When it comes to promoting their businesses on social media, most small and medium enterprises opt for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. LinkedIn, on the other hand, often tends to take a backseat.

There is no denying the fact that Facebook and Instagram are the most popular social media platforms, thanks to their humongous user base. Nevertheless, with around 850 million members, LinkedIn is not too far behind. Just like the way Facebook enables you to target specific audiences and Instagram allows you to get creative with imagery, LinkedIn has its own USPs that make it stand out from other social media sites.

Unlike what many businesses believe, LinkedIn is much more than just a networking platform. It can be used for increasing brand visibility, lead generation, building relationships with the customers and, most importantly, increasing the credibility of your business. Also, it can be used by business owners to position themselves as thought leaders.

But can a small, local business really benefit from it? Is LinkedIn worth the time and effort for a local business targeting a small area?

The answer is yes. Here are the five ways LinkedIn can help local businesses achieve success:

1. Join and create groups

As a small business owner, joining LinkedIn groups can help you reap rich dividends. Firstly, it helps you learn what your audience is discussing and what type of conversations are happening in those groups. Secondly, you can expand your network by staying active in these groups. Thirdly, you can create your own location-based group and invite your prospects to join it. It’s one of the easiest ways to have many of your potential customers in one place. As is the case on other social media platforms, sharing great content is the key to keeping your LinkedIn group members active and engaged.

2. Host online and offline events

LinkedIn Events is one of the most useful features that can help small businesses connect with their audiences. A local business with a brick-and-mortar presence can host an event and promote it using LinkedIn Events feature. All it needs to do is create an event and invite members to join.

A retail store, for example, can organize free workshops, charity day, holiday events or product launch events. Similarly, a restaurant can organize a couple’s night, pet’s day or an open mic event. Once you’ve managed to grow a sizeable audience on LinkedIn, you can use the platform to promote these events, increase attendance and make them a success.

3. Post targeted status updates

Posting status updates on your company page is a great way to share relevant and valuable information about your business and industry with your audience. From the latest news to brand values and events, a business can share a variety of information through status updates. The good news is, these status updates can be targeted to specific people and groups belonging to a particular geography.

Thus, instead of sharing the update with everyone, you can share it with a specific audience in your geographical area. Moreover, location-based filters can be combined with other filters to further narrow down your audience. Similarly, LinkedIn ads can also be targeted to a specific audience on the basis of geography and other criteria.

4. Become a thought leader

Establishing your brand as a thought leader in your industry doesn’t mean that it has to outperform big, global brands. In order to become a thought leader, all you need to do is share high-quality, valuable content with your audience consistently.

Understanding customer pain-points, keeping an eye on what is happening in your industry, creating engaging stories with a human angle are some of the ways to create thought leadership. It not just helps build credibility but also makes the business more discoverable. It gives the impression that the business has true knowledge about their industry and is, thus, trustworthy and reliable.

5. Attract local talent

One of the things that separate LinkedIn from other social media platforms is the presence of job seekers. Having a presence on LinkedIn makes it easier for your business to find and recruit employees locally. You can directly reach out to suitable candidates and can also use the job postings section on the platform. It will save a great deal of time and effort, especially when you need to hire employees urgently.

LinkedIn may not have the visual appeal of Instagram, the speed of Twitter or the huge variety of ad options that Facebook offers. Nevertheless, it comes with its own unique characteristics and features that can help take your local business to new heights.