How to create content on LinkedIn that will take your business to the next level

For years, LinkedIn was seen as little more than a place to showcase your CV, but things have changed. It’s now a great place for sharing professional news, connecting with people in your industry, and for job seeking. 

You don't have to already be a high level manager to benefit from LinkedIn — it’s great for small business owners too, presenting an opportunity to introduce yourself and your business for free. The secret to making LinkedIn work for you is having a good content and networking strategy. There are 83,000 companies, and 2 million users on LinkedIn in the Czech Republic alone, so get it right and it’s an easy and effective way to build the professional network you need to take your business to the next level.

Educate and share industry news

"People on LinkedIn are interested in educating themselves, but they don't enjoy bragging. I'm the owner of a shooting school, so in my early posts I wrote about how to run one. And people responded because they learned something new, as well as being entertained," explains Marie Krátká, who has been active on LinkedIn for five years and used it to build her company's client base. 

And her investment in getting started? Attending three training sessions, followed by a lot of her own time and patience.  "I got my first client after six months of regular activity; it's definitely a good idea to do some training to understand how LinkedIn's algorithms work," she says. "And don't be afraid to connect with strangers. This network is designed for networking, and that’s how you build your network. Sometimes I even meet people at networking events who know me from LinkedIn – they come up to me and say, ‘you're the lady with the guns!’" 

"I got my first client after six months of regular activity; it's definitely a good idea to do some training to understand how LinkedIn's algorithms work," she says.

Write about topics that relate to your profession

Teach your followers something new. Education is trending across all networks right now, but LinkedIn is still the best place for it. Share your experience and know-how – don’t reveal everything, of course, but positioning yourself as an expert makes people more likely to reach out to you when they need something in your area. 

Publish regularly

To build a relationship with your readers, you need to publish fairly regularly — once a week is about right. You can even use a social media management tool to schedule your posts for the whole month, so you don’t have to stress about keeping up. 

Give your posts structure

Each post should have an introduction, some content, and a conclusion, and always stick to the rule that one post = one idea. And don’t forget to proofread before posting — spelling mistakes and sloppy grammar look unprofessional.

Try to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience

While LinkedIn is a serious professional network, it pays to know the language of the users you want to reach. If you're not sure, try to contact an experienced copywriter who can help you define your target audience — you might be able to find one you like on LinkedIn!

Share

If you're short on inspiration, you can solve your content problem by sharing interesting news and information about your industry. 

Comment and reply to comments

Have you published a post and people are commenting? Grea, but don't forget to reply to everyone! The point of posting is to build a relationship with your readers, and engaging in conversations in the comment thread is a simple way to do it. Comments also increase the reach of the post, so get replying! 

Add pictures and videos to your posts

Adding media to your posts will grab people’s attention, and also keep it on the post longer — this will increase your reach as LinkedIn counts “Dwell Time”, which is the time spent on a post. So add an interesting infographic, video, or photo to your post. 

Follow the accounts of people you admire

Take a look at the content posted by people you admire in your industry, and use it as inspiration. When you have a post you’re particularly happy with, maybe even tag them in a comment to ask their opinion — engaging with other prominent people in your industry may get you more followers. 

Don't get discouraged

Is your post not having the success you expected? That's okay, it happens to everyone. Note what works and what doesn't, and trust that in time you'll reap the rewards of your patience. 

Don't be afraid to invest in experts

If you need to tweak your business or personal LinkedIn profile and you're not 100% sure, reach out to an expert. They'll explain how the process works, how to set up a page for maximum success, and what communication strategy to choose. Tomáš Salomon from Česká spořitelna, who is very active on LinkedIn, makes no secret of the fact that his communication team helps him. 

Tip from LinkedIn expert Marie Krátká: 

As a freelancer, you can use your personal LinkedIn profile to build your brand without any external support — all it takes is patience and regularity. If you have a larger company, the way to represent it is through a company page, and you can also explore working with brand ambassadors. Brand ambassadors are people in your industry or target consumer group who are paid (sometimes in cash, sometimes in freebies) to use their personal social media networks to promote your business. They can help to build you a network of contacts, and even to win business.

Profiles in the Czech Republic that are worth following:

Tomáš Salomon from Česká spořitelna, Simona Kijonková Packeta Group, Ondřej Vlček from Avast, and others.