Does my small business need a LinkedIn Company Page?

by on March 20, 2013

Linked In Co PageA LinkedIn Company page is different than the personal LinkedIn profile you may already have.  A LinkedIn Company page is all about your business while a LinkedIn Profile is about you personally, your background, and your contacts. It’s another online communications channel for sharing information about your business and getting more exposure.

LinkedIn Company Pages were updated a little while back, offering businesses more tools at their disposal to promote themselves and engage with current and prospective clients. So it’s a good time to talk about the basic question here – do you actually need to bother with a page for your small business?

Considering a LinkedIn Company page for your small business

  • LinkedIn is the largest professional social network. If your small business works B2B (sells to other businesses) then a company page makes alot of sense. You’re likely already using LinkedIn to help promote your business (since it’s THE social network for business professionals), so setting up a company page is an extension of that.
  • You’re doing search marketing. One part of a successful search marketing plan involves getting links to your site from credible sources and websites. LinkedIn carries considerable search engine weight and often shows up in Google searches. Having a fully filled out, keyword optimized profile with links is a good bet, even if you don’t sell B2B and don’t use LinkedIn as one of your main communications channels.
  • You regularly produce content. As with other social media channels, your LinkedIn Company Page gives you the chance to share your latest blog posts and other content. You can now also share images as well as files on your page.

If you’ve decided that having a LinkedIn Company page makes sense for your small business, read on for some tips for getting set up and using your page.

Getting Started with your LinkedIn Company page

First things first, you need to have a LinkedIn personal profile already created with a company domain email address. Don’t have a company domain email address?  Read my suggestions for using a proper business email.

Log in under your personal LinkedIn account, and, in your main navigation bar, click “Companies”.  Then click “Add a company” in the top right hand corner.  And away you go!

Tips for Setting Up

  • Images: Choose a great banner cover image as this will be at the top of the page (similar to the Facebook cover image).  It should include your company logo as well as a brief description or tagline of what you do.  You need this description there because your company summary is located down at the bottom of the page, not immediately visible to the page visitor.  You need to quickly grab someone’s attention about what you do.  In addition to your cover image, you will need to upload a little square logo that will show up when you post updates.

LinkedIn Company Page Cover Photo

  • Updates: These will show up right on the home page, so put your small business in a great light and get engaging and sharing. All you have to do is insert a link and it will create a little image, title, and introductory sentences (again similar to posting updates on Facebook).  You can also post an image or a file. You can highlight one update so it shows at the very top.  You can also target your update so it only shows to a certain audience (company size, geography, etc). If you use Hootsuite for your social media management like I do, you can also use it to post and schedule your company updates.
  • About:  While not front and centre, this section is very important. It gives information about your business, and can also be optimized with keywords. Don’t forget your specialties and again, use your keywords.
  • Products: The first product you have listed will also appear on your home page, so make it your “hot tomale” product. Your company doesn’t have physical products?  No worries, use this section to highlight different services then. You can provide a description of the product or service and a link to it on your site, include an image and a video, highlight important features… you can even post details about a special promo you are having. And don’t forget your keywords for search engine marketing!

    Update – June 2014. LinkedIn Company Pages no longer support listing your products or services. You now need to have a Showcase Page. See this post for some more details.

  • Recommend: Recommendations from others on LinkedIn will show up alongside your Products.  Recommend others’ company pages, so that they in turn might recommend yours. You can also recommend specific products on a company’s product page.  Recommendations can be a tricky thing to get for small biz owners – for more hints on how to receive, check out my post on getting and using testimonials.
  • Careers: You can use this section as a recruitment tool and list job openings at your company.  It’s free to just post a little text only description of job opportunities, but you need to have a paid LinkedIn Silver or Gold Company account if you want to be making job postings fancy-schmancy with videos/images/etc.

Get Networking

Ok, you’ve got your LinkedIn Company page all set up.  Now what?  Like all social media channels, the key is engagement.  

So, how to get people to follow your company on LinkedIn?  Ask!  Ask your personal LinkedIn contacts.  Post your LinkedIn Company Page on Facebook, Twitter and any other social media channels and include it in your blog/newsletter.  There is a LinkedIn Company “Follow” button you can add to your website and/or blog.

Get your company colleagues involved too!  Employees with a personal LinkedIn profile can show they work for your small business and, then in turn, they will show up on the LinkedIn Company page.

Your “insights” tab is only visible to yourself (or other employees with the same domain name email) and will let you check out how your company page engagement is going.  Like all social media channels, patience is a virtue, and it will take a little time of pro-active updating and socializing to see results.

Check out more details from LinkedIn on their company pages here.

Do you have a LinkedIn Company page?  Thinking about it?  Would love to hear any experiences, comments or questions you may have!

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Martin Lindeskog April 26, 2015 at 5:18 am

Martina: I think it is a good idea to have it. Personally, I haven’t set up one yet. I will continue to work on my personal brand, and then set up a company page on LinkedIn, later on.
Martin Lindeskog recently posted..EGO Interview with Erik Emanuelli

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Martina Iring May 4, 2015 at 10:01 am

Thanks for sharing your feedback Martin and for checking out the post! Cheers

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