LINKEDIN : HOW TO USE IT TO ATTRACT YOUR CUSTOMERS

Is it possible to leverage LinkedIn to find new potential customers ? In practice, how can you expand your business with the help of this social network?

LinkedIn is one of the most used social networks in recent years. In Italy it has over 13 million members, while globally there are well over 400 million. It is a thematic and vertical network focused on the professional and work aspect .

If we look at the numbers, almost everyone now has a profile on this platform; whether it is to affirm one’s job position, to seek new professional opportunities, to make oneself known or exploited as a further showcase for one’s brand, LinkedIn has now assumed an extremely important role for those who populate the world of the web. So here we are in front of a channel with a truly exponential number of potential customers . Why not take advantage of it?

To do this, however, effective work is essential, a perfect synergy between the sales and marketing departments, in order to implement a real strategy aimed at attracting an increasing number of leads , or potentially interested people, to your network. to what you sell, then managing to win their trust until you convince them that you can offer them what they need .

The first step to success on LinkedIn: Optimize your profile and company page

Without a shadow of a doubt, before starting an approach aimed at increasing the number of followers of your account , you will have to optimize it, or make it as complete as possible . 

Just follow 10 simple rules:

1. Choose a tag line – a short introduction – that grabs your attention and represents your profession
2. Report the area in which you operate. When they search for professionals in your industry, your profile will appear
3. In the summary, use keywords related to your area of ​​activity, so you have a better chance of being found
4. Complete your training
5. Publish interesting articles on a regular basis to increase your visibility
6. Add multimedia content or projects you have made
7. List the career goals you have achieved
8. Add skills and rank them by importance
9. Join groups in your industry and participate in discussions
10. Don’t forget to add a nice recent photo, which conveys professionalism and reliability.
11. At this point, create a network of contacts with whom you have had the opportunity to compare yourself during your career, involve them in such a way as to lead them to leave a comment that confirms your skills, therefore going to confirm what your value is; at the same time you yourself confirm the skills of those around you, in such a way as to entice them, in turn, to do the same thing with you.

If you haven’t already created it, in collaboration with your company’s marketing department, open a company page linked to your profile . This must be flawless as those who visit your profile will inevitably go to consult it to better understand what you do. Therefore it will be essential:

• Choose a high-quality and impactful image for the cover 
• Leverage your company logo by using it as a profile photo
• Choose an eye-catching tag line

• Enter all the data related to the possible contact tools, from the telephone number to the email, with a call-to-action to further invite those who visit the page to write or call you
• Enter the physical address and website of the company

• List in detail what the company does, the products and services it can offer, do not forget to enter the keywords that best identify what you do

• Invite those who work for you to complete their personal profile and connect with the company page.

Create interesting content for what your target could be

At this point you just have to identify a series of interesting topics that could be useful to your potential customers, then going to draw up a targeted editorial plan . From sector research to current trends, from any company news to information relating to your staff. The goal is and always remains only one: to involve users .

To do this, you can also start using a tool recently made available by LinkedIn, or LinkedIn Pulse . It is a real platform that allows you to create textual content, creating a sort of internal blog. Pulse offers the possibility to write texts that include the insertion of titles, subtitles, images and texts. The ideal would be to structure them in an SEO perspective , that is, using the keywords of your sector. With this in mind, therefore, think of all the information that could be able to capture the attention of the potential customer, as well as the questions that the same could raise in relation to the subject matter.

All these details will undoubtedly make the difference, leading to the sharing of what is published , an element that will also increase confidence in what you do. You could also create direct messages or rely on groups to share them, informing the user in real time when a new article comes out.

Start your search for people you could potentially be interested in

LinkedIn has a truly unique feature, which is that it allows for highly targeted searches . In fact, it allows you to search for contacts directly by entering the company we are interested in, but also on a geographical basis and by professional qualification. At the same time, subscribe yourself to groups in which you could meet users interested in your services and products, but above all try to make yourself known.

Then add them to your network so that they can see your company profile and your content and, when you notice interest from some of them, you could think of creating a group yourself in which to insert them to share experiences directly . and information, answer questions and question them to understand which touchpoints are of interest to them.

Although many ignore this aspect, LinkedIn represents perhaps more than any other a social network aimed at professional knowledge , especially in the context of B2B , where companies are constantly looking for potential customers and suppliers.

Also keep in mind that the same sellers of your company could be involved in this strategy by in turn adding to their profile any customers with whom they have had contact, inevitably leading them to visit both the private profile and the corporate profile, entering further into contact with how much shared. 

In conclusion LinkedIn can be considered the real new frontier for a lead generation strategy , a constantly evolving social network, as demonstrated by the introduction of Pulse designed specifically to create real microblogs within it. For this reason it is good to think about enhancing this tool , investing in the creation of engaging strategies and content as LinkedIn could soon become the most powerful marketing tool to attract customers to your network.