Why you should be harnessing the power of LinkedIn

If you’re not using LinkedIn to drive visibility for yourself and your business, you’re missing a trick. Despite its vast growth and features, many individuals and companies aren’t harnessing the opportunities that lie in the platform.

With an estimated total of over 700 million active users by the end of May this year, LinkedIn has evolved from being a careers networking site to one of the most powerful social media platforms out there. In addition to growing its user base, the platform also continues to evolve by adding new features such as live video, polls, sharing third party profiles and more.

Yes, it still brings recruiters and job seekers together. But LinkedIn is also extremely effective at establishing individuals as thought leaders across their respective industries. From a business point of view, there are few better ways to deliver key messages to the right audiences.

On a business level, LinkedIn:

• Helps drive traffic to your website
• Generates more leads
• Builds brand awareness
• Increases content reach
• Establishes your business as an expert in the field

On a personal level, it:

• Helps build your personal brand
• Connects you with prospective customers
• Helps you become a thought leader

LinkedIn has also proven to be one of the leading means of driving business leads and acquiring new customers in the B2B space, proving that it’s worth including in your overall business and marketing strategy. Backing that up is this article on LinkedIn Selling:

• A study from Hubspot shows LinkedIn is 277% more effective for lead generation than other social media networks
• Of all leads generated from social media, 80% of B2B leads come from LinkedIn
• 79% of B2B marketers agree that LinkedIn is an effective marketing channel
• 46% percent of social media traffic coming to B2B company sites is from LinkedIn
• 43% of marketers surveyed have gotten customers from LinkedIn
• 92% of B2B marketers specifically prefer LinkedIn over all other social platforms, and
• 79% of B2B marketers view Linkedin as an effective source of B2B leads.

Need more convincing? According to a 2019 study by ECCO International Communication that looked at the 20 largest companies per country (by market capitalisation):

• 58% of these companies’ CEOs are active on LinkedIn
• Of the 20 largest South African companies, 65% of CEOs use LinkedIn

At ByDesign, we’re helping growing numbers of our clients harness the power of LinkedIn. We also host LinkedIn Training workshops for top management and exco members to make LinkedIn a powerful part of their business strategy.

LinkedIn is here and is freely accessible. The only question is, are you using it effectively for yourself and your business?

Thabiso Moloi

Social Media Lead at ByDesign Communications