Building a community around your company’s social presence is important, but the quality of that community is even more critical. Businesses need to attract the right type of followers, in order to connect in a way that benefits both parties. LinkedIn tools help marketers attract the followers most interested in your company.

Once your LinkedIn Company Page is optimized with accurate company information, Products and Services, and interesting content, you can focus on developing and nurturing relationships with followers. Connecting with your target market allows for exponential growth, as engaged users will share your content with their networks, as well.

LinkedIn’s Lana Khavinson recently offered marketers 5 tips to help attract targeted followers to a Company Page:

1. Engage employees. Customers in social channels tend to trust employees more than management and employees make fantastic brand advocates. Encourage employees to follow and participate in the Company Page discussions and empower them with proper training, guidelines, and support. Their participation can greatly amplify your advertising and marketing efforts while reinforcing positive word of mouth.

2. Promote your Company Page outside the organization. LinkedIn recommends that marketers “link to the Company Page in all of your marketing communications like your emails, newsletters and blogs. Invite customers, partners, and other key audiences to become followers.” In addition, be sure to update all company social profiles to link each property to the others. This creates a “web” of your own, where prospects who come in contact with the company on any given platform can choose the platform on which they’d like to connect with your brand.

3. Add the LinkedIn “Follow” button to your website. We’ve shared step-by-step instructions recently for adding the Twitter Follow button to your website; LinkedIn’s button is quite similar. Having this button displayed on your site allows visitors to follow your Company Page on LinkedIn without having to leave your site. Adding the button does not require any programming knowledge. Simply visit this page, enter your company name, choose your button style and copy the code snippet provided.

4. Participate in LinkedIn Groups. According to LinkedIn, there are now more than one million Groups on their social network. You can start a LinkedIn Group of your own and build a presence there, in addition to your Company Page. However, it may be less time consuming and ultimately more productive to participate in established, active groups. Answering questions and engaging in conversations is a great way to establish your expertise and build your reputation as a knowledgeable source in your industry.

5. Use LinkedIn Follow Ads to attract a targeted following. LinkedIn’s ad targeting options allow you to drill down deep into audience insights and target highly specific groups of people with your messaging. See this post from my colleague Roger Pilney to help you determine whether cost-per-click or cost-per-mille ads are the right choice for your campaign. Social ads are useful for helping build your presence faster; you do need a foundation of great social content to keep your audience engaged and following in the long run.

Use targeted status updates to send certain social content to specific segments of your audience. This helps ensure that each of your LinkedIn Page followers feel they are getting content relevant and interesting for them. Those satisfied, engaged people are more apt to share your content and help you attract even more followers.

Do you have a create or unique strategy for attracting new followers to your LinkedIn Company Page? Share yours in the comments!