What is LinkedIn and How Can it Benefit My Business?

While you may or may not be familiar with LinkedIn, this is a social media platform that you may want to consider for your business strategy. This blog post defines what this social media platform does and why it makes sense to add to your channels of engagement.

What is LinkedIn?

This social media platform is essentially a database of professionals that provides a way to categorize your professional career and business history by company and by your individual experience. It can also serve as a great search tool to find other

professionals and build a network that can help grow your business.

Why Does LinkedIn Benefit Your Business?

There are a number of ways that LinkedIn can help you and your business:

• It helps raise awareness and furthers your brand image through a professional profile that builds credibility and trustworthiness. Once you have a professional profile, you can set up a company page, which can include information about your company and links to your website and social media pages. You can also raise awareness about your business by joining LinkedIn Groups where you can offer and get advice, share information and ideas, and build credibility within your industry.
• It enables more people to find your business and learn more about you and it. LinkedIn pages do end up in search engine results, especially if you use specific keyword content in your profile, summary, and business description.
• It provides market intelligence on other companies, including the competition. This helps you plan your marketing strategy and find those places where you can gain that competitive advantage.  
  
• It puts knowledge and information at your fingertips that can help you improve how you do business as well as offers tools that assist with the marketing effort. LinkedIn Signal is a great place to start so you can see what type of information is available through this resource.
• It connects you with other professionals you can trust and that may be able to help you with an aspect of your business or spread the news about your business. Being connected to other influential people will move your business forward, including brand ambassadors, employees, talent and more.
• It creates momentum. As more people see the number of connections you are making, they will want to connect with you. It’s like when a crowd gathers. The more people there are, the more others want to know what is going on so they join. It is the same with your LinkedIn profile.

Are you ready to learn more? Flyline Search Marketing can help you set up and manage your LinkedIn profile. Contact us today to learn more.

The Benefits of Internet Advertising

As a small business owner, you may have relied upon traditional advertising, including an ad in the Yellow Pages, newspaper, radio, television or billboard. These are definitely budget busters and impossible to do all at once due to the costs. 

Even worse is the fact that you cannot track your results so often you are not sure if it’s working. Then, there is the fact that you discover your target audience could, in fact, not even be using these channels anymore.

They are on the Internet, and you should be too. Whether your potential customers are looking locally or they need a product or service partner with broader reach, they are only considering those that they find online. So, if you are not there but your competition is, you are missing out.

Beyond that, there are many other benefits attached to Internet advertising:

Expanded Coverage
Online advertising reaches as far as the Internet if you want them to and that means around the world. Reaching more prospects increases your chances of converting them into customers.   

More Targeted
When you put an ad on a billboard, you are reaching everyone. That’s not necessarily helpful. You have a target audience you want to attract, so Internet advertising lets you specify only those prospects you want to reach. 

Low-Cost
Compared to traditional advertising, Internet advertising is a great deal, especially for those of you that have small marketing budgets. You can get more for your money.

Measurability
The Internet advertising programs available come with many metrics and measurements so you know exactly how each ad did or why it didn’t so you can change the ads as well as verify your actual return on investment.

Convenience
It does not take much time to get Internet advertising started. Better yet, the speed at which it can deliver results beats traditional advertising hands down. 

Some clients have reported results immediately after posting their Internet advertising program. While this cannot be promised, it has happened and the results are faster than other channels.

More with Less
You can say a lot more with an Internet ad than a traditional ad because you are often limited in traditional channels due to the cost. Online, you can convey so much more within your ad.

A More Engaged Audience
Online advertising lets the audience talk back to you and give you feedback about your ad as well as your product, service, and company. This helps you to refine your marketing efforts and better understand your target audience. Today’s consumers expect to be involved so this opens the door to hear from them.

Brand Enhancement
Your brand can be enhanced by being seen by more people that can now recognize it and what it stands for. Your online advertisements help keep that brand at the top of their minds.

Are you ready to experience the benefits of Internet advertising for your business? Contact us now!