The Power of LinkedIn for Construction Marketing (Part 1 of 2)

Part 1 of 2—LinkedIn Profiles and Company Pages

This is part 1 in a two part series on the power of LinkedIn for construction marketing. Part 1 will discuss why you should join LinkedIn, LinkedIn profiles, company pages, and provide you with a LinkedIn To-Do list. The Power of LinkedIn for Construction Marketing Part 2 will cover LinkedIn Groups, InMails, and applications.

LinkedIn has made significant strides to become the most powerful professional social media site on the Internet. Growing at over a million users a week, LinkedIn showcases professionals from over 18 different industries ranging from Business to Construction. Users are given a profile to build and expand, highlighting their professional accomplishments and allowing other LinkedIn users to connect, InMail, write recommendations and much more.

In terms of branding yourself as a professional in any industry, LinkedIn is a must. If a LinkedIn user has an active profile they will likely show up on search engine result pages. LinkedIn is a place to connect with past and present contacts/clients/customers, along with prospects and groups. There are several reasons to join the LinkedIn community and leverage this site to elevate your company and career.

Why Join LinkedIn?

LinkedIn currently has over 100,000,000 users that are ‘linked’ to the companies they work for, and the people they work with. This is a great place to network, find leads, post jobs and more. This network of professionals is growing everyday and so are the capabilities of the network. Just recently LinkedIn allowed you to follow both profiles and companies, so you can get updates and news. LinkedIn also offers several robust tools to help your company build a presence on the site, such as a company page that links to your employees, products/services, blog, and Twitter. Your company page even offers analytics.

Profiles on LinkedIn

Your profile is a landing page for your personal brand. You may ask why having a profile page is important to your business… Isn’t this blog post supposed to be about LinkedIn for Construction Marketing Marketing? Well yes it is, in fact understanding that your personal brand amplifies the companies brand on LinkedIn is very important. Every single activity that an employee makes on LinkedIn reflects upon the companies brand.

Having a great profile picture is where you need to start when building your profile. This is the first thing someone will notice when they land on a profile. It reflects the level of professionalism that they can expect from you. Be sure to include a link to your company website1 and blog2. Also link your Twitter3 account to your LinkedIn profile so that your Twitter updates will automatically feed into your LinkedIn status updates4. Profiles should also be supported through the use of applications. These applications allow you to add Powerpoint presentations, PDF’s, Videos, Events, Blog Feed and even your Portfolio. Be sure to complete your profile as close to 100% as you can to amplify all LinkedIn initiatives that your company will undertake in the future.

Companies on LinkedIn

The definition most people give to LinkedIn is that it is a digital resume. Most users don’t understand the power of LinkedIn for highlighting your company. Having a fully functional company page on LinkedIn will act as a resource to anyone interested in working with you or your company. LinkedIn will assist you in creating your company page, by giving you a step by step walk through. Below is a list six methods to fully complete and optimize your company page within LinkedIn:

Steps to Complete Company Page:

1. Have all employees listed under your company (on their personal profiles)
2. Fill out company description (use same company description used on other social mediums)
3. Add your company logo
4. Ask for and receive Recommendations for your company
5. Build a Following
6. Create a Products and Services page – This will allow you to highlight your companies products or services, and link to websites, videos, registration pages, brochure downloads and more.
7. Ask for recommendations for your products/services

 

LinkedIn To Do List

Below is a list of 17 things you can do on LinkedIn today!

1. Request connections with your existing networks (Email address books, your company, customers, suppliers, partners, alumnus and more!)
2. Join and display Groups in your industry, interest and expertise, up to 50!
3. Add your company website, blog and Twitter to your profile
4. Introduce yourself to the groups, request connections in each group
5. Post questions, answer questions in groups and LinkedIn Answers area
6. Promote relevant content, events, offers to RELEVANT Groups (Don’t spam!)
7. Promote relevant content, events, offers to your connections via InMail (Don’t spam!)
8. Add Presentations (convert PDF and Powerpoint files to SlideShare)
9. Add events you are attending or promoting
10. Create a company page, or link your profile to the existing company page)
11. Create Discussions
12. Give Recommendations (Professional Reference)
13. Add your Reading List
14. Post Industry News
15. Share Documents
16. Post Status Updates
17. Advertise on LinkedIn

Creating and building your profile should be your first priority, followed by building and optimizing your LinkedIn Company Page. Keep an eye out for LinkedIn Part 2 which will highlight advanced techniques including Groups, InMail, Presentations and other applications.