Blog : LinkedIn

LinkedIn Best Practices: What Not To Do
Andrea Kagey

LinkedIn Best Practices: What Not To Do

Out of all of the social platforms out there, LinkedIn is the best when it comes to promoting a professional presence, maintaining industry relationships, building new networks, and creating brand awareness. While it’s useful to know successful strategies for optimizing your LinkedIn business page, there is equal value in knowing what kinds of posting habits can hurt your brand too. Read our latest blog post for Part Two in our LinkedIn series to learn about the top seven things we discourage our insight180 clients from doing on LinkedIn. Read more here.

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LinkedIn Best Practices: Elevate Your Brand Page
Andrea Kagey

LinkedIn Best Practices: Elevate Your Brand Page

When it comes to making an impact on LinkedIn, building your brand awareness should be a priority. Whether you're a seasoned industry leader or a budding startup, mastering the art of LinkedIn branding is key to elevating your brand and unlocking new opportunities in the digital landscape. Here are insight180’s top ten essential strategies for optimizing your LinkedIn business page to leverage the platform to its full potential.

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Social Media Dimensions Made Simple: Your 2018 Blueprint
insight 180 team

Social Media Dimensions Made Simple: Your 2018 Blueprint

Social media is ever-changing. The networking platforms’ newsfeed algorithms are constantly updated. Topic and engagement trends evolve quickly. And because social media platforms are frequently updating their layouts, recommended dimensions for profile, cover and other images change on a whim. READ MORE

How-To: Creating a LinkedIn Company Page
Tara Urso

How-To: Creating a LinkedIn Company Page

[Editor’s Note: This post was recently featured in Social Media Today. Well done, Tara!]

As some of our previous posts have detailed, LinkedIn is an extremely useful tool for recruiting,  job hunting and networking. Now with Company Pages, LinkedIn can also be used as a powerful tool and enhancement to your content marketing plan.

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LinkedIn Company Pages
Bethany Howell

LinkedIn Company Pages

Just under a year ago in November 2011 LinkedIn updated the capabilities of their company pages, enabling company pages to have followers and enabling company admins to share status updates with their followers. This enabled companies, and especially small companies, to become more engaged with their LinkedIn networks.

This week LinkedIn has rolled out a new design to select companies, like American Express, Citi, and Expedia. LinkedIn has said the redesign will be available to everyone, “later this year.” I will be looking forward to this. LinkedIn company pages offer a lot of value, which is often overlooked by businesses. I understand why people do not want to hassle with company pages; even I find myself getting frustrated with the layout and navigation of company pages at times. However, with the new design released, hopefully there will be no more excuses – because LinkedIn company pages really should be utilized.

To publish or not to publish? Considerations on using LinkedIn company pages.
  • LinkedIn is a network of professionals, so what better place is there to show you are a thought leader in your industry than sharing your knowledge via LinkedIn? Through updates, you can share thoughts as well as links to your blog and articles you find of interest. If you use Facebook for marketing, you are probably familiar with this concept. However, here your audience is much more targeted, and if you are a B2B company, LinkedIn company pages can be a great tool to help boost lead generation.
  • You can use rich media. You can post videos, pictures, and hyperlinks in your status updates. Using mixed media, you can really engage your followers. With the new design, which hopefully we will all have access to soon, companies will be allowed to post an image to complement the company. This will help with branding and identity.
  • Just like your personal profile, it is best to fill out your company page with as many details as possible. You want to inform potential customers who your ideal client is. Use the products page to tell about your products and services. What I really love about this is that on the product page, you can write a description of your product or service as well as post an image, a You Tube video, and a link to any landing page. This can be a great way to sell – show the product, what it does, and then direct back to your site so you can convert your followers into clients.
  • With the new design, company pages will be available on the iPhone, Android and iPad. There will also be better navigation, as members will be able to view updates in a stream. And as I mentioned earlier, companies will be able to post a photo that will display across the top of their profile. This will help with branding and identity on LinkedIn.

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    Best Practices for LinkedIn
    Bethany Howell

    Best Practices for LinkedIn

    Be professional
    Always Look Professional:  the little things that make a big difference in LinkedIn

    No, I am not talking about wearing a freshly pressed suit and a tie, although sometimes that is entirely appropriate. I am referring to looking professional across your social media channels.

    At insight180, we often tell clients that even if you are a solopreneur, you need to appear as professional as a Fortune 500 company. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to ensure that your marketing and branding are up-to-date and professional in style and content. And today when social media is being used so prevalently as a marketing tool, you need to make sure that this professionalism is incorporated in your online social media presence.

    What do I mean by this? Sure your content can portray your expertise and sound professional, but how can you ensure that your social media looks professional? Sometimes this means that you’ve proofed your online profiles for mistakes, and sometimes this means following best practices for  each social media channel. Below is a list of ways to ensure professionalism in your LinkedIn profile. (Be sure to follow up with part II of this post, Looking Professional on Facebook and Twitter.)

    The first step is to fill out your profile 100%. This may sound easy, but don’t fool yourself – this will take time and patience, and will be beneficial in the long run. Include a summary of details about your current and previous work experiences and skills, etc. Take the time to fill out each section of your profile as thoroughly as you can. Also be sure to link your profile to your website, blog, and other social media channels.

    If possible, it is even better to go above and beyond 100%. Enhance your profile using the applications that LinkedIn offers. Go to the “more” tab on the LinkedIn home page and click the “get more applications…” option. Then search through the applications offered and determine which ones will benefit you. You can use the Portfolio Display to show off your creative work, use SlideShare to share PowerPoints you created, WordPress to link to your blog, and many more.

    WAIT! I know you want to start making these changes now, but hold on! Before you do any of this, it is important to turn off your activity broadcast. Whenever you change your profile information, LinkedIn will send a message to your connections that you have updated your profile. However, if you are making lots of changes or just building up your profile for the first time, your connections will receive many messages regarding your changes, and this can appear unprofessional. You can turn the broadcasts on and off from the settings page. (You can access this by going to https://www.linkedin.com/settings/ or select it from the drop down box under your name in the right hand corner of your screen.) After you finish updating your profile, be sure to turn the broadcast back on so that your connections can see your valuable activity.

    In addition, while you are in the settings tab, I would recommend changing your public profile so that there is no string of numbers attached. Doesn’t http://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleloeb look more professional than

    http://www.linkedin.com/pub/michelle-loeb/40/562/698

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