Your LinkedIn profile is on-board, it is optimized and your network is growing…so now what? Well, most people after creating a profile disappear from LinkedIn and come back only when they are willing to get recruited or want to recruit. However, LinkedIn is more than just a place to house your profile or a place to source new employees or keep track of colleagues.

Acquired by Microsoft in 2016, LinkedIn is a powerful marketing and lead generation tool. It allows businesses to offer professional services, build credibility, create a meaningful network and nurture that network by sharing their best content. With more than 690 million members, it would be pretty foolish to use this platform only as an online Rolodex. In fact, there are different marketing tools offered by LinkedIn for every business size and type from large to B2C to B2B.

And, here’s how you can leverage LinkedIn for business.

Share Posts with rich content

One general rule for using LinkedIn is – Don’t be just a lurker. You must post content in the form of videos, images, and other media to keep your business always under the spotlight. Instead of just looking at what your competitors are doing, you need to jump in and take action for yourself. According to LinkedIn posts with images get around 98% more comments and videos get around 5X more engagement than any other content type. Also, when it comes to images, it is best to avoid stock ones and use custom images.

Use your LinkedIn page to share blog content from your website, or promote an event, or announce new products. Share anything that you believe will offer value to your prospects. Just make sure that it’s visually appealing as it needs to stand out in a sea of compelling content.

Make use of LinkedIn group

There are groups on LinkedIn that are perfect for businesses –

1. Entrepreneur & Small Business Forum
2. LinkedIn Small Business Innovators
3. Small Business & Independent Consultant Network

You can join groups related to your niche to make connections, spot influencers, or acquire new ideas related to your business. Moreover, you can also build and manage your own LinkedIn group. It will help you to build an audience, attract new members, and propagate your Brand. However, instead of using this group to promote your brand, you should build a community with thought-leadership content.

Target customers with LinkedIn Ads

Like all other social media channels, LinkedIn also allows you to run an ad to target a specific audience. To begin with, LinkedIn ads are of three categories: sponsored ads, text ads, and sponsored InMail. Each of these has a different purpose and appears in front of your customers in different ways.

Sponsored ads appear directly in the LinkedIn feed of users you target in the form of either single images, videos, or carousel ads. These can be great to move the needle for your business, you can use them to attract new customers and build your business following on LinkedIn.

Next, text ads appear at the top of all LinkedIn pages in a bar. They are perfect to drive traffic towards your business landing page. Lastly, the sponsored InMail can be used to deliver content directly to the Inmail account of your clients or businesses.

Learn from LinkedIn Analytics

To check the effectiveness of your LinkedIn marketing campaign it is important to keep an eye on its analytics regularly. Track post metrics to make out what people engaged with the most, what kind of post drove the most action, and what didn’t click with the audience. Also, with LinkedIn analytics see how people find your LinkedIn company page and what sections do they most engaged with. When you do this, you will know what needs to be changed in your marketing strategy and you can adjust your content calendar accordingly.

Wrapping it up, LinkedIn isn’t your average social media channel. It holds a huge audience of people who are professionals, experts, and leaders in different niches. Here, you can manage your professional identity, build and engage a professional network, acquire knowledge, and find compelling opportunities that will help your brand grow.