A good LinkedIn company page can prove to be one of the most valuable tools in your marketing strategy, especially if you execute it well.
LinkedIn is particularly beneficial for b2b businesses looking to reach out and connect with potential customers and position themselves as thought leaders in their industry.
With over 30 million companies and over 766 million users, the professional social media platform is one of the best ways to reach your key decision makers. But now that 97% of b2b marketers are using LinkedIn as part of their content marketing strategy, competition is fiercer than ever and getting your company page to stand out amongst the millions can be difficult.
Luckily, we have created the ultimate guide to making your LinkedIn company page stand out, so you can connect with more of the people that matter and boost your professional network.
How could having a first-rate page benefit your business?
Investing some time to make small changes to your page will incur enormous benefits, both in terms of building a better relationship with your audiences and having a better understanding of the people you’re trying to reach.
One of the greatest reasons for improving your page is to establish thought leadership within your industry. The more active and influential your company appears on social media, the more people will value your viewpoint and come to you for the latest insights. This will do wonders for your reputation and make you much more likely to be considered when a decision maker needs your service or product.
Developing positive relationships with your audiences is mutually beneficial, as they will feel more trusting of your brand and you will have more insights into the types of people you want to target.
A key function of social media is to attract and interact with the people that matter the most to your business and move them to take action, whether that be signing up for a newsletter, advocating your brand or investing in your product or service. There are 61 million senior-level influencers using the platform, so if it’s decision makers you’re trying to reach, you’ll find them on LinkedIn. If you use this platform to its full potential, the opportunities are limitless.
Take a look at these 12 key ways you can make your LinkedIn company page thrive.
#1 – Make the most of your profile image and banner
As a general rule, visuals are a very effective, easy way to instantly grab your audience’s attention and make them remember you. Since your profile image is the first thing they’ll see, it’s a given that you don’t leave this area blank – company pages with profile pictures get 6x more visitors than those without.
Uploading your logo into this area is the best choice for a company page, since it’s the core of your brand image. Make sure you upload a good quality version of your most up-to-date logo, and follow these LinkedIn profile image specs:
- 300 x 300 pixels
- PNG format
- Maximum 8 MB
- Square layout
While your profile image will pretty much stay the same (unless your logo changes), your profile banner provides an opportunity to get more creative and should be updated more regularly. You may want to use it to promote upcoming events, announce campaigns, or highlight company news.
Here’s a great example from Cisco. They use real people to connect to their audiences, immediately giving the impression that they not only provide a good service, but working for them is a joy.
Use your banner to immediately inform your visitors that your company is forward looking and always engaged with new projects, and that you value your LinkedIn community enough to keep on top of your socials. Even if you don’t have any new updates to promote, change-up the layout or design slightly so it doesn’t become stale. Create a schedule for how regularly you’ll update your banner and stick to it.
These are LinkedIn’s ideal banner specs:
- 1536 x 768 pixels
- PNG format
- Maximum 8 MB
- Rectangular layout
#2 – Write a concise but captivating ‘About us’ section
In 2,000 characters or less you need to summarise your company so that your visitors will know exactly what you do and why they want to engage with you. Decide on key words and phrases that embody your brand identity and use them throughout your marketing strategy to prompt your audiences to think of you when they read them.
To ensure you’ve provided all the important information, check that your content answers the following questions:
- Who are you?
- Where are you based?
- What do you offer?
- What are your values?
- What makes you different?
- How can people contact you to learn more?
Make sure your language is simple, accessible but conveys your expertise and confidence.
#3 – Create posts people will engage with
Ensuring you create opportunities for discussion and interaction when you post to LinkedIn is a great way to boost your profile. Perhaps you ask a question to your followers, or even create a poll, or maybe you just make such an intriguing statement that people can’t help but get involved.
Whatever the context, people are more likely to interact on LinkedIn if they feel a post is aimed at them. So don’t be afraid to hone on in your audience when writing content to target a small group of people that you really want to increase engagement with.
In the example below, Siemans did exactly that. Knowing that some of the decision makers they need to reach will have an electric vehicle, or will at least be interested in them, they posted a topical story to start a discussion, and it worked. It boosted their Likes and comments and, no doubt, reached more decision makers as a result.
Posting industry insights that engage your audience is easy with CoSend’s Content Discovery feature. You can share captivating news in seconds and monitor the Likes and comments on each of your posts.
No matter how you do it, creating engaging posts that get a lot of reactions or comments will help expose your content to a wider audience, and since your followers are likely to connect with social communities that are relevant to you, it’s a perfect way to get your brand seen by all new decision makers.
#4 – Join topical conversations with hashtags
Leave some room at the end of your posts for 3-5 relevant hashtags. Have a look at key words your competitors are using, or phrases that your audiences tend to engage with.
Hashtags are a great way to reach new, relevant audiences, but make sure not to include any that don’t apply to your post. This will only frustrate users when they’re looking for specific content and can only find mislabeled posts.
#5 – Encourage your people to become company advocates
What’s better than promoting your brand from your company page? Other people doing it. While posting from the company page will massively boost your reach and drive community connections, your employees and executives are often the best ambassadors of your brand.
LinkedIn’s own research has found that an employee’s network is on average 10x larger than their company’s follower base. So, if you can get your colleagues on board with employee advocacy, then you’re far more likely to extend your reach.
Ensure that their profiles link to your page by including your organisation’s name in their Work Experience and encourage them to tag the company in posts and share your content. The fact is, engagement doubles when content is shared by employees, so a very small amount of activity can go a long way. LinkedIn’s guide will help you get started.
One of the best ways to ensure your company has a seamless employee advocacy programme is to manage all their profiles from one place, on their behalf. CoSend makes it easy to schedule and organise posts to all your employee accounts.
#6 – Recognise the value of LinkedIn Groups
While we’re on the subject of employee advocacy, LinkedIn Groups are the perfect place for your people to position themselves as thought leaders, demonstrate authority on key topics and join in discussions with like-minded industry experts.
Participating in Group conversations with other passionate professionals will help you engage with your community and can also give you a better understanding of what your key demographics deem valuable and interesting.
Once you’ve become better immersed in a Group community, you can begin to incorporate promotion of your company into your conversations.
To find a Group to join, search at the top of your homepage or select from the suggestions of “Groups you may like”. Once you’re a member, you can share intelligent insights, ask for guidance and even send message requests to other group members.
#7 – Stick to a regular posting schedule
Having a strict posting schedule will ensure you keep your content updated and prove that you value your professional community. It will also increase the likihood of visibility, since pages that post at least weekly see a lift in engagement.
While there are many tools to help you manage your social media, schedulers like CoSend help you stay on top of your content and offer automatic sharing tools to take the hassle away from posting.
Set yourself a target for the regularity of your posts and make sure to meet it.
#8 – Let the stats guide you
As a page admin, you’ll have access to a comprehensive set of analytics, provided by LinkedIn, that offer insight into the demographics of your followers & visitors and engagement data for your latest updates.
Use this information to find out which of your posts are resonating with your audiences, and then adjust your content accordingly.
#9 – It’s time to promote your page
Now that you have a LinkedIn company page you can really be proud off, you need to show it off. Bring all the elements of your strategy together to create the ultimate marketing machine.
Where you can, promote your website, newsletter and other social profiles on your LinkedIn, and likewise, promote your company page as much as possible.
Add a follow button to your website, a link to your email signature and a page address to your employees’ personal LinkedIn profiles to generate organic, regular traffic to your now first-class company page.
Once your visitors see that you’re managing every aspect of your marketing strategy with equal energy and passion, they’re sure to be persuaded that you’re the company for them.
If you’re still asking yourself whether following these tips is a worthwhile use of your time, consider this: 65% of b2b companies have acquired a customer through LinkedIn. That’s already a positive statistic, even before you consider the fact that those companies didn’t have an anywhere near as impressive LinkedIn page as you will once you’ve followed our tips.
