Linked In Company Pages are a combination of a number of different features that integrate with other key Linked In functions. They are a great opportunity for Sales teams to maximise their use of Linked In .So what are the key features of Linked In Company Pages. Perhaps the best way to see that is to compare them to something very familiar to most of us Facebook Fan Pages.
With a Facebook Fan Page you can see that a fan page provides details about a company in the “info” section, but this is not its primary focus which is representing the visual brand and identity of the business.In Linked In people are also introduced to a company on its page and that’s its primary purpose. The Facebook Fan Page allows ‘fans’ to ‘like’ a page and then engage with it and allow a viral spread of information to flow through networks of Facebook friends.The Facebook page also provides a platform for companies to launch campaigns through the use of Facebook Apps as well as market their products and services through landing pages and other tabs.
Facebook Fan Pages were also developed as just that, created by and for fans of popular music, entertainment, and even top sports people.
Fan pages were not specifically designed for marketing Businesses though by default they have become a good medium for Business to Consumer (B2C) marketing and Brand awareness. Realising their commercial potential Facebook has concentrated on offering more functionality for businesses that manage page and it has given administrators more control over those pages. It also offers measurement tools like page insights showing reach ‘Likes”Reach’ and ‘Engagement’.
However Linked In Company Pages were created to help both job candidates and the professions do research on companies that are represented on Linked In.The data was originally pre-populated through a combination of efforts by Linked In, user-generated content from profiles, and some statistical information from Business Week. Initially the ability to search companies was not added and when it was it was designed as a tool people could use to work out their connections to a particular company. So if you were looking for a business provider with particular expertise, you could check if any of your first-degree connections were employed by such a company. This aspect of the Company Page is still highly relevant.
However in more recent times Linked In has developed a feature allowing Companies to update their followers directly through publishing Status Updates. This means that, like Facebook Fan Pages you can publish posts into the news feeds of your followers (equivalent of fans on Facebook).However, Linked In does not use the same type of algorithm that Facebook has. This means that, while only 17% of your updates reach your fans on Facebook, your Company Page updates reaches all of your followers.
Here are the key features and Functions in Linked In Company Pages:
1.Search: Users can search for companies by keyword, location, industry, relationship, company size, number of followers, and other criteria.
2.The Overview Page for a particular company has information about who connects you to that company, as well as about its employees,status updates, recent blog posts, mentions in the news and general statistics.
3.The Statistics Page, this is accessed through the overview page, is completely comprised of user-generated content from profiles and provides employee information for job seekers (such as job function composition, years of work experience, and educational degrees attained by current employees) as well as business intelligence that could be used for sales and business development purposes (such as new employees, former employees, and most recommended employees).
4.The Careers Page this shows any job openings.
5.The Products and Services Page is created by the company to showcase its products and services. Linked In users can recommend a company’s products and services and their recommendations appear here.
6.The “Follow Company” button allows any Linked In user to stay updated on new jobs, hires, and departures from any company’s page.
7.Companies can post status updates to appear on the news feeds of their followers.
8.Page Administrators can have access to an analytics page as well.This is similar in format to Facebook Insights showing impressions,clicks,reach and engagement.
The Linked In Company Pages offer a great mix of functions and features that allow your business to have a distinctive corporate presence on Linked In. Optimising your Company Page also gives your employees the opportunity to be found in searches and increases the chances that your company will be found on Linked In.
I hope this helps and get in touch if you need our help setting up your Company Page correctly – richard@janklin.com
