Trying to make waves with LinkedIn marketing but hesitant because LinkedIn is now confusingly feature-rich? It’s imperative to get the basics down first, not to end up spinning your wheels. This page details essential LinkedIn beginner marketing best practices to ensure you get the results you want—from the start.

Don’t Ignore LinkedIn Marketing: Here’s All You Need to Know to Get Started with LinkedIn.

As you probably already know, LinkedIn has managed to stick around for so long (did you know LinkedIn is older than Facebook?) because of its clever, niche branding: It’s the “professional” social media network.

In fact, according to Pew Research Center, 44% of LinkedIn users earn more than $75,000 per year. So the tagline is entirely accurate: Professionals use LinkedIn at a higher rate than other social platforms.

Therefore, if you’re marketing to professionals, LinkedIn is an essential tool in your arsenal. But since LinkedIn is a little different from other social networks, best marketing practices differ, too.

Click here for more LinkedIn stats and their implications for your business.

Let’s now dive into the basics and start building your own powerful LinkedIn profile.

What Photo Should I Use for my LinkedIn Profile?

Uploading a photo is essential in creating your profile to make a great impression last. The picture you choose for your profile must be high quality (with good lighting) and professional. Many people think that using photos taken from their cellphone cameras is enough, but unfortunately, it’s not. You are not just promoting yourself in your profile but also your brand, so using a professionally-taken photo should not be missed. 

Use a photo that illustrates who you are as a person or your profession. Outdoors photos are trendy, especially those against a green backdrop or an architectural marker. Are you an architect? Use a photo of yourself in front of one of your creations or an architectural landmark. 

What Should I Use for a Banner Image?

Cover size is: 1128 (w) x 191 (h) pixels. Choose something that is part of you, whether the skyline of your home city or an image of you at a work site. Just keep the left end of the image empty, so you don’t get bunny years when your profile image overlaps with the banner. 

Edit All Your LinkedIn Profile’s Sections

Once you’re done with the Linkedin profile photos, it’s time to apply your writing skills while filling in the next sections. Here, you can add information that will describe you and your brand. 

Writing a killer headline that will capture the essence of “the change you and your brand want to make in the world” is a must. A good headline attracts viewers to view your profile and be interested to know more about you and your brand. 

Next, add your location and the industry you are in because these are the top two things people use when searching for experts. 

You can fill in other fields: your current position, company, education, skills, accomplishments, and contact information – you can expand your profile anytime you want!

Write Summary & Experience

You are done with the basics! Now, get yourself ready to take the opportunity to present yourself and your brand by writing an excellent summary and experience. If you are wondering where to start, a good recommendation is to take advantage of what you already have, and that’s your resume. However, don’t build your profile like a resume (that’s a rule!). Just use the best and meaningful parts of it to create a captivating and engaging summary.

Customize LinkedIn URL and Edit Your Profile’s Visibility

Creating your custom LinkedIn URL is a unique way to share and present your profile to the public. You can customize however you like it, but to make search engines find you easily, putting your first and last name is helpful. You can do this by clicking “Edit public profile & URL” in the upper right-hand corner.

When you are still in the process of completing your profile, and you already want to start connecting, you can control your profile’s visibility, network, and Linkedin activity. You can manage the viewing settings of your profile and privacy settings too. 

Add LinkedIn Connections and Follow Influencers/Companies

You have established your profile, and it’s now time to start connecting and show yourself to the world! Lucky for you, since you already filled in your location, industry, past jobs, and qualifications, LinkedIn will automatically suggest who to connect with. You will find profiles of people you may know based on your location, industry, Alma Mater, interests, and more. 

Of course, you would want to start connecting with people you know, or if you already have a list that you are interested in connecting with, you can easily do this by searching their names. It is best to know your social media target audience to increase your connections. 

Which LinkedIn Connection Invitations Should I Accept?

In accepting invitations, set your own rules. Some people will accept invitations from just about anyone, some only from those they specifically know. In my experience, limiting your network to just those you know is… well… limiting. LinkedIn is a networking tool that allows us to connect with people we otherwise can’t meet. So loosen up your criteria and make sure to check connection invitations from time to time so you don’t miss profitable ones.

The more information you fill in your profile, the bigger the network you’ll reach and be surrounded by. If you see the “connect” button, simply click it to connect, but if you don’t, click on more options “…” to connect. 

Adding a personalized note is very helpful in connecting, so they may easily recognize who you are and why you want to connect with them.

You will also find companies and influencers with similar industry profiles to follow. Following influencers and company profiles will allow you to reach more people around them and be updated with their activities which may be very beneficial to you, your brand, and your network. In this way, you can increase your visibility and connections effectively.

Be Active and Post Content Consistently

LinkedIn’s algorithm rewards original content and consistency. 

A good profile and a huge number of connections are not enough to grow an audience and get their attention. You will need to be active by sharing content and interacting with others on the platform. Staying active means checking your network periodically (if you have new invitations to accept or new connections to add), update your profile information, check messages, and regularly post compelling content. 

So, how do you write and publish content on LinkedIn? 

Easy!

Just go to your “Homepage” – Click “Start a post” – Choose what content you want to post (Photo, Video, Event, Write Article). 

Adding a photo is simple; all you need to do is upload the image you want to post. 

To post a video, upload a video under three minutes directly to LinkedIn (LinkedIn doesn’t like linking outside its platform). 

For events, you can create one and add main details about it like the event’s name, timezone, schedule, description, speakers, and the link to your event. 

Articles are another type of post. They are blog style, and LinkedIn gives you many formatting options. In fact, many choose to make LinkedIn their blogging platform. 

You do not want to miss writing captions, tagging profiles, and putting hashtags in your posts, right? – These are key features in promoting your content to the public, and people around your network and other’s networks will discover your posts if you use them effectively. 

You can also follow hashtags so you can see what others are sharing. These are all useful features of LinkedIn – so take advantage of them!

What to post and when to post on LinkedIn? Here are some tips you can follow:

1. Create an editorial calendar for yourself and start publishing posts at regular intervals. If you want to skip the rest of this blog post, go straight to download our cheat sheet and schedule for daily LinkedIn engagement, be my guest. You can find it here. 
2. What should you post? A mixture of things. We recommend following the Rule of Thirds to not come across as too pushy.
3. When you post, make sure you’re doing so at ideal times. According to Sprout Social: 

• Best times: Wednesday from 8–10 a.m. and noon, Thursday at 9 a.m. and 1–2 p.m., and Friday at 9 a.m.
• Best day: Wednesday and Thursday
• Worst day: Sunday

Harness LinkedIn Groups

Last but certainly not least, be sure to take advantage of LinkedIn Groups to promote yourself and your products and services.

LinkedIn Groups are similar to Facebook Groups—so a strategy that works on Facebook will likely work on LinkedIn as well.

1. Get familiar with the group moderators.
2. Please introduce yourself to them and inquire about the rules of the group. This will make it easier later to get your content approved.
3. Make sure to come across as a genuine user and not just a marketer. People are on LinkedIn to make connections and expand their horizons… not only view ads.
4. Ask questions to generate conversation.

Can I Message People in Bulk on LinkedIn?

Some tools can enable this, but LinkedIn sanctions none. Simply put, LinkedIn doesn’t want you to be spamming. We made a video on the topic if you’d like to learn more.

Can I See Who Looked at My LinkedIn Profile?

Yes! In fact, you should check frequently and message those who may be good contacts for you.

When you open LinkedIn on your desktop, on the left-hand side, under your name, you should see “who viewed your profile.” If you don’t have a paid account, you will only see limited information, but it can still be beneficial.

If you see a potential profitable connection, send a simple connection message, and ask a question. Such as, “LinkedIn showed me you looked at my profile. Thank you for the visit! 🙂 How may I help?”

It works!

LinkedIn Marketing: Summary

1. Make your profile the best it can be
2. Get endorsements
3. Make connections
4. Post good material on your profile
5. Post good material in groups

And that’s about it—although LinkedIn marketing isn’t talked about very often, once you get the basics down, it’s easier than you might think.

Ready for more insights? Our founder Mana Ionescu has prepared a step-by-step guide on how you can be maximizing your ROI on LinkedIn. Click here to check it out. 

Have any thoughts or questions on LinkedIn marketing? Contact us with any questions.