LinkedIn is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms for professionals. You can leverage the platform to connect with like-minded people and grow your network.
A common misconception is that LinkedIn is just a job-hunting portal for professionals and a platform for businesses to connect with fresh talent.
That is just a single use case, as the platform also helps businesses showcase their respective solutions and score quality leads.
However, to leverage the platform in an optimal way and get the best results, you need to devise a powerful strategy. And that requires you to conduct an audit to find the areas that require improvement.
Here’s how you can conduct an in-depth LinkedIn audit and get the best results from your presence on the platform:
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The importance of conducting a Linkedin audit
It’s reported that more than 67 million businesses currently have an active presence on LinkedIn. However, not all of them are able to achieve the set goals.
There can be a number of reasons preventing you from getting the results as per your expectations. There can be issues with your profile or the content that you share on the platform.
The only way you can come up with viable fixes for the problems is by assessing your profile and identifying areas that require improvement.
Conducting an in-depth audit paves the way for you to make necessary improvements and acknowledge the best outcome from your efforts.
A LinkedIn audit helps you come up with a stellar content strategy and enables you to share useful information with the intended audience. This fosters higher engagement and makes it possible for you to generate more traction through the platform.
As a result, it’s easier for you to achieve the set goals, whether it’s growing your network or scoring quality leads through the platform.
10 Tips on conducting a LinkedIn audit
Conducting a LinkedIn audit is an intricate process that allows you to identify your shortcomings or areas for improvement to drive the best results from your efforts.
The following are a few useful recommendations that may help you conduct a LinkedIn audit and make the necessary changes:
1. Know your audience
LinkedIn is one of the rapidly growing social media channels, with at least 2 professionals joining the platform each second.
So, it can help you generate awareness about your brand and attract a relevant audience. However, to engage the intended audience, it’s important to know their needs and preferences.
When you know about your audience, it becomes easier for you to tailor your content strategy as per their interests. As a result, you get to convey your message with ease as your followers interact more with your content.
Your audience encompasses the people who follow your page and interact with your content on a daily basis.
They can be companies, high-level executives, or candidates looking for suitable jobs. You should explore the different characteristics of your target audience and use them to fuel your content strategy.
2. Set clear goals
To get the best results from your marketing efforts on the platform, it’s important that you set clear goals. This means identifying your core purpose for using the platform and the results you want to achieve from it.
As said earlier, LinkedIn represents diverse use cases. You can use the platform to hire the top talent from your respective industry, generate leads for your business, connect with your clients, and explore potential partnership opportunities.
Knowing what your goals are makes it easier for you to tailor your efforts accordingly and continue moving in the right direction.
3. Assess your profile
A common mistake many businesses make is not paying much attention when creating a LinkedIn profile.
This is the reason you may come across many incomplete LinkedIn profiles that have skipped displaying necessary information.
The most handy tool to assess your profile and ensure that you have added all important details is LinkedIn’s page completion meter.
The tool allows you to see your page’s current standing with respect to the information the platform requires you to provide to your target audience.
Adding the necessary details improves your page’s visibility and helps you attract a relevant audience.
4. Optimize your images
A picture is worth a thousand words. It’s much easier for you to convey your message visually, as our brains are wired to process images 60,000 times faster than text.
Yet, we see businesses do a lackluster job when it comes to generating a visual appeal for their respective brands.
Hence, no matter the platform you leverage to connect with the intended audience, it’s highly recommended that you optimize your images.
When it comes to assessing your LinkedIn profile, always pay attention to the logo representing your brand and your cover image.
Make sure that the logo you use on your LinkedIn profile is the same as the one visible on your official website, along with other social media platforms. This will make it easier for your target audience to recognize you.
Furthermore, you should ensure that the image you use as your logo is of high quality and appropriately sized as per the platform’s guidelines.
Your cover image also plays a key role in helping you generate a visual appeal for your brand and get more eyeballs.
You can use an image that helps you showcase your solutions, the company’s culture, the brand’s personality, or your core values.
Again, the use of a high-quality image and following the size recommendations by the platform are highly recommended to get the desired level of traction.
5. Analyze your page
Assess your LinkedIn page from the eyes of your target audience. Once you have added all the necessary details recommended by the platform, see how your page appears to someone who visits it.
This helps you fine-tune the areas that require improvement and ensure that you have made all necessary information available without having to compromise on the visual appeal of your page.
6. Ensure search engine friendliness
Around 93% of all online experiences start with a search engine query. Not everyone looks for the required solutions using the name of the brand. Most of them leverage search engines to explore relevant information.
To improve the visibility of your LinkedIn page, it’s highly recommended that you consider optimizing your profile using relevant keywords or queries for better SEO performance.
Start by optimizing your page URL. A standard pattern that most brands generally follow is: linkedin.com/company/brand-name.
You can also consider optimizing your page through the ‘About Section’ by using relevant keywords and even hashtags. However, try not to go overboard, as keyword stuffing may do more harm than good.
Furthermore, providing relevant information to your audience, like mentioning your website, displaying your industry, specifying the number of employees, and showcasing your specialties, may help improve your search engine presence.
7. Assess your team’s activity
To get the best results from your activities on LinkedIn, you should not only assess your brand’s page but also the profiles of your respective team members.
Your team encompasses individuals that represent your brand and your company’s culture. So, it’s important that their activity on the platform resonates with your brand’s core values.
Furthermore, you should also ensure that your respective team members have also completed their profiles by adding relevant information.
Your team members often act as ambassadors for your brand, especially when it comes to platforms like LinkedIn. So, their active presence may help you make a positive impression.
8. Evaluate your content
Content is the key to connecting with the intended audience and achieving the set goals through any online platform. To get the best results from your content, you should keep a few things in mind.
First, you should ensure that the content you share aligns with your respective niche or industry.
Second, your content should be personalized as per the needs and preferences of your target audience.
Third, you should tailor your content as per the platform’s dynamics and the content format it prefers.
There’s no sure-shot strategy when it comes to getting the best results from the content you share on LinkedIn. It requires trial and error for you to know what works for you.
Keeping an eye on the engagement metrics representing your previous posts may prove useful and help you come up with a stellar content strategy.
The goal here is to identify your top-performing posts and share the type of content that generated the most engagement.
9. Explore networking opportunities
LinkedIn is an ideal platform for businesses to grow their networks and connect with the right people. The platform allows you to score quality leads for your sales funnel and paves the way for you to find viable partnership or fundraising opportunities.
To ensure that you’re on the right track, review the accounts that you have been following using your LinkedIn profile.
The quality of your connections will dictate the networking opportunities you come across and make it possible for you to get better results from your activities on the platform.
10. Track your growth
You need to consistently track your progress to ensure that your efforts are paying off. Tracking your growth allows you to assess the effectiveness of the deployed strategies and ensure that you are on the right path to achieve the set goals.
You can track your progress with ease by leveraging Keyhole’s LinkedIn Analytics solution. The tool gives you access to useful insights encompassing the key metrics at a glance and makes it easier for you to keep an eye on your progress.
Conclusion
LinkedIn is one of the fastest-growing networks for professionals and businesses. The platform enables you to generate awareness about your brand, grow your network, and score quality leads.
However, to leverage the platform to its fullest and drive optimal results from your efforts, it’s important that you conduct an in-depth audit and devise tailored strategies as required.
Plus, you need to keep tracking the key metrics to gauge your performance and ensure that you’re on the right track.
Keyhole makes things simpler for you and allows you to track your progress. To see if it works for you, you can take Keyhole for a spin by claiming the 14-day free trial.
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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is a LinkedIn audit?
A LinkedIn audit is a process of assessing your LinkedIn page or profile, identifying the shortcomings, and making necessary changes to generate more traction and engagement through the platform.
2. When should I conduct a LinkedIn audit?
You should conduct a LinkedIn audit on a periodic basis. This is to keep up with the changes in the platform’s algorithm and make the most of your efforts by making the necessary improvements.
3. Should I invest in a LinkedIn analytics tool?
Yes. Investing in a LinkedIn analytics tool may be a good decision, as tracking the key metrics to assess your performance through the platform can be daunting. A LinkedIn analytics tool facilitates your access to relevant insights and allows you to effortlessly track your progress.