As of June 30, 2011, there are more than 2 million LinkedIn Company Pages. These represent more than 50,000 products and services. Much like Facebook pages designed for companies, brands or products, this option allows LinkedIn users to break away from independent profiles to create consolidated business overviews. As discussed two weeks ago, Google+ — the newest social media platform — has even come under fire for not yet offering this type of business page for its growing base of users. (To be fair, it did take LinkedIn until the end of 2010 to get on the ball.)
Creating a Company Page helps spread the word to millions of website visitors about who you are, what the members of your team offer and how you benefit potential partners, employees, buyers or clients — all via that overlooked, underused social media site, LinkedIn.
So how can you take advantage of this tool to market your own business?
1. Company Pages are free to create for current employees. Just look for the “Companies” and “Add a Company.” You fill out basic information and upload your logo – then LinkedIn collects a bunch of data based on user profiles and similar resources to provide you with an aggregated overview. For a small fee, you can add extra features to further customize your profile.
2. Every Company Page comes with a set of tabs that you can fill out, making it easier for users to sort through your content to get an overview of your business and find the information they’re seeking. The four main tabs are an introduction to your company, an overview of what you sell or offer, an analytics tab with the aggregated data mentioned above and a careers tab for those seeking a job or wishing to learn more about your current employees.
3. LinkedIn users can click through to your Company Page from a person’s resume to learn more about where they work. You can implement a policy that employees should link to your company page from their own LinkedIn profiles (as discussed last week).
4. LinkedIn Company Pages also allow users to recommend your business and leave testimonials about their experience with it. This is a powerful resource for strengthening the reputation of your brand.
Bonus! You can adjust the privacy settings on this page to determine who can view what parts of it, and what LinkedIn members are allowed to have editing access to the information. This can help you streamline data and protect how users interact with your brand. On the flip side of that, LinkedIn offers an analytics page that helps you monitor who’s landing on your page, how they got there and how long they stayed. This can help you tailor your marketing to the correct demographics.
Ask how we can help you set up and market your LinkedIn Company Page.