LinkedIn Marketing: 19 Tips & Tricks for Connecting Like a Boss

With the mainstream acceptance of social media marketing, social media isn't just for friends and family anymore. 

The network at the forefront of the professional movement on social media is undoubtedly LinkedIn.  

In addition to distributing content and prospecting, there's a lot to love about LinkedIn -- and we want you to love it just as much as we do.

That's why I've put together a list of 21 tips and tricks that will help you get the most out of LinkedIn both as a professional and as a company. 

How to Get the Most From LinkedIn as a Professional

LinkedIn is just as much about building your personal brand as it is building that of your company.

Having a well-rounded, up-to-date LinkedIn profile can help you establish your credibility and build your reputation as a thought-leader in your industry. Use these tips to get started:

1. Get Endorsements

One of the most unique features of LinkedIn is Endorsements. Endorsements allow your connections to vouch for your professional skills (i.e. project management, public speaking, etc.), adding valuable social proof to your profile. These "upvotes" if you will confirm to visitors that you do indeed possess and excel at that skill. 

An easy way to encourage others to endorse you is by going through your connections and endorsing theirs.

2. Create a Custom Profile URL

LinkedIn gives you the option to create a custom URL that includes your name, such as www.linkedin.com/in/yourname. To do this, follow the steps here.

3. Optimize Your Profile for Search Engines

Social networks also function as search engines, so you should optimize your profile and company page by including relevant keywords (i.e. industries or skills you want to be known for) throughout the content.

Like with any copywriting, you don't want to force keywords where they don't naturally fit, but you should use them in your headline and summary to make it easy for people to find you.

4. Create a Profile Badge

LinkedIn makes it very easy to create a Profile Badge that you can place on your website or in an email footer and link to your LinkedIn Profile. 

Like any other social button, this will help build awareness of your external presence, drive track back to it, and encourage connections. 

5. Optimize Anchor Text For Links on Your Profile

An easy way to increase the attractiveness of your profile and get more clicks on your links is to change the anchor text for those links. In other words, instead of using the default anchor text, use personal phrases such as: "Connect With Me on Twitter" or "Check Out My Company's Blog."

To do this, go to "Edit Profile," click "Contact Info," and then select "Other."

6. Create a Resume From Your Profile

LinkedIn has an awesome feature that allows you to quickly turn your profile on the platform into a traditional resume.

Simply access the Resume Builder, select a template, make your edits, and then you can print and save as a PDF.

7. Show Face

LinkedIn is all about making new professional connections, so there's no reason to be shy. Add a friendly, yet professional profile picture that literally puts a face to your name and make it public. 

Having a photo adds a personal touch to any of your interactions on the platform and helps humanize you to new connections. 

To make your profile picture visible to everyone, go to "Privacy & Settings" and click "Select what others see when you've viewed their profile."

8. Request an Introduction

LinkedIn makes it very easy to connect with new people, without the awkward cold email or phone call. As long as you have a 2nd-degree connection with the person you want to meet you can go to their profile and click "Get Introduced." From there, select the person that you'd like to make the introduction and tell them why.

9. Export Connections

Did you know that LinkedIn allows you to transfer your contacts to another contact management system?

This feature, though small, helps you take your business relationship and communication beyond just the platform.

With these connections in hand, you can consider reaching out in other ways. To export your list, simply go to your contacts and click "Export LinkedIn Connections" under the advanced settings.

10. Join LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups come with a lot of benefits, including:

• Access to niche content and discussions
• Ability to message members without a 1st-degree connection
• A hub for sharing your content to your buyer persona

If you're not already active in any groups (or you'd like to refine your engagement) use these tips. 

How to Get the Most From LinkedIn as a Company

Great companies like to hire people that make them look smarter for hiring them.

In other words, if you do good work, this reflects very highly on your place of employment. Once you've created a positive reputation for yourself on LinkedIn, people are more likely to seek out your company to work with you. Using the tips below, you can make sure that the presence they find is a pristine one. 

11. Customize Your Company Page

If you haven't given any attention to the optimization of your LinkedIn company page in the last year or two, now would be a good time to give it an update.

LinkedIn has made a lot of changes to this section of their site in the last couple of years, so you want to ensure you're using it to your full advantage. 

12. Use LinkedIn Pulse

LinkedIn Pulse is an excellent tool for publishing original content and exploring a variety of industry perspectives.

You can segment the content that appears in Pulse by selecting the "Your News" tab to show content posted by people you follow or by selecting the "Top News" tab to see the top posts on LinkedIn right now. To look for news on specific topics or from specific influencers, use the "Discover" tab.

13. Create Showcase Pages

Showcase Pages are extensions of your company page that allow you to highlight specific brands, products, services, or other niche offerings.

Like a landing page, showcase pages can then be optimized around a specific keyword so that you rank for them in search engines. 

To get started go to your company page, click "Edit" and then select "Create a Showcase Page" in the dropdown menu.

14. Try LinkedIn Sponsored Updates

One of the best features of LinkedIn is its native advertising or Sponsored Updates. 

"Unlike LinkedIn Ads, which assign you a tiny block in the network’s sidebar (with, on average, a minuscule 50x50 sized image and 90 characters of text), Sponsored Updates are designed to appear native to the platform.

They are given generous real-estate within user newsfeeds, appearing alongside regular posts by a person’s connections and granting businesses far more control over their content."

With Sponsored Updates delivering a  14.6% conversion rate from click to lead; 22.8x higher than banner ads on other platforms, B2B's can't afford not to give them a try. 

15. Learn From Group Statistics

If you're a marketer, there's a good chance that you are slightly obsessed with statistics and data. Did you know that you can view the statistics of LinkedIn Groups, even when you aren't a direct member?

All you have to do is go to the Group's page, find the "About" section in the navigation menu, and click "Group Statistics." This will show you the number of members in the group, how active they are, as well as detailed insights on the members such as what industry they work in, their seniority, etc.

This kind of information is extremely valuable when it comes to defining your Buyer Persona. 

16. Create Your Own LinkedIn Group

Does your industry lack relevant LinkedIn Groups or do you operate in a small niche? Lead the way!

Create your own LinkedIn Group to start sharing your thought leadership and gather a collection of like-minded individuals.

Once it's up and running, you can use the tactics from #10 to maintain activity, while enjoying the added esteem that comes with being the group owner. 

17. Recruit New Employees - List Jobs

With its professional audience, LinkedIn is prime real-estate to recruit and grow your team.

While you also post links to your job listings as you would any other piece of content, you can also post them directly on the platform via a career page. 

If you'd like to get more aggressive with recruiting, you should consider upgrading to a Silver or Gold Career Page. The Silver Career Page allows you to create a clickable banner, customizable modules, video content, direct links to recruiters, and several other useful features.

The Gold Career Page gives you the option to create up to five different versions of your Career page that will be shown to different LinkedIn users based on their profile.

18. Take Advantage of LinkedIn Analytics

Like other social networks, LinkedIn provides valuable analytics for Company Pages that give you insight into your reach and engagement.

By clicking on the Analytics Tab in your Company Page profile you'll see information broken down into three sections:

1. Updates -- This section contains extensive data about your updates, as well as information on your reach and engagement.
2. Followers -- In this section you'll find data on the types of people following your Company Page, your follower demographics, follower trends, and a comparison of your follower count to other companies in your industry.
3. Visitors -- This section shows your page views, Career Page clicks, unique visitors, and visitor demographics.

Regular tracking of this data will help gauge the performance of your Company Page and provide insight into how to improve it. 

19. Promote Your Company Page Outside of LinkedIn

Most brands promote their Facebook and Twitter pages on their websites but neglect their LinkedIn Company Page. 

An easy way to promote your Company Page is by adding the Company Follow button to your website, so people can quickly follow you with one click. Another easy way to get more exposure on LinkedIn is by adding the LinkedIn Share button to your content, which allows your readers to share your posts with a single click.