How To Upgrade Your LinkedIn Profile

linked in logo on an app icon
LinkedIn has always been the premier social media network for business professionals. But in recent years, LinkedIn has become a powerful marketing tool for businesses in every industry. While it’s important for brands to have a strategy for getting the most out of their LinkedIn page, equipping employees to elevate their personal LinkedIn profiles has become equally important.   Your LinkedIn profile is important because it both represents employees as individual professionals and it can represent your company as a whole. Your profile can be a tremendous asset for someone who is deciding whether or not to do business with you or to accept a position at your company. If you work in customer relations, your profile can give clients in your portfolio confidence that you know how to take care of their needs. That’s why it is important for your marketing company to support employees on LinkedIn by sharing best practices and ideas for your employees to optimize their profiles. 

How to Upgrade & Improve Your LinkedIn Profile

If you’re responsible for marketing or business development, here are a few simple tips you can share to help your co-workers create compelling LinkedIn profiles. 
1. Choose a professional profile picture.
Your picture makes a big first impression on your profile. A professional headshot is ideal, but we realize finding a professional photographer isn’t always easy or affordable.  Just because you don’t need an image taken by a professional doesn’t mean your picture shouldn’t be professional. Taking a high-quality photo on your smartphone doesn’t have to be complicated. Find a simple background and have someone take your picture for you. According to LinkedIn, you should aim for your face to take up about 60% of the image once it’s cropped.
2. Highlight the impact you’ve made in the headline. 
Your headline is the first thing that people see after your picture, so you want it to catch people’s attention. (It will default to your most recent job title if it’s not altered.) 
  • Start by adding your title and any relevant auxiliary roles (ex. speaker, author, nonprofit involvement, etc.)
  • Include relevant industry keywords
  • Add a value proposition statement about how you help people 
3. Write a compelling profile summary. 
Your summary is where you can really show your personality and share your story. It doesn’t need to be complicated, but it should be compelling. Rather than re-stating your resume or work experience, use your summary as a way to define yourself in your own words. Whether you use it to describe your unique calling or skill set, provide context for your career choices, highlight your biggest achievements, or show off your personality, the summary is your chance to share who you are in a way that is more personal and approachable.
4. Know your audience and what will get their attention.
As you craft your profile, think about who will be reading it — potential clients, new business opportunities, or future employees. Are there certain skills or areas of expertise they would want to know about? Once you have an idea of what readers might want to see, you can use these keywords in your headline, summary, experience, skills, and anywhere else they make sense on your profile. 
5. Use the features section to show off your best work. 
The features section on LinkedIn allows you to showcase media, links, and LinkedIn articles and posts at the top of your profile. This is a great way to highlight your expertise and skills in action. It could consist of a recent blog post you wrote, a presentation you’ve given, or a portfolio of your recent work. 
6. Ask for recommendations from recent clients.
It’s helpful for potential leads to see how you’ve helped other people. This is where recommendations can really enhance your credibility. Think of 2-3 people who have benefited from your work and ask if they’d be willing to write a recommendation. Many times offering to write a recommendation for them is a great way to return the favor.  
7. Engage regularly through posting and commenting.
Marketers know that consistent engagement is essential for producing results. While you don’t have to post every single day, it’s important to showcase consistent activity by writing posts and engaging with others. Set a recurring reminder on your work calendar to add a post or interact on the site for a set amount of time. If you don’t feel ready to write your own posts just yet, start with commenting. This will help humanize & upgrade your LinkedIn profile and show readers you’re actively connected to others.  Your LinkedIn content has the power to paint a picture for your clients, prospective employees, and anyone coming in contact with your brand. Our hope is that these three marketing best practices will help you upgrade your LinkedIn profile in a way that benefits you and your business.

How Does PR Fit Into Your Comprehensive Marketing Plan?

A colorful planning wall with several post-it notes of marketing plans and details.
Marketing and public relations used to work separately, with drastically different approaches and goals. But in today’s digital world, where PR overlaps with other channels of communication, it’s more important than ever for the two disciplines to work together. For nearly every company we serve, we are exploring ways to incorporate PR into their comprehensive marketing plan.  Unfortunately, not all brands recognize how important PR can be. According to recent research, only 19 percent of corporate communication departments actually contribute to the overall marketing strategy. As a result, many companies are missing a huge opportunity to accelerate brand awareness and improve consumer perception with proven and research-backed PR strategies.

How Marketing and PR Work in Tandem

Traditionally, public relations has focused on maintaining a company’s overall public image, while marketing has focused on promoting and selling products or services. But in today’s digital age, where consumers and brands are more connected than ever before, those two lines have merged into one comprehensive thread.  Marketers need to recognize that telling a compelling story is essential for reaching today’s consumers. This is what PR professionals specialize in doing. For PR professionals, it’s important to recognize that consumers have as much impact on a brand’s perception as the brand itself.  The end goals of marketing and PR — selling products and making people love a company — are now intertwined. To succeed in today’s business world, brands need to combine the best tactics in traditional PR with updated online techniques.

Effective PR Tactics for Your Comprehensive Marketing Plan

Here are a few PR tactics that will take your comprehensive marketing plan to the next level and ensure you’re maintaining a positive brand image while selling more products: 1. Incorporate a digital PR strategy that creates two-way communication with consumers. You can either run from the fact that today’s consumers control brand perception or lean into it. One of the ways we encourage clients to lean in is to create a dedicated digital PR strategy that includes tactics such as customer survey tools, proactive press releases, and comprehensive social strategies. 2. Engage non-traditional outlets and influencers to reach your audience. In the past, PR primarily focused on building relationships with media outlets or industry publications. Today, consumers are getting their information from dozens of different sources — including social media influencers and website reviews.  Studies show that 92% of people are more likely to trust recommendations from other people over advertisements and messaging from the actual brands. This is why influencer marketing is one of the most effective PR tactics. By partnering with influencers in addition to other PR strategies, you can ensure you’re maximizing your potential to increase awareness, engagement, and conversions for your brand. 3. Create customized pitches for various outlets and campaigns.  Historically, PR agencies would draft a press release and then blast it out to every outlet they knew. That shotgun approach isn’t nearly as effective in today’s world. We’re simply bombarded with too much content and information. If you want your pitch to stand out, you need to make it as personal and relevant as possible for your audience. This might require a little extra effort, but it will pay off in the long run if your pitch gets picked up. 

Need Help Integrating PR into Your Marketing Plan?

The PR and marketing landscape is changing. Industry influencers and effective tactics are constantly evolving. As one of the top marketing and PR firms in Nashville, our team is constantly looking for new ways to shape and deliver clients’ stories to their target audiences, driving quantifiable results in ways that stay true to our clients’ brands. If you need additional PR assistance or a new strategy that’s built from the ground up, we can help. Reach out to us to schedule a PR audit for your brand.

7 Ways to Elevate Your Personal LinkedIn Profile

There’s no denying that LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social media platforms for marketers and business development professionals. If you’re a B2B brand, LinkedIn is no longer an optional platform. With more than 310 million monthly active users, it’s becoming harder to cut through the noise. The good news is that it doesn’t take a lot of time or energy to elevate your personal LinkedIn profile. 

7 Ways to Elevate Your Personal LinkedIn Profile

Taking the time to encourage employees to optimize their personal LinkedIn profiles can make a tremendous difference for your company. As we’ve helped clients optimize LinkedIn as a marketing tool, here are a few tactics we encourage them to pass along to their employees:   
  1. Create a Compelling Headline
LinkedIn provides an opportunity for people to quickly explain what they do at the top of their profile. While most people use this as another way to highlight their job title, it can be a quick and easy way to boost your profile’s impact. Think about your headline as a way to explain your current role, what it means to you, and how you could help someone who might be visiting your profile. 
  1. Focus on your Impact in your Descriptions
Your description is often the second place people look to learn more about you. This is another opportunity to be intentional about capturing attention. Rather than summarizing your resume, think about what people might want to know. How have you made an impact in your industry? What are some specific ways you help people? Answering these questions in your description is a great way to make your profile stand out from the general descriptions that most people write. 
  1. ​​Regularly Post Engaging Content 
LinkedIn marketing requires consistency, creativity, and originality. Take a look at your LinkedIn home page and evaluate the posts that receive the most engagement. Most likely, it’s an interesting mix of helpful insights, personal updates, and engaging questions. While you don’t need to post on LinkedIn every day, it’s important to share updates if you want to maintain a high engagement rate on LinkedIn.
  1. Add Awards or Accomplishments
Bragging on social media can sometimes get a bad rap. But taking time to highlight your awards or accomplishments can be an effective marketing tactic, especially for sales professionals. You want your prospects to know that you’re capable of getting them the results they’re looking for. LinkedIn provides a natural place for you to highlight your awards and accomplishments without seeming overly boastful. 
  1. Ask for Recommendations 
Recommendations are key to making your LinkedIn profile stand out. Employers and potential business partners want to know that you have a positive reputation and that others have benefited from your work. Think of one or two customers who might validate your work and ask them to write a quick recommendation. Consider writing on their profile to help them out as well. 
  1. Strategically Use Hashtags to Expand Your Reach 
Hashtags are a completely underused feature of Linkedin. These short phrases do more than summarize what your particular post is about. They’re also a way to connect with other people who are interested in that topic. Best practices say to use about three to five hashtags per LinkedIn post and ensure they’re all relevant to the topic.
  1. Interact with Content in Your Industry
Are you following leaders in your industry? Keeping up with individuals who post thought-provoking content is a great way to discover and connect with others in your industry. It also enables you to stay on top of industry trends and share relevant information with other prospects. 

Leverage LinkedIn for Personal and Professional Growth

LinkedIn is a powerful sales and marketing tool that’s easy to use. If you’re looking for a way to optimize your profile or your employee’s profile, consider using LinkedIn’s Profile Level Meter to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your profile. Then, take some time to check out some lessons we learned from doubling Green Apple’s LinkedIn profile presence.

Why is Your LinkedIn Page Underperforming? (and How to Improve It)

A man checking his social media on a tablet

While social media trends have evolved over the past few years, LinkedIn is still the essential platform for marketing and business development growth, especially for B2B brands. Every marketing department and business development professional should take time to consider how to use the platform, especially if you’re concerned that your LinkedIn page is underperforming.

There are a few good reasons why a strong LinkedIn Page is absolutely essential. According to an article from Hubspot:

  • 4 out of 5 people on LinkedIn “drive business decisions”
  • Companies that post weekly on LinkedIn see a 2x higher engagement rate
  • 40% of B2B marketers surveyed indicated LinkedIn as the most effective channel for driving high-quality leads

Improving Your LinkedIn Presence Can Go a Long Way


Investing a little attention and effort into transforming an underperforming LinkedIn profile can make a tremendous difference for your brand. Not only do the statistics prove it, we know it from our own personal experience. Last year, our team at Green Apple decided to collaborate on a strategy that would enhance our LinkedIn company page.  

A year into our strategy, we’ve seen exponential growth:

  • Increasing our number of followers 5x in six months. 
  • Increasing our reactions by 4,872%.
  • Increasing the number of times someone shared our content  by 2,566% 

While we are constantly looking for new ways to improve our strategy, we’ve learned some valuable insights so far. Here are a few takeaways we discovered when it came to transforming an underperforming LinkedIn presence.

Common Reasons Your LinkedIn is Underperforming 

Here are a few common reasons a company might struggle to create results from their LinkedIn activity: 

  1. You haven’t identified your target audience and their daily challenges and obstacles.

One of the most common reasons a business doesn’t get a lot of traction on LinkedIn is because the content they’re creating doesn’t resonate with their audience. It’s important to consider how you want to add value to your audience when determining if you should be on any social platform — including LinkedIn. Without taking time to identify who you’re trying to reach and understand the challenges they face on a daily basis, you’ll likely waste a lot of time creating content no one cares to read. 

  1. You lack a plan that helps you create a consistent presence. 

It’s important to have a consistent presence for your brand on LinkedIn. We’ve all had the experience of stumbling upon a company LinkedIn profile that’s updated once a month or, worse, hasn’t been updated in months. Creating a LinkedIn presence but not maintaining it is often worse than not having one at all.

  1. You are taking a “hard sell” approach that isn’t working.

There are plenty of people who take a hard sell approach on LinkedIn. These are the people who are often pushy with their tactics or are only sharing sales-oriented content on their company page. While these efforts occasionally work, most of the time they do not.  As with most social networks, it’s important to embrace the motto, “always be helpful,” rather than overwhelming your followers with self-promotional content.   

  1. You are posting content, but you aren’t engaging with others.

LinkedIn serves as a platform to help business professionals connect and engage with one another. As such, it works best when you invest time interacting with others. If you’re posting regularly, but you aren’t getting the most out of your LinkedIn presence, it’s likely because you’re missing an opportunity to create more meaningful connections with your audience by engaging with their content as well. 

How to Enhance Your LinkedIn Presence to Achieve Results

If you’re looking to take your LinkedIn presence to the next level, here are a few keys we learned from our experience: 

  1. Optimize your profile

According to Hubspot, companies with an active LinkedIn page see 5x more page views than those with inactive pages. Any given LinkedIn page contains a series of subsections. Businesses should ideally fill all of these sections out completely, with the exception of the “Jobs” section if you aren’t hiring.

  1. Get your team involved in content creation.

Because LinkedIn is primarily a platform for business connections, your employees can play a critical role in broadening your reach and strengthening your network on the platform. Your LinkedIn marketing strategy should include involvement from your employees. For our team, that meant collaborating on content creation and being strategic in how we worked together to promote the posts Green Apple was sharing. Taking the time to develop a strategy for employee advocacy is an easy way for your organization to expand its reach on Linkedin. 

  1. Use a variety of videos and images to create higher visibility.

Adding custom images can get you twice as many comments on your posts. Additionally, sharing a video drives up your engagement rate by five times. Both highlight the fact that varying the type of content you post is a critical part of your LinkedIn marketing strategy.

  1. Constantly test ideas and analyze your efforts 

As with any marketing strategy, it’s important to test and optimize your efforts along the way. The native LinkedIn analytics data gives you an in-depth look at how your posts are performing. Schedule a time to check your performance data regularly and formulate strategies for improvement.

Turning Around Your Underperforming LinkedIn Page is Easier Than You Think

It doesn’t take magic to transform your LinkedIn presence. There are simple techniques you can use to optimize the power of LinkedIn. All it takes is a little attention and effort on the front end and a commitment to evaluate your efforts along the way. If you need guidance on turning LinkedIn into a lead generation tool, Green Apple can help. Let Green Apple Strategy craft an innovative approach to your social media channels so that you can start targeting and attracting new team members. Reach out to us today for a consultation.

Case Study: How We Increased LinkedIn Followers 5X in 6 Months

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LinkedIn is an essential platform for many B2B companies, and there are several reasons why:
  • 4 out of 5 people on LinkedIn “drive business decisions.” (Source)
  • 33% of B2B decision makers use LinkedIn to research purchases. (Source) 
  • 80% of B2B social media leads come from LinkedIn. (Source) 
There is no denying that LinkedIn is one of the most effective social media lead generators for B2B marketers. Since LinkedIn allows users to generate content and create engagement, it makes sense for those involved in the B2B industry to remain active on LinkedIn.  Recently, our team at Green Apple collaborated on a strategy to enhance our LinkedIn presence that increased our followers by more than 500 in less than six months. 

The Challenge: Testing Ideas to Transform Our Strategies

We often help clients use LinkedIn as a marketing tool and find effective ways to optimize B2B LinkedIn pages for business. We also believe to serve our clients effectively, we should always be looking for ways to test ideas and strategies ourselves. Understanding the ways brands use LinkedIn gives us insight into how we can integrate new approaches into the social marketing strategy we create for clients. In May 2021, we sat down to develop a year-long plan that would help us learn new tactics and achieve specific growth, interactions, and engagement goals. We started with a little more than 100 followers on our LinkedIn page. 

Our Approach: Collaboration & Content to Accelerate Connection & Growth

To test ideas and strategies, we worked through the same strategic marketing process we use with our clients: 
  • We identified a goal and created a feasible strategy — We started by setting a goal to have 1,000 followers by May 2022. This seemed like an audacious but achievable goal. We also wanted to develop a strategy that would be reasonable for our team to execute. We know our team is primarily focused on client goals, so we collaborated on a feasible strategy that was highly achievable. 
  • We used our team strengths to devise a plan — The strategy we created was built to maximize our team’s unique strengths and gifts. One of the things that makes Green Apple unique is that our team is diverse in experience and expertise. We wanted to highlight this by encouraging team members to be present on LinkedIn. We also wanted to give our insights into the marketing industry, share what our team members are learning, and highlight the milestones our team reaches. 
  • We created a team-oriented approach — We knew that collective buy-in would be essential for achieving our goal. From the very beginning, we rallied the team behind the goal and provided ways to engage with our content, share their own content, and grow our network. We also wanted to share content highlighting the “everyday” aspects of our team — including behind-the-scenes photos and personnel updates from the Green Apple Orchard. 
  • We evaluated and re-evaluated our content each month — It’s important to constantly measure your efforts and tweak your strategy based on what you’re learning. Each month, our team would spend time reviewing the content we posted. The insights we discovered based on the performance of the various topics or types of posts allowed us to adjust our strategy along the way.

The Results: Discovering the “Link” Between Intentional Effort & Exponential Growth

Six months into the strategy, we’re well on our way to achieving our annual growth goal. We’ve also experienced exponential growth in our engagement. We’ve increased our reactions by 4,872%, comments by 7,800%, and shares by 2,566%. Along with these quantitative results, we’ve also created deeper, more meaningful connections with people on LinkedIn we hadn’t experienced before.  If you want to learn more about our approach or discover how you can leverage LinkedIn for growth, reach out to us to help establish a strategic social media plan. Also — if we haven’t connected on LinkedIn yet, we’d love to share our content with you. You can find our LinkedIn page here.

B2B Companies: How to Get the Most Out of Your LinkedIn Presence

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Are you struggling to get engagement or reach on LinkedIn?  Social media strategies aren’t what they once were. The formula for success is no longer simply “post more often,” or “interact with your content,” which we’re sure you’ve heard countless times. Especially for B2B companies, social media is a different animal—it doesn’t play by the same rules as its B2C counterparts. Not to worry, though. With a well-planned LinkedIn strategy, you can increase your following, engagement, brand awareness, and even encourage teamwork among your employees.   Here’s what you’ll need to get the most out of your LinkedIn presence: 
  1. A current and engaging business page
  2. Digestible content that speaks to your audience’s pain points
  3. Diligent and proactive engagement with your audience
  4. An employee-centric content and engagement strategy
  5. A budget for strategic paid ads

How to Get the Most Out of Your LinkedIn Presence

1. A Current and Engaging Business Page
When was the last time you revisited your LinkedIn business page? Chances are, a lot has happened in your business since you first created the page. On top of that, standards for what makes a good business page have changed. Review your page to ensure that all your information is up to date.  You may also consider switching up your “About” content to speak directly to your audience. Rather than a simple description of what your business does, capture your audience’s attention by telling them how you can solve their problem specifically. Tell them who you help, what you do, and what your differentiators are. This allows your audience to quickly identify that you’re the right fit. Tip: LinkedIn only shows the first two lines of your description without the user having to click to read more. Make those two sentences count!
2. Digestible Content that Speaks to Your Audience’s Pain Points
This is always the tricky one, right? Engaging your audience through eye-catching content. You must find a way to speak to your audience’s needs, while also giving them content that they can quickly digest. That may include graphics, original blog content, thoughtful insights, or shared content from other reputable sources. Try to create (or find and share) content that your audience can learn something from very quickly as they scroll through their feed.  Tip: Always tag any relevant people or businesses in your posts. Also, make good use of your hashtags to help users find your content.
3. Diligent and Proactive Engagement with Your Audience
We know you’re busy and have very little time to watch over your social accounts. But, engagement is one of the most important elements of your LinkedIn strategy. Ensure that you always answer comments or proactively engage your audience in conversation by asking a question in the first comment on your post. To further encourage engagement, you may also consider tagging someone in the comment who you feel may have particularly good insight on the subject.   Tip: Set a calendar reminder to help you remember to check your LinkedIn and engage at least twice per day. 
4. An Employee-Centric Content and Engagement Strategy
Involving your employees is a great way to build teamwork, making your team feel more connected to your audience and to each other. Here are a few of the ways you can encourage your team’s help with your LinkedIn strategy: 
  • Request that each team member spends ten minutes per day engaging on LinkedIn
  • Tag team members in content they helped create or contributed to
  • Create branded cover photos for your team’s profiles 
  • Share content congratulating team members on their accomplishments
  • Tag team members to ask insightful questions 
Tip: Ask team members to create content of their own that they would be proud to share with their LinkedIn connections. 
5. A Budget for Strategic Paid Ads
Organic reach is always the goal, but in today’s social media environment, you often have to pay to play. Consider your business’s primary goals, and set a budget for each that you can use for paid LinkedIn ads. If that’s hiring, for example, you may boost a job advertisement. If it’s brand awareness, you may put your money behind case studies. Whatever you choose, make sure that your ad spend correlates with your team’s goals. Tip: To get the most out of your ad spend, you may prefer to hire someone to help you with this area of your strategy.

Ready to Build a Lead-Generating LinkedIn Strategy? 

Your LinkedIn content has the power to paint a picture for your clients, prospective employees, and anyone coming in contact with your brand. Let’s make it count. Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation. Our team is happy to sit down with you to discuss your goals and how we can help you achieve each and every one of them.

Should Your Business Be on Every Social Media Platform?

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Quality over quantity. It’s a phrase that’s said so often that it sometimes loses its meaning. However, the reason that it’s said so often is that it’s overwhelmingly true. As it does in every area of marketing, quality over quantity applies to social media, too.  So, in short, no. Your business should not be on every social media platform. This is always good news to businesses trying to juggle upwards of three platforms at once, seeing lackluster results across the board. The key is to focus on the platforms that give you the most return so that you aren’t wasting precious resources. So, how do you decide which platforms to put your effort towards? We have a few tips to guide you. 

How to Identify Which Social Media Platforms to Use

1. Identify where your customers are spending their time. 
Depending on your product or service, it’s likely that your customers are using one platform more than another. Many marketers find that this could largely depend on the customer’s age. For example, for brands marketing to the younger generations, it’s reported that 73% of Gen Z prefers that brands reach them through Instagram. On the other hand, 78% of Baby Boomers reportedly prefer interacting with the brands they like on Facebook. You may also consider your customers’ interests and professions when identifying which platforms they frequent.  Identifying the social platform that will provide you with the most exposure to your audience is the most important part of this tactic and will be a great foundation for building your social strategy.  Here are a few simple ways to help point you in the right direction: 
  • Poll your customers in a review survey to see how they found you. 
  • Ask customers as you interact with them.
  • Review your metrics across the platforms that you’re using.
2. Determine what kind of content you have to share. 
The types of content that you create may heavily influence the platform that you choose. Each site has its niche, and if you go against that niche, you may not see the engagement you’d like. Take Instagram, for example. To be successful on that platform, you must have eye-catching photography or video content with thoughtful captions. On the other hand, LinkedIn relies more on informational content, such as videos, slides, and articles. So, before you begin sharing, consider where the content you already have would make the most impact. 
3. Consider which platform you have the most experience with. 
Your level of comfort factors into this decision as well. If you use a particular platform most often, you know what the trends and expectations are for that site already. If you find that your audience isn’t on this site, enlist the help of a social media marketer or a marketing agency to curate and post your content. 
4. Analyze your metrics across your current platforms. 
The numbers don’t lie. Take a look at your metrics on each platform to see which is performing the best. This is a great way to identify where your return on investment is the highest. Once you’ve chosen the best performing site for your brand, begin building a social media strategy that addresses the types of content you will share and the goals you want to reach. Don’t forget to include paid advertising as part of your strategy! This can help you ensure that your audience sees your most important content. 

Do You Need a Strategic Social Media Plan? 

If you feel like you aren’t getting the return you’d hoped for on social media, consider partnering with a marketing agency to create a strategic plan. We can help! Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.

Should You Use LinkedIn as a Marketing Tool?

linked in logo on an app icon
LinkedIn, like any social media platform, can be a fantastic marketing tool. The success of your tactics on this platform is, however, dependent on two things: the audience you’re trying to reach and the approach that you take in connecting with that audience. In this article, we’ll explain why LinkedIn can be a robust marketing tool and how to know if it’s right for your company.

You should use LinkedIn as a marketing tool if…

1. Your target audience uses LinkedIn. 
Before you build out your LinkedIn strategy, consider if your audience is active on this platform. The last thing you want to do is spend your precious time on something that the right people will never see. So, ask yourself if your audience is on LinkedIn daily, or at least a few times a week. If the answer is yes, then begin building. If the answer is no, identify which social media platform may be a better fit for your business and a better use of your energy.  You might be wondering what the typical LinkedIn audience looks like. LinkedIn users are usually professionals of all ages, from newly-graduated college students to c-suite executives. This audience is looking to build their personal or business success in some way by building their LinkedIn network and making a name for themselves.  Knowing this, here are a few audiences you might reach on LinkedIn: 
  • Executives who are looking for resources, advice, and tools to help their businesses scale or become stronger
  • Companies like yours that are using LinkedIn to build a strong online presence
  • Job seekers who are looking for the right position to begin or advance their career
  • Individuals who want to make professional connections and learn more about their industry
2. You want to build relationships with individual members of your audience. 
LinkedIn is more focused on individuals than it is on companies. As such, it’s a wonderful tool to help you build meaningful connections with others in your industry, as well as prospective customers or job candidates. Those LinkedIn members often have something to teach us, and we can learn about them in the process. By building these connections, you can identify who might be a good fit to join your company’s team or who might find great success using your product or service. This approach can help you identify specific targets and give your recruiting or sales team a head start.
3. You want to be viewed as a thought leader in your industry.
When you maintain an active LinkedIn profile, you build your position as a thought leader within your industry. Over time, your followers will see you as the go-to person when they want to learn more about your area of expertise. This approach elevates your personal and company brand while educating those around you. You likely will not notice an immediate return from this part of the tactic, but it’s well worth the long-term return on investment.
4. You are growing your team and are searching for a new hire.  
Over the years, LinkedIn has grown to be a robust hiring platform. Companies have an advantage when hiring via LinkedIn because, once the applications begin rolling in, they can view the applicants’ profiles. At a glance, you can see their personal description, work history, endorsements, and more. You can then reach out to the candidates who align with your position criteria and start discussing the specifics and next steps. This platform makes it easy to keep track of applications and where they are in the process.
5. You’re prepared to engage with others’ content, not just your own. 
When using LinkedIn to accomplish your business goals, it’s important that you’re prepared to engage with others’ content, too, and not just your own. Remember that you’re opening yourself and your company up to relationship building. When you’re sending out content and taking a hands-off or auto-pilot approach, you may not see the results you were hoping for. Pro tip: To engage on a deeper level with your audience, search LinkedIn for industry groups to join that align with your company and audience interests. 

Best Practices for LinkedIn

Your LinkedIn presence can achieve several of your business goals if you approach it in a strategic way. To get the most out of your efforts, it’s crucial that you keep your profile up to date and be active in posting and sharing industry-relevant content. The more active you are—with meaningful, relevant content—the faster you can build your presence and reach your target audience.  Be careful not to share content for no reason or to give generic responses to others’ content. Your audience can sense your authenticity, and they will appreciate you for putting in the time to interact.  Ready to build and strengthen your online presence? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.