5 common mistakes businesses make on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the social media platform for professionals. It enables employees to get ahead in their careers, while for businesses it enables them to promote their brand and helps attract new business. The fact that LinkedIn is one of the oldest social media sites still in existence (it was launched in 2003) and still continues to be used by millions across the world, shows that this platform is a powerful marketing tool for businesses…but only if it is used effectively.

Here are the 5 most common mistakes businesses make on LinkedIn that prevents them from gaining the full benefits of this platform.  

Not dedicating enough resources

As with all social media, ensuring you dedicate enough resources to updating and maintaining your LinkedIn business page is the key to success. Regularly creating content to add to your page can take up a lot of time, so it is vital that the person or team tasked with updating LinkedIn have enough time to do the job effectively. All social media sites can take up a lot of resources to update and maintain, but if you want to see success from your LinkedIn page it is vital that you ensure enough time and energy can be invested in growing it into a success.

Not adding the right content

People log onto social media to be informed, entertained or engaged – if you are not publishing content that does this then your page will not be a success. While as a professional platform LinkedIn is slightly different from other social media sites, the same basic principles apply. This means adding a variety of content to your LinkedIn page, for example videos, attractive images and blog posts, that will engage and inform your target audience. The idea is not only to create content that will draw the relevant people to your page but which will also get them to share and engage with the content as well.

Not joining groups or discussions

LinkedIn started as a networking platform and this has continued to today. Business are able to network and, ultimately, attract new businesses by joining groups and discussions. The idea behind doing this is not to sell a product or service through discussions and groups, but instead engage with other users, especially potential customers, and build up a relationship with them. This will help to ensure your brand is at the forefront of their mind should they ever be interested in the products or services you provide.

Infrequently updating the page

Another key aspect to social media success is consistency. If you regularly update your page and then suddenly stop this will create a negative impression of your brand and could potentially make you lose followers. As well as this, a page that has not been updated for 3 months or more will send out the wrong signals to potential customers. Social media users expect sites to be regularly updated with fresh and original content and doing this will help to create an impression that your brand is reliable and one that can be trusted.

Expecting immediate results  

To grow your LinkedIn page authentically and organically takes time. Many businesses fail at social media because they expect immediate results and will give up after a few months if they don’t see sudden quick success and growth. It will take a while of consistent work to see successful from your LinkedIn page, but ideally you should set yourself realistic short-term goals, as well as long-term aims, to monitor the progress of your LinkedIn page.

LinkedIn can be a very valuable tool for businesses to promote their brand and authority within their industry, however, as with all social media sites it takes an investment of time and resources to ensure that the page is a success.

Affinity can help with all areas of your LinkedIn social media marketing from offering you training to creating social media strategies, for more information visit our social media page. 

Written by Derin Clark, Content Strategist