer?)

According to LinkedIn itself, the platform boasts more than 850 million members, including 180 million senior-level influencers, 63 million decision makers, and 10 million C-level executives. The fact that four of five LinkedIn members drive business decisions and LinkedIn’s audience has twice the buying power of the average web audience means that your content has the potential to reach some valuable eyeballs.

And despite various updates to the platform that have made LinkedIn feel a bit more Facebook-y than it did in the past, LinkedIn still has much more of a professional vibe to it than the alternatives. This is great for business owners like you who want to build authority, offer thought leadership, and point people to your brand/business in an authentic way. 

In general, it also typically means you’ll find less trolling, less “fake news,” and more meaningful engagement on content posted on LinkedIn, as long as you’re creating the right types of content.

Are you sold yet? Here are some tips for how to grow your business on LinkedIn: 

• Leverage your business’s LinkedIn company page to build credibility. Use consistent, on-brand images for your profile and cover images. Be sure to fill out the About section with an overview, link to your website, and other key info. Try to include some keywords.
• Experiment with different types of content to get yourself/your brand in front of your ideal LinkedIn audience. Types of content may include your own blogs, shared articles, and a single photo with informative/helpful text. LinkedIn also supports video content—in case that’s your thing! 
• Consider using some of LinkedIn’s interactive features to get people engaged. LinkedIn offers interactive polls, LinkedIn Stories, and live video streaming—including LinkedIn Live events. (LinkedIn Live apparently gets, on average, 7x more reactions and 24x more comments than native video.)
• Explore LinkedIn Analytics. Check out post analytics to get a sense of how your content is landing with your audience. Compare posts that get a lot of engagement with those that don’t, and see if you can start to tweak your content so that every post is a successful one. 

The benefits of being on LinkedIn as a business include a professional audience with patience for longer-form content (compared to a TikTok video, at least) and its reputation as a place where credible people come to talk about things that matter in business. (There are always going to be bad apples pushing the boundaries on every platform, but for the most part we find this is still true.) If you don’t have a LinkedIn content strategy already, get on it! 

Are you on LinkedIn? If you would like help building out your LinkedIn presence, book a call with us!