Now is the time to build your LinkedIn company page, with the business-oriented social media platform now offering much more than a glorified digital resume.
Since launching in 2003, LinkedIn has grown to more than 660 million registered users – 303 million active on a monthly basis – with the tool now helping users build networks with like-minded professionals, providing an avenue to keep up-to-date with industry trends, plus uncovering new leads or jobs.
If you’re looking to promote small and medium-sized enterprises, ANZPJ has pulled together a guide to help you get the most from LinkedIn.
1. Build a LinkedIn company page
Before you build your LinkedIn company page, you will need a personal LinkedIn profile and a verified email address – once you have set this up, you can create your business profile here.
Creating a profile will ask you to choose the appropriate category for your business, before filling in key company details including a “tagline” – 120 characters – to briefly describe what your company does.
A further breakdown of what must be entered can be found below. If you already have a company page, refer to the section on how to optimise your page with the information presented below. For further information, go to LinkedIn’s help page.
You will be asked to pick which category best fits your company.
2. Update the profile image and banner
Your profile image is the first thing people searching for your company on LinkedIn will see, so make a good impression with a powerful image and banner. Research has found company pages with profile pictures get six times more visitors than those without.
When choosing a profile image, the best option is to use your company’s logo to fit with LinkedIn’s requirements – 300 x 300 pixels, PNG format, maximum 8MB file size.
The banner above your profile picture offers a bit more room for creativity. While there are no specific rules about what image to choose, some ideas include an image that represents your company’s ethos, something highlighting the company’s achievements or even another version of your logo.
When creating a LinkedIn banner, the image should be PNG format, have a maximum 8MB file size and must be 1536 x 768 pixels.
Tap your profile photo. In the Edit Photo pop-up window and follow the prompts to take a new photo or upload one. Click ‘save’ once complete.
To update your banner, click on the rectangle above your profile picture and follow the prompts.
3. Optimise LinkedIn company page
LinkedIn company pages rank on search engine results like any other website, meaning a well-optimised page can enhance your chances of being found.
According to insights provided to Hootsuite from LinkedIn, company pages which have been completed in full receive as much as two times more visitors than those pages which do not include all required information.
A well-optimised page should also include accessible language and specific keywords that relate to your business. For keywords think of the phrases you would input into Google to find your own company.
When optimising your LinkedIn page, be sure to include the following:
About us: A professional paragraph – 2,000 characters or less – designed to tell you everything you need to know about the company. Think of this as a more expansive version of your tagline.
Public URL: LinkedIn will automatically input your URL to match your company’s name – if it isn’t available, you should choose something similar that is still identifiable to potential customers.
Website: Although not required, it’s worthwhile including a link to your company’s website, if you have one established. This can help build your potential customer base.
Industry: LinkedIn will get you to choose the industry your business operates in from a drop-down menu – this information helps LinkedIn categorise your company’s page.
Company size: Choose your company size from the ranges provided.
Headquarters: Where your main office is located -you can add multiple addresses by selecting +Add Location.
Founded: When the company was founded.
Specialties: Enter what your company specialises in. This should be your point of difference.
Custom button: Add a button to your profile to encourage action. Options include visit website, contact us, learn more, register, and sign up. Be sure to add the corresponding URL so people who click the button land on the correct page.
The Australian Property Institute’s company page.
4. Build your LinkedIn audience
Growing a following for your LinkedIn page is one of the most valuable benefits of the platform. Through increasing your network, leads to greater organic reach providing more robust audience insights for you to explore and gain a greater understanding of your customer.
Start with your employees and encourage them and their connections to follow the page.
“This is an essential step toward getting off the ground. When employees tag your page in updates, and share with their networks the benefits of following your page, it can provide a big boost,” explained LinkedIn.
Another tip is to edit your work email signature to include a link directing recipients toward your organisation’s LinkedIn page.
Keeping a steady flow of fresh content on your page will give it more visibility on member feeds – LinkedIn’s algorithm ranks posts based on personal connections, interest relevance, and engagement probability.
When posting to your company page be sure to share timely and relevant content, grab attention with an image or video or tag people and pages mentioned for extra engagement.
You can also use three to five relevant hashtags in your posts to reach new, relevant communities with your content.
You should also review what competitors are doing on LinkedIn to identify content gaps to provide something new for people.
It’s also worth taking a look at LinkedIn Analytics to view metrics of what content people engaged with most, so you can adjust your content calendar accordingly.
Other data includes how people find your page and a comparison of how many page views you get, while the “companies to track” table lets you compare where your page ranks when it comes to total followers and new followers.
An example of the API’s LinkedIn page.
5. Create ‘showcase pages’
In addition to your broader company page, you can create sub-pages within your existing page.
These so-called “showcase pages” are designed to spotlight individual brands, business units and initiatives – once created, they’ll be listed under ‘affiliated pages’ on your main LinkedIn profile
“To ensure you’re not over-fragmenting your audience, look at the size and audience needs of your existing community. If you’re considering building more than ten showcase pages, consider how you might bucket them into larger categories,” explained LinkedIn.
“We also recommend that you do not create a showcase page for a specific country or region. Instead, geo-target your organic posts from your main page.”
As with the main company page, it’s worthwhile considering your images,
Showcase pages offer the same posting options and analytics as your main LinkedIn Page to help meet your growth objectives. Here are some examples:
- LinkedIn uses one to highlight social projects
- IKEA’s showcase page for its Italian audience
- Portfolio promotes Penguin’s non-fiction book section
