The complete guide to using LinkedIn for business

LinkedIn isn’t just a place to grow your professional network. It’s a place where you can attract top talent and market your brand to a B2B audience. That’s why you need an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy to grow your presence on the platform. For that, you need to learn how to use LinkedIn for business.

This post serves as a comprehensive guide on using LinkedIn for business marketing. We show you all the essential steps starting from how to build your business page. Let’s dive in.

Table of contents:

• How to create a LinkedIn business page
• How to use LinkedIn for business
• Benefits of using LinkedIn for business

How to create a LinkedIn business page

If you’re going to build a strategic presence on LinkedIn, the first thing you need is a business page. This page will serve as the go-to source of information on anything related to your business. Prospective clients will check out your content to gauge your expertise. Meanwhile, job applicants will use it to understand your company culture.

Follow the steps below to create a LinkedIn company page for your business.

Step 1: Start by creating a company page

Go to your LinkedIn homepage and click on the “For Business” drop-down menu at the top right-hand corner of the screen. Then select “Create a Company Page.”

Step 2: Select your page type

Select the type of page that represents your business–a company page, a showcase page or an educational institution page. If this is going to be the main company page, select the “Company” option. Showcase pages are sub-pages that you can later create to link to your main page.

Step 3: Fill out your company profile

You’ll need to provide your business name, industry, organization size and organization type. Optionally, you can include a website URL, add a tagline and upload your company logo. On the right-hand panel, you can see a preview of your page to see what it’ll look like to others.

Step 4: Create the page

Click on “Create Page” to finish creating your LinkedIn business page. Now your page is all set up.

From here, you’ll have the option to follow additional steps to improve your chances of success. This includes adding a description, including a location, following relevant pages and more.

Beyond these essential steps, check out our guide on how to build the perfect LinkedIn page for more help. This will provide you with additional best practices and tips to set your page up for success.

How to use LinkedIn for business

Now that you have a proper LinkedIn business page set up, it’s time to focus on how to use it. Check out the video below for a crash course on using LinkedIn for business, including content types and employee advocacy.

Decide on goals

To build a more effective LinkedIn presence, you’ll need to create specific goals for the platform. Take time to meet with representatives from your sales, product, customer service and human resources teams. That way, you’ll be able to identify the top priorities across different departments.

For example, sales team members might be more interested in how LinkedIn can increase web traffic and drive sales. Meanwhile, the human resources department might want to attract more quality hires from the platform.

These conversations will likely result in a lot of ideas. If you’re not sure what to prioritize, here are some questions to guide the process:

• Which audience are you trying to reach?
• What are they interested in?
• What is the action you want them to take after seeing your content?

Engage with your target audience

Just like on other social media platforms, engagement matters on LinkedIn.

Engage with your target audience by participating in relevant conversations. Comment on their posts to add valuable insights or answer important questions. So when their connections see your comments, they might want to learn more about your business.

Moreover, when you engage with others, they might want to reciprocate and engage with your content. This means you get to drive more engagement on your posts, which could boost visibility and get your content in front of the right people.

When people engage with content on LinkedIn, their activity sometimes shows up in the feeds of their connections. That means when someone comments on your post, there’s a chance that their connections will take notice of the post. That way, you could grow your reach and attract a relevant audience.

Maximize reach and visibility

Using LinkedIn for business is all about amplifying your reach so that more people can discover your brand. It is helpful to understand how the LinkedIn algorithm works to maximize your brand visibility through LinkedIn SEO. Another effective approach is to get your employees involved.

Chances are your employees already have a solid professional network on LinkedIn, and you want to tap into it to maximize your reach. One employee advocacy study found that branded messages had a much higher reach when employees share them. In fact, branded messages shared by employees had a 561% higher reach than when shared through branded channels.

Have your employees reshare your company’s LinkedIn posts and latest articles. And make sure they’re regularly providing their connections with the latest company updates. As representatives of your brand, they serve as a reliable source when it comes to information about your company. At the same time, they add a more personal touch to the message since it’s coming from real people.

At Sprout Social, team members regularly share product update info and branded content on LinkedIn. This puts a human face to the brand and helps us to build a more personal connection with our audience.

Showcase your expertise

People aren’t going to follow your company page just because it exists. They have to be able to derive some value out of it. That means you need to showcase your expertise and give them a reason to tune into your brand’s updates.

You can share thought leadership pieces that address relevant and trending topics in your industry. Follow LinkedIn best practices and make sure to add original thoughts and ideas to give these pieces a unique touch. This is a great way to show your audience that you know what you’re talking about.

Additionally, you could use native documents such as how-to guides, reports and case studies. These types of content are a great way to address the needs of people who are looking for helpful information. How-to guides will show that your team has expertise in the field. Surveys and reports show your in-depth knowledge of the industry. Meanwhile, case studies serve as proof of your team’s capability.

For example, Semrush regularly shares how-to guides and practical tips related to SEO. It provides informative answers to pressing questions and guides the audience on how to do certain things. This has helped to establish the brand as an authority figure in all things related to SEO.

Track ROI with LinkedIn analytics

To maximize the potential of LinkedIn for your business, it’s important to make data-driven decisions. Best practices and assumptions can only get you so far. Instead, you need to look at what your LinkedIn data is telling you to fine-tune your strategy and get more out of the platform.

The native LinkedIn Analytics tool can provide you with valuable data about your page performance. You’ll be able to learn about how many people visited your page, how many followers you gained and more. You can even look at the performance of your content in terms of impressions and engagement.

Use these insights to understand how certain strategies impacted your performance. For example, did you see a spike in visitors after sharing your latest report? Or perhaps you might notice that certain types of posts are getting significantly more engagement than others. This should be able to inform how to improve your strategy and get more out of LinkedIn for your business. If your company requires more detailed data, a third-party LinkedIn analytics tool may be a better solution.

Benefits of using LinkedIn for business

So if you follow the tips above, what do you have to gain? How can you benefit from using LinkedIn for business marketing? Let’s take a look.

Builds influence and credibility

An active presence on LinkedIn helps you demonstrate your credibility. People can go to your LinkedIn page to find all the information they need about your business.

LinkedIn lets you update your page with all the essential details such as your company size and location. Plus, you can include additional details about your social impact, work-life balance and so on. By providing easy access to this information, you can showcase your credibility and earn the trust of your audience.

Moreover, you have the opportunity to use your LinkedIn business page to build your influence. This may involve consistently showcasing your expertise through valuable content. You could share thought leadership pieces and practical information related to your industry. Eventually, this will help you establish your authority in the field and build your influence.

Grows your audience

LinkedIn gives you access to a massive network of job seekers and B2B consumers. According to the latest LinkedIn stats, the platform has over 900 million members worldwide. While they may not all be relevant to your business, you still have millions of people you could potentially reach. With the right tactics, LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to exponentially grow your audience.

Develops relationships with your community

LinkedIn is the hub of conversations in the professional community. You’ll find people discussing everything from job opportunities to the impact of ChatGPT. These conversations serve as an effective tool to build relationships within your community.

You could join relevant LinkedIn Groups and participate in trending conversations. You could even start the conversation yourself and encourage people to share their thoughts. All this engagement eventually helps you build a relationship with the right people.

Ready to use LinkedIn for your business?

As the largest online professional network, LinkedIn is a goldmine for businesses that want to reach B2B consumers. Make the most of the steps provided above to get started with the platform.

Already have a LinkedIn strategy but not sure if you’re doing it right? Use our LinkedIn for Business worksheet to see where you currently stand.