**Updated July 2022**

I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn; I’ve been using it since 2010. It’s the best social platform for the B2B clients that I work with. Unfortunately, LinkedIn can be really cringey. I don’t do click-bait posts, spammy messages or send out 100s of connection requests. My approach is to take the stories from a business and create content around this.

The basics of LinkedIn and why you should be using it have been covered many times before. I’m not going to reinvent this – there are some useful links at the bottom of this blog. But I do want to share how I use LinkedIn and get the most out of it, based on 12 years and a lot of testing and learning.

1. Get the basics right on LinkedIn

Your LinkedIn presence should have the following elements in place:

When writing your headline and descriptions, use language that your customers will relate to and recognise. Being specific will help your profile or company page show up in searches, so consider including the sectors you operate in, who you work with and what services you offer.

In 2021, LinkedIn provided the option to add a name pronunciation to your profile. I love this feature as my name is commonly mis-pronounced, and if you suffer the same issue then definitely check this out.

2. Consistency

LinkedIn is a long game. The best results I have seen on are from consistent posting over a number of months. It might be every fortnight, every week or twice a week, but the content is consistent, regular and thoughtfully planned.

Here’s what that looks like for company profiles:

When an investor, a potential employee or a customer is scrolling through a company page, it should be the equivalent of an office tour. They should come away knowing about who you are, what you do, your team and your culture. 

When I develop a content calendar, I balance the following elements to give the audience a flavour of the business:

• Company updates
• Useful info for customers
• Celebrating wins
• Service updates, where necessary 
• Customer feedback, spotlights and case studies
• Focus on team members
• Insight into company culture 
• Behind the scenes fun

And for personal profiles:

The most common complaint I hear from clients is “but I don’t know what to say”. So I help them to figure this out:

• Milestones and anniversaries
• Attending an event, webinar or important meeting
• Your take on industry events
• A case study or recent feedback
• Share your expertise or recent work
• Tell a story about how you got where you are today
• Talk about a colleague or work contact who has helped you

I’d recommend a scheduling tool to help you stay accountable with regular posting. The one I use is Loomly.

3. Avoid overposting

Yes you can post too much. It’s annoying for your audience, probably not the best use of your time, and more than one post a day will spread your engagement across the day’s posts. Algorithms aside, followers can get tired of hearing from you every single day. And honestly, it’s not easy thinking of truly unique content ideas for SMEs every single day. Quality wins over quantity here. 

There are LinkedIn influencers and big corporations who have 10s of 1000s of connections and followers. Some of these accounts post A LOT. And I still think this is too much for a typical SME – your marketing resource would be heavily skewed to a single platform.

I once read that when a post starts to pick up good engagement, and you post again soon after, the first post drops off and loses momentum. I haven’t seen any evidence of this happening over the past year, but it’s something to bear in mind.

4. Curate your LinkedIn network 

My feed has given me so many things: speaking and PR opportunities, new clients and the chance to help others. This is because I curate it, and I suggest you do the same. 

A LinkedIn feed should read like a personalised newspaper. A mixture of headlines, industry news, interviews, features, appointments, a jobs supplement and party pages. If you accept every single connection request that comes your way, your feed will feel like an MLM party full of strangers. You need to cull and curate. 

Your network should include all the key players and organisations in your industry. Your favourite colleagues and ex-colleagues. Suppliers, partners and customers. Don’t be afraid to connect with people you don’t know if you could potentially work with or learn from them. Follow a handful of relevant hashtags – for me this includes #FreelanceMarketing #Marketing # Copywriting and these occasionally put interesting posts in my feed.

Regularly go through your connections and make culls. The connection requests that turn out to be sales pitches from over-posters? Remove them. The former colleague who moved industries and you know you will never speak to on LinkedIn ever again? Remove them too. These contacts can clog up your feed causing you to miss the updates you really want. If this feels too harsh, you can hide their updates instead or unfollow. 

Another approach for personal profiles is to switch to Creator mode so that your default connection type changes from “Connect” to “Follow”. Essentially switching from a two-way connection to a broadcast.

Company pages have no feed to curate, but you do want to have the right followers, for example, employees, customers, prospects and partners. This will help you to reach the right people and boost your engagement rate. The “Invite connections” option is a useful tool to proactively grow your following.

5. Profiles over pages

I encourage clients to direct their efforts towards their personal profiles. Personal updates perform better than company updates and you can put so much more personality into them. Company pages have no feed or inbox so it can feel very one-way. When your team gets involved on LinkedIn this amplifies the reach of posts and it shows the people behind your brand. 

Some companies feel uncomfortable investing in a personal profile of an individual who might leave in the future. However, I don’t see how this is different to investing in training or other routes to new business. 

I discourage straight shares of company posts as they are almost pointless from an engagement perspective. A reaction is enough to get the post on your followers’ feeds. An insightful comment is even better and will generate more engagement and views. 

6. Get personal

Authenticity, honesty and personal perspectives always perform well on LinkedIn. I encourage leaders to share important updates via their own profiles, with a personal note, as well as the company page. Seeing the faces and stories behind a brand is more relatable compared to a bland corporate statement. 

If you don’t want to do this, there’s certainly no pressure but it will limit where you can go with LinkedIn. Everyone is connecting more with purpose-driven companies and this is no different in B2B. 

7. Engage

Unless you’re a very big player, you can’t expect engagement on your content unless you engage with others. This goes for both personal and company profiles. Take time to interact with your feed by reacting and commenting. Hopefully you’ll do this because it’s genuine (and you have curated your feed) but it’s also your source of industry intel and news. You might even spot new business opportunities; I have picked up several this way.  

Engaging with others also acts as an update on your own feed as your followers will see your reactions and comments. If you don’t have time to write a post but want to be present on your followers’ feeds, five minutes of engaging will do the trick. This is a handy tool for nurturing potential customers and partners as well. 

8. Use LinkedIn search

The search function on LinkedIn is a goldmine. I search for hashtags, content and to find out who does a particular role at a company. I’ve even found clients by searching for key terms such as “looking for b2b marketing consultant” or “marketing mentor needed”.

LinkedIn resources

Social media evolves and we are always learning. Right now, these are my favourite resources on LinkedIn:

• Handy stats from Digital Drum if you need to be convinced, or need to convince somebody else why they should use LinkedIn
• Beginners guide to LinkedIn from Hubspot
• LinkedIn for business from Hootsuite

And these are my favourite LinkedIn experts:

• John Espirian
• Richard van der Blom
• Charlie Whyman
• Jen Corcoran

Work with me

LinkedIn is included in my marketing offering and I always include a consultation and recommendations before we start working together.

And it’s also the platform of choice for my own business, so why not say hello.