What You Need to Know About LinkedIn Company Pages

This week, we’re focusing on LinkedIn, an underrated platform that more and more of our clients are finding to be a valuable channel for engagement and audience-building. It ain’t just about recruiting anymore, folks!

LinkedIn has been rolling out a ton of updates to compete with other platforms, so we’re starting with what’s new and useful for Company Pages this week. Use the points below like a checklist, and make sure you’re taking advantage of everything LinkedIn is offering right now, because more is on the way!

First, review your profile and add a tagline, action button, and ensure your logo and cover image are updated. This is hopefully something you’re already doing regularly, but open your Company Page and look for all the little blue buttons that say “NEW” to see what else you can update and change. The idea here is to have everything filled out. Your cover image should relate to your brand and be 1536 x 768 pixels; it can be an image from your website, a specially-designed graphic… totally up to you, but be sure to check how it looks on mobile before you finalize it.

Make sure your company description is updated with keywords for your industry, too; Google search results preview up to 156 characters from your Page in search results, so keep that in mind when composing it.

Are you posting regularly on LinkedIn already? Before you do anything else, start publishing consistent content at least 3-4 times per week. LinkedIn’s goal is to be a destination for business content, so think about what kind of expertise your company can share that your audience will find compelling. Our guide to posting LinkedIn Updates is here.

If you’re really stuck for content ideas, start by posting the same content you’re posting on Facebook; the point is to get in the habit of treating LinkedIn like a content channel. But after you’ve done this for a few weeks, take the time to look at LinkedIn Analytics and see how content is performing on this channel versus on Facebook, so you can start to learn what this unique audience likes and what time of day they see your stuff.

Content marketing pros know that every channel has a different audience that’s using that channel for a different reason; LinkedIn users are primarily checking their feeds because they received an email alert about a personal notification (“Someone is looking at YOUR profile!”), they’re trying to network, they’re looking for a new job or opportunity, or because they’re building their own brands. Knowing that, what can you post that this audience will find interesting and useful? What’s your organization’s expertise? How can you provide when your audience needs info or inspiration?

You can also use Content Suggestions to find articles and posts to share on your Company Page.

Click on Content Suggestions, and you’ll be able to look at suggested articles and posts based on Industry, Location, and the Seniority of the users sharing this content. Play around with these filters to find a combination that gives you the perfect content for your target audience; it’s really interesting to see what’s suggested since these filters are very different from ones you might see on other networks!

Once you find an article, you can hit the Share button, add text about the article, and bam — you’ve updated your Company Page.

And don’t forget to share images and videos. This is just as much of a visual channel as Facebook or Instagram!

Start using hashtags in your posts, and put some key hashtags on your Company Page profile. LinkedIn has integrated hashtags for a few years, but they are now suggesting hashtags for you when you post an update and there’s a reason: they are focused on delivering new, interesting content to the right people. If you’ve logged into your account lately, you might also notice trending articles and hashtags relevant to you showing up in different places on your screen. It’s all part of LinkedIn’s plan to stay competitive and keep users on the site.

Start adding hashtags in your posts that relate to the content you’re sharing, and make it feel natural; don’t add 30 hashtags at the end of each post. Brush up on our guide to hashtags here so you’re hashtagging like a pro. Bonus points if you spend some time researching the hashtags your target audience and other influencers in your niche are using, but don’t forget to click on a hashtag and see who else is using it before you jump on the bandwagon. Keep a running list of the best ones somewhere easy to access, so you can remember to use them in the future, and weave them into the text.

Follow hashtags to keep up with your community and see what’s trending. When you log in to your LinkedIn Home page, you’ll see a section on the left side with your Groups and Followed Hashtags. You can choose hashtags relevant to you and your interests/brand, and see content on your feed with these hashtags so you discover new content. Click “Discover More” to find hashtags to follow.

And guess what? Following these hashtags will show you content your organization can engage with, like updates you can comment on and like, and conversations you can jump into. Make this part of your routine to boost your LinkedIn presence, and don’t forget to follow the hashtag of your organization’s name (like #thegoodlemon) so you can catch if anyone’s posting about you with it.

Add hashtags to your Company Page. When you go to your Company Page, look on the right side; you’ll see Communities, where hashtags related to your organization can be added, like this —>

Pick hashtags that you’re comfortable being associated with publicly!

Tag users and organizations in your Updates. This is an oldie-but-goodie; when you mention colleagues, thought leaders, or other organizations on Linkedin, tag them so they see your shout-out. It’s tried-and-true.

Get your employees involved. In the future, LinkedIn is going to make it easier for you to find your employees’ posts that mention your organization and re-share those posts to your Company Page. For now, ask your staff to like and share your Company Page updates, and to suggest content too. This is the place to talk about what they’re working on and what makes them proud to be on your team! And don’t forget to make sure they’ve updated their profiles with your Company as their current workplace.

Going forward, LinkedIn will be enhancing your ability to highlight customer testimonials and reviews, and we’re guessing there will be even more updates coming, so we’ll keep you in the loop. Don’t forget to brush up on these LinkedIn stats to learn more about who is using LinkedIn and why in 2019; this platform’s popularity might surprise you.

Next week, we’ll cover your personal profile and how you can start building your brand and thought leadership there in a way that also boosts your company’s profile. We’re beyond basics here, y’all; this is LinkedIn for pros!