Social media can be confusing! Understand how to use LinkedIn better with these handy tips.

LinkedIn is a great way for your business to connect with customers and others in your industry - it's called the Facebook for businesses for a reason! However, if you're new to it, LinkedIn can be a bit tricky to figure out. Try your hand at some of these tips, and you'll be a pro in no time! 

1. Create an exciting profile   💻

Your profile is the welcome mat for your LinkedIn account when people land on your page, so it needs to be informative and exciting. Make sure you take some time to write a great summary of your business, one that will draw your audience in. Use your company logo and list you most well known products/services so people know they're in the right place.  Keep your profile clean and succinct and you'll be attracting users in no time. 

2. Use visual content   📸

It can be easy to just do text posts on your profile, but what would you do if that's all you saw from other businesses? It's super important to include photos and videos in your content as they're an easy way to encourage more engagement from your followers. Research has shown that visual content gets 94% more engagement than text posts alone. Your visual content can include anything, as long as it's relevant to your business and your followers will find it interesting. 

3.  Consistency is key  📅

Have you ever seen a page that posts about all sorts of different topics, at weird times of the day? Chances are that you weren't a huge fan of the page, so why would you do that on your own page? Try to keep all your posts along similar lines and only post during hours when your audience is active and will most likely see it (this may need some extra research). Once you crack that, it'll be easy to keep to a posting schedule. 

4. Try tagging   👥

The tagging feature on LinkedIn is super easy to use, and can really boost your posts. If you're quoting someone or talking about their content, use the '@' symbol followed by their name to notify them. This is a great way to share content on LinkedIn, and you don't even need to be connected to them to do it. However, don't do this too often as it can become annoying for the people you tag and your followers. 

5. Use your employees  🎙

Keeping your LinkedIn page fresh and exciting shouldn't have to be a one person job. Try to encourage other people in your business to contribute to writing articles and posts too. It's always good to hear some perspectives from other people and to increase the range of topics that your business is interested in. It also creates a more personal feel for your business, meaning your audience are more likely to connect with you.

6. Look at your analytics  📉

Social media analytics and insights are a great way to get to know your audience more and understand their habits. When you know which posts your audience are most likely to engage with, you can tailor your future posts around that to increase your engagement. You can also view the demographics of your audience, and alter your posting depending on who you want to target.

7. Invest in some advertising  💵

LinkedIn has a great system called 'Campaign Manager' that allows you to boost you content to more people who may be interested in it. You can choose who you want to target by demographics, location and what people have liked on their profiles. While it can be a slightly more expensive option, using boosted advertising can pay off in the long run if you are able to attract more followers.