Employer branding is an important part of digital marketing for any business. It's how you tell potential customers who you are, what you do, and why they should choose your company over someone else's. In the past, this was done through a website and advertising campaigns. But today, it requires more than just those traditional outlets: it also requires using a social media platform. That's where LinkedIn comes in!
The social media landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade. Today, LinkedIn is a prominent channel for companies to communicate with their customers, partners, and industry influencers. It's also where most of your potential new hires will go to check you out. As a result, it's more critical than ever that you have a good LinkedIn company page.
What is company branding?
Company branding refers to the overall impression that your company makes on people. It's the sum of all your company's efforts to communicate and market itself to potential customers, partners, and employees.
The goal of company branding is to create a recognizable image for your company that people can connect with. You want them to feel like the brand is something special and desirable. Branding specifically refers to the marketing side of this equation; the actual product or service you offer should be separate from your brand in most cases.
What makes up a brand?
A few key things: the name, the logo, and the content you produce – all these elements come together to create your brand. When people think of a particular brand, they have an emotional reaction; that's what you're going for. That reaction should be positive and something that inspires them to want to do business with you.
How do you build good company branding?
By having a sound strategy template in place. Start by defining who you are as a company, what your values are, and what you stand for. Then identify how you can use engaging content to reflect those values. Don't just slap on your logo or throw it on your website without considering how it will affect your brand.
For branding to be successful, it must be intentional – don't come up with a new slogan or marketing program willy-nilly; write everything down and really consider how it reflects on you as a company and whether or not it aligns with what you've written about yourself as a business.
How to get started on LinkedIn
Define your company's purpose
Company branding starts with the question: "What is my company here to do?". This might seem straightforward, but you would be surprised how often small businesses forget a core purpose in the face of all the other things they need to get done.
When you're putting together a brand strategy, some things might come naturally to you – but having an established purpose will help guide your efforts so that they don't end up scattered or ineffective.
If your company serves clients or customers, ensure they know what they're getting when they come to you – is it a product that solves their problem? Are they going to benefit from your service? Is there something unique about your product or service that makes people want to come back for more?
Add dynamic content to your company page
- Make it dynamic. Adding a little variety to your company page will keep your followers engaged and allow you to showcase your team members and their work to their LinkedIn feed.
- Embed videos, images, links and more. LinkedIn offers plenty of ways to add content to make your company page fun and engaging for visitors – and more likely to attract more followers.
- Customize with a background image that speaks about your brand values or mission statement (if you don't have one yet). Think about what makes you unique in this space and how others might see you or interact with you based on the information they've found on LinkedIn (job seekers are looking for companies like yours!).
- Add a company description that offers value beyond what's already been said above it - explain why someone should follow along with updates from your company page! Write about what makes your company unique in your industry. The goal here is not just attracting new followers but also keeping existing ones engaged through ongoing conversation between themselves within groups where both parties may become aware of mutual connections outside these groups. Therefore, if possible, try adding extra information such as: showing off awards won, press mentions received, or partnerships forged. Mention who owns/runs each organization, so potential clients know who they're dealing with, what makes one business different from another, etc.
Include a video about your company
You can use a video to tell your company's story, build a brand and share your company's personality. If you have an explainer video that tells the story of how you got started and what your mission is, it will be great on your LinkedIn profile too.
The key point here is to ensure that the video fits your targeted audience and industry. If you are looking to attract software developers, it will make sense for your video to be technical. For example, suppose you are hiring developers. In that case, a demo of one of the technologies used at your company could be appropriate (e.g., a live demo of how easy it is for developers to implement some features).
If you don't have an explainer video yet but want one for LinkedIn or other platforms like Facebook or Instagram, this might be a good reason for creating one now!
Choose visually appealing images
Photos are essential to your brand, so you must pick them with care.
- Choose professionally shot images. You can ask a professional photographer to take the photos for you or hire someone with experience in photography to do it for you. Hiring someone else is probably the best option if it's your first attempt at branding yourself on LinkedIn.
- Use high-quality images. Ensure that the image quality is good enough so that people will want to click through and learn more about your company (and maybe work with you). If the image looks grainy or blurry at first glance then don't use it! Try uploading different versions of each picture until one looks sharp enough for a profile picture on LinkedIn. This could be anything from resizing an existing photo from somewhere else online; to cropping away unnecessary parts of an image before uploading, adding contrast and saturation after uploading, etc.
Tell followers what you are doing now
- Give followers a reason to follow you.
- Use a call to action.
- Give people a reason to engage with you and your company by offering them something of value in return for their time or attention (like an ebook or tool).
- Link the name of your company and website in the section header so that everyone who sees this page will know where it's from!
Reach out to influencers and ask them to join as followers
For example, if you're a startup and your target market is financial services companies, connect with influencers in that industry. You can find them by searching for keywords like "CMO" or "director of marketing" (if you're not sure what to search for, do some research on social media).
If you're targeting software developers and computer programming languages, try searching for keywords like "Django" or "Python".
You can also search by looking at competitors' followers who are similar to your business. If they have an audience of people interested in getting updates from startups in their industry and yours is similar but different because it's a more established company with more capital behind it – or whatever other reason – you might be able to use those connections as well!
Linkedin is a great way to brand your startup or software company
Connect with other professionals in your social network: LinkedIn is one of the best ways to connect with professionals in your field and build relationships. Whether you're looking for new customers, partners, employees, or investors.
Find new customers and partners: When you create a company page that highlights what makes you stand out from competitors (and share content on groups tailored towards the industry), you'll be able to get noticed by potential clients – and even find potential partners that can help grow your business further.
Successful branding and LinkedIn marketing require a lot of work, but it's worth the effort. After all, your company page is where you can connect with influencers and potential customers. Make sure it looks professional but also reflects your company's personality and culture.
