How do I use LinkedIn most efficiently?

We already know that LinkedIn can be a very interesting tool to get your company the brand awareness it needs. But how do you make the most of this platform and how do you stand out from the competition. Because, of course, there are plenty of other companies using LinkedIn to promote their products and/or business, so it is important to always stay one step ahead of them -certainly as a start-up, and do better than them.
Setting up your company profile
When you create a company profile on LinkedIn, LinkedIn itself first gives some instructions on how to make sure your page gets 30% more traffic. First of all, all the necessary text boxes should be filled in when creating this page. These consist of company name, linkedin url and your company's sector. Next, the number of employees needs to be filled in. Those are all the required fields, but there are nine additional steps to optimise your profile.
Optimising your company's findability
After the page is created, follow LinkedIn's tips. First, you enter the URL of your website. Next, give an extensive description of your company in which you add as many keywords as possible to increase your findability in the search results of both LinkedIn and Google. Adding a logo is also essential because it increases recognisability and you will be recommended faster by LinkedIn. Then all you have to do is fill in the location of your company and now you are ready to really start building a professional-looking LinkedIn page. 
Expanding your network
The next step is to make sure people start seeing your page. First of all, you can start by inviting your own personal network that you have - hopefully - built up over the years. If there are still people working in your start-up, they are best invited to invite their entire network as well. This will already ensure an initial audience. You can then build on this by applying the following strategies: follow as many organisations as possible with relevant content. In addition, fill in on your company page what your company stands for and what its values are in the space provided, LinkedIn will also make your page score higher that way. The last two topics LinkedIn itself recommends are adding a button leading to your website, a webshop or an interesting article or fact about your company. Finally, they recommend adopting some fixed hashtags that you then incorporate into your posts and respond to other posts to generate leads. 
The content of your page
Now that all the preparations have been made, it is time to create posts that appeal to your target audience. In doing so, there are some important factors to consider. One is the 80-20 rule, which should not be taken too closely and can be adjusted a little. This rule means that 80% of the posts on your page should be useful or relevant to your target audience and not be too hard on your products themselves. Think for example of articles about your sector -preferably written by yourself and thus not copied from the internet, or even articles from your company if they would exist. You can also explain fun events where your products were served or collaborations with other companies. Also interesting trends in your sector or articles about other things such as current affairs or fun facts. You can also share when your company has done a good deed or interesting case studies for this 80%. A final idea is, for example, fun recipes or naming "international day of the..." that then relates to your company. This way, you ensure that it looks like you really want to be there for your customers and not the other way around. 
The other 20% may be about the products themselves or something specific within your company. It could be about promotions, a new product in your range or a new bundle deal. For example, write about health benefits of your products or other pluses of your product. It could also be posts about job vacancies or about an inside look of your company behind the scenes. You can also compare your product with one of its competitors, for example. Actually, posts in this area can be about just about anything as long as they fit your company's style and remain somewhat relevant to your target audience.