There’s plenty of hype and advice out there about the importance of a well-written individual LinkedIn profile, both for job seeking and general networking purposes. Yet the impact of a professionally crafted, engaging and interactive LinkedIn company page doesn’t seem to win as many headlines.
LinkedIn is officially the world’s largest professional online network, with over 330 million members, and more signing up at an average of two per second. In addition, membership of this social medium includes at least one executive from every Fortune 500 Company.
At the moment, there are approximately 3 million LinkedIn company pages in circulation, spread across 148+ industries and 200+ countries and territories.
The above statistics confirm that there are a substantial number of potential network- and customer-winning opportunities on LinkedIn, particularly if you then consider that around half its members access it daily.
Benefits of a LinkedIn Company Page
A strategically written, keyword optimised LinkedIn company page that continually shares insights and engages with and addresses follower and customer needs has numerous benefits for most businesses.
These benefits include:
Stronger brand presence
Clearer company ideology
A foundation for growing a customer base
Opportunity to show industry depth of knowledge
Attraction of the right kind of employees
Access to online community feedback
User traffic to your company website and other social media pages
A LinkedIn company page is highly likely to enhance most businesses’ online marketing assets. So, if you’ve been considering creating or updating your LinkedIn company page, below are five handy pointers to help increase your online brand reputation.
1) Individualise Your Business Offerings
In addition to establishing your business presence on a main LinkedIn company page, there is also the opportunity to create Showcase Pages. These pages are used to drill down into individual business offerings, such as products and services.
By breaking your LinkedIn company profile down into specific business areas, you can then better target specific audiences, posting case studies, blogs, how to’s, and product and service reviews that create engagement for each specific offering.
However, before you start setting up a range of Showcase Pages (maximum 10 allowed), consider whether you have the resources to manage them. Each of these LinkedIn company pages should be interactive, continually updated and monitored to grow customer interest and improve search rankings.
Hot Tip: Consider starting off with one to two Showcase Pages for your most popular products or services.
2) Use SEO and Links
LinkedIn and its company pages are extremely SEO-friendly, complemented by Google’s favourable rankings of all things LinkedIn. It’s therefore beneficial to determine between four and six keywords that are highly relevant to your business and brand, and use these across all of your pages.
Perhaps conduct some competitor research on LinkedIn to assist you in choosing the most optimal keywords, or use an online tool like Google Keyword Planner or Soovle, which specialise in this area.
It’s also beneficial to link your LinkedIn company page with your other online profiles, such as your website and Twitter account, to keep customer interest flowing across your entire online marketing strategy. As a bonus, LinkedIn provides a ‘follow us’ button, which can be added to your business website to easily connect the two.
3) Showcase Imagery and Personality
Online audiences love visuals and your LinkedIn company page should take full advantage of this. Use a compelling, attractive image that encourages readers to want to move down from your main visual to your company summary. Also include a concise, brand-relevant headline that complements your visuals.
You may also want to consider using videos on your LinkedIn company page. It’s been argued that consumers feel more confident about a brand if they’re informed via a more humanised video message. Short-form demonstration, event or interview and testimonial videos can add validity and inject personality into your LinkedIn marketing content.
In line with video usage, your LinkedIn company page is an opportunity to show the ‘human side’ of your business, so try and keep content personal, conversational and perhaps even fun.
4) Intertwine with Your Employee’s LinkedIn Profiles
To help cement your business’s cohesive vision and mission, ask employees to contribute to your marketing strategy by following your LinkedIn company page. In addition, consider theming at least the summary content of their individual LinkedIn profiles to better align with the company’s goals and culture.
Company followers and customers will not only have the opportunity to learn more about your business, but will also develop a sense of the type of people that are involved.
Connecting and interacting with staff via your LinkedIn company page could also prove beneficial for attracting potential employees, both via personal networks and through increased search rankings.
Hot Tip: A fee-based Careers Page can also be added to attract employees.
5) Engage with Company Followers
As part of growing a strong follower or customer base, it’s essential that someone ensures consistent interaction on your LinkedIn company pages. Whether it’s replying to customer feedback or encouraging readers to comment, such engagement helps to spread your company’s presence. The more you post and interact on your LinkedIn company page, the more often you’ll appear in both followers’ newsfeeds and general search results.
Schedule in regular posts to be added to your page, and keep them short and sweet. Be fun and innovative with your interactions – consider conducting surveys or competitions, or asking general questions to encourage customer engagement.
Hot Tip: Be sure to always reply to any questions or feedback your followers post on your LinkedIn pages.
An interactive, visually engaging, professionally written LinkedIn company page will further advance most businesses’ marketing strategies. As with any marketing content, always keep in mind who your target customers are and how you can address their needs, and make a commitment from the outset to keep your page active and interesting. These fundamentals will help ensure your company’s LinkedIn page is noticed and remembered.
Jeanette Walton is the founder of Walton's Words. Walton’s Words provides freelance writing and editing across a wide spectrum of genres, industries and document types. From thoroughly editing book manuscripts and corporate reports to collaboratively writing career-selling resumes and business-selling marketing content, concise and effective communications are guaranteed (including keyword optimisation). Described as "having a sixth sense for weaving all the information together", Walton’s Words thrives on producing communications that impact and engage with the target audience.
