Frontline Perspectives

Recent research released by HubSpot indicates that Linkedin is more effective for B2B companies. In fact, 61% of B2B users who acquired a customer through a social media channel used LinkedIn, compared to their company blog (55%), Facebook (41%) or Twitter (39%).

Are you using LinkedIn effectively, and taking advantage of new features? Now’s a good time to start. To edit a company page, all you need is an e-mail with the domain of that company. So sign in and make sure your LinkedIn page is poised to earn you some new business.

Company Listing
Let’s start with the basics. Is your company profile correct? Because LinkedIn is a robust social media site, people can add themselves to any company. Make sure the right people are listed under yours.

Do you have your contact information on your listing? Is there an obvious and intuitive way for visitors to take action and contact you? If there isn’t, you could lose prospects.

Job Openings
Adding job openings under the careers section on your page widens your company’s exposure to users. Career updates are posted on LinkedIn’s homepage, which will notify job searchers and continually expose people to your brand and company. Here’s an example from Accenture:

Service / Product Information
On your company page, under the services tab, you can now enter specific product or service information. This adds content to your profile, improves your SEO and gives prospects more information without leaving the LinkedIn site. It also gives your products or services the opportunity to be recommended and shared.

Information you can add about a specific product or service includes:

-        Detailed overview

-        Picture

-        Links to your website

-        Product-specific contact

You also have options to promote your product using LinkedIn’s targeted PPC campaigns. Here’s an example of product promotion from MarketSense:

Promote Your Services
Similarly, the overview service page has recently been enhanced to include a product / service spotlight. This banner-like box allows you to upload three images that are direct links back to your website.

Not only does this highlight products or services you would like to promote, but it also adds visual interest to the page and keeps the viewer engaged. Check out this example from Hewlett-Packard:

Any questions about beefing up your LinkedIn profile? Feel free to comment below.