Your ‘how to’ guide on running a business LinkedIn page

Over the years, social media has become progressively more ingrained in our lives. It’s gone from simple chat rooms that took an age to load whilst the unmistakably grating sounds of dial-up attempted to connect; to albums of a hundred or so photos from a night out filling our Facebook walls (usually accompanied by some degree of oversharing); to now, where there are far too many platforms to keep track of — and entire careers being built out of content creation. But what has any of that got to do with engineering, manufacturing, or running a business?

Well, I’m here to tell you, quite a lot. Because somewhere in the middle of social media’s evolution entered LinkedIn — a professional platform for networking, relationship-building, and in many ways, one of the most powerful (and free!) tools in a business’ selling arsenal.

Right now, building or growing your company’s LinkedIn presence may not seem like a priority, or even worth the effort. When production schedules, staffing, customer orders, supply chains, quality checks, and the occasional 4pm crisis take priority, stopping to craft a post for LinkedIn might seem, at the very least, optimistic. But this is exactly where the 95/5 rule comes in — and it’s worth paying attention to.

The 95/5 Rule: Why Visibility Matters When No One Is Buying

The 95/5 rule comes from research into consumer behaviour, particularly within B2B industries. It states that at any given time, only 5% of your potential customers are actively in the market for your product or service. The other 95% aren’t buying right now — but they will buy at some point.

The trick is staying visible to that 95% while they’re not buying. Because when the moment arrives — when they do need a fabricator, a machinist, a training provider, a consultant, a supplier, a specialist — they’re far more likely to remember the businesses they’ve seen regularly and trust.

LinkedIn helps you do exactly that. Consistent content keeps your organisation on the radar. Not in an intrusive way, not in a hard-sell way, but in a “we’re here, we’re reliable, we know our stuff” kind of way.

At Scottish Engineering, we’ve learned this first-hand. Over the last few years, we’ve put more focus on our LinkedIn presence — not by overhauling our whole operation, but by taking small, consistent actions. During this time, our following has grown by more than 120%. That growth didn’t come from a secret formula or dramatic rebrand; it came from showing up regularly, speaking to our community, and sharing useful content.

LinkedIn isn’t static. The algorithm likes to change its mind, certain content formats fall in and out of favour, and what works brilliantly one month might flop the next. But the foundation remains the same: consistency, authenticity, and a willingness to experiment.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or not sure where to begin, here’s what we’ve learned — and how you can use it to build a strong LinkedIn presence without needing a dedicated marketing team.

The Jargony Bit

LinkedIn has its own little ecosystem of terminology, so before we get stuck in, here’s a quick explainer:

• Feed
  Your main LinkedIn homepage — where you’ll see posts from those you follow, and posts the algorithm thinks you’ll like.
• The Algorithm
  The mysterious force deciding which posts appear on your feed. It considers relevance, relationships, interests, and engagement.
• Engagement
  Any interaction with a post — likes, comments, shares. The more engagement, the more the algorithm spreads your content to relevant audiences.
• Impressions
  The number of times your post appears on users’ feeds. Impressions don’t guarantee someone read your post — but visibility is still valuable.

Creating Content That Actually Works

One of the biggest misconceptions about LinkedIn is that you must constantly produce profound, polished, TED-talk-level content to get noticed. You don’t.

Posting around four times a week is generally recommended if you want to keep your impressions healthy — but before you panic, remember: not every post has to be profound, detailed, or “thought-leadership-y.”

Mix it up. Show who you are, what you do, and why it matters.

• Be Niche – Surprisingly, niche topics often outperform broad ones. A specific post about performance management in engineering teams sparks far better conversation than a vague chat about “leadership”. Don’t be afraid to lean into your expertise, it builds authority, trust and invites meaningful engagement.
• Mentions Matter – Tagging organisations or individuals involved in your content helps push posts into their networks too. Use mentions honestly and sparingly, but don’t underestimate their power.
• Use a Variety of Content Types – We mostly use photos because our audience responds well to them — but videos, documents (especially PDFs), carousels, and plain text posts all have their place. One example is that documents posted between 8am–11am often receive considerably more engagement compared to any other time of day.

Different formats capture different types of attention. Experiment and see what your audience wants.

Why Your Staff Are Your Most Powerful LinkedIn Tool

One of the biggest boosts to your LinkedIn presence isn’t strategy, it’s your people.

Employees who follow your page, list your company as their employer, engage with your posts, and grow their own networks help expand your reach dramatically. Even small, everyday interactions make a big difference. When someone likes a post, comments briefly, or reshares something relevant, that content is introduced to their network as well.

It doesn’t require a coordinated campaign or formal expectations. A gentle culture shift — celebrating successes online, sharing announcements, welcoming new hires publicly, or encouraging staff to connect with others in the industry — can significantly enhance your visibility.

It’s also helpful to understand that personal LinkedIn profiles and company pages serve different, complementary roles. Personal profiles build relationships; they feel human, conversational, and approachable. Company pages provide scale; they act as the professional home base for your organisation, offering credibility and a central hub for updates.

When both are used consistently, they strengthen each other.

A Quick Word on Accessibility

As more people use assistive technologies, it’s important to create content that is accessible to everyone. Some examples include:

• Avoiding decorative emoji bullet points as screen readers announce them one by one and can often become annoying and diminish the impact of what you’re trying to say. A workaround can be to use a ‘-‘ to indicate where a bullet would be
• Capitalising each word in your hashtags so they’re readable (#WomenInEngineering rather than #womeninengineering)
• Where possible, adding alt text to images

These small habits make your content more inclusive and ensure that everyone can access the information you share.

Timing and Engagement: The Two Things the Algorithm Loves

While content quality matters, timing also plays a surprisingly important role. If you’re posting more than once a day, giving each post a few hours of “breathing room” helps avoid competing against yourself.

We often schedule blogs or longer-form posts toward the end of the day, when commuters and evening “doom scrollers” are more likely to engage. A quick scroll on the train home might be the perfect moment to capture your audience’s attention.

Engagement in the first 15 minutes after posting is also valuable, this is where utilising your staff comes in handy, share the link to the post to the team and encourage them to engage with it. Responding to early comments also signals relevance to the algorithm and can strengthen your post’s performance. And remember, your comment replies don’t need to be essays. A thoughtful few words or a sentence is plenty.

The Great Link Debate

There’s ongoing discussion about whether including links directly in your post hurts engagement. Some say it makes no difference; others swear their posts perform worse when links are included. Our own experience leans slightly toward the latter — but not dramatically so.

Interestingly, posts with three or more links tend to be categorised as resources and may actually perform better. But if you’re sharing a single link and want to play it safe, rumour has it that referencing the content in the main post and placing the link in the first comment is a solid workaround, (we’ve still to put this theory to the test.)

As with most things on LinkedIn, the best approach is to test what works for your organisation.

Optimising Your Company Page

Think of your company’s LinkedIn page like a mini webpage. The banner image should reflect your organisation’s identity. The About section should clearly describe who you are, what you do, and who you serve — using keywords naturally, not awkwardly stuffed in. Your call-to-action button should reflect your priority, whether that’s website visits, sign-ups, or enquiries.

LinkedIn is, in many ways, a search engine. People use it to find suppliers, partners, employers, and industry expertise. Make it easy for them.

Why LinkedIn Matters More Than Ever

Many organisations still pour most of their energy into Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, but if you’re working in B2B — or anywhere where relationships matter — LinkedIn is where the decision-makers are.

In fact, 96% of marketers prefer LinkedIn for lead generation over Facebook or X (formerly Twitter). The quality of conversations is higher, the leads tend to be more relevant, and the people who reach out usually understand who you are and what you do. That isn’t luck — it’s the result of consistently showing up.

LinkedIn gives you the tools to build authority, nurture relationships, and stay top-of-mind for the 95% who aren’t ready to buy yet. When they do become part of the 5%, your consistent presence becomes the differentiator.

You don’t need to be perfect. You don’t need to be flashy. You don’t need to be a marketing guru.

You just need to show up.