As we often say, if you’re not leveraging the power of LinkedIn to build your brand awareness and promote your company, then you’re missing out. Out of all of the social platforms out there, LinkedIn is the best when it comes to promoting a professional business-to-business presence, maintaining industry relationships, building new networks, and sharing great content that can lead to connection. If you’re new to using social media to market your brand – or if you just need a refresher on the types of content you should be focusing on – we suggest you read our blog post, “LinkedIn Best Practices: Elevate Your Brand Page.” It’s Part One in this series of LinkedIn Best Practices that every business owner and thought leader should know.
While it’s useful to understand successful strategies for optimizing your LinkedIn business page, there is equal value in knowing what kinds of posting habits can hurt your brand on LinkedIn. Read on for Part Two in our LinkedIn series to learn about the top seven things we discourage our insight180 clients from doing on LinkedIn.
What NOT to Do on Your LinkedIn Business Page
Maintaining a professional presence on LinkedIn is crucial for building your brand and fostering relationships with current and future clients. And, while there are many ways to promote yourself and your brand on LinkedIn, there are some posting practices you just should not do.
1. Overposting.
Posting several images, sales-pitches, or announcements in rapid succession can flood feeds and cause people to tune out, or worse – unfollow you. Quality always trumps quantity, and inundating your followers with superfluous updates can dilute your brand’s message and credibility. When in doubt, ask yourself if the content you’re posting is relevant and valuable to your audience. Also ask if it’s been long enough since you last posted on this topic. If you can’t confidently say ‘Yes,’ then hold off.
2. Using LinkedIn as a personal social media platform.
There are social media channels where it is appropriate to post memes, personal details, photos, and other personal information you’d like your family and friends to know. Your LinkedIn business page is not that platform. It’s also not the place for outright venting about your boss, complaining about a spouse, or sharing overly controversial opinions.
3. Sharing irrelevant or controversial content.
Sharing irrelevant content that doesn’t align with the interests of your audience can alienate much of your base. When it comes to “National Days,” holidays, and political opinions, it’s best to exercise restraint. Don’t share about a particular subject just because other people are doing so. If it doesn’t make sense for your brand, it’s okay to sit this one out. By the same token, not every personal opinion needs to be shared as a representation of the brand. For example, you may want to refrain from endorsing one particular political candidate over another or risk losing the ear – and possible business – of half of your base. If you do choose to engage in a hot topic debate on your business page (or personal page for that matter) then be ready to defend your position and respond to those who disagree with you in a friendly manner.
4. Sending generic connection requests or messages.
First and foremost, LinkedIn is a networking platform and making connections is the name of the game, however there are absolutely right (and wrong) ways to do so. Personalization is key when reaching out to connect with someone or sending messages on LinkedIn. Avoid sending generic connection requests or messages that lack context or relevance to the recipient. Take the time to personalize your outreach and explain why you want to connect or engage. Let each person know you have a connection in common or remind them that you met at an event or have admired their work and want to follow them on LinkedIn.
5. Neglecting to connect with people in your network.
We encourage all of our B2B clients to strive to gain 500+ followers for their LinkedIn pages. Why? Simply put, LinkedIn’s algorithms favor company pages with 500+ connections, making your posts more visible. Neglecting to connect with people in your network would be a disservice to your marketing efforts. Fortunately, LinkedIn makes it relatively easy to do so. The platform allows you to invite up to 30 people to follow your company page each month. According to LinkedIn, “You can invite your 1st-degree connections to follow your employer’s Page or any LinkedIn Page with fewer than 5,000 followers… only send Page invitations to connections who are likely to be interested in the Page.” We couldn’t agree more! No sense in wasting those valuable invitations as spam. Put some strategy behind who you invite and work on your messaging. And don’t forget to encourage team members to do the same on behalf of your organization.
6. Ignoring engagement and interactions.
We touched on this in part one of our LinkedIn best practices blog post, but we feel it’s worth repeating. LinkedIn is a social platform and engagement is essential for building relationships and expanding your network. Ignoring comments, messages, or connection requests can give the impression that you’re not interested in connecting. In doing so, you run the risk of alienating your current and future clientele. We recommend assigning someone at your company to be in charge of monitoring your company page and engaging when necessary. Oftentimes a “like” or a simple, “Thank you!” to a nice or congratulatory comment will suffice. Negative comments may take a bit more finessing, but there’s value in letting your followers see how your brand responds to these as well.
7. Misrepresenting your brand or achievements.
Finally, honesty and authenticity are crucial on LinkedIn. Avoid exaggerating or falsifying brand achievements, skills, or experience as this can damage your credibility. Instead, focus on fostering relationships with current clients and get their permission to tag them in posts, share testimonials, and promote case studies on your page (and website) instead.
When used right, LinkedIn can be a valuable part of your marketing strategy. If you need help building your brand awareness on LinkedIn reach out to insight180. We’re here to help!
