When you hear LinkedIn, what comes to mind? You might be forgiven for thinking that is it primarily be a portal for working professionals to brand themselves and get spotted by recruiters for lucrative job openings.
While LinkedIn started out life like this, it has since evolved to be an immensely useful resource for entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and employees of all stripes (from interns to industry veterans) to network and learn from one another.
So, if you haven’t checked out this professional network lately, here are 6 good reasons it can help you in your business – whether that’s attracting the next generation of talent, grooming sales leads, or giving you insights about a particular topic or sector.
Read Also: 4 Reasons Why Undergraduates Should Start Using LinkedIn As Early As Possible
#1 Learn From Thought Leaders
There is a saying that the quality of your social media feed depends on who you follow, and this is doubly true for LinkedIn. On LinkedIn, there is an abundance of political leaders, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, startup founders, book authors for you to follow and learn from directly.
As a social network, LinkedIn provides these people with a candid platform to directly share their thoughts, articles they are reading, and their commentary on the news and developments in the business world. Following them would give you unique insights that you simply can’t find anywhere else.
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#2 Network With People In Your Industry
If you are in a niche industry with few players in Singapore, you might think that networking with like-minded entrepreneurs to discuss common challenges and seek opportunities for collaboration is difficult.
Here’s where LinkedIn allows you to discover people and be discovered by others – both locally as well as overseas. With much greater ease, you don’t even need to travel to contact potential partners and begin exploring the possibility of partnerships.
In the safe-distanced world we are currently living in, networking digitally is becoming increasingly acceptable. LinkedIn can come in even more useful as more people flock to digital platforms.
#3 Establish Your Brand – As An Entrepreneur Or As A Company
LinkedIn provides you and your company with a semi-official channel to share behind-the-scenes photos of the workplace, feature employees, and post updates about what your upcoming priorities are.
Amid a climate of fluff in the media, it is increasingly to “show, don’t tell”, by showcasing actual stories and happenings in your company in order to properly position it from a branding perspective.
As a form of engagement, you can also use your LinkedIn page to test assumptions by sharing articles or comments and observing the traction (or lack thereof) you receive, or directly collecting data by way of informal polls.
Read Also: 4 Marketing Strategies Used By IKEA That You Can Adopt When Rebranding Yourself Or Your Business
#4 Attract The Next Generation Of Interns And Employees
A common challenge that SME bosses face is that their network of contacts revolve around their life stage and professional seniority. This has lots of benefits, since there are probably many ways you can tap your circle of influence for.
However, if entrepreneurs don’t make an effort to network with the next generation of up-and-coming talents, they risk not building a pipeline of potential interns and hires for the future, which would seriously hamper growth prospects.
LinkedIn allows you to discover and be discovered by students, interns, and entry-level staff, help them understand your company and brand, and keep you in mind.
Read Also: Why 2020 Is A Good Year To Be Expanding Your Team, If You Are Prepared To Embrace The Challenge
#5 Generate Leads
For the more sales-oriented businesses, LinkedIn can be a powerful channel to reach potential customers, whether that’s through linking up in a direct message, getting people to express interest in receiving exclusive content from you, or download an application you created.
Targeting professionals on other social media channels like Facebook or Instagram might be almost impossible, but much easier on LinkedIn, which was designed to make it easy for professionals to input their professional interests.
LinkedIn Is Where It’s At – For Now
As a professional social network, LinkedIn isn’t perfect. Using a free account has its restrictions, you will come across dubious spammers, and the value you receive from it depends on the continued participation of entrepreneurs like yourself.
Don’t let LinkedIn be the only platform you use to grow your online presence in an increasingly digital world.
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