LinkedIn is considered the most effective social media platform for B2B lead generation, and it is also an amazing place for B2C marketers. While it has taken LinkedIn a long time to reach this level of popularity, it can still be confusing to navigate for people who haven’t used LinkedIn before.
We have broken down 20 LinkedIn best practices for each topic to help you get the most out of your unique LinkedIn experience and achieve your goals in the best way possible:
LinkedIn Best Practices For 2024
Let’s dive straight into best LinkedIn practices for marketers, job seekers, businesses & brands, writing articles, and personal profiles. However, one thing that remains constant and goes without saying is that you should automate LinkedIn posts before anything else using a social media management tool.
LinkedIn Best Practices for Marketers
LinkedIn is essential for anyone pursuing a career in marketing or is already an established marketer. How important is it, though? It is 277% better than Facebook when it comes to generating leads. Do we need to say more?
Here’s how you can, as a marketer, use LinkedIn to gather information, reach out to clients, and find prospective customers:
Optimize your LinkedIn profile
This is one of the most ignored LinkedIn best practices. As a marketer, you want potential clients to find you when you search for your niche, so your profile needs to be optimized with keywords to attract them. Add keywords to your profile so people can find you for your services or products. Keep them natural by placing them throughout your profile and watching your ranking increase. Lastly, ensure that your profile settings are on for visibility in the internet’s Search Engines through your public profile.
Customize your LinkedIn URL
Keep things minimal on LinkedIn. Customize your URL and switch it to LinkedIn.com/in/yourname. LinkedIn’s default URL has a lot of annoying characters, so this is a small improvement that can help you share your profile’s URL with someone.
Build Showcase Pages on LinkedIn
The next tip that should be included in LinkedIn best practices is to showcase your pages. Showcase pages allow you to personalize a potential client’s interaction with your page. Showcase pages are separate pages linked to your company profile but showcase your service or product.
A LinkedIn user can engage with your showcase page exclusively without interacting with your business or brand. Furthermore, showcase pages let you build targeted networks and connections around a specific product or service and reach out separately.
Get a Premium Account
If you upgrade to a premium account, you will have access to all these amazing features that will let you increase your profile’s visibility and even see who has viewed your profile with LinkedIn profile viewer. You can also see who on LinkedIn is interested in your content and then reach out to them, or you can take advantage of LinkedIn promoted posts. A premium account will also get you 15 introductions.
Get Endorsements
Getting endorsement is one of the best tips for LinkedIn best practices. If you are an expert in marketing, let it be known to everyone. Get endorsed for your skills to show off your authority. Ask your contacts to endorse you.
LinkedIn Best Practices for Personal Profile
Working on a personal profile is important, especially if you are just starting LinkedIn. Follow these tips and prepare yourself to be surprised by the difference they make:
Choose an Appropriate Profile Picture
A profile picture is your identity on the platform and one of the LinkedIn best practices that are taken for granted. It introduces you to people and controls their impressions of you. Surprisingly, LinkedIn accounts with profile photos get 36 times more messages and 21 times more views than picture-less folks.
Make sure that your profile picture looks like you, is recent, has your face taking up to 60% of it, has what you would wear to work, and do not forget to smile with your eyes.
Expand Your LinkedIn Network
One of the most amazing strategies to increase your network on LinkedIn is to synchronize your LinkedIn profile with your address book. This can effectively show you relevant people and brands to reach out to. Plus, it does not send connection requests without your permission.
In addition, this will develop the habit of following up on conversations and meetings in you. Lastly, it is an effective way of keeping your network updated and vibrant.
Add a New Background Picture
Your LinkedIn profile’s background photo is the second most important visual element. It grabs attention, shows a little more about you, and sets the context. Most importantly, it helps you stay memorable, engage attention, and stand out. Well, you just can’t deny that adding a new background picture is considered as one of the LinkedIn best practices.
Highlight Your Services
LinkedIn has introduced a new feature that lets small business owners, consultants, and freelancers highlight their services to people. So, fill out the services section on your profile and let more people find you by improving your visibility in search results.
Show Your Passion for Learning
LinkedIn allows you to add a certificate to your profile every time you complete a course on LinkedIn. You can do this by going to your LinkedIn Profile’s Learning History section and sending your network updates about your learning journey and experiences.
LinkedIn Best Practices for Businesses
Don’t Use Stock Photos
If you are running your business, then not using stock photos is definitely included in the list of LinkedIn best practices. LinkedIn’s research has suggested that LinkedIn posts with pictures have a 98% better comment rate, so the best practice is to use rich and immersive images.
For example, Airbnb gets images from its employees and hosts for its social media accounts. Using original and unique photos can help you stand out from a sea of brands than using random stock images and footage for LinkedIn video ads.
Add Relevant Buttons
Add icons to your social media pages to the footer or the header of your newsletter or website so people can easily find your LinkedIn Page. So, go and look for the most up-to-date version of LinkedIn’s logo and add it to your website. You can also use LinkedIn Plugins to add the follow and share buttons. Consider adding a relevant button as it is included as one of LinkedIn best practices.
Post Daily
Whether you decide to post a video on LinkedIn or an image or an update, do it daily. Up to 40 percent of LinkedIn users access the platform daily, so think of the engagement you can drive and the audience you can target if you post every day.
However, to ensure that you hit the mark every time, you need to predict your customers’ needs. Plugging in contact like emotion, time, place, and location can make it easier for your audience to interact with your posts. This will also score your business a high LinkedIn Content Marketing Score.
Use LinkedIn Live
The only thing better than videos on LinkedIn is live videos, so much so that businesses who post live videos have reported seven times more reactions and 24 times more comments as compared to pre-filmed videos.
There are plenty of reasons for businesses to go live, including webinars, fireside chats, interviews, and virtual events. Live videos are perfect because they provide instant connection, and it is even better if you actively reply to comments and questions. Do not forget to promote your live video using LinkedIn ad specs before hosting a live stream. Using Live is one of the best tips included in the list of LinkedIn best practices.
LinkedIn Best Practices for Job Seekers
Forty million people prefer using LinkedIn to find jobs for themselves. If you are one of them, these tips are perfect for you. Use these tips to land yourself one of the over 3 million jobs posted on LinkedIn every month:
Take LinkedIn’s Skills Assessment
LinkedIn has multiple skills assessment tests for various industries and niches. It enables a person to demonstrate the level of skills they possess. Plus, it also displays a Verified Skills badge on the test taker’s LinkedIn, which helps them to stand out to recruiters. People with a verified badge have a higher probability of getting hired than those who do not.
Do not worry about doing not so well on the tests because displaying the results is entirely voluntary, and you can retake them if you want.
Add a Current Job Even When You’re Unemployed
When potential recruiters search for people on LinkedIn, one of the aspects of your profile that produces results is your current position, so add one even if you are not working anywhere. Not having any current position can cause you not to appear and miss out on opportunities. So adding a current job is one of the best LinkedIn best practices that you should definitely look into.
So, even if you are currently unemployed, it is wise to add a position that you are looking for. One good example is a Virtual Assistant or Social Media Coordinator. However, write something like looking for new opportunities in the spot reserved for the company name that shows that you are not misleading anyone by saying that you are employed.
Best Practices for Writing Articles on LinkedIn
Writing articles on LinkedIn has its own benefits. It can help you establish yourself as a professional, reach out to other people & start conversations, and expand your network by increasing your connections. Here are the best practices for you if you want to write articles on LinkedIn:
Include a CTA (Call-to-Action)
Make the most of your skills as a writer, and do not forget to include a CTA at the end of every article. It does not even matter if you have written about everything in your article and do not even need more contributions, just add a Call to Action at the bottom.
Ask your audiences to comment, like, share, and follow whatever you have created. Engage in conversation by asking them to share their thoughts or answer a question in the comments. Your ultimate goal should be to lead them to your website. Adding a CTA button is one of the beneficial tips in the list of LinkedIn best practices.
Use Information from Others’ Articles Once in a While
There is nothing wrong with using information from articles written by others; however, make sure that you maintain a healthy balance between original content written by you and external information.
Remember that your goal is to protect your original and unique voice. You can only achieve this by doing your research, outlining your results & accomplishments, and speaking of your experiences.
Add Images to Your Articles
LinkedIn likes articles and posts with pictures. And when you are posting articles, you do not even have to worry about using self-captured photos to remain original. All you need to do is choose your pictures according to your brand and theme.
When choosing stock images, avoid using those pictures that look like stock photos at first sight. Obvious stock photos like a rock climber climbing a super high mountain can make your article look generic and uninteresting. So, go for good, reputable sites when you want to search for images for your posts, such as Pixabay, Unsplash, Pexels, etc. So, next time when don’t post dry content. add images to your article as it is one of the best LinkedIn practices.
Stay Consistent and Follow a Schedule
Consistency is super important no matter what niche you decide to post in and what social media platform you choose, including LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, or Medium. Readers like to follow consistent authors because they know they can rely on them for more content.
If you post on LinkedIn once and then disappear into thin air for months on end, people who were originally interested in your content will move on. And then, when you come back, you will have no engagement.
As far as the frequency of posting is concerned, you can use LinkedIn’s managing editor Chip Cutter’s advice to post a least a few times every week to stay consistent. People on LinkedIn are on the platform to learn from each other, advance their careers, and make connections, so they will turn to you if they see that they can hear from you consistently and frequently.
The Final Takeaway
While marketing on LinkedIn as a marketer, writer, job seeker, employee, business, brand, or personal profile has numerous nuances and is pretty multifaceted, it can be made more accessible by a good LinkedIn tutorial and some amazing LinkedIn best practices like the ones above. Hopefully, these practices will help you achieve your goals no matter what niche you are working in and what industry you belong to and also give you better insights into how to navigate LinkedIn at the same time. Just don’t forget to track important LinkedIn metrics.
Keep in mind that whether you are just using LinkedIn to promote your blog posts or using paid advertising, LinkedIn can provide you with several opportunities to generate leads, find jobs, increase traffic get clients, or create awareness —whatever your goals may be.
