LinkedIn has recently added four new features to the business application that could potentially help small businesses grow significantly. These new features allow businesses to generate numerous leads and keep employees engaged while also allowing more access to analytical data. There are four main updates that have been made to this business application since December. The first is a Lead Gen Form that allows potential customers to communicate with businesses directly. The second are changes to the “My Company” tab. This update allows employers to create community among their employees. The third update is a new analytics tool that not many small businesses are aware of. And lastly, there is an update to LinkedIn’s story feature.
To fully understand LinkedIn’s recent updates, it’s important to have knowledge of the basic functions already installed into the business application. For example, the LinkedIn Product Page is a tool that acts as a business page for individual products. The newest advertising feature is located in the Product page tab, labeled “Leads Gen Forms”. This pre-filled form will allow businesses to create a call to action when asking potential customers to complete this form. Lead Gen Forms will include populated information from potential customers’ LinkedIn. This includes: their name, contact information, company name, seniority, job title and location.
The form is mainly used to collect a company’s information in exchange for a coupon code, free download or another physical or digital reward. After submitting the lead, form users will receive a “thank you” page with a link to a destination of the business’s choice; this can be their website or another digital location. Although this feature was introduced in December, there are currently only 12,000 products and 10,000 companies utilizing Lead Gen Forms.
The second update includes changes to the “My Company” tab. The newly introduced ‘Recommend’ tools allows admins to curate organic content while also suggesting trending articles to their employees. It’s proven that employees are more likely to engage with content and share it when its from their own company. Analytics is also a huge fraction of social media goals and objectives. The new analytics tool also added to the “My Company” tab will allow businesses to measure the impact this feature has on content engagement and reach.
The last update to the LinkedIn app is the stories update. A story on social media allows a business or individual to share text or images promoting their brand or partnering businesses. It’s an amazing way to catch the attention of your target audience while also engaging loyal customers of your brand or business. This feature also generates an abundance of referral traffic. Stories don’t need to be perfect, but they do need to be personalized to your business. Unfortunately, the swipe up feature is not available to all personal accounts, but it is available to all Business Pages. More small businesses should use this newly updated story feature to talk directly to their target audience while also personalizing their content.
LinkedIn is continuously updating their application, but it is important to stay up to date on the changes they’re making and utilize the often forgotten tools available to grow a startup business. Being able to set a business apart by personalizing it, not only to your customers but your employees, is key when wanting to grow a steady loyal audience. JSK Marketing can help educate you on how to utilize business tools like LinkedIn to benefit your growth strategies. Contact us to get started today. We look forward to hearing from you!
