When building a social media strategy and choosing which social media platforms your business should be showing up on, LinkedIn probably isn’t your first, second or third choice unless you are a B2B (business-to-business) business owner. This is because the platform is widely thought of as a place where professionals connect with other professionals and while that thought isn’t necessarily wrong, it’s definitely not the whole story.
If you do a quick google search you would find many articles that break down all the ways businesses can benefit from LinkedIn from recruiting top-tier professionals and building brand credibility to competitor analysis and promotion. What many of those articles don’t articulate is WHO has the best opportunity to maximize these benefits and who may want to put their time and energy into alternative platforms.
Today we are going to answer this question and help your business decide if LinkedIn is the right space for you to show up! *Note: this article is specifically addressing business pages; NOT personal pages.
Is LinkedIn Beneficial for My Industry?
First and foremost, let’s talk about the industries that are thriving on LinkedIn and why. Tech, Health, Construction, Education, and Finance are KILLING it on this platform. Regardless of its size, if your business is in one of these industries, LinkedIn is not a question of IF you should invest time and energy, but just how much.
The reason being is that for these industries – notoriety, connections, exposure, and cold hard data and results can launch a business further and faster.
LinkedIn has become a community built on professional connections and conversations. With its participants posting questions that industry leaders and professionals WORLD-WIDE can chime in on. This platform is an ideal place to build your business’s credibility both on your own page through your own content and by engaging with content shared by others.
With industry standards, regulations, and new technology constantly updating and evolving, LinkedIn is where professionals go to keep themselves up to date on not only WHAT is the latest and greatest, but also WHO is the latest and greatest. Having a presence and sharing the valuable information they are seeking means that you are creating opportunities for your business to be seen and heard.
Will LinkedIn Help Achieve My Goals?
Now, while the annual LinkedIn Industry List will look like it includes every industry under the sun, that doesn’t mean it will make sense for your business, especially when you are cherry-picking which platform to spend your resources on.
For example, a brick-and-mortar boutique – even a very successful one, that is not seeking expansion but rather an increase in local sales, would be better served to invest in Instagram, and Facebook. Or say that same boutique is still not wishing to expand but rather build their local AND online sales – they would be best served to add TikTok and Pinterest to the mix. But when it comes to LinkedIn? While it couldn’t hurt – it would be far lower on the totem pole in terms of adding real value to the business itself.
Is LinkedIn Really for My Small Business
We briefly touched on this earlier but allow us to paint it once more very clearly: size truly does NOT matter when it comes to LinkedIn. The benefits of this platform are not dependent on size. Believing that you are “too small” for LinkedIn would be an enormous disservice to yourself and write you off of the opportunities it may have waiting for you.
While your industry and business goals should impact your decision to show up on LinkedIn, your size should not dissuade you. Small businesses can be extremely successful on LinkedIn gathering quality leads and making meaningful connections that open doors and generate mutually beneficial relationships.
For example, a local family-owned and operated construction company that is seeking an increase in referrals from architects, designers, and real estate professionals could use a LinkedIn presence to start connecting with that particular target market in their area and engaging with them resulting in increased brand awareness among those specific professionals – separate from the same homeowner group they are targeting on Instagram.
In the same breath, a construction conglomerate 50 times the size of that local business can use LinkedIn to establish itself as a nationwide industry leader and attract more significant scaled professionals in those previously mentioned industries.
Your Businesses Time & Resources
Here is the thing you need to remember about any marketing your business partakes in – it needs to be based on YOUR business. Decisions made based on what someone else is doing will be based on what was best for THEIR business. As a small business owner, your time and resources are more limited and must be distributed with the utmost care. Avoiding burnout, overspending, and wasting valuable time are all things no small business owner wants or needs!
If you are researching platforms and are trying to decide if LinkedIn is one too many reflect on these questions before making the call:
- What are the current business goals that I am working towards and will a presence on LinkedIn work toward those goals?
- Are members of my target audience active on LinkedIn?
- Will I be able to keep up with an active and meaningful presence on LinkedIn?
Are you looking to reevaluate your presence on social media and take a deeper dive into which platforms are worth your time as well as how you can maximize your presence on those platforms? Developing a detailed, measurable, and goal-driven social media strategy is your next step. We would love to connect with you and find out how we can help your business level up and reach your goals.
