Is LinkedIn Worth It? 5 Reasons Why It is Beneficial for Economic Development

If you’re in economic development, you need to be using LinkedIn to network and connect, grow your brand, promote your offerings, and generate leads.

All that sounds good, right?  

However, buying in and understanding why a platform that seems so stagnant can pay off for your company can be a hard sell.

In fact, multiple times in the past six months, different clients have come to Chartwell and said, “When will everything we’re doing on LinkedIn generate a lead?”

Well, it might never. But keep this in mind: “You’re not inviting people over unless your house is clean.”

LinkedIn can often feel slow, it can be difficult to grow your audience and engagement, and for many people it feels like one more thing to add to the list. But it’s absolutely critical, and here are five reasons why:

Membership

LinkedIn has more than 900 million members. The potential to connect with professionals in your industry, including potential investors, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, can be exponential.

Thought Leadership

LinkedIn is a great platform to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. By regularly sharing relevant content and engaging with your audience, economic development agencies can increase visibility and credibility.

Recruitment

The positive influence LinkedIn has on recruitment of top talent is impactful. Posting jobs on Linkedin can reach a large pool of potential candidates. Additionally, LinkedIn has fantastic resources – from staff, help, and premium features – that can help connect you with the right people.

Analytics

If used wisely, the analytics provided by LinkedIn can help you track your performance and measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. At Chartwell, we help clients study these analytics to make data-driven decisions.

Targeted Ads

LinkedIn allows economic development agencies to create targeted ads that reach specific audiences based on job title, company size, and industry. While we would never recommend this as a single tactic, it is one we would recommend as an integrated approach to reach audiences and, yes, generate leads more effectively.

Are you sold on LinkedIn yet? We hope so. Email us your questions about the platform at info@chartwell-agency.com and we’ll get back to you. We also invite you to check out the work we’re doing on behalf of our clients in economic development.