Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business
Page 7
■ 1st-degree connections are your friends
■ 2nd-degree connections are friends of your friends
■ 3rd-degree connections are friends of your friends’ friends
Here’s how it works. If you connect with me on LinkedIn, we become 1st-degree connections. My network of 15,000+ connections and growing daily becomes part of your 2nd-degree network. For every 1st-degree connection you make, their network becomes part of your 2nd-degree network. This is why your LinkedIn network is so powerful. You are one step away or one introduction away from millions of business professionals. So choose your Communications settings wisely. You can see what that menu looks like in Figure 5–8.
FIGURE 5–8. Communications Settings
A new feature in LinkedIn messages is the Messaging Reply Suggestions, which I have turned on. When you are messaging with another person, LinkedIn will autosuggest a response to save time. It’s convenient when you are on your mobile device and want to reply in a timely manner, but the suggested messages can be too simple or even cheesy at times, like “Sweet” or “Cool.” See Figure 5–9 on page 59 for some examples of the reply suggestions.
CONCLUSION
If you are a consultant or business owner and want to get your name out there, I see no reason to block any of your content from the search engines. You are on LinkedIn so people can find you, and blocking your listing from search engines is self-defeating. It would be similar to having an unlisted phone number for your business. Opening up your profile completely will get your target keywords into the search engines, giving you maximum exposure.
FIGURE 5–9. Reply Suggestions
In the next chapter, we’ll take a tour of your LinkedIn homepage. I’ll show you how to customize your homepage layout so you can easily see a snapshot of your important LinkedIn data.
For additional updates and how-to videos, visit https://tedprodromou.com/UltimateGuideUpdates/.
Chapter 6
A Tour of Your LinkedIn Homepage
Now that you have a basic account set up, let’s take a tour of your LinkedIn homepage. Every LinkedIn member has their own customizable homepage. When LinkedIn redesigned its platform in 2017, your newsfeed became the heart of your LinkedIn experience. You subscribe to content you want to appear in your newsfeed so you can easily see what’s important to you in a single glance. Figure 6–1 on page 62 is a view of a typical LinkedIn homepage as seen on a desktop computer (the mobile view is obviously different). As you tour the homepage, note the following 11 features:
1. LinkedIn Search. This is where you search for people, companies, and Groups on LinkedIn. I’ll show you how to do advanced searches on LinkedIn in Chapter 8.
2. Toolbar. This is your LinkedIn toolbar or menu and notifications section. When you have new LinkedIn mail or notifications (e.g., if someone comments on your status update or accepts your invitation to connect), the icon will show the number of new notifications. Currently, I have seven new notifications.
Your LinkedIn toolbar or menu options include:
– Home. Obviously, this takes you back to your LinkedIn homepage.
FIGURE 6–1. A Typical LinkedIn Homepage
– My Network. Add and manage your LinkedIn connections.
– Jobs. Post and manage job openings for your company, look for a job, and access premium services like Premium Career or Premium Career and Recruiter. I’ll explain the premium solutions in Chapters 18 and 19.
– Messaging. Send and receive your LinkedIn messages.
– Notifications. Notifies you when your network is active or you receive activity on your LinkedIn posts.
– Me. View and edit your LinkedIn profile as well as manage your settings and privacy.
– Work. Access companies, Groups, and education.
– Sales Navigator. If you subscribe to Sales Navigator, this is where you access it. If you are not a premium member, it will say Try Premium Free for One Month.
3. Self-Service Text Ads. Near the top of Figure 6–1 above, you can see where your LinkedIn Text Ads will be displayed.
4. Share an Update Box. This is where you post your status updates, create articles, or post videos.
5. Profile Snapshot. This widget lets you see a snapshot of your LinkedIn profile photo and headline. This widget also provides quick access to Who’s Viewed Your Profile, Views of Your Post, and all premium features if you subscribe to premium services.
6. Your Communities. These are hashtags or topics you can follow in your newsfeed. You can follow topics, thought leaders, or companies.
7. Newsfeed. This is where status updates and company news will appear. You can control the updates you see in this area by clicking on the three dots in the upper right corner of a post in your newsfeed then selecting Improve my feed.
8. What People Are Talking About Now. This is where LinkedIn shares breaking news from around the world that people are responding to.
9. LinkedIn Learning. This is for relevant courses from LinkedIn Learning, which is part of your premium subscription.
10. Promoted Self-Service Ads. When you place self-service ads with an image, they will appear here. See Figure 6–2 on page 64.
11. People Also Viewed. This widget shows you similar profiles that were recently viewed (see Figure 6–2). The LinkedIn algorithm creates a profile of you based on data in your profile and associates you with other professionals. Your LinkedIn profile will appear in front of thousands of people every day in this widget.
Figure 6–2 shows additional widgets displayed on your LinkedIn dashboard when you are viewing someone’s profile. Next let’s take a look at the mobile version of the homepage.
LINKEDIN MOBILE APP HOMEPAGE
The LinkedIn mobile app homepage layout obviously has less real estate than the desktop version, so you won’t see all the features shown above. The mobile homepage contains:
1. LinkedIn search
2. Toolbar or menu
3. Share an update box
4. Profile snapshot
FIGURE 6–2. Additional Widgets in Your LinkedIn Sidebar
5. Your communities
6. Newsfeed
Figure 6–3 on page 65 shows you what the mobile app homepage looks like.
CONCLUSION
You are now familiar with your LinkedIn homepage and how you can configure it to display the newsfeed content that is most relevant to you. The goal of the homepage is to provide you with an efficient snapshot of your LinkedIn experience, including your newsfeed, network updates, new connection invitations, industry news, messaging, and more.
FIGURE 6–3. LinkedIn Mobile App Homepage
In the next chapter, I’ll show you how to set up your LinkedIn company page and customize it to give your company maximum exposure.
For additional updates and how-to videos, visit https://tedprodromou.com/UltimateGuideUpdates/.
Chapter 7
LinkedIn for Companies
LinkedIn Pages are like a LinkedIn personal profile for your company. Your company page is a mini-website for your company, but it’s located on LinkedIn, so it’s easy for members to find. You’ll want to use some of the same SEO techniques that you used for your personal profile when you’re setting up your company page, which I’ll show you later in this chapter.
LinkedIn revamped company pages in 2018 to improve the user experience and increase brand awareness by making the pages more engaging. Now called LinkedIn Pages, you can add Showcase pages so it’s easier for companies to feature their products and services. It’s also easier to recruit new employees by featuring job openings and letting job seekers learn more about your company and your culture.
Your company page will always appear when a member types your company’s name in LinkedIn’s search box on his homepage or on the Companies link on the top toolbar under More. Your LinkedIn Page will also appear in Google search results. Because LinkedIn is a very popular and trusted website, LinkedIn Pages rank well in Google. This is very significan
t because people can view your LinkedIn Page even if they aren’t logged into the site, giving your company significant exposure. So make sure your company page is complete and updated frequently with your latest company news and product offerings.
Your LinkedIn Page will also appear when someone:
■ Views the LinkedIn profile of one of your employees
■ Receives a notification when your products or services are recommended by one of your employees’ connections
■ Sees an open position in your company via a job search under Jobs You May Be Interested In
■ Sees your company under Similar pages, which appears in the right sidebar on your homepage
■ Follows your company and receives status updates
LINKEDIN PROFILE TIP
Your LinkedIn Pages url will be www.linkedin.com/company/YourCompany-Name.
For LinkedIn members, company pages, now called LinkedIn Pages, are a great way to research companies. They are a treasure trove of detailed information, including company size, office locations, key executives, product offerings, and career opportunities. When you do a search from the LinkedIn top toolbar and switch the search type to Companies under the More tab, you will see search results from the company page (if there is one) and all companies that work closely or partner with that company.
For example, when you do a company search for Microsoft, you will see the Microsoft company page followed by a list of Microsoft Certified Partners. Click on the Microsoft company page, and you’ll find a list of people in your network who are affiliated with Microsoft. You’ll also be provided with a list of Microsoft employees who are your 1st-, 2nd-, or 3rd-degree connections.
You can follow companies on their company page so you can stay up-to-date with their new products or services, review their products or services, and see who they are hiring. You can also follow competitors and learn what they’re up to.
LinkedIn Pages also let your customers and prospects get to know the people in your company. You can feature the employees behind your brand and show how customers use your products. Your company page is a great way to solidify your reputation and build trust with your clients and prospects.
COMPONENTS OF A COMPANY PROFILE
Before we dive more deeply into how to optimize your company’s profile, let’s look at the features of a typical company profile page. Figure 7–1 on page 69 shows a typical company profile.
FIGURE 7–1. A Typical Company Profile
Overview of Your Company Homepage
The Home tab shows the viewer a snapshot of your company, including your recent updates, a brief description of your company, and all employees in the network, including 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-degree connections. You can also display your company’s blog posts on the Home tab. It’s a great way to give people a quick overview of your company and an opportunity for you to make a direct connection with them.
How You’re Connected
This information is located on the right side of the header. It shows who you are directly connected to in this company and the total number of employees who are on LinkedIn.
Jobs
This is where any job openings you’ve posted on LinkedIn will appear. If you purchase a Premium Talent Solutions package, you can also add a brief description of your company culture so people can get a good idea of how fantastic it is to work there. The Career Pages also let you feature top employees and create targeted messaging to help fill your open positions quickly with the best talent. To learn more about Career Pages and Talent Solutions visit https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/company-career-pages.
Showcase Pages
You can feature your products and services on this sidebar widget. When a prospect or customer visits this page, they see how many of their network connections comment on, like, or share posts on the Showcase Page.
You can create a directory-style listing of your Showcase Pages in your sidebar. Each product or service can have its own page, including descriptions, features, images, display banners, videos, and special offers.
Feed Ads
LinkedIn advertising lets you promote posts from your company page as Feed Ads. When you sponsor an update, the post from your company page is featured in the timeline of a specified audience, using the same targeting you use in normal LinkedIn ads. This lets you get your message in front of your target audience so they’ll see your Feed Ad in their personal timeline. You can read more about LinkedIn advertising in Chapter 20.
Analytics
This tab is visible only to an administrator of your company page. The Analytics tab shows you who your visitors are, what they do, and which other companies they follow. You can use this to gain valuable insight into what content they are most interested in, their job function, industry, company, and which products they are researching.
Updates
This data tells you exactly how many impressions your company updates reach, how many people click on the content, how many interactions (likes, shares, and comments) you are getting, how many new followers resulted from each post, and the engagement percentage.
Followers
This is where you see the demographics of who’s following your company. You’ll see how many people organically followed you and the number of people who followed you from promotions. You can sort your followers by seniority, industry, company size, function, and employee/nonemployee. This gives you valuable insight into the professionals who follow your company so you can structure Sponsored Content and other promotions targeted to your audience. You’ll also see Follower Trends and How You Compare with similar companies.
Demographic Data
This data is similar to what you can get using Google Analytics but from LinkedIn’s perspective. You’ll see the number of visitors to your company page, so you’ll know which content and products they’re most interested in. You can also sort your visitor data by seniority, industry, company size, function, and employee/nonemployee. You will also see how many new Followers you have, where they are located, their job function, seniority, industry, and company size.
COMPANY STATUS UPDATES
Company status updates are posts made to share company news, product releases, promotions, or relevant industry news. Company status updates are a powerful communication tool, allowing you to send messages and links directly to your followers.
Company posts can be seen on the company’s Overview tab by any LinkedIn member and in a member’s network update stream. If you follow the company, you will see the company status updates directly on your homepage, so it’s easy to know what’s happening with that company, your competitors, or in your industry. All LinkedIn members can view company status updates, click on embedded links, or view posted videos. They can also comment on, like, or share a company status update, allowing your updates to spread virally to grow your following and engage your members.
CREATING YOUR COMPANY PAGE
When you are ready to create your company page, go to your main menu, Work, Create a company page.
Next choose Small Business, Medium to Large Business, Showcase Page or Educational Institution. You will enter a wizard (shown in Figure 7–2 on page 72) that will guide you through the setup of your new company page. Enter your company name, claim your LinkedIn public URL, your website URL, Industry, Company Size, Company Type, upload your logo and enter a short tagline or brief description of your company. Next check the box next to the verification message: “I verify that I am the official representative of this company and have the right to act on behalf of the company in the creation of this page.” Click Create Page and your page will be created.
FIGURE 7–2. Company Page Setup Wizard
Designate at least two administrators for your company page. You may want to add more if you work for a large company and will have a lot of activity on your page. For example, if you will be posting a lot of job openings, you can designate a member of your human resources department as an administrator and allow them
to post and remove job openings. It would be smart to have an administrator from each major department, such as HR, sales, public relations, and marketing, so they can each efficiently manage their areas of your company page. The marketing person could manage the Products & Services section, public relations could post your Share updates with current company news and product announcements, and sales could monitor the discussions in case any presales questions are posted.
It’s imperative that you assign someone to constantly monitor your page for inappropriate content. Any offending content should be removed immediately.
That said, negative remarks don’t necessarily have to be removed, if you address them in an appropriate way. Every company has at least a small number of dissatisfied customers who may post negative comments about their products. Instead of removing the comments, you can respond in a positive way by addressing the issue publicly. Sometimes it’s a simple misunderstanding of how to use the product, which you can explain. On other occasions, there could be a legitimate problem with your product or service. If this is the case, then proper communication with the customer could resolve the conflict and even build your company’s reputation. Admitting mistakes, offering speedy solutions, and promoting strong communication demonstrates that you care about your customers and provide excellent service.
CONCLUSION