Winter 2016
INSIGHTS SOCIAL MEDIA »
Putting Your LinkedIn Company Page to Work for You
GUEST WRITER: MELONIE DODARO Canada’s number one LinkedIn expert, international LinkedIn and social-selling speaker and trainer, founder of Top Dog Social Media, and author of the number one, international bestseller The LinkedIn Code.
H
ave you been wondering if you really need to have a LinkedIn Company Page for your business? Did
you build one, only to realize a year or more later that you’ve not so much as peeked in on it? In a study by HubSpot. com that included more than 5,000 B-to-B and B-to-C businesses, traffic from LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate, at 2.74%. That’s 277% higher than Twitter (69%) and Facebook (77%). The study concluded that, while LinkedIn may not drive the most engagement on social media, it does seem to drive targeted and qualified traffic interested in doing business. Bottom line? It’s okay if you don’t have a huge following for your LinkedIn Company Page; it’s
more important to have great content and information for those who are checking you out—even if it’s just a onetime visit. Taking into account that LinkedIn is the number one social media platform for business, having a current and accurate LinkedIn Company Page is an essential rather than a “nice-to-have.” Given the added SEO benefits (Google previews the first 150 characters of your Page’s text), and the fact that your LinkedIn Company Page allows your employees to link their profiles to your company and drives traffic to your website, having an up-to-date LinkedIn Page is essential. You also gain organic exposure to your Company Page for anyone viewing the personal profile of your employees when your logo (company profile image) is visible in their experience section and is a clickable link leading back to your Company Page.
6 Key LinkedIn Company Page Elements
1. BANNER IMAGE As the first thing that people will see when they land on your Page, a professional, custom image is essential to create for your LinkedIn Company Page. The image should be a minimum of 646 x 220 pixels in a PNG/JPEG/GIF format, with a maximum size of 2 MB.
2. CUSTOMIZED URL Create a customized Company Page URL on LinkedIn. Keep the URL simple, and use your company name if it’s available.
3. COMPANY DESCRIPTION You have 2,000 characters available, and you should use them all! Take full advantage of the SEO-friendly nature
of the page. It’s important also to share your WHY message or brand story with your audience. Make sure that you include your keywords throughout the description to help your Company Page be found in a LinkedIn and/or Google search.
4. SHOWCASE PAGES These individual pages will appear on the right side of your page and are a great way to highlight your business’ particular products, services, solutions, business units, portfolios, and events. Make sure your posts to a Showcase Page focus on information and education. Avoid sales-related messaging or info. You can have up to 10 Showcase Pages, and each will have its own analytics feature.
5. UPDATES The majority of your updates should focus on providing value and education; limit promotional content. Keep them short and simple with catchy titles, and try to always include visuals or rich media. What updates get the most action? According to LinkedIn, these would be company -branding updates such as “inside looks” and interviews, followed by job postings, and then tips and fun facts. Also noteworthy: updates that include links get 45% higher follower engagement than those that contain no links. Link to a recent blog post, a YouTube video, or an industry-based news piece. Tip: Consider using an RSS news feeder
such as
feedly.com to track and gather content. Scan the headlines once per week and select an article to share on your LinkedIn Company Page.
6. “FOLLOW US” BUTTONS Make it simple for people to join your social bandwagon and visit your website by adding easy-to-install icons. Return the favor on your business website by adding a LinkedIn icon to drive traffic back and forth. While having a Company Page
is important for your business, your employees’ personal LinkedIn profiles are ultimately how you can efficiently and effectively find, connect, and build relationships with your ideal clients, referral partners, and strategic alliances. Watch for our article “LinkedIn Marketing Strategies” (Spring issue), where we will take a deep dive into how your team can use their LinkedIn profiles to generate more leads and sales for your company.
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