According to Lana Khavinson of LinkedIn:
50% of LinkedIn members are more likely to purchase from a company they engage with on LinkedIn.
That’s powerful, and a great reason to create a LinkedIn Company Page and promote it. Here are some other benefits of LinkedIn company pages:
- Gives followers a way to keep up on your company news, product updates, etc.
- Provides a single place to learn about all of your company’s products and services.
- Allows recommendations of products and services.
Status Updates
Company Pages offer the ability to post status updates that will be read by your followers. Posting a status update at least a couple of times a week (when most folks are on LinkedIn) is a good strategy.
Your company page status updates can include awards that you’ve won, interviews with employees, new product and service announcements, employment updates, events, tips, company information and more. You can link to your blog posts and videos as well.
If you’re looking for the highest engagement with followers, according to LinkedIn, the company page updates that generate the best response are:
- Company branding – inside looks and interviews.
- Employment branding and career opportunities.
- Tips and best practices.
- Fun facts and quotes.
How to Get More LinkedIn Followers
Just like other social networks, the more people that follow you, the more likely that you will receive sales inquiries and interest.
One way to get more followers is to add a button to your Website, blog and other social media networks. Instructions are below:
Additional ways to get company page followers include:
- Offer an incentive for new company page followers (a free report, ebook, etc.) and send messages to your connections about it.
- Post relevant status updates to groups.
- Include your company page link in your email signature line.
- Suggest to existing employees to follow the page and share status updates.
- Post job openings – a sure way to gain interest in your company.
- Follow other companies on LinkedIn; some will follow you back.
LinkedIn Analytics
It’s a good idea to track the results of your efforts using LinkedIn company pages. With the July, 2013 addition of LinkedIn company page analytics, you’ll now be able to:
- Identify the updates that prompt the greatest engagement.
- Filter engagement trends (clicks, likes, comments and shares) by type and time period.
- Receive more detailed demographic data about your followers.
- See the growth of your follower base and compare it to similar brands.
Using the analytics available will help you determine which actions offer the best response, as well as understanding more about your follower base.
As stated earlier, “50% of LinkedIn members are more likely to purchase from a company they engage with on LinkedIn.” By increasing your engagement with LinkedIn company page followers, you’ll increase the likelihood of purchase.
Followers Photo via Shutterstock
Just make sure that your posts are adding value to your followers and aren’t promotional all the time.
Shawn Hessinger
Probably good advice for almost any content you create. Good point, Robert!
Stephanie Vega
Great tips! I find it interesting how neglected Linkedin is in the social media world. I have a chart on the wall next to my desk showing the best and worst times to post to various social media networks and Linkedin has always been an afterthought to me. I guess I should rev up my Linkedin presence!
All good points! Stephanie, while LinkedIn may not be as “sexy” as other social media platforms, it is critical if you’re in business. LinkedIn just celebrated its tenth anniversary in May, 2013, and now has over 225 members worldwide.
Susan Tatum
For B2B marketing, LinkedIn cannot be beat. No other social media platform has – so far – shown itself capable of delivering the quality of leads you can generate on LinkedIn. However, although this article does a fine job of identifying ways to do brand maintenance on LinkedIn, my experience is you won’t get many leads for complex B2B sales that way.
If you want to go beyond brand maintenance and actually generate demand, leads and thought leadership positions you have to focus on the personal side – with your profile and participation in groups.
I hope you find this information helpful.
Susan
[Edited by Editor]
LinkedIn has a more ‘professional’ feel to it. It feels more ‘serious’, don’t you think? But then, I think that it is a wonderful platform for getting some business leads especially if you’re looking for joint ventures.
Since LinkedIn is an ideal social media site for b2b companies to find the right clients for their business, it is only fair to adjust your profile into a desirable appearance. That includes your details and summary in a well-thought and organized structure. But of course, you shouldn’t always leave it hanging. Treat it as if it’s a vegetable. Always tend to it, make it grow because this requires commitment.
Thanks for the article. I’ve started a company page and I’ve been unsure about how to promote it.
Great, John! Please let me know which of these strategies worked best for you!
How about adding your LinkedIn company page link in your email signature? Does it really increase your follower? Also some people suggesting me to put my company page link at the end of my LinkedIn email messages. Which one should I go for now? Please someone suggest me as I have not done this yet.
Alamin, as I said in the article, including your LI Company Page link in your email signature is a good idea. The idea you mentioned about including the link at the end of LI email messages makes sense, too.
I have found a number of companies and groups updating status with promotional information but most of them does not fit in criteria what exactly is needed and what their audience are looking for. Companies who are able to do this will definitely get benefit of LinkedIn company page.
Gloria Lafont
Interesting. I’ve had a company page for a while but only recently started to update regularly. This is all so new that I am wondering were those stats came from.
Hi Gloria,
The stats are from LinkedIn.
Thanks,
Margie
Thanks for a great article Margie! I picked up quite few things that I’ll implement on my linkedin page.