3 LinkedIn Marketing Tips From the Pros

Would you like to improve your LinkedIn marketing?

Are you wondering what LinkedIn marketing tips the pros like to use?

We asked top social media pros to share their hottest LinkedIn marketing tactics.

In this article you’ll discover strategies the pros use to boost their LinkedIn marketing.

#1: Use LinkedIn Sponsored Updates - Melonie Dodaro

One of my hottest LinkedIn tips for marketers would be to make use of LinkedIn sponsored updates.

Sponsored updates provide a better way to put your content in front of key influencers and decision makers on LinkedIn, which will ultimately help you build your credibility as an expert in your niche and increase your exposure to people who are not in your network.

Because of the ability to narrowly limit the audience for the update, you’re able to make the best use of the investment you choose to allocate to sponsored updates.

You’ll be able to determine just how effective these paid updates are with the help of the detailed analytics provided by LinkedIn. Metrics found in the Campaign Manager include:

• Impressions
• Clicks
• CTR (click-through rate)
• CPC (cost per click)
• Total spent
• Social actions by campaign
• Audience demographics by campaign

You can also compare the effectiveness of your sponsored versus non-sponsored updates on your company page’s analytics page.

Here you can see a number of metrics that will allow you to determine how the sponsored updates are measuring up against those that aren’t sponsored. Metrics that are tracked and shown include:

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Interactions
• Followers acquired
• Engagement

Make sure that you only sponsor posts that will be of the greatest perceived value to your target market to ensure a positive return on investment. Keep in mind that your market will not be forgiving if you waste their time with poor or pitchy content.

With some good planning and great content, you can use sponsored updates to greatly increase the reach of your company page and establish yourself or your company as a subject matter expert in your industry.

Melonie Dodaro, founder of Top Dog Social Media and author of the #1 international bestseller The LinkedIn Code.

#2: Add Rich Visual Content to Your LinkedIn Profile

Did you know that you can visually enhance your LinkedIn profile by using the Professional Portfolio feature to add photos, videos, linked articles with images, screenshots or even infographics and SlideShare presentations?    

The surprising thing is that many people still aren’t using this feature, so it’s great timing for you to stand out now and get noticed with visuals on LinkedIn.

Take a look at the Summary section of SlideShare expert Todd Wheatland’s profile below:

Todd uses visuals to showcase his new book, a recent SlideShare presentation, articles he’s been featured in and videos highlighting his speaking skills.

But don’t just set and forget your new “visual” profile. Some of the best visual content to establish and update regularly on your profile include:

• Speaker videos
• Latest slide decks from speaking engagements
• Launches and special projects such as books and programs
• Recent articles or features in the press
• Work samples and client work

Screenshots of social proof (for example, tweets from your speaking engagements)

What are you waiting for? Give your profile a makeover and add some current, rich, visual content. You’ll be amazed at how much great content you can add by setting aside just an hour.

Donna Moritz, founder of Socially Sorted.

#3: Implement Influence Networking

Part of building your digital influence on LinkedIn is spending time on developing real relationships with your connections. While everyone else is blasting out one-size-fits-all content to LinkedIn, you can stand out as a more valued connection with the members of your network. I call this influence networking.

When you do the work of influence networking, your connections will be much more receptive to the content that you do share on LinkedIn. Instead of marketing at your LinkedIn network, nurture your connection with your network members, which will also potentially foster an actual client or referral-based relationship.

Influence networking is when you bring that “human” touch to your LinkedIn marketing efforts by finding ways to personalize the experience of engaging with your network on a deeper level.

Identify your network MVPs (most valuable people) and review their profiles to gather intelligence about what’s important to them and what their needs and goals are. You can then find ways to help, acknowledge, congratulate, promote and even connect your connections on an individual level within your LinkedIn network.

Leveraging LinkedIn personal messaging, using @mentions and the Introductions feature and deliberately promoting the ideas (content) from your MVPs are examples of influence networking in action.

When you focus on influence networking, you accomplish four things:

You’ll stand out from your competitors because you’re doing something different than they are.
You’ll become more memorable and valuable to your network members because you show that you’re listening and that you care.
You’ll potentially trigger the rule of reciprocity because your network members will want to return the favor.
You’ll more easily engage your network members in the content that you do create and share.
Influence networking on LinkedIn is a subtle, yet very effective, approach to moving a connection to a valued relationship. If you focus on this process, it will undoubtedly help you grow your business!

Stephanie Sammons, founder and CEO of Wired Advisor, where she teaches financial advisors and business professionals how to build digital influence to win clients.

source : http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/9-linkedin-marketing-tips/