LinkedIn has become a vital social media tool for brands and businesses. Your customers and prospective customers are on LinkedIn. Your investors and key stakeholders are on LinkedIn. Your employees and potential employees are on LinkedIn. With that, reputation management has become a crucial part of many businesses’ LinkedIn marketing strategy.

Why is it important to grow your online reputation and brand on LinkedIn?

According to Hootsuite, as the top-rated social network for lead generation, LinkedIn has become one of the most important social media platforms to invest in. Maintaining your online reputation and brand on LinkedIn can help build leads organically, grow your professional reputation, and increase your brand’s credibility and trust.

Now that it’s time to up your game on LinkedIn, the first step is to make sure your Company Page is detailed and up-to-date. This is crucial if you’re looking to grow your audience and drive positive business results. With over 562 million users on LinkedIn, a detailed Company Page allows users to learn about your business, your brand, and job opportunities within your company. It is also a great platform to demonstrate your brand’s thought leadership to your audience.

Having an incomplete LinkedIn Company Page won’t attract as many users to your page. Here are 5 tips to grow your online reputation and brand on LinkedIn:

Tip #1: Ensure that branding is consistent across LinkedIn

In order to grow your online reputation on LinkedIn, you need to ensure that your company’s branding is consistent across the platform. Many businesses and brands are actively using LinkedIn as a brand-building tool. This means making sure that the branding on your LinkedIn page mirrors the branding on your company’s website. Make sure you include your logo, company description, and a banner image to establish and sustain your company’s professional presence. This plays a fundamental role in acquiring new clients and retaining old ones.

Tip #2: Incorporate rich-content features

LinkedIn has become one of the top social media platforms for businesses and brands to demonstrate their thought leadership and expertise. If you’re looking to continually grow your online reputation and brand on LinkedIn, it’s important to evaluate and brainstorm the breadth and variety of content you are sharing on your company’s page.

What type of content will appeal to and grow your LinkedIn audience? What do your followers want to know? These are key questions you should be constantly asking yourself. With that, a great tip to grow your online reputation is to incorporate rich-content features in your LinkedIn content strategy.

Incorporating rich media allows businesses and brands to offer a “richer” and more dynamic user experience. This encompasses any and all content that deviates from the generic static images and text. For example, videos are a key example of rich media content that you can use to ignite your marketing campaigns. Just like how videos can increase engagement with your blog posts, they can also increase engagement on your LinkedIn page. Other forms of rich media content include podcasts, e-books, whitepapers, and any other interactive content.

Tip #3: Make use of your existing content streams

Don’t know what type of content to post on your LinkedIn company page to grow your online reputation? It’s time to be resourceful! Do a content audit on the different platforms that you are already active on and repost content that has performed well on those platforms to LinkedIn. What content received the most Facebook or Twitter likes? Which posts had the most retweets or replies? Taking content from existing content streams can help build your brand on LinkedIn and can help you gain access to a whole new audience.

Tip #4: Experiment with sponsored updates

Sponsored updates are a unique feature offered by LinkedIn for companies who want to boost their posts on the LinkedIn platform. It provides companies with the opportunity to reach a wider audience beyond just their followers. Similar to Facebook or Instagram advertising or boosted posts, sponsored updates on LinkedIn allow you to expand your reach and target specific audiences.

Tip #5: Define your audiences better for better lead generation

Are you reaching your targeted audience? Your target audience is a key to generating leads on LinkedIn and raising awareness of your brand. Better-defined audiences lead to better lead generation. To define your audience better, you need to do your research and find the key characteristics of your customers or clients.

For example, if you are looking for professionals within the digital marketing industry who use Linkedin, you should look at targeting people with “digital marketing” in their job title or LinkedIn profile. Many of these professionals will also be in digital marketing groups on LinkedIn or follow pages and companies related to digital marketing. If you are selling products for B2B professionals, you should look at targeting B2B marketers or industrial leaders.

Ask yourself, who is likely to decide to use your business products or services, or give recommendations to those who will be interested in purchasing or using your services. You can view your LinkedIn analytics and see who is engaging in your posts or do marketing research to find defined leads.

Your updates appear directly in a follower’s LinkedIn feed

When you update your LinkedIn profile or post, your activity will appear directly in a follower’s LinkedIn feed. What this means for you is that your posts, as well as activity, need to be professional and engaging at all times. LinkedIn is strict about spam and as a result, an AI bot checks all content posted by businesses or individuals. You need to ensure that your content contains high-quality material and that your posts are directed to your target audience, without looking like a spam advertisement. Use catchy phrases and headings to grab your reader’s attention while they scroll their feed.

Post content that your target audience will want to read

Sharing relevant content that is engaging to your audience will not only capture their attention but also help your content to be indexed by Google. Good content marketing with relevant keywords will help you improve your search engine rankings and boost your company’s reputation. The topics you should use should be directed to your targeted audience demographics, interests, and purchasing decisions. Consult an SEO specialist for help with relevant keywords for optimal results.

Tip #6: Use images

A good visual will grab the reader’s attention better than text. Adding an image to a text or article post will help you to get more “likes” and views on your post. An increase in likes and post views will lead to more readers visiting your Linkedin Profile – leading to more brand awareness and potential followers. You can use the LinkedIn Publishing Platform to add images anywhere within the article. The more relatable and powerful your image is to your target market, the more likely you will grab the reader’s attention, create engagement and start a conversation.

Images garner over six times more engagement than text-only content

According to LinkedIn, images lead to better engagement than text-only content. However, to ensure this engagement is received, you need to use good-quality images.

Here are some tips when adding images to your content:

• Only use high-quality images and a high-resolution, avoid unprofessional, inappropriate, or offensive images.
• Consult a graphic designer or marketing team for branded images personalized to your business.
• Try using graphic design software such as Canva or Photoshop.
• Keep your post image size within 1200 x 1200 for desktop and 1200 x 628 for mobile.
• If you are sharing a link, keep your image size within 1200 x 627

Tip #7: Use Native LinkedIn Video

LinkedIn Native gives users the option to upload videos directly on the platform. Videos can be between 30 seconds to 5 minutes. As with images, creating and posting a video will increase the likelihood of capturing the audience’s attention and engagement with your post. With LinkedIn’s algorithm, videos will reach the top of the users’ feed and highlight your business, products, or service offering – helping you to grow your brand. When using video options, add 3 lines of text to the video (or more) to increase the chances of attracting viewers, as well as to increase dwell time on your post.

As you become more active on LinkedIn, push and challenge your boundaries to brainstorm new and innovative ways to continue growing your company’s online reputation and brand. Take the time to see what other businesses and brands are doing, and don’t hesitate to find and experiment with new tactics. Get in touch with us for help with your LinkedIn marketing strategy.