As a SaaS startup founder, you’ve already taken the monumental leap from concept to company. You’ve navigated the initial uncertainties, transforming your innovative idea into a tangible business. This journey from envisioning a solution to actually building a platform that addresses real-world problems is no minor feat — it’s a testament to your resolve, ingenuity, and vision.
Now, with your business foundation solidly in place, the challenge shifts towards growth and scalability. Of course, you’re selling and networking on all fronts, but what if there was a way for people to know you better — even before you met them? What if you could get your story — told your way — in front of the people you’d like to do business with? LinkedIn is the way.
Put LinkedIn to Work for You
With its 1+ billion members across 200 countries, LinkedIn is so much more than simply social media. Yes, you can connect with your network, but when used well, LinkedIn also helps you establish credibility, attract talent, and engage with potential customers and partners.
#1 Start with Your Profile
What do YOU do when you want a fast answer or to know more about someone? Look online, right?
The same will be true for the people you want to invite into your company. Investors, prospective customers, top talent, and even the media will start their engagement with you by seeing what they can find online. LinkedIn is often the first entry on the results page when they Google you. This is your opportunity to give them a clear and meaningful story about who you are.
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- Profile Photo: Make sure it’s a high-quality, professional headshot and that you look approachable.
- Headline: These are the first words that someone sees on your profile — don’t waste them. Instead of just your job title, use a compelling headline that highlights your value proposition, such as “SaaS Founder & CEO | Transforming [industry] with [service/product].”
- Background Image: Your background image runs at the top of your profile. Replace the generic space holder with an image that immediately grabs attention — a company-branded graphic, an image from your website, or a photo of you speaking or engaging with customers or employees.
- About Section: Use this top-of-profile space to tell your story in a way that reflects your background, mission, and passion for your product. In the closing paragraph, include a call to action that invites readers to connect with you or learn more about how your product can help them.
- Featured: Link to news stories, announcements of wins or partnerships, interviews, podcasts, and other media that build credibility.
- Experience Section: Clearly outline your roles and achievements, not only for this job but for the work that brought you to this point in your professional journey. For your current SaaS venture, explain what the product does, the problem it solves, and the traction you have achieved to date. You can also add media and links to each job description — link to news stories, interviews, and content you’ve published from each position.
#2 Build Visibility with a Company Page
LinkedIn Pages are free (though they offer some advanced paid options), so use the free space to increase visibility and drive traffic to your website.
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- Fully complete all the sections: Add a logo and company description, choose an industry, and link to your website.
- Background Image: Similar to your profile, design an attention-getting graphic for the top of your company page. You can even use the same company-branded graphic in both places to reinforce your brand.
- Contact Information: Make sure to tell people how to reach you.
- Post Regularly: Do not create a great page and then ignore it. Instead, keep your audience engaged and informed with updates posted from the page about your product, industry news, company milestones, and useful content.
Pro Tip: The logo on your company page will automatically appear on your current job description and at the top of your profile when you link to it. To make the best first impression in these three important spaces, ensure your logo looks good at 400 pixels x 400 pixels, the recommended logo size.
#3 Engage Your Network
Most of your early customers, investors, employees, and partners will come from your current network, so when your profile and company page are in place, focus on engaging with the people you know and you’d like to know. This is the easiest kind of reaching out to people — reacting to what they’ve posted — and a great way to stay in touch with people.
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- Quick Reactions: Use the reactions buttons (Like, Celebrate, Support, Love, Insightful, Funny) to quickly respond to someone’s post.
- Comments: Go further by writing a response to what someone has posted. You can keep it short and sweet to start (“Agree!” “Helpful — thanks for sharing.” “Yes, absolutely!”) or share your insights on what they’ve posted. Comments are often the gateway to conversations.
#4 Publish Content
Post, post, post on LinkedIn — consistently and frequently. But, be strategic and intentional in what you share. Each post is a pixel (or few) in the picture of who you are — be authentic but also post your best self. That is, stay positive (especially about others), have integrity in all your posts, and demonstrate why you are worthy of being known, liked, and trusted.
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- Share Insights: Post articles and updates that introduce your solution. Talk about the problem you solve, why your approach to solving it is better than the alternatives, and what results your users have experienced.
- Use a Mix of Media: Incorporate images, videos, documents, and carousels to make your content more engaging and shareable.
- Build in Public: Give people behind-the-scenes stories as you grow your business. Share your journey, challenges, and successes. Authentic stories will resonate with your audience.
Pro Tip: Post content from your profile, then share it from your company page — and vice versa. Encourage your team to comment and share the posts, too.
#5 Analyze and Iterate
Test and try all of LinkedIn’s many features. Monitor what you see working (or not). LinkedIn helps you figure this out with their free Analytics (yes, it’s amazing what you get for free on this platform). Use LinkedIn’s analytics to track the performance of your posts, engagement rates, and follower growth, and then adjust your strategy based on what works best.
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- On Your Profile: Click the Analytics section (only you can see this information) to see how posts have performed and who is engaging with your profile. LinkedIn is serious about user privacy, so you can get a general idea of who is looking (companies, demographics, and more) but not specific names. You can see similar information by clicking the View Analytics link on each of your posts.
- On Your Company Page: Click the Analytics section (along the left margin) to see how each post performed plus metrics on visitors, followers, and more.
Make LinkedIn Work for You
Deploying LinkedIn as a core communications tool isn’t rocket science, but doing it successfully demands strategy, creativity, consistency, and time. The payoff is that you can establish your brand, attract the right audience, and support the growth of your SaaS business.
If you’re interested in knowing more about how to use LinkedIn to achieve your goals, let’s talk. Our team specializes in helping CEOs transform their LinkedIn presence into a powerful tool for growth, ensuring that every post, engagement, and piece of content is a step towards achieving your corporate ambitions — and doing it in a way that lets you focus on business. Reach out on LinkedIn or book a quick call, and let’s talk about how we can make LinkedIn work for you.