Have you created a LinkedIn business page yet? If you are a part of a company, institution, or organization looking to boost your audience and facilitate growth, it is time to step up your game and get one.
Started back in 2018 by LinkedIn, these pages provide you with the opportunity to connect with consumers, while enabling them to discover more about what your company is all about. With almost 660 million members across 200 countries worldwide, you don’t want to lose out on the potential customer reach this platform offers.
LinkedIn company pages were created with the intention of providing your business with a point of direct contact with your target audience, as well as the chance to make new connections, employees, and ultimately, new customers in most company’s cases.
Whatever the size of the company, an up-to-date LinkedIn page gives you a lot of potential business opportunities. For example, you can promote new products, share interesting updates, establish thought leadership, post job opportunities and ultimately, build your brand with LinkedIn members.
A Social Media Platform for Business
LinkedIn may be considered as being the more serious social media sibling compared to Instagram or Snapchat, but it is absolutely not to be underestimated. The impact it can have on company growth is staggering.
- 30 million companies are listed on the platform, and 52% of B2B buyers say that LinkedIn plays a highly influential role in their buying journey.
- LinkedIn is equally powerful when it comes to promotion: 80 percent of B2B leads come from here, proving to be the most effective channel.
- B2B content in LinkedIn feeds is seen approximately 9 billion times each and every week!
How to Create Your Company’s Page on LinkedIn
We are going to get to the tips and tricks to improve your company page and make it dazzle for clients, potential colleagues, and employees alike. But first, we need to start with the basics, how to create a LinkedIn company page.
Creating a company page on LinkedIn is simple to do, so you can get started right away and start reaching more people in the worlds’ largest professional community.
Below is a step-by-step guide as to how to create a business page on LinkedIn:
1. You will need a personal LinkedIn profile and verified email address. Next, tap the Work icon on your LinkedIn homepage on the right-hand corner
2. Select Create a Company Page.
3. From the page type menu, select one of the following that best describes what your page is all about:
- Small business
- Medium to large business
- Showcase page
- Educational institution (high school or university/college)
4. Next, provide information on your page’s company, identity, and profile. But remember, this is simply the bare bones of a LinkedIn page. While only some details are needed, it would be wise to fully complete these fields to get the most out of your page. According to LinkedIn, a completed LinkedIn company page will result in 30% more weekly views.
Let’s go through the form fields one by one:
- Name: Make sure you have put in the full company name to make it easier for your target audience to discover.
- Public URL: This will be automatically filled in by LinkedIn, but you don’t need to keep it if it is not quite right. You should aim to pick a URL that is simple and includes your company name. If this isn’t feasible, pick a URL that will still be recognizable to your audience, such as a shortened business name.
- Website: Although it isn’t a requirement, it is highly recommended as it will connect followers to your website.
- Industry: Select from the LinkedIn drop-down menu. Don’t forget this step, as it allows your visitors to identify the type of business you are.
- Company size: Pick from the range of business sizes available
- Company type: Select from the categories available
- Company logo: Make sure you choose a high-quality logo (between 300 x 300px) that is consistent with all your other business social media accounts.
- Tagline: Write a brief tagline (in 120 characters or less) that explains what your business does. This can be changed at a later date if you so wish.
5. Click the verification box to confirm you have the right to act on behalf of the company
6. Select Create Page.
7. You are almost ready to go and build a page to wow your audience (and soon to be followers)! This last step will lead you to the Admin View dashboard of your brand new company page, where you can make page changes. You will see at this point that LinkedIn provides a checklist of actions to do. It is strongly advised you do them, as it unlocks new features that can help your page grow.
What is in this checklist? It includes the following:
- Description: This is your About Us section (up to 2000 words), and the place where you will put any relevant keywords or phrases to help boost your page on SERPs and enable more people to discover your brand. It is also possible to make descriptions and taglines in more than one language here.
- Location: Put at least one (such as your headquarters). It is possible to add more than one location and name them individually.
- Cover photo: This image needs to be 1,128 x 191px, but the most important thing is to make sure that you are using an engaging (but relevant) photo that will encourage visitors to check you out.
- Hashtags: You can add up to three (related to audience, industry, and business).
- Company phone number: Worth doing to provide a direct point of contact.
- Year your company was founded: Establishes and builds your brand on LinkedIn.
How to Add Page Admins on LinkedIn
You need to make sure your company page is kept up-to-date to help promote your business. This may mean distributing the effort among your team, which will require the need to authorize more page admins. Sorting out the additional page admins while you are setting up the company page is the best time to do it. The process is incredibly straightforward.
1. At the top right-hand corner of your business page, select “Admin Tools” then “Page Admins”.
2. The next box shows you four types of page admins you can select on your page.
- Designated Admin: Allowing your team to add other admins, post updates, or make page edits.
- Sponsored Content: Allows team members to share or sponsor updates on the company page. Direct Sponsored Content admins feature under the same category, and they allow advertisers to create sponsored content ads via a LinkedIn ads account.
- Lead Gen Forms Manager: Gives admin access to download leads from Campaign Manager
- Pipeline Builder Admins: Enables admins to create and edit Pipeline Builder pages linked to your company page.
3. To add someone, you will need to be connected to the page as an admin. Providing this has been done, you can then write their name, select from options, and then save changes.
Claiming Your Page on LinkedIn
If LinkedIn has automatically generated a page for your company, you should absolutely claim it. LinkedIn might generate a company page if an employee has added your firm to the experience section of their profile when your business does not yet already have an existing profile.
Before taking the time and effort to fill out and create a new business page, make sure one doesn’t already exist. If you find one on LinkedIn already, you will need to take steps to claim the page. This is incredibly important to do, as it prevents visitors from finding the wrong profile, and this might damage your ability to build your brand’s reputation.
To claim a LinkedIn company page, follow these steps:
- You can only claim a page if you are on desktop and by members who are eligible to become an admin. Providing you tick these boxes, click the Notifications tab on your LinkedIn homepage.
- Find the correct Claim notification and then select View Page.
- Choose Claim this Page.
- Verify you are authorized to claim the page by ticking the checkbox
- Select Confirm, and you will be taken to your page admin center.
How to Optimize Your Page on LinkedIn
1. Use relevant and enticing images (most importantly, your cover photo).
Don’t underestimate the importance of visuals was one of the main pieces of advice given by our experts and community.
Visually, you want to have a great banner. You also want to make sure that you have a Square logo, even if it means just using the icon and putting your company name in the banner.
Your logo and cover photo are one of the first things visitors to your page will see, so make it count. Make sure you keep images updated with the very latest marketing materials. These images should be professional, and make sure they are enticing and make abundantly clear what your brand is all about. Images should also be consistent across social media channels; this strategy has a huge impact on brand awareness
2. Consider using LinkedIn showcase pages.
Have you considered using LinkedIn showcase pages as an optimization tactic? It can be a great strategy for zooming in on particular aspects of your brand or to promote special products. It also presents a fantastic opportunity to highlight a special initiative or campaign; it provides a different way to connect with LinkedIn members, without them following your business page.
To use these pages successfully, it is critical that you regularly post on your showcase pages with all types of content, including videos or presentations. And remember that followers of a showcase page may be quite different from those that follow your company page. With this in mind, tailor your content.
Don’t forget that you can target your post by location, as well as by industry, job type, seniority, school, and many more.
Creating a showcase page is easy to do:
- Select the Me icon at the very top of your LinkedIn company page.
- Pick your business page under the Manage section.
- Click Admin Tools, which you will find on the top right-hand corner.
- Choose Create a Showcase Page.
3. Take the time to write a strong About Us page with relevant keywords.
Consistently posting content relevant to your audience, that will engage and inform LinkedIn members, is key to creating a successful LinkedIn company page.
Some don’t know how to get started creating content their audience will like, but the ideas are endless. Here are just some of what ways you can get started:
- Behind-the-scenes content
- Product development
- Latest trends
- Documents
- YouTube videos
- Infographics
- News involving your company
- Guides
- E-books
- Job openings
4. Share engaging content.
It is essential to spend time creating a compelling About Us page on your company profile to boost your presence and increase authority. We recommend that you carefully research relevant keywords and use concise, easy to understand language that clearly demonstrates what your business values are. It should be a paragraph (under 2,000 characters) that gets to the core of who you are and what your business can offer.
So, we have covered the initial steps and got your company page up and running, but that is just the beginning. You really need to also make sure it is fully optimized if you want platform users to connect with you and ultimately grow your audience.
Creating a Strategy for Your Company Page on LinkedIn: Building a Following
Creating a company page on LinkedIn is all well and good, but that in itself will not simply lead to legions of followers. Gaining followers takes time and effort. Here are some of the best ways you can do this.
To make things even more straightforward, we have separated this into two types of strategy: organic and paid.
Organic Strategies to Gain Followers on LinkedIn
Joining groups
It can be all too easy to forget that LinkedIn is, first and foremost, a social media channel. Share your expertise and expand your network by actively participating in LinkedIn Groups beyond your scope of employees.
Make sure to choose groups that are relevant to your company’s interest or industry; participate wisely and don’t spam. To save time finding groups, check out LinkedIn’s group suggestions on the Groups Discover page, or through the search feature on the homepage.
You could also create a LinkedIn group based on the topic or industry of your choice as well! This group can be added to your company page (for up to three groups in total), facilitating even more opportunities for member engagement!
How do you create a group on LinkedIn?
- Simply click the Icon on your page.
- Select your company page in the Manage section.
- Click the Overview tab before scrolling down to Featured Groups.
- If you start typing the name of your new group, it will appear.
- Confirm the group.
Encourage Employees to Engage and Connect with Your Page
By far, one of the best strategies to boost the number of followers on your business page is to encourage your employees to connect with the page. It is an excellent way to exponentially increase your reach.
Get employees to spread the word by reposting and engaging with the content you publish. Having employees add the company to their LinkedIn profiles also boosts your online presence, as their profiles will also then appear on your business page. A win-win!
Tagging the page in updates is also key.
Make sure that your employees are engaged with your posts. Not only that, they are liking and commenting on them, but sharing them with their audience. I can almost guarantee that the combined audience of your employees is significantly greater than that of your company page. If you have around 8000 followers on your company page, the combined networks of our employees are well over 100,000!
The benefit of this is when an employee shares your company page post, the follow button will be displayed to people not already following your company, which encourages them to then follow your company to access your content
Paid Strategies to Gain Followers on LinkedIn
Create LinkedIn Ad Campaigns
Make the most of the fact that LinkedIn has a super sharp, laser-focused ability to target the audience you want.
How? It has in-depth information about its member’s professional skills and interests. Due to this knowledge, 92% of B2B Marketers use the platform above others. Use this to your advantage and look at investing in a LinkedIn Ads campaign.
There are a few different advertising options to choose from here. The most commonly used tactics are self-serve ad options.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored Content works in a similar way to sponsored posts do on Facebook, enabling you to promote content your business creates — whether this is articles, videos, or presentations. It can be a great opportunity for lead generation as you can target your audience very specifically, and catching the eye of B2B leaders. It is recommended that you pick carefully and choose only the strongest content you have, and repurpose it as much as possible for optimal value.
LinkedIn Text Ads
LinkedIn Text Ads are remarkably similar to paid ads on Google or Bing and can help boost traffic to your company page, working as pay-per-click or CPM ads.
Getting started with Text Ads is remarkably easy and cheap too. If you are new to ads, it could be a good place to start, but make sure you are doing A/B testing.
Sponsored InMail
Sponsored InMail is a nifty little tool under LinkedIn’s belt that can have a huge impact on your business. It enables companies to send a personalized image into another person’s inbox, with a sponsored tag accompanying it.
This option can be a great way to promote content and drive conversion through response calls to actions. You must choose wisely and pick only one CTA to increase the chances of a positive response.
Other advertising options come in the form of:
Partner Ads: The LinkedIn Marketing Partner program aligns companies with ad firms that can best help you meet your marketing goals.
Dynamic Ads: These ads directly target the person by addressing them by name and using their profile photo in the ad. To set this up, you will need to contact a LinkedIn representative.
Audience Network: This is a LinkedIn feature enabling companies to target a specific audience through sponsored content via partner apps or sites.
How to Engage Your Followers
While the number of followers you have is important for your company’s LinkedIn page to establish authority, it is equally vital to make sure they are engaging and ultimately outperform your competitor’s content. But how do you do that?
Capture Their Attention Immediately
One clear engagement boosting-strategy with followers is to make sure you use a great headline hook in the first and second lines of your post.
Authenticity is Key
People tend to gravitate towards content that shows vulnerability (for example, sharing personal stories). Why? Because an emotional connection is more likely to deeply resonate with your audience, as it feels more authentic, this makes content more likely to be memorable, and therefore, it is a key engagement strategy.
Respond Constructively to Negative Comments
Greater follower engagement means a higher chance of receiving negative feedback. So what should you do? If someone criticizes your brand, respond constructively, and not emotionally. This is important as it shows you are proactive about trying to solve the situation. How you deal with criticism will be just as impactful on your brand as receiving positive feedback.
Avoid leaving company criticism without any reply at all; this will not do your business any favours. And definitely do not lose your temper — keep at the forefront of your mind the company’s reputation.
How often should I post on LinkedIn?
While making sure that posting content regularly is key important, you must prioritize quality over quantity. Intentional, strategic content that is genuinely meaningful to your target audience is much more important than posting any old piece of content. A good strategy is to ensure that all content you publish is providing some sort of insight or advice to your reader. Once you have clearly decided on your posting strategy, maintain it.
A/B Testing
A/B testing to see if your target audience responds better or worse to the number of posts you publish is a great way to determine what works best for your brand.
What content engages audiences the most?
Using more videos was suggested. Native video content helps your brand to communicate in a more personal way and it performs extremely well on LinkedIn. This is because, in relation to our last point on authenticity, it provides a channel to effectively tell a story.
When it comes to video content, making the first six seconds count is essential for audience engagement, according to LinkedIn best video practices. Using subtitles, making videos short and to the point was also recommended. Keep in mind, only a third of people use sound to watch videos on their mobiles, so the right text is critical. Planning for mobile engagement and providing a good user experience is vital, as 91% of LinkedIn members watch videos on their mobile devices.
Make the most of LinkedIn’s algorithm and target your audience directly. People love rich media too. We can’t help it; the brain finds it easier to process images over text. So, opting for images that have text as well as pictures (such as presentations or infographics) will work well engaging visitors on your page.
What’s the best time to post on LinkedIn?
Timing is everything, but do remember that the best time for one brand may not be best for yours; it all comes down to the specific audience you want to target and build a brand with.
Analyzing analytics can make it far easier for you to know when to post compelling content, and consequently help with better results. This is really the only way you can fully determine the best time to post on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
Whether it is a startup or an established international corporation, one thing is clear, if you want your business to flourish, creating a LinkedIn business page is crucial to remaining relevant, as well as building your brand, trust, and boosting overall levels of engagement.
Having an up-to-date, detailed LinkedIn page was highlighted as being fundamental, especially in terms of enabling people to discover your brand. In addition, the importance of authenticity, providing quality over quantity content to members, was also pivotal to success on the social media channel.
By following the tips we have given in our guide with the aid of our marketing experts and our wonderful community, your company has all the tools it needs to create a stand-out LinkedIn business page.
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