In short: LinkedIn pays off for small businesses especially when they have other businesses as customers, are looking for skilled workers or work with partners and multipliers. In the German-speaking region, LinkedIn has around 25 million members. The platform works best when owners and employees post from their personal profiles and the company page complements that content.
Many small businesses have written off LinkedIn as a platform for corporate spokespeople and career coaches. Yet the situation is particularly favorable for smaller companies: competition for attention is low in many niches, and personal, expert posts carry a credibility there that advertising can't achieve.
Who LinkedIn is especially interesting for
- Service providers and freelancers: Tax advisors, IT, engineering firms, agencies and consultancies win contracts here through visibility and referrals.
- Insurance and financial advisors: Expertise explained clearly builds trust before the first conversation.
- Trades businesses with commercial clients: Property managers, developers and facility managers are active on LinkedIn.
- Businesses that are hiring: Even people who aren't actively searching see here what it's like to work at a company.
- Industries with partner networks: For example tour operators working with travel agencies, or manufacturers with retailers.
Personal profile beats company page
On LinkedIn, people follow people. Posts from personal profiles usually reach significantly more people than posts from company pages. For small businesses this means: the owner or managing director is the most important voice. The company page serves as an anchor to point to, collects followers and ensures a professional impression when people do their research.
A proven interplay: the company page publishes news, projects and job ads. Personal profiles share this content with a sentence of their own and also post their own thoughts, experiences and expertise.
Which content works on LinkedIn
- Experiences from everyday work: What did a project teach you? Which mistake do customers keep making?
- Expertise explained clearly: A change in the law, a funding program or a trend, put into context for your audience.
- People from the team: New colleagues, anniversaries, completed apprenticeships.
- Insights into projects: With customers' consent and ideally with pictures of the result.
- Stance and opinion: A reasoned view on developments in your industry.
Carousel-style document posts, meaning uploaded multi-page PDFs, are well suited for presenting knowledge compactly. Short videos of a person speaking directly to the camera create closeness.
What to avoid
Pure advertising posts, empty phrases and copied motivational quotes perform poorly on LinkedIn. Nor does it make sense to copy Instagram content one-to-one: the tone on LinkedIn is more factual, texts can be longer and hashtags play a smaller role.
A realistic start
To start, a well-maintained personal profile, a complete company page and one to two posts per week are enough. It's also important to reply to comments and comment on others' posts yourself, because interaction is an essential part of visibility on LinkedIn.
If you plan content for several channels, you can include LinkedIn in the same content calendar as Instagram and Facebook. Service providers and freelancers will find more approaches on the page social media for service providers & freelancers, insurance and financial advisors under insurance & financial advisors.
Frequently asked questions
Is LinkedIn worth it for small businesses?
Yes, especially for businesses with commercial clients, for service providers and when hiring. Competition for attention is low in many niches.
How many LinkedIn users are there in the German-speaking region?
Germany, Austria and Switzerland together have around 25 million LinkedIn members; worldwide there are more than one billion.
Should I post as a company or as a person?
Ideally both. Personal profiles usually reach more people. The company page complements them as a professional anchor.
How often should you post on LinkedIn?
For small businesses, one to three posts per week is a good rhythm. Equally important is responding to comments and joining discussions on others' posts.
