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LinkedIn Should Be on Your Small Business Radar

John McMalcolm

February 13, 2015

Social media has become one of the most popular online communication channels in recent years, and you should take advantage of this trend to take your small business to a new level of success.

In order to build a strong social media presence, you have to be active on the most popular social media websites, one of which is LinkedIn.

Here is a look at why and how LinkedIn can be beneficial to your small business….

Benefits of Using LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social media website that enables business owners and professionals to expand their contact networks, interact and share information with one another, increase their visibility and perform other tasks.

It is presently the most popular professional social media website, with more than 300 million users as of April, 2014, according to a LinkedIn infographic.

Since it has so many users, LinkedIn provides the ideal platform for you to spread the word about your business and build closer relationships with potential clients, business partners, suppliers and service providers.

It can help you achieve greater brand recognition and authority, drive more traffic to your website, improve your search engine rankings, boost customer satisfaction and loyalty, and gain a better understanding of your target audience and competitors.

How to Use LinkedIn to Your Advantage

Recruiting

To quote Tony Restell, CEO of Social-Hire.com, "Historically, businesses have had to advertise in order to reach the candidates with their business needs. When the advertising spend dries up, so too does the candidate's interest in their business. Social media has completely changed this dynamic. Companies can now build their own audience or readership by adopting the right social media strategy - and therefore generate candidate interest in their business without the same reliance on paying to advertise to other people's readerships."

According to an article entitled "Should You Accept Every LinkedIn Request?", an increasing number of businesses and recruiters are looking at LinkedIn profiles when they are making hiring decisions.

LinkedIn gives you easy access to a large pool of potential candidates, allowing you to search for candidates who meet your requirements and interact with them at minimal or no cost.

Marketing

There are many ways to promote your small business on LinkedIn.

You can share content, place ads on the website, join or start groups to increase brand visibility, or interact with other users to develop closer relationships with them.

Posting informative and useful content on a regular basis is an effective way to establish yourself as an authority in your field. LinkedIn also offers a recommendations feature that can help you boost your company's credibility and attract new customers.

Gaining Information

Another benefit of using LinkedIn is that it enables you to monitor your customers and competitors closely, so that you can obtain valuable insights that can be used to improve your products, marketing strategies and customer service.

Additionally, you can access expert advice, news and other types of content to gain a better understanding of your industry.

Many small businesses are already using LinkedIn extensively for marketing, recruitment and other purposes, and you need to do the same if you want to maintain your competitive edge.

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