LinkedIn Company Pages

Perhaps no other social media platform name can be taken as literally as LinkedIn. In today’s business world it’s all about being part of the “in” crowd, the LinkedIn crowd, that is. However, it is no longer enough to just have a personal profile, you also need to have a company page.

Company pages have become so popular that LinkedIn recently celebrated reaching three million of them. Why are they so popular? They give businesses the ability to gain followers, tailor messages to different audiences, and market products and services all at once.

How do you build a following? A great way to start is to add your employees’ profiles. If your employees do not already have LinkedIn profiles, invite them to create profiles and connect them to the company page. By doing this, you can build followers among your employees.

Another way to gain followers is to communicate regularly via your page. Much like Facebook and Google+, LinkedIn allows companies to post status updates. This is a relatively new feature and a highly underutilized one, but can be very effective.

Status updates should be done frequently and consistently, and should go beyond job postings. Consider ways to interact with your audience and provide valuable information and entertainment through insider company news, updates, white papers, events or announcements. By applying Social Media Business Equation™ to your status updates, you will effectively build and maintain relationships with your followers. What's more, you may segment your followers by criteria like company size, industry, function, geographic location, and tailor content to those specific audiences.

LinkedIn company pages have also become great tools for marketing products and services. Through LinkedIn’s products and services tab, the company page administrator can add information for up to 25 products and services. This doesn’t just have to be your company's products, it can also be used to advertise charitable causes, campaigns, videos or customer interactions. The products and services tab also allows your followers to recommend your products and services to others.

A LinkedIn company profile allows your company to be “in” with the business crowd. The connections you can make and audiences you will reach are endless making LinkedIn a business opportunity that you just can’t ignore. For more information or help with your LinkedIn company page, please click here.