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How to use LinkedIn for business
LinkedIn works for a small business when one real person from it posts about the work, regularly, in their own words. The company page is not where it happens.
The short answer
Have the founder, or whoever knows the work best, post from their own profile a few times a week about what the business does and sees. Keep the company page tidy, but do not expect it to do much.
People follow people. A post from the owner of a plumbing firm about a job that went wrong gets read. The same story on the company page does not.
Step one · see what a post in your voice looks like
First post is free. No login, no card.
Personal profile, not company page
The company page is a brochure. Fill in the details, add the logo, and leave it. Almost nobody follows company pages, and LinkedIn shows their posts to very few people.
The founder’s profile is where the business is actually found. That is where the posts go.
What to post about
The work. What you did this week. What a customer asked that surprised you. The thing you would tell a friend who was thinking of buying what you sell.
You do not need news. A small business posting honestly about ordinary work is rarer, and more interesting, than it sounds.
What it costs
Nothing but time — about ten minutes a post, a few times a week, if you write it yourself. That is the real cost, and it is why most small businesses stop after a month.
The businesses that get something out of LinkedIn are the ones that solve the time problem, not the ones with the best profile.
If you would rather not write it yourself. Scout is the ten minutes. It writes the post for you, in your voice, about your work, every working day — you read it and approve it.
Try Scout free → Your first posts are drafted before you finish signing up.
More plain guides: How to build a personal brand on LinkedIn · How to become a thought leader on LinkedIn · How to build a network on LinkedIn · How to get clients on LinkedIn · How to grow on LinkedIn as a business · How often should I post on LinkedIn for my business
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