LinkedIn is a social media platform designed specifically for professional networking and career development. With over 800 million members worldwide, LinkedIn has become an invaluable tool for businesses and professionals across all industries. But what exactly is LinkedIn used for when it comes to business? Here is an in-depth look at the many ways companies and professionals leverage LinkedIn.
Recruiting and Hiring
One of the most popular uses of LinkedIn for businesses is recruiting and hiring. With so many professionals on LinkedIn looking for new job opportunities, it has essentially become a massive database of potential candidates. Here are some of the key ways businesses use LinkedIn for recruiting and hiring:
- Posting job listings – Companies can post job openings directly to their LinkedIn Company Page or LinkedIn Jobs to reach qualified candidates.
- Searching member profiles – Recruiters and hiring managers can search LinkedIn member profiles using keywords to find candidates with the skills, experience, and other attributes they are looking for.
- Contacting potential candidates – Businesses can directly contact LinkedIn members they are interested in recruiting through InMail messages.
- Advertising open positions – LinkedIn’s self-serve ads platform allows companies to create customized ads to promote their job openings and target specific member demographics.
- Leveraging recruiting tools – LinkedIn Recruiter and other LinkedIn Talent Solutions provide robust tools for identifying, contacting, and managing candidates through the recruiting process.
In short, LinkedIn has become a go-to platform for companies looking to hire for open positions across every department and function.
Company Branding
LinkedIn also provides valuable opportunities for companies to build and strengthen their employer brand. Some of the ways businesses can boost their brand through LinkedIn include:
- Creating an eye-catching Company Page – This allows businesses to showcase their products/services, culture, values, leadership team, career opportunities, and more.
- Posting regular updates – By regularly posting company news, content, videos, images, etc. brands can increase engagement and followers.
- Encouraging employees to share updates – Having employees share company updates on their own LinkedIn profiles helps expand the company’s reach.
- Watching follower statistics – Businesses can track follower growth and engagement metrics to measure their employer brand strength on LinkedIn.
- Sponsoring content – Companies can sponsor LinkedIn posts and articles to get their content and brand in front of more members.
- Purchasing ads – LinkedIn ads can help brands promote content, boost followers, drive traffic to their Career Page, and more.
Investing in employer branding on LinkedIn can help attract and retain top talent while also raising brand awareness and credibility with customers/clients.
Lead Generation
With access to hundreds of millions of professionals, LinkedIn is also a powerful lead generation tool for B2B companies. LinkedIn enables businesses to:
- Identify prospects – Use LinkedIn’s advanced search filters and Saved Leads feature to build targeted prospect lists.
- Join relevant LinkedIn Groups – Engage with prospects by joining Groups related to your industry or target audiences.
- Leverage content marketing – Create and share content to organically attract prospects.
- Utilize targeted ads – Create customized campaigns with robust targeting options to reach your ideal prospects.
- Send InMail messages – Directly contact key prospects identified through LinkedIn with these direct messages.
- Expand networks – Connect with prospects and ask for introductions to expand your network.
The depth of personal and professional data on LinkedIn makes it possible for sales and marketing teams to pinpoint ideal potential customers and decision-makers.
Market Research
The wealth of professional data and demographics available on LinkedIn also makes it an invaluable platform for conducting market research. Some examples of how businesses use LinkedIn for market research purposes include:
- Competitive analysis – Identify key competitors and analyze their LinkedIn Company Pages, content strategies, ads, followers, etc.
- Leadership research – Review profiles of executives at target prospect companies to identify decision-makers.
- Industry research – Join relevant Groups and analyze discussions to uncover industry trends, challenges, and opportunities.
- Audience research – Use LinkedIn’s Audience Insights to assess target audience demographics, interests, and preferences.
- Influencer research – Identify key influencers within your industry to potentially partner with.
The insights uncovered through market research on LinkedIn can be invaluable in shaping business and marketing strategies.
Talent Branding
Along with branding their company, LinkedIn also enables professionals to build their own personal brand and reputation. Key ways LinkedIn can be used for talent branding include:
- Crafting a robust profile summary – This section should sell your skills, experience, and achievements.
- Customizing your LinkedIn URL – Make it easy for people to share and remember your profile link.
- Showcasing credentials – Highlight licenses, certifications, test scores, volunteer work, publications, patents, courses, etc.
- Collecting recommendations – Ask managers, colleagues, clients, etc. to post recommendations on your profile.
- Sharing content and insights – Post articles, videos, presentations, and other content to demonstrate your thought leadership.
- Growing your network – Connect with colleagues, peers, industry leaders, and clients to expand your reach.
Professionals who actively manage their personal brand on LinkedIn can enhance their career opportunities, establish themselves as experts, and attract new opportunities.
Sales Prospecting
LinkedIn is a salesperson’s dream when it comes to identifying, connecting with, and selling to prospects. Sales teams can capitalize on LinkedIn in many ways:
- Finding contact info – Email addresses and phone numbers are readily available for many LinkedIn members.
- Qualifying leads – Customer demographics, employment details, and interests help qualify prospects.
- Personalized outreach – Salespeople can reference shared connections, interests, groups, and content in outreach messages.
- Establishing relationships – Free LinkedIn communication tools make it easy to establish rapport with prospects before asking for a sale.
- Generating referrals – See which prospects are connected to existing customers to obtain warm introductions.
- Convincing prospects – LinkedIn profiles and activity can validate a salesperson’s expertise and credibility.
With LinkedIn’s sales tools and wealth of professional data, sales teams can significantly boost lead generation, prospecting, and sales conversions.
Thought Leadership & Influence
From an individual perspective, LinkedIn presents professionals the chance to establish thought leadership and influence within their industry. Some of the ways LinkedIn empowers thought leadership building include:
- Sharing insights – Post long-form content, articles, and essays to share unique insights and perspectives.
- Publishing on LinkedIn – The LinkedIn Publishing Platform allows members to publish content that appears like standard posts.
- Giving advice – Provide commentary, advice, and best practices to establish expertise.
- Joining conversations – Weigh in on relevant discussions and debates happening within your industry.
- Offering commentary – Comment on other members’ posts and articles to offer informed opinions.
- Building followers – Draw more readers by proactively growing your base of LinkedIn followers.
From a company perspective, thought leadership and influence on LinkedIn can increase brand awareness, establish credibility, drive website traffic, boost engagement, and attract talent.
Networking & Relationships
At its core, LinkedIn is designed to help professionals network, forge connections, and build relationships. Key networking opportunities on LinkedIn include:
- Connecting with colleagues – Easily stay in touch and collaborate with current and former coworkers.
- Keeping up with clients – Maintain relationships with existing clients by seeing their updates.
- Reconnecting with old contacts – Search for and connect with previous colleagues, college alumni, etc.
- Meeting new people – Interact with other professionals at events, in Groups, through content, and more.
- International networking – LinkedIn makes it simple to connect with professionals abroad.
- Reference sharing – Prospects and partners can easily see who you know through shared connections.
The contacts and relationships cultivated on LinkedIn can lead to career opportunities, business partnerships, client deals, invaluable advice, and more.
Staying Current
From industry news and trends to opportunities and events, LinkedIn serves as an invaluable hub for staying current. Ways professionals and businesses stay in the know through LinkedIn include:
- Seeing industry updates – Follow Companies, Groups, Influencers, and Hashtags to get relevant articles and news in your feed.
- Reading posted articles – Discover a wide range of useful business articles shared within your network.
- Joining Group discussions – Take part in conversations about timely industry topics within specific Groups.
- Receiving notifications – Choose to be notified whenever targeted Companies, Groups, or Hashtags post updates.
- Attending virtual events – Watch free, live-streamed events organized by LinkedIn focused on trends and best practices.
Staying on top of the latest news, events, and discussion topics on LinkedIn can help professionals and businesses identify opportunities, prepare for challenges, and remain competitive.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn provides an incredibly versatile platform that enables professionals and businesses to:
- Recruit and hire top talent
- Build powerful brands and boost credibility
- Generate quality leads for sales prospecting
- Conduct insightful market research
- Establish thought leadership and influence
- Network and cultivate relationships
- Stay updated on industry trends and opportunities
With unmatched professional data and powerful tools for networking, communication, content marketing, and more, it’s no wonder that LinkedIn has become the go-to social media platform for career and business advancement for hundreds of millions of members across the globe.