By Josephine Kim, Business Manager

Everyone is used to LinkedIn as being your professional profile for showcasing your work accomplishments. If you’re a super user, you’ll be following your top companies for their latest news or updates. But that’s all it was, a generic marketing tool for those looking for jobs and for companies just trying to be relevant in a social media universe.

Today, LinkedIn is THE tool to use to market your company to help generate new business and nurture professional relationships. Not to mention looking for jobs or looking for the right candidates for its recruiting function. Don’t believe me? Do you know how many users are on this platform? According to Kinsta, LinkedIn has over 740M users with over 55M companies registered and have their own company pages. In Hoosuite’s 2022 Digital Global Trends, Bill Gates has over 35M followers.

OK, so what? Yes, there are millions of users on LinkedIn, but how do I even reach them? Of course, there’s the route of LinkedIn advertising, but let’s say you have a limited budget. How do you even reach organically? Take a picture of yourself or share an authentic story of yourself that ties back to your company’s missions and values. 

Don’t believe this will work? Here’s an example: 

Yes, it’s exactly what it looks like. It’s Mike Tessler in his pool rocking a BroadSoft Connections hat. Now, look at the metrics…10K+ impressions, 178 reactions and 33 comments. Still don’t believe me? Here’s a picture Mike took at Enterprise Connect with Alex Doyle.

This single post got 17k+ impressions, 278 reactions, and 88 comments! LinkedIn is weird.

The content that people WANT to see is authenticity. They want to know there is a person behind that company page and sharing stories of how they solve a particular problem, whether that’s in collaboration or customer experience. We, at True North, have been trying to figure out how LinkedIn works over the years and we’ve found the following most effective in creating brand awareness and getting engagement:

• Relate to your target audience - while it’s great to hear about a new feature or winning a new customer, how does this resonate with a potential new customer? What problem does it solve for them? You want to craft your message to ensure that you are also trying to connect with your ideal customer.

• Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator - for those looking to experiment with campaigns or make new connections, use this tool. It’s easy to use, and you can filter out different companies based on job title, geography, seniority, and much more. It also helps narrow down your search if you’re looking for the right person to connect with at your targeted company. We’ve run these campaigns for many of our clients, and they’ve gained new leads and prospects this way.

• Align your messaging - you’d be surprised how some of the messaging on your website may not match with what you post on social media. So ensure that you’re messaging and content are all aligned with what’s current with your company. Otherwise, you will seriously confuse your target audience and lose credibility.

What have been your success stories with LinkedIn marketing? Share any posts that you didn’t think would get a lot of engagement, but exceeded your expectations.