LinkedIn has grown to become an astoundingly powerful social network, especially in the B2B world. It’s no secret that this platform is considered the top social media site for B2B marketers who want to connect with professionals in their industries, establish new connection and find clients for their firms. According to several studies conducted in the last couple of years, this network for professional businesses is growing in importance for both small and large companies.
LinkedIn From a B2C and B2B Perspective
A recent study conducted by Social Media Examiner revealed that most B2C marketers prefer Facebook and Twitter as the main social networks to help them grow their businesses. However, as you would expect, LinkedIn is the main choice for B2B marketers. 41% of B2B marketers prefer to use LinkedIn as their main social network, while only 9% B2C marketers choose this social platform to promote their products and services.
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Since 2014, LinkedIn increased by 4% in terms of importance, while Facebook decreased slightly. However, according to this study, 66% of B2B marketers plan to increase their use of LinkedIn in the near future. Additionally, over 71% of B2B marketers are eager to learn more about LinkedIn, compared to only 55% of B2C marketers. You can find more interesting states about LinkedIn here: https://www.webpronews.com/heres-how-linkedin-is-getting-better-for-b2b-sales-and-marketing-2015-08
There is no doubt that LinkedIn is a top social network that is favored by B2B marketers due to its potent tools that enable businesses to reach a high-value audience and increase brand awareness for those important customers that matter.
Continuous Growth and Innovation
In order to help B2B marketers even more, LinkedIn recently launched a groundbreaking version of its already famous Pulse news reader, which gives its users complete freedom to determine what type of content is best for them. LinkedIn is also launching new features on the sales side in order to accommodate the growing needs of its users. For instance, in June it improved its Sales Navigator tool, adding Microsoft Dynamic integration. Moreover, the guys from LinkedIn have made the Slideshare product much better at getting new leads.
To top it all, LinkedIn is now offering a top sales metric called Social Selling index. Business marketers can use this metric to determine exactly how professional their brand looks in the eyes of their prospects and discover how to find the right methods for engaging B2B customers and building long term relationships.
LinkedIn Premium Accounts
One of the premium features used by B2B marketers on LinkedIn to get an edge over their competition is premium accounts. While the vast majority of users on this huge networks have free accounts, brands that choose to invest in a premium account gain access to precious features and tools. Some of these features and benefits include a greater access to all the information listed on a profile of a client, advanced search feature and inMail capability.
If you want to maximize your B2B impact on LinkedIn, investing in a premium account is highly advisable.
Using the Search Query
There are two ways a marketer can search for potential clients on LinkedIn. The first method is through LinkedIn’s advanced search interface.
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B2B marketers can filter their searches to get highly targeted results. They can also use the “Save search” option to receive notifications whenever LinkedIn finds new results that correspond to the criteria.
The other way to find the right customers for your company is through the more advanced search queries provided by LinkedIn. You can use the following commands to make sure your search will come up with the right results. Use “ “ to search for an exact phrase, ( ) for complex phrases, “or” when you are searching for several words, “and” when combining words and “NOT” when you want to exclude certain terms.
Opening of Floodgates of Success on LinkedIn
Social selling is a very important concept for more and more organization, and LinkedIn is thriving on this concept. This social network is able to empower salespeople and marketers from all over the world with the right tools and strategies to help them succeed on the market.
As of two days ago, LinkedIn has just expanded its platform, opening it up to many more languages than ever before. This only means that more businesses from other corners of the world will be able to capitalize on this social platform for B2B sales and marketing.
In a nutshell, the LinkedIn B2B marketing potential is growing at an astounding pace all over the world. If you want to capitalize on this huge social network and use it to promote your brand and find long-term B2B partnerships, here are some things you should do.
Leads just don’t fall out of the sky. Your LinkedIn company page can easily be structured in order to be enticing to potential leads. Use a header image that spikes interest, create a clear description of your company, make your recent updates section conversion focused and post updates on a regular basis.
You can go out and find new prospects with ease by using LinkedIn’s advanced search query. You can identify exactly those types of clients you are targeting due to the wide range of filtration options available for narrowing down your search. You can filter your search by a plethora of criteria, including company size, location, industry, and the list goes on.
You can use several tools of LinkedIn’s to position yourself as an authority in your industry. Start by providing high-quality content, answering questions, participating in LinkedIn’s communities and setting yourself apart from the competition by offering unique services and products that cater to your users’ individual needs.
There is no doubt that LinkedIn is an ideal player in the social CRM context. Most social CRM solutions offer LinkedIn integration. Use your CRM platform to see what your prospects are doing on the LinkedIn platform in real time. Additionally, discover what your prospects’ preferences and behavior is.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is the social media channel that has proven to be the most effective for customer engagement, both at the pre-sale and post-sale stage of the buying cycle. LinkedIn is slowly becoming the world’s top social media platform for B2B sales and marketing, overtaking Twitter, Facebook and any other social platform. A strong presence on LinkedIn equals to success for your company. Start today and become a recognized player in your industry using the features and services offered by LinkedIn.
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