Are you aware of all the advantages of LinkedIn?
- Generate leads
- Make sales
- Meet people in your industry
- Establish yourself as an authority
- Promote your marketing materials
- Post testimonials
- Grow your audience
- Post videos
- Find jobs
- Generate website traffic
- Discover trends
- Take courses
- Use the platform for free
By reading this guide to the advantages of LinkedIn, you discover detailed information that reveal how you can take advantage of each of these benefits.
This post shares organic tricks that result in greater visibility for you and therefore better marketing opportunities without cold pitching or paying to boost your visibility.
By reading this post, you will discover how to use LinkedIn for
- Lead generation
- Brand marketing
- Job hunting
- Research
Let's dig in and discover the advantages of LinkedIn.
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a social media site for working professionals.
The LinkedIn homepage is your dashboard to help you navigate around the site and take advantage of LinkedIn's features.
LinkedIn's user base has more income and education in contrast to other social media sites (Source).
According to 2021 stats, LinkedIn has 740 million users and an Alexa Ranking of 47th in the world.
LinkedIn vs Twitter
Both LinkedIn and Twitter are known as professional networking sites. This is one of the advantages of Twitter just like the networking potential is one of the advantages of LinkedIn. When companies want to boost their B2B (Business to Business) marketing, they use LinkedIn or Twitter. Therefore, LinkedIn vs Twitter makes for a natural comparison.
When it comes to LinkedIn vs Twitter, there are notable differences. First, the character count on Twitter reaches a maximum of 180. You don't have content restrictions when posting LinkedIn articles.
Next, LinkedIn is more known for professional networking than Twitter. On Twitter, the focus is more the tweeted content than the B2B networking connections. That focus is on LinkedIn.
The advantages of LinkedIn are often kept under the radar. Let's explore.
Advantages of LinkedIn
Testimonials about the advantages of LinkedIn:
According to Advisor Perspectives, LinkedIn is one of the best sites to drive leads.
Eric Sui, from the podcast Marketing School, recommends LinkedIn for lead generation.
How to Boost LinkedIn Leads
Boosting your marketing leads is one of the advantages of using LinkedIn.
The trick to networking on LinkedIn in order to be a more effective marketer and increase sales is to boost your visibility.
Here's how:
Optimize your bio by using keywords in your niche. Then, LinkedIn will recommend accounts for people to follow who are also in your niche.
Change your bio every few months. I tried this hack, and it worked. I started getting offered more opportunities in my Direct Message box. Changing your bio seems to stir the algorithms and you get more visibility.
Complete the entire bio. Don't skip any sections.
Fill your network with people in your industry. LinkedIn will then recommend your account to other people in your industry.
Also, post content even if it's simply commenting on other's posts.
Post in relevant groups as well. You'll look like a thought-leader in your niche and people will want to work with you.
Add Custom Buttons to your Company Page.
You have five choices of a name for your custom button.
When you post, add links to your promotional content. Some theorize you should add them in the first comment.
It worked for me! I changed my bio and I received financial opportunities and opportunities for branding.
Look at this screenshot of an email I received:
When you use keywords in your bio description, people can find you even if you don’t use hashtags.
Of course, hashtags are recommended, and LinkedIn recommends hashtags for you to use with your content.
Use LinkedIn for promotion in several ways. First, when people include me in their expert interviews, I promote their articles to my LinkedIn wall. This gives them the motivation to include my insights again bringing me more links to my site. Boosting my SEO gives me exposure on Google.
Unlike other websites, LinkedIn doesn't care if you post links to other sites. Facebook admits to suppressing outbound links, but LinkedIn doesn't. Therefore, you can post links to optin forms or landing pages.
Promote in LinkedIn groups that are relevant for your niche using hashtags that LinkedIn recommends. I always use my brand's hashtag as one of them.
Ask happy customers to post testimonials on LinkedIn.
Turn on LinkedIn Creator mode for more prominent visibility. You'll find the Creator Mode Setting in your dashboard.
Switch Off to On.
Choose up to five hashtags so people know what type of content you create.
What not to do to boost LinkedIn leads:
Don't spam people's DM boxes. You'll look like a spammer, not a marketer and people will be turned off.
More Advantages of LinkedIn
LinkedIn seems the site users complain about the least. I have used social media sites for years, but I have never heard anyone complain about LinkedIn. On the contrary, at LinkedIn, people pursue professional opportunities and expand their professional network.
Next, one of the advantages of LinkedIn is you can start video marketing on the site before posting videos there has a chance to become popular. On LinkedIn, video marketing is new. Platforms push their new features by giving visibility to people who use them.
Also, you can find jobs on LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you to target companies. Make sure you have good LinkedIn photo examples so you look professional.
Post photos in your profile's featured section and on your business page. Use LinkedIn to make a strong impression on job recruiters before meeting them.
You can post jobs at LinkedIn. LinkedIn Recruiter was named one of the best job boards of 2019 (Source).
LinkedIn sends you notifications. You get notified in your email when people respond to your posts, so you don't have to keep checking back.
You can boost blog traffic. Have you ever received traffic from LinkedIn? I have. According to stats, LinkedIn receives 1.5 million monthly visits.
By blogging at LinkedIn and inserting backlinks to your website articles, you can boost your website traffic.
Note: There is a difference between starting a post and writing an article. Posts have character limitations. Articles don't.
Demonstrate your knowledge as a thought leader in your industry. Do this by posting insightful articles.
LinkedIn News has great articles. You discover what is new in your industry.
LinkedIn Learning offers courses. You can try the first month for free. After that, courses start at $19.99. You receive a certificate upon completion of a course.
One of the advantages of LinkedIn is that you can target individuals such as CEOs of companies. When I wanted to get an edge on pitching a publication, I contacted a writer at the publication I was able to find using LinkedIn.
You don't need to convert to a business profile. This is an advantage over Instagram where you have to convert to a business profile. At LinkedIn, just start a company page.
LinkedIn Stories is a new feature of LinkedIn. Capitalize on the popularity of stories to post stories on LinkedIn. LinkedIn stories sit at the top of your screen when you use the app.
Last, LinkedIn is free to use. However, the courses provided by LinkedIn Learning start at $19.99 after the first month which is free.
Future Advantages of LinkedIn
LinkedIn Live is in the planning stages.
LinkedIn newsletters are slowly being rolled out.
Disadvantages of LinkedIn
The platform doesn't push its groups. In contrast to Facebook groups, LinkedIn doesn't advertise its groups.
Managing connections is a pain. However, when you switch to Creator Mode, "Connect" turns to "Follow," so you won't have to be bothered with approving connections going forward.
Marketers try to sell in the Direct Message box. This feels spammy and has the opposite of the intended effect. Instead of being one of the advantages of LinkedIn, communicating in Direct Messages in order to sell becomes a turn-off.
Advantages of LinkedIn FAQs
Wrapping Up: Advantages of LinkedIn
All these methods help me receive offers and opportunities on LinkedIn.
Follow these other effective actionable strategies to boost LinkedIn leads and take advantage of these additional advantages of LinkedIn.
In closing, this post gave you an overview of the advantages of LinkedIn, future advantages, and the disadvantages.
Readers, please share so professionals discover the advantages of LinkedIn.
I look forward to your views in the comments section. Are there additional advantages of LinkedIn or disadvantages you can add?