For far-reaching, cost-effective marketing, social media channels can be useful. But do you use LinkedIn for your UK business growth?
Wherever you are in your professional journey, LinkedIn can be an effective way of expanding your personal online profile, as well as growing awareness of your business.
As a business-focused platform, you can make quality connections with other professionals, share industry insights and news, and continue your professional development with educational tools.
LinkedIn UK Business Uses
I, like many entrepreneurs, use the platform frequently. Initially, it was to find LinkedIn UK users and companies, but it has more recently helped build the international connections I need. It is not only a valuable way to grow personal and business brand awareness, but is also an excellent way to build your contacts.
As you develop a new business, finding the right partners and suppliers can be crucial. LinkedIn is a tool to help you achieve that.
Alongside your personal profile, you need a company page for each business you wish to promote. This is another platform to explain what the business does, and it doesn’t hurt with your Google rankings either.
Advantages
Generating Leads
LinkedIn is an effective network for generating leads. It offers a more personal way to discover new leads, engage them, and convert them into customers.
Of course, you still need a strategy and good content. Listen, analyse, participate, share, respond, and network – make the connections, build the relationships, and post what your potential customers are interested in.
LinkedIn can be most effective when you become a resource to your network. You share content that is relevant and helpful to them, indirectly building a feeling of trust and reliability.
Extend this idea by ensuring that your company page is updated with information that your connections will not only find relevant and helpful, but will also underline the ways your business can help them.
Establishing yourself and your company as experts in a field among a network of decision-makers gives you traction when they need the services you deliver.
Quality Business Connections
What makes LinkedIn potentially more valuable to UK businesses than Twitter and Instagram, for example, is the people who use it.
Most users are forward-thinking professionals and entrepreneurs looking to expand their network and promote themselves and their businesses. They are looking for new clients, new partners, and new suppliers.
Essentially, they are in the right frame of mind to do business. How often is that the case on Facebook and TikTok?
Generally, this engenders a culture of collaboration and professionalism, which is perfect for developing your business.
You can also grow your network through the connections you already have. Are they connected to or interacting with people you would like to know? If so, send a connection invitation and a note explaining why you want them as part of your network.
That opens the door to a potentially mutually beneficial relationship.
Credibility
LinkedIn is an excellent social media platform for showcasing your company’s products and services while building trust with consumers and prospects.
The ‘recommendations’ section is a helpful feature. You have a better chance of generating more leads and revenue if you have more referrals from previous customers and clients.
Recommendations from people you’ve done business with will help boost your credibility.
This extends, in a different way, to your company page. You want to build your following and gain positive engagement from your audience. Who would not want to work with a company that has a lot of great feedback and followers?
Increased Exposure
Using LinkedIn properly puts you and your business in front of people you want to work with.
More than that, it can give you increased inline exposure without the expense of additional spending.
A quality LinkedIn profile or company page can improve your organic Google search rankings. Often this can be achieved at less cost than advertising and quicker than an SEO strategy for your website (although I recommend you consider all three).
LinkedIn and UK B2B Companies
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which can be used effectively to engage customers, LinkedIn is a professional platform rather than purely ‘social’.
That is particularly useful for businesses that sell to other companies.
Picking up B2B custom from a Facebook ad or a tweet is unlikely. But on LinkedIn, you can put your company and services in front of the decision-makers from other businesses. You can develop a connection with them and thoroughly explain what you do and the benefits of working with you.
This can be achieved through articles, posts, advertising, or direct conversations with individuals you have ‘met’ through LinkedIn in the UK and further afield.
Conclusion
A UK company’s presence on LinkedIn is critical for growing a business through the power of professional social networking.
A business is about sales, but it’s also about professional contacts and networking. LinkedIn provides several chances to expand your referral and knowledge base, attract new business, hire excellent personnel, build credibility, and promote products and services.
