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If you’re a health care company, you probably need to do a lot of work on your LinkedIn presence.
The professional networking site is too often relegated to an online jobs board, despite the multiple content-sharing tools the site has introduced over the last year. In fact, just this week LinkedIn opened up its previously invitation-only “influencers” program to everyone, giving users the opportunity to publish full-length content.
LinkedIn’s content capabilities could help health care and other companies boost their public profile. But based on my recent and brief review of health care company pages on LinkedIn, most of them aren’t even using the basic tools on the site well – if at all.
Today, 1.5 million people self-identify as members of the biotechnology, pharmaceutical or medical device industries, according to LinkedIn. And, these people want to hear what you have to say – 80 percent of LinkedIn members want to connect with companies.
With a little time invested, LinkedIn can be an extremely effective tool for not only recruiting talent, but building thought leadership and generating sales leads. Take advantage of a few simple ways to improve your company’s presence on LinkedIn:
- Optimize with your keywords. LinkedIn is SEO-friendly. Identify the keywords and phrases related to your business – those that are used in searches most frequently – and work them into your company page content.
- Add a few visuals. Company pages can accommodate three large (646X220), more visually appealing banner images at the top of the page. The images rotate and each of these spaces can include a hyperlink back to your company website or a product page.
- Use the Products & Services tab. Showcase what your business has to offer by adding pages for your products, services, and even events and conferences. Each product page can include a brief description, list of key features, an accompanying image and even video content. Your company page followers can then Like or Recommend an offering to share it with their network.
- Post company status updates. Directly engage with your page followers by regularly posting and sharing news items like company announcements, events, whitepapers and relevant industry articles. When possible, add a link or a multimedia element, like an image or video – Company Updates containing links help your content stand out, and can have up to 45 percent higher follower engagement than updates without links.
Once you have some of the basics in place, check out this recently published — and incredibly helpful — guide to really leveraging your presence on LinkedIn.
This guest post was authored by Catherine Scott, Account Supervisor at PadillaCRT. Catherine plays a critical role in the PadillaCRT health care practice, where she applies her award-winning expertise to help nonprofit and corporate clients reach their communications goals. Her specialties include media relations, marketing communications, crisis and critical issues management, and government relations and advocacy programs. With nearly a decade of experience, Catherine has planned and executed results-driven integrated public relations programs on behalf of a range of clients. Currently, she directs Padilla’s extensive work with the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)/Be The Match. Other clients have included GiveMN.org, Twin Cities Orthopedics, and LifeSource Organ and Tissue Donation.
Image Credit: Get Results In Action