Believe it or not, LinkedIn isn’t just for national B2B brands. If you use the platform correctly, you can grow a thriving network for your local business. Of course, that information isn’t worth much if you don’t know what to do.
That’s why I’ll be walking you through all of the best must-haves if you want your local business to grow on LinkedIn!
Fill Out Your Profile
Nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to connect with an incomplete profile. Whether it’s your company page or your professional profile, everything needs to be completed.
It doesn’t matter if you “don’t know what to say” for your about section. Whatever isn’t filled in is holding you back from growing your local network, so make sure it’s all finished!
Work Smarter
It’s fairly obvious that you should be posting some sort of content on LinkedIn, but take it a step beyond that. When a piece of content performs well, don’t just throw it away! Work it back into your content mix so that you can generate more value from it.
If my team were handling the LinkedIn for a local dentist’s office and saw that a blog earned a lot of engagement, then they would wait a month or so, freshen up the blog to keep it current, then post it again. Why? 1. Not all of your followers saw it, so you’re probably reaching people who have never seen this blog and 2. It just makes more sense than having them write an entirely new blog that might not perform well on LinkedIn.
In short, I say go with the advice: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Put Yourself Out There
LinkedIn isn’t a platform where you just build yourself up and wait for people to come and worship your brand. You need to seek out engagement instead of waiting for it to come to you!
How do you do that? Look up people by their industry and their location. It’s great if you’re appealing to nursing professionals, but a nurse in Texas can’t do much for your hospital in Connecticut.
If you want to get really specific with the location, be sure to use the connection search filters to narrow down your search! That way you can get results as close to your brick and mortar location as you want. Don’t stop at connecting with them—remind these new connections that you’re there by liking and commenting on their posts to jump start the engagement.
Use Your Resources
So often, people focus too much on finding their audience on LinkedIn. Don’t get me wrong, that’s important, but what about the people that you’re already interacting with in real life?
If you’re at an event and get a business card, put that email into LinkedIn and connect with that person! Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best, and this is one way to organically grow your local LinkedIn network.
One note: Think critically about this. Do you need to connect with the florist who catered the event? Probably not. This strategy doesn’t mean literally connecting with every schmuck who hands you a business card. Instead, parse through those offers and see who could be a valuable connection for your brand!
Start Building ASAP
All of this is going to take time. The longer you wait to start and the slower you roll out these practices, the more time it’s going to take. If you want to have a thriving community centered around your business’ LinkedIn page, this is how you get started!
Do you need some clarification on how to build your LinkedIn network? Just schedule your free consultation with The Go! Agency!
