LinkedIn has several solutions available to help you build your brand organically. In this lesson, we’ll cover each of those solutions and explain how you can use them to increase your LinkedIn presence.

The best way to organically build your brand on LinkedIn is by delivering useful content to your target audience. LinkedIn provides the following solutions for delivering relevant content to your members-

Your LinkedIn Company Page, Showcase Pages, and Long-form posts like newsletters and articles. Let’s learn more about each of these.

Company pages (like the one you optimized in the previous lesson) are where you can feature thought leadership content and other relevant links such as white papers, ebooks, case studies and “how to” content to your audience.

By continually posting useful and engaging content, you’ll create better engagement on your Company page and help your message spread faster.

Showcase pages allow you to build a presence and present a unique voice for every different part of your business.

By creating dedicated pages for your more prominent brands, businesses, and initiatives using Showcase Pages, you can extend your LinkedIn presence.

Each showcase page can have its own messaging and voice, and just as with Company pages, you’ll be able to monitor the performance of each showcase page experience.

In addition to creating showcase pages, you can also ask employees in your company to add a link to the LinkedIn Company Page in their email signatures to grow your LinkedIn following.

If needed, you can ask the business owner to get a designer to help create a customized banner or button. Doing so will help drive traffic back to your company’s LinkedIn page.

Publishing long-form posts, including newsletters, on LinkedIn’s publishing platform will also give you the ability to share your expertise with the world and reach new people within your target audience.

The following video explains a few useful tips for publishing content on LinkedIn

When publishing content to your LinkedIn company page, make sure you always add relevant hashtags so that others can easily find your content in search.

Using a hashtag will ensure that when members are looking for information on a certain topic or timely event, your article will come up as one of the options.

You can also use LinkedIn’s audience insights on mobile to understand who’s seeing the posts you’ve shared and the articles you’ve written.

With these insights, you can better understand if you were successful in optimizing your post to gain visibility with the right people.

In addition to posting long-form content, you can also use LinkedIn’s SlideShare tool to post slide presentations to your audience. This can help establish your brand as an authority around topics and keywords.

Newsletters are the newest feature accessible to businesses and can be a great way to grow your brand’s thought leadership. The video on the next slide dives into why newsletters are a great feature for businesses on LinkedIn.

Having an optimized profile on LinkedIn is the first steps to marketing success. In this lesson, we’ll look at how to optimize both your company page and personal profile for best results.

The first step to building a brand on LinkedIn is ensuring that you have an optimized profile. Let’s learn more.

If you’re a professional on the platform, this means adding information about your experience and achievements. If you’re a business, it means adding information about your company.

As an apprentice at Acadium, you’ll be working with brands who want to increase their presence on LinkedIn.

This lesson will cover the steps involved in creating an optimized LinkedIn company profile, so you can help them achieve their goals.

The first thing you’ll need to do before rolling up your sleeves and optimizing the company’s profile will be to make sure your personal profile is optimized.

The video below explains how you can make your LinkedIn profile stand out.

Once you’ve optimized your profile, be sure to associate yourself with the company you’re working for, so that other people in your LinkedIn network can see that you have experience working as an apprentice within the company.

After finishing an apprenticeship, you’ll also receive your digital marketing certificate, which you can add to the certification section of your LinkedIn profile.

This will not only give your Linkedin profile more depth, but it will also allow you to expand your network and open you to new job opportunities in the future.

If the company you’re working with has several employees, be sure to go through each employee’s profile and connect with them.

All of the employees within the company should optimize their LinkedIn profiles because this can boost the visibility of your company and its content in the search results — both on and off the network.

That’s because search engines like Google look through pages and URLs for keywords, and LinkedIn profiles offer many opportunities to embed keywords, such as within the LinkedIn URL, other URLs you list within your profile, job titles and descriptions, and content links you include.

So if your company and its employees haven’t already optimized their profiles, tell them that they could gain more search visibility by doing so.

Once you’ve added the company to your profile, ask the business owner to give you admin access to their LinkedIn page so you can start optimizing the page.

The video below shows you how to add someone as an admin on LinkedIn.

The next thing you need to do is a high-resolution logo to upload to the company page. The ideal LinkedIn profile image specs are 300 x 300 pixels.

Don’t forget to add a banner to your LinkedIn company page as well. The banner should have a resolution of at least 1536 x 768 pixels.

If the company you’re working for doesn’t already have a banner, we recommend you use a stock image from unsplash.com as the banner.

After you’ve made everything look good, the next thing you need to do is write a compelling “About us” section and include relevant keywords.

A well-optimized “About us” section tells visitors everything they need to know about your company.

Like your other social profiles, the “About us” on your Company Page should answer six basic questions.

These questions are: Who are you? Where are you based? What do you offer? What are your values? What is your brand voice? How can people contact you to learn more?

Use simple, accessible language informed by keyword research to outline your business goals in words anyone will understand.

Tailoring your content to a business-minded audience doesn’t mean it has to be boring; just know your audience, and plan accordingly.

Once you’ve written the About Us section, you’ll need to fill out five more important fields: 1. URL 2. Address. 3. HQ Country. 4. Industry and 5. Company size.

Check out this list of the best company LinkedIn pages for tips and inspiration.

LinkedIn is a popular social media network where professionals and businesses connect. In this lesson, you’ll learn about the importance of using LinkedIn in your marketing strategy.

With over 830 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. LinkedIn has quickly become the go-to social network for businesses and professionals. Let’s learn more about marketing on this network.

LinkedIn is a platform where users can meet industry professionals, form relationships, and build audiences by sharing valuable content.

Businesses can also build their presence on LinkedIn by creating a company page and running ads.

However, just like any other social media platform, your success on LinkedIn as a marketer will depend on your ability to produce results and actionable insights that prove the value of your efforts.

LinkedIn isn’t like all the other social sites that promote a “more is better” approach. Instead, it’s about a selective connection with the people and organizations in your target market.

The platform also has advanced search features that make it easy to find people in your industry.

This not only helps you find potential customers but also allows you to keep an eye on your competitors for better competitive research.

There are also tons of groups devoted to specific professional topics in a variety of industries. 

Joining the right groups and actively participating in discussions can go a long way toward helping you and your company gain recognition as an authority in the field.

You can also use LinkedIn to gain valuable feedback about a new idea or a product that’s just been launched and to identify potential customers and to make current customers feel valued.

You’ll be able to use these strategies to grow any business you work with, and even to grow your own personal brand and become an influencer in your own right.

Adding photos to your Yelp profiles will help you build trust with your customers. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to add images to your business’ profile quickly.

Are photos important for your Yelp account? Absolutely! ​​According to recent research, people searching Yelp for local businesses spend 2.5 times more time on a Yelp listing with photos than on a listing without photos. Let’s learn more about leveraging photos.

Photos taken by your customers will appear on your Yelp profile, along with details about the customer.

Yelp automatically sorts the order in which your photos appear by using different factors, such as votes from the community and how recently the photo was taken.

To add photos to your Yelp profile, you’ll need to navigate to your business dashboard and choose the “Photos” option on the left panel.

From there, you’ll be able to select the photos you want to upload or use the drag and drop feature to select pictures of your business.

The photos you add to your Yelp profile depend on the types of products and services you offer. 

For example, you can add photos of your products, employees, management team storefront, and popular items in your store.

Do not include photos that are blurred or out of focus because potential customers who view your listing will not consider you as professional.

You can also include images of deals, special promotions and flyers as long as the deals are still relevant.

Every review you receive on Yelp is an opportunity to learn more about your customers and increase your presence. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to get more reviews to your profile.

Customer reviews are the cornerstone of a successful Yelp profile. Let’s learn more about the steps you can take to encourage people to leave positive reviews.

This lesson explores two of the most effective strategies local businesses can use to attract positive reviews to their Yelp page.

The first strategy involves using Yelp posters, stickers, badges, and other paraphernalia inside a local business to encourage people to leave a review while they’re in your location.

Here is where you can order a “Find us on Yelp” sign that local businesses can use to increase the number of reviews they receive on their online profile.

One important thing to keep in mind is that Yelp discourages businesses from directly asking their customers for reviews.

According to Yelp, it’s better to say something along the lines of “Check us out on Yelp” rather than simply saying “Review us on Yelp”.

You should also never pay your users to post a review on Yelp as this violates their terms and conditions and can have a negative effect on your user profile.

In addition to asking customers to view your Yelp profile, you can also get more reviews by simply replying to all existing reviews on your page.

Replying to reviews on your business’ Yelp profile shows other customers that you value your business and take customer satisfaction seriously.

When responding to reviews, make sure you always keep a positive tone and offer solutions to any problems that your customers may be having.

The video below goes into more detail about replying to reviews on Yelp.

As the number of reviews from your customers increases, you may notice that not all them appear on your profile. Most of the time, this happens because of the Yelp Filter.

The Yelp Filter is a recommendation software that automatically evaluates reviews based on quality, reliability, and user activity on Yelp.

Although Yelp’s filter is good at sorting out low quality reviews, there are some cases where good reviews are mistakenly flagged by the filter.

If you notice positive reviews in the filter, you can simply reply to them and they’ll show up on your Yelp profile alongside the rest of the reviews.

Yelp is one the largest online review sites, and is often the first place people go to when they want to find out about local businesses. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to get your business set up on Yelp.

Yelp is a social networking, user review and local search web site that helps people find places to eat, shop, relax and play based on the reviews of other users. Let’s learn more about getting started on the platform.

A Yelp account makes it easier for customers to find your businesses online and gives them a platform where they can share the experiences they had with your products or services.

You can also use the platform to discover new events and special offers from other businesses and make friends with other people, just like you would on Facebook.

Creating a Yelp account is similar to creating any other social media account. 

All you have to do is go to yelp.com and click on the Sign Up option on the top right corner of the screen.

Yelp also has a mobile app you can download to your iOS or Android device. Simply go to the app store and type in “Yelp for Business Owners” to install it.

The site requires a first and last name, an e-mail address, a password for logging in and your ZIP code if your business is in the United States.

If your company is based in Canada, you’ll be asked for a postal code. In Ireland, your city/town, and in the United Kingdom, you’ll need to provide a postcode.

Once you’ve created an account, you’ll be able to review any local business in your community. However, as an Acadium marketer, your main task will involve responding to reviews posted to business profiles by other Yelp users.

To use Yelp as a business, you’ll need to claim a business profile by visiting biz.yelp.com.

Your business will show up in the search results if a user has already reviewed it. 

You’ll also see a text saying Already claimed if a business has already been claimed. Otherwise, you’ll see a red button that says Claim this business.

If a user hasn’t reviewed your business yet, your business won’t show up on the search results. In that case, you’ll have to scroll down until you see a text that says “Can’t find your business? Add your business to Yelp”

When you click on the “Add your business to Yelp” option, you’ll see another screen where you can enter the details of your business.

Once you’ve claimed a business page, you’ll be able to respond to reviews as a business and track the user activity on your page.

If a business wants other users to access their page as a business owner, they can do so by visiting this link and filling out the form. 

Users who become business owners will be able to respond to reviews, post information about the business, and share access with other users.

As you can see, setting up a Yelp profile is relatively simple. The video in the next card provides a quick overview of the entire process from start to finish.

If you are looking for more information on optimizing your Yelp business profile, check out this helpful article with examples of real businesses.

As a marketer, it’s important that you a full understanding of Google’s review policies. This lesson will teach you about these policies and show you what to do if you find a user violating them.

If a business finds a review that they believe violates Google review policies, they can flag it for removal. 

The review will be assessed and possibly removed from the listing by Google.

This lesson will help you to either flag an inappropriate review that you find on a listing or fix a review that has been flagged or removed.

Inappropriate and false reviews are damaging to a business and its reputation. Therefore, it’s important to report them, so they get removed.

For instance, a restaurant could lose many potential clients if their Google page is full of false and inappropriate reviews.

Businesses should only flag reviews that violate Google policies rather than reviews that they don’t like but are still factually accurate.

For instance, if someone is unhappy with the food quality in a restaurant they are entitled to leave a negative review, but they are not entitled to use hate speech as it goes against Google’s policies.

Google won’t get involved when businesses and customers disagree about facts, since there’s no reliable way to discern who’s right and who’s wrong.

It can take several days for a flagged review to get assessed, so it’s important to be patient after submitting a review to Google.

To flag a review for removal, navigate to Google Maps and search for the business using its name or address.

Select the business from the search results, and scroll to the “Review Summary” section in the left panel.

Under the average rating, click [number of] reviews and scroll to the review you’d like to flag and then click the flag icon. You’ll then need to complete the form in the window that appears and click Submit.

If a review you wrote gets flagged and removed, you can fix it yourself by editing the review according to Google’s review policies.

For example, you might remove a phone number or URL from the review. Once you’ve updated your review, it will automatically republish.

When users start reviewing your Google listing, you need to know how to respond back. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to respond to both positive and negative reviews on Google.

Google reviews matter even more than reviews on other sites like Yelp because they appear on a business listing in Maps and Search, and can help a business stand out on Google.

According to recent research, the average #1 ranking on Google has 33% more customer reviews than the average #7 ranking.

When potential customers see a business in Google’s local search results, they’ll only see the number of Google reviews they have, and their average “star” rating across other platforms.

It doesn’t matter if a business has 50 reviews on Yelp and 100 on Facebook. If they don’t have any Google reviews, it will appear as though they have no reviews at all.

People will be less likely to consider the business with no reviews, and more likely to check out other competitors with more reviews.

An effective strategy businesses can use to increase the number of reviews to their Google listing is to reply to reviews by customers.

Replying to reviews is a simple way to build trust with customers and show them that you appreciate their input.

To reply to reviews, you need to Sign in to Google My Business and choose the location you’d like to manage.

Your business must be verified on Google My Business before they can respond to reviews. 

Once verified, you can click the Reviews option at the top of the page, then click Inbox.

From there, all you have to do is select a customer review and click View to submit a response.

When replying to customer reviews, it’s always important to keep your responses useful, readable, and courteous.

The video below explains a few things you need to keep in mind when replying to reviews on behalf of another business.

Adding a listing to Google Maps is a simple, but highly effective way of increasing a business’ local traffic. In this lesson, you’ll discover how to add a business to Google Maps.

After a business has claimed their local business on Google My Business, they can also add it to Google Maps to increase their visibility further.

Adding a business to Google Maps will ensure that the business shows up whenever someone uses their smartphone to explore the area around the business’ location.

To add a business to Google Maps, you’ll need to sign in to your gmail account and open Google Maps.

Once you’re on Google Maps, all you have to do is zoom in to the map where you want to add your business, and click on Send Feedback at the bottom right corner of the screen.

On the Send Feedback screen, you’ll have to select the Add a missing place option and drag the marker to the business’ location

Google Maps requires that a business adds their name, address, category, phone number, website, and hours before submitting a listing.

Once a business has added their information, Google will send a notification email to the business owner informing them that their listing is available on Google Maps.

There are many ways to increase your ranking and visibility on Google Maps. In the next slide we summarize the 7 most important tips.

1. Verify your Google My Business Information

2. Get Google Reviews

3. Properly Categorize Your Business

4. Embed a Google Map on Your Website

5. Optimize the Listing Description

6. Use a Local Telephone Number

7. Add Photos to the Listing

Adding your business to Google will make it easier for other customers to find you and post reviews. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to claim your business on Google.

One of the most effective things businesses can do to increase their visibility on Google is create a Google My Business profile.

As of 2016, Google handles more than 2.3 million searches per minute. Any business should have a strong presence on the largest search engine in the world.

Whether a business is interested in direct sales or building leads, a Google My Business account is the right place to start.

With a Google My Business account, a business can connect directly with its customers as they look for them on Google Search and Google Maps.

When a business does everything correctly, they will get a nice snippet with information about their business on the right side of Google when someone searches for their company name.

As a marketer, you’ll need to know how the Google My Business platform works so that you can help businesses grow.

Because Google My Business requires you to have a physical business, we’ll teach you how to use the platform using examples, videos, and case studies throughout this course. 

The first thing you need to do before you can manage a Google My Business page is create a Google account (Gmail).

Once you’ve created your Gmail account, watch the video below to learn about the steps involved in setting up a business profile with Google My Business.

Keep in mind that every business you add to Google My Business is called a listing.

After a local business has added their information to Google My Business, they can also add other users as managers on their account.

Managers have all of the capabilities of an owner, except for particularly sensitive capabilities such as removing the listing or managing access to it.

To get access to a local business’ page as a manager, the owner of the account first needs to login to their Google My Business page and make sure they’re using the card view.

If they’re viewing their locations using the list view instead of the card view, they will need to switch to card view by clicking the cards icon on the right side above your location button.

They’ll need to choose the listing that they’d like you to manage and click Manage location, then click the three dash menu icon in the upper left-hand side of your screen, and click Manage users.

In the top right corner of the “Managers of [your business]” box that appears, they’ll need to click the “Invite new managers” icon.

Finally, they’ll have to select the user’s role by clicking Owner, Manager, or Communications Manager below their name and click on Invite.

Invitees will have the option to accept the invitation and immediately become listing owners or managers.

The video below shows you how to request admin rights to a Google My Business page.