How to use LinkedIn for business: 6 tips to build a powerful referral network

1. Decide whether to use your personal page or brand page

If you’re completely new to LinkedIn but use other social media platforms, you might think this is a strange question.

Particularly when on channels like Facebook and Instagram most people don’t use their personal account to grow your business profile.

However, LinkedIn is a bit of a different beast.

For owners of small businesses (think less than 5-10 staff), using your personal LinkedIn account can be a faster way to grow your brand’s profile.

The main reason for this is because it’s completely acceptable to ‘connect’ with complete strangers on LinkedIn (sure some people frown on it but they’re the small minority).

Using your personal account, you can grow your LinkedIn network quite quickly, as you connect with other like-minded individuals, particularly people who work in the same field as you (see point 3 for more information on this).

2. Optimise your profile page

Your profile page is a reflection of you (and by extension your business) so invest some time into setting it up right before you start trying to grow your network. Here’s a few tips to get you started:

Your ‘About’ section is a current snapshot of who you are a professional and your specialist capabilities. This shouldn’t be a laundry list of everything you do so limit this to 4-5 sentences max and make sure the copy is captivating for the reader.

If you’ve got any projects or work that you’re particularly proud of you can showcase it in the ‘Featured’ section’. This is a great way to visualise your work to your audience and give them an insight into what you do.

The ‘Experience’ section should include a summary of all your professional positions you’ve held and the associated responsibilities you’ve had in those roles. Even if you’ve only ever owned your own company, make sure to include your responsibilities and achievements during that time.

For your ‘Skills and endorsements’ don’t be afraid to reach out to friends and colleagues to ask them to endorse you for certain skills. Make sure to return the favour for them if they do though.

As we mentioned in point 1, it’s perfectly acceptable to connect to strangers on LinkedIn.

However, that doesn’t give you carte blanche to connect with everyone and anyone.

Have a think about who you want to include in your LinkedIn network - what type of industries do these people work in and what types of roles do they have?

Connect with other like-minded people who are in similar industries to you and may potentially refer you clients.

For example, a home loan broker is likely to receive referrals from accountants, home builders, interior designers and property lawyers, among a long list of others.

Send these people invitations to connect, and before you know it you’ll have a fairly big LinkedIn network.

4. Give value to your audience

While most people are happy to connect to strangers on LinkedIn, they’ll tune out pretty quickly (or more likely unfollow you) if all you do is post about your ‘amazing’ services or products.

Keep the sales pitch to the coffee catch up.

Instead, give your followers real value. Share industry news and your unique insights with them.

For example, if you’re sharing a news story related to your industry, give your opinion on what this will mean for the industry, your business or your clients.

Don’t just rehash a news article with the post copy of “Great news for the industry!”.

Why is it great news for the industry? Who will it impact? Who are the winners and who are the losers?

Remember, you’re on the frontline and would know what’s happening within your industry better than most so share these unique insights with your network.

5. Write bespoke articles for LinkedIn publishing

One handy function of LinkedIn is the ability to write and publish your own bespoke articles to your profile.

Similar to how you might publish a blog to your website, you can do the same on LinkedIn.

The benefit of doing this on LinkedIn, however, is that your article will be published in your feed and served to your LinkedIn network (and potentially others outside your network as well).

This is a great way to share content in a longer-format, as opposed to an in-feed post which has a limit of 1,300 characters.

You can also include multiple images and videos in your articles as well as format the copy to make your content more dynamic for the reader.

6. Shout about your business

Don’t be afraid to post updates about your business, after all that’s why everyone is on LinkedIn at the end of the day.

However, you should avoid shameless product flogging as we alluded to in point 4 above.

Instead, showcase some of the great work you’re doing for clients or a recent testimonial you recieved.

Share company announcements about new products and services or changes within the business (perhaps you’re opening a new office, expanding into a new market or have a new staff member tell everyone about).

It’s fine to post about your business but make sure to strike the right balance between your company news and giving value to your followers.