What to know as a business owner on LinkedIn
If you’re the owner of a small business, you probably already have a company page on LinkedIn. And while every business owner should use that page to promote their business, it’s important to also maintain your personal profile to add that personal touch. LinkedIn is a professional network that’s home to hundreds of company pages, but it’s also a platform where authentic content from real humans is encouraged.
The basics of using LinkedIn to promote your business
Before we dive into using LinkedIn from a personal profile, let’s recap the basics of how to run your LinkedIn company page.
A fully completed page
Just having a company page isn’t enough. An unfinished company page looks unprofessional, untrustworthy, and can be damaging to your overall brand. Not only will prospective customers or partners be tempted to lose interest after noticing the gaps in your company page, but they’ll even be suspicious of the legitimacy of your business. At minimum, a good company page has a profile picture (your logo), a branded header image, and complete informational sections, including practical information about how to shop your products or get in contact. You should also choose a custom CTA button for your profile — most business owners will opt for the “Visit Website” option but pick the one that suits you best. If you’re feeling really strategic, include some keywords in your company description to make your company even more discoverable in search results.
Consistently post for consistent growth
While LinkedIn doesn’t require nearly the intense posting schedule as other social media platforms, it’s still important to maintain consistency and continue to show up for your audience in the feed. The best practice is to post one or two posts per week to avoid cannibalizing your own content efforts — and stick to a consistent schedule.
In terms of the content itself, many company pages share industry news and commentary — especially as it relates to the brand — as well as company news such as product launches, customer stories, recruiting, and sharing content you’ve recently posted on your blog. Posts that share behind-the-scenes intel as well as the faces behind the brand can also perform well on LinkedIn and is a great way to remind your followers that your business is run by real people.
Need help posting consistently? Plan and schedule your social media content in advance using Content Scheduler in Adobe Express.
Actively run the page
Posting content consistently is a great first step to amplifying your presence on LinkedIn but the next step is to engage with your content. Remember to reply to the comments on your content and interact with content from other people and pages to form deeper connections, spread your brand voice, raise brand awareness, and build trust and authority on the platform. It’s also important to monitor your DMs and comments to make sure you don’t miss out on any direct interest in your business.
Further reading: How to create and promote a LinkedIn newsletter
Track analytics and monitor performance
Once you’ve established your presence on the platform, you’ll need to measure your content’s performance. Access to analytics offers you a really informed approach to your content production and understanding of your LinkedIn audience. Don't take this for granted! Your LinkedIn analytics are the key to understanding how to grow your company page, capitalize on your success, and switch things up where you notice less-than-successful results.
Consider advertising
While we’ve focused on your organic social media presence, if you believe your target market is predominantly on LinkedIn then it may be worth exploring paid advertising on LinkedIn. While you could consider directly advertising for your product and services, you could alternatively choose to boost a post about a blog you’ve recently written if you’re looking to expand your network in general or position yourself as a thought-leadership for your industry. It all depends on your personal business goals.
The power of the personal profile
While your company page can be an amazing resource for prospective customers to learn more about your business and your brand, your personal profile can also drive traffic to your company page – and vice versa.
Think of some of the top companies you know – many of them have CEOs and executives who are well known and have their own following on LinkedIn. Similarly, you can position yourself as an influencer for your business to use your personality to also promote your brand and drive growth. Here are a few ways to level up your personal profile on LinkedIn:
Use video and don’t be scared to show your face
Video is a powerful social media tool that should be part of your profile. Use video to connect with your followers: Talk to the camera and be authentic, introduce yourself, share why you founded your business, express what you stand for. People love to support a brand with a face and run by someone they can relate to.
Build your own personal brand
Apart from being an opportunity to drive to your company page, building your own personal brand on your personal page is rewarding in itself. Of course, if you’re increasing your profile on social media, you are also opening yourself up to critique. As long as you work knowing this, one major advantage of highlighting your persona is that it’s easier to form connections with other business owners and customers. It’ll also make content creation easier when you have the freedom to express an opinion from your own perspective.
Use your profile to support your page and vice versa
Imagine a card tower (stay with us)— each card depends on the other to stand and build. In this case, the cards are your company page and your personal profile, and they need each other to stand and be the foundation for more growth. While it may feel like double the effort to focus on a personal profile while also running a company page at first, the reward will be worth the time. Any success on one page will benefit the other – allowing the two to grow more easily with this two-pronged approach.
Further reading: Is X a worthy LinkedIn competitor?
Get your team involved
If you’re lucky enough to have a team working with you on your small business – now is the time to ask for support. Ask your team to share content on LinkedIn about how they like working at your company, why they love the products/services, and to simply share content from your personal profile and from the company page. It’s not just about increasing brand awareness — although that is a huge benefit to this approach — it’s also about increasing the number of human faces associated with your business. Opinions and content from real people will always be more trustworthy and intriguing as opposed to anything posted from a faceless brand.
Growing a business through social media needs a multi-pronged approach. Your personality and authenticity are key to connecting with prospective customers on a deeper level — an advantage that you can easily channel back toward your brand.