It’s no secret that social media is the go-to source for promoting just about everything. When it comes to social networks, Facebook and Twitter are normally the first two to come to mind. While these two are indeed the main players, LinkedIn is also a top tool with its own distinct advantages especially when it comes to hyping upcoming business-related events.
If you promote an event on LinkedIn, not only do you draw customers and clients but also potential businesses that may be interested in becoming an investor or forming a joint partnership. Within this business social media lies a lot of tools at your disposal, so learn how to use them for maximal leverage.
Use LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn is all about creating business connections, and setting up a LinkedIn group is a great way to establish a relationship with those within your industry and demographic. You should create a group for your event several weeks in advance.
Follow these steps for getting a group established:
- Give the group a SEO-friendly name to improve its searchability in the search engine. If your company is a mobile marketing agency, for instance, then the keywords “mobile marketing” or similar variant should be incorporated into the name.
- Accumulate members by asking current contacts to join. Your staffers may also have their own list of contacts that they can get to join.
- Create relevant content without getting too promotional. This will be touched upon in greater detail later on.
- Start discussions in other related groups and mention your own newly formed group.
- Be sure to make your group an open one. This actually helps with search engine rankings as it allows discussions to be picked up and indexed by Google. It also allows the conversations to be viewed by others who may be interested in becoming a member.
Send a Personal Message
This method is tedious and time consuming, but it pays dividends. If you converse regularly (which you should be doing) with your followers, you may eventually learn to recognise a few of the more loyal followers that are active on your LinkedIn channel on a near daily basis. For these select few, send them a personal invitation or reminder about your event.
By “personal,” this means addressing them by their name and even including one-on-one information to let them know that the message isn’t an automated one.
LinkedIn Ads
Internet users are bombarded by ads wherever site they go, and social media is no exception. This is why your ads have to be compelling; otherwise, it’s going to look indistinguishable from all the other ones they’ve already saw or will see.
The key is to create an eye-grabbing ad that not only commands attention but also piques the person’s interest enough to elicit a click-through. To create such an ad, follow the rules of effective call-to-action and copywriting.
Here are the basic rules if you need a refresher:
Use Specific Keywords – People are more likely to click an ad if it contains identical words they entered into the search engine. For a term like “mobile marketing,” the ad could be something like:
Learn how mobile marketing can skyrocket consumer retention by up to 1000%.
Use Command Words – This includes actions like “call now,” “sign up today,” “click to learn more,” or “get your copy today.”
Create Multiple Ads – Create different versions and wording of the same ad. Use analytics to gauge how each ad performs. Modify the structure of those not performing as well to match the ads getting the most clicks.
Include an Image – Images are only 50 x 50 pixels, so use an image that is still discernable at that micro size.
Blogging Through LinkedIn’s Publishing Platform
You may already have a blog for your business website. If so, then follow the same etiquette for your LinkedIn blog that you use for your company blog. This means creating informative content and refraining from taking an overly salesy tone.
Informative content entails all of the following that should be in every one of your published posts:
- Contains industry-specific information not easily found elsewhere.
- Readers should feel more knowledgeable after reading the post. The language should also be written in laymen’s terms without dumbing down the content.
- As always, remember to follow basic SEO 101 rules. This means Keywords in the title, text, and in at least one or two subtitles.
- Give your posts a more “authoritative” feel by including links to published studies and infographics.
- Add images and embed videos. This gives the article more visual appeal; studies have also shown that articles accompanied by images and videos receive 94% more total views.
- The final paragraph may include some promotional language. If you’re going to promote your event, do it in passing in the closing sentences. This will give readers a quick reminder about your event without the post coming off as promotional.
Make LinkedIn a Part of Your Branding Arsenal
Promote an event on LinkedIn for maximum exposure. Even if you already have an impressive following on Facebook, Using LinkedIn can only help you moving forward.LinkedIn afterall, is catered specifically for businesses looking to make their name known among their industry demographic.
