Using LinkedIn to grow your SaaS business?

What are some ways to utilize LinkedIn to grow your Saas sales? In terms of social media, everyone seems to be fixated on Twitter and Facebook, even though they are likely not the right channel for a B2B Saas startup.

Here's a simple step by step process I've written that I always use:

1. Maximize your presence

• Add your company profile. Fill out as many details as possible so you show up in filtered searches. Company type, size, url, industry, year founded, locations, etc. Spend some time crafting the right company description and language.
• Add products and services for that company. Again, fill out as many details for each product as possible. Category, description, image (use high quality ones), url, YouTube video, features / benefits, etc.
• Add job listings. Same as above, as many details as possible.
• Get recommendations for your product from your network and customers on LinkedIn.
• Connect your blog to the company profile. Auto-post or schedule posts using HootSuite. Buffer now supports LinkedIn pages as well.
• Post updates to all your followers. Keep the content of your posts targeted and interesting.

Don't confuse LinkedIn Pages with Groups.

Groups are:

• Private
• People have to join to see what's going on
• Require moderation from your end
• Good for discussion only among the members

Pages are:

• Anyone can see your updates and engage
• Allows you to add many more details about your company and products
• Allows you to add images

2. Attract followers

The ones to start off with:

• Employees (make sure to add their position at the company)
• Existing customers (send them an email inviting them to join you on LinkedIn)
• Business associates (other people you already know in the industry)

Create a campaign strategy:

• Plan out your posts in advance and put them on a schedule with an app like Buffer.
• Add a link to your LinkedIn page on your website inviting visitors to connect with you there.
• Add to email signatures (for everyone in your company).
• Reward users for following you or sharing your posts (maybe offer them a discount).

Engage with relevant Groups:

• Join relevant Groups
• Start conversations
• Help members, answer questions

3. Engage followers

What kind of content to post:

• Ask a question. These always get the most engagement. Pretty much on all social networks.
• Answer common questions that your target audience often has.
• Share blog posts of influencers.
• Upcoming events.
• Research, case studies, white papers.

In order to create viral content, you must:

• Understand your audience and what they need
• Give them information that they need
• Use emotion to trigger a response
• Engage with them when they do respond

I would break down content that works into two main categories:

1. Informative: Tips, insight, expertise
2. Different: Your fresh perspective on a topic, surprises.

4. Best practices on LinkedIn (tips)

• Use images. Posts with images get exponentially more engagement and shares.
• Include a link / CTA. Drive engagement somewhere, not just your followers reading a couple of sentences of the post.
• Add videos. Posts with videos get even more response rates since they are rare (as compared to posts with images or without any images).
• Keep your message short and to the point.
• Ask a question at the end of each post. This method drives more response on all social networks. Not just LinkedIn.
• 80/20 promotion rule. For every post that talks about your own company, post 4 that's focused on the audience but isn't self promotion.
• Test out which posting frequency works best. I would recommend one a day.

5. Measure engagement

• LinkedIn provides an analytics section which gives you more insight into how your posts are performing.
• Follower count
• Google analytics. See how many visitors came as a referral from LinkedIn. Also track conversions (how many bought your product).

6. Try LinkedIn Ads