More creative than you might think, LinkedIn isn’t just for corporates anymore – it could help you find your next employee, build your brand and grow your network.
A site once reserved for recruiters, LinkedIn is becoming the latest place to have a profile. Usurping Facebook for some in terms of where they’re choosing to post, it’s becoming somewhere you can develop an opinion, a personality and a brand, as well as tailoring it to your tribe – ie not old school friends and family - but other industry professionals and peers who share the same interests as you.
“Unlike Facebook, you can grow an organic audience on LinkedIn with ease and see growth in a short space of time,” explains Laura Bartlett, founding editor in chief of House of Coco and who has amassed over 13k followers on LinkedIn. She’s considered something of an expert in the medium and believes the growth in the platform is because LinkedIn has started to see the value of having creators like her on their platform. “Gone are the days of stale, corporate LinkedIn bios, it’s now become the fun place for creators to hangout and connect with LinkedIn actively implementing features to attract new people in the creative space to join.”
Whereas before professionalism would outshine personality, now a LinkedIn profile can do both. “One of the biggest drivers of LinkedIn’s recent popularity is the growing trend for personal branding,” says Nicole Campanaro, freelance brand and marketing consultant for beauty brands. “Whether you’re self-employed and looking to generate clients or an employer who wants to stand out amongst their competition, a strong online presence and personal brand helps position you as an industry thought leader.”
“LinkedIn has also introduced features like Creator Mode to help nurture this wave of ‘thinkfluencers’ – thought leaders in a particular industry who share educational posts and their take on industry trends and updates,” continues Nicole.
This allows for your LinkedIn homepage to become a personalised newsroom of sorts. You choose your connections, your interests and your industry and in return you’ll quickly gain an insight into what’s happening and what other businesses are doing in an easy and digestible format. “It’s nice to find a professional tribe of people you can share ideas and thoughts with and get snappy insights into what’s happening in that area of interest for you,” admits Jasmine Wicks-Stephens, founder of Known Comms Agency.
HOW TO CREATE A STANDOUT PROFILE
It sounds simple but completing all sections of your profile or business page should be your first port of call. “List your services clearly and concisely, use high quality imagery and video, utilise the ‘about us’ page to authentically tell your story and highlight your USPs, incorporating keywords and search terms where possible to help increase reach,” advises Nicole.
For her waxing salon business, Rebecca Dowdeswell wanted to present nkd as a professional, serious, grown up business and showcase the breadth of their offerings. “LinkedIn is quite factual which I like. For example, it allows people to see how long we have been trading and what my own business background is which therefore positions nkd in a certain light,” she says.
Once you’ve covered the basics, next think about your content – with LinkedIn, it’s more about the quality of what you’re posting rather than posting for the sake of it. You don’t want to clog up people’s feeds with unnecessary news. Accolades and achievements are always well received and help to build credibility, as is ‘behind the scenes’ content. “If it includes you and your team it provides a real-life view of your business which might appeal to prospective employees and clients. People are naturally curious so it’s hard to resist engaging with a post that gives you a glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes,” continues Nicole.
This has worked especially well for Laura who has even been stopped in the street by people who follow her on LinkedIn. “I use it to share what I’m working on, news from my business as well as personal updates. People buy from people so sharing personal stories allows your audience to know the face behind the brand,” she says. She also believes it’s important to stay in your own lane too and not be afraid to voice your opinions. “Don’t try and sound like everyone else on the platform and don’t be worried about ruffling a few feathers if you have opinions that differ to the masses – it’s a great platform for a healthy debate.”
Questions on your profile are a great way to kick off conversations and industry-related discussions and posting LinkedIn polls can get thousands of views due to high engagement. They also help you to widen your audience with relatively little effort. But remember to always come back to the relevance of your post – make it engaging, informative and interesting. “Lots of people can share business advice so think about the value you’re adding. For some brands, like By Sarah, their founder is excellent at sharing her personal story on the channels interlinked with her experiences of running the business with her sister while someone like Steven Bartlett is good at motivating and inspiring people with his content,” recommends Jasmine.
It's ok to write more than you would on Instagram or Facebook too, continues Jas: “With mediums like Substack growing in popularity and longer form, written content having a resurgence, LinkedIn feeds into this and simply becomes another channel to post your efforts.”
As for whether you want a free or premium account, you’ll be pleased to know that all of the pros say the free version covers all bases and provides everything you need to create a solid, standout profile.
GROW YOUR TEAM
There’s no denying that LinkedIn does a stellar job of providing a recruitment service – after all, that’s its roots. There are thousands of job adverts on LinkedIn making it a good place to start your search as a potential employee, but it also provides a space to view a business in more detail – from who runs it, to who works there to any credentials, feedback and awards they’ve gleaned. You can also get a feel for the company culture via their profile, language they use and what they’ve posted on their profile or page.
For the employer, it can eliminate costs of a recruitment agency by going straight to source and when you receive a CV via LinkedIn you can go directly to their profile giving you the opportunity to get a feel for your prospective staff member. Make sure you sell yourself as a business too. “Employees as advocates is a growing trend across all social platforms so encourage your employees to share or engage with brand posts and to post themselves. Although I’d recommend providing them with some ‘best practice guidelines’ so you can feel confident their posts align with your brand values,” says Nicole.
GROW YOUR BUSINESS
Alongside profile building and the opportunity to expand your staff, making new connections on LinkedIn could in turn, support the growth of your business. “As well as the salon side of our business, nkd has a training school and an essential waxing aftercare product range which we supply to other salons and spas so I often use LinkedIn to connect with other beauty professionals who may be looking for industry training or new and exciting product ranges to stock in their businesses,” says Rebecca.
If you’re a salon or therapist wanting to stock a prestigious brand, you could connect via LinkedIn and find success when other avenues have been fruitless and you might even find other professionals you want to collaborate with. Plus, if you hold events or run training courses, there is the option via LinkedIn Events to promote any workshops or educational seminars you host. Users can also register attendance and because all events are public, it will get shared on each attendees’ profile, generating more reach for your event and more awareness of your business or brand.
The exciting thing for beauty and LinkedIn is that there are very few professionals out there making waves on the platform right now, so if you want to make your presence known and widen your connections, whether you’re self-employed, own a salon or are a brand founder, it’s there and ready for the taking. And remember, even if you don’t want to be an active presence on the platform, you can still benefit.
“Generating clients isn’t my primary motivation for being on LinkedIn but I like the way it allows me to have wider conversations with peers and stakeholders,” admits Rebecca. “Learning from other successful people, even (and especially) those without a background in beauty has given me so many valuable business lessons that are transferrable so my advice would be to get on there and start absorbing the insights of others!”
Words by: Becci Vallis