Businesses are constantly being bombarded with the compelling reasons why they should be on the major social networks. It gets confusing and even a bit annoying, to say the least. Do you really need to be on every social networking site?
In reality, you only need to be on a few, preferably the ones that your audience is most active on.
So what are the real benefits behind having a company LinkedIn Page? Is this something that’s absolutely necessary?
Yes.
A LinkedIn Page is more than just “the thing to do.” There are valid reasons to having a Company Page. When you can fully appreciate why you should claim your space, you won’t find it a nuisance to spend a little time growing your LinkedIn presence.
LinkedIn: A Passing Fad, or Totally Rad?
Before we go over the top 6 reasons why your company should have a LinkedIn Page, let’s talk a bit about LinkedIn. If you’re going to create a page or work on expanding yours, you should know what type of platform you’re supporting, right?
For starters, LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world. It’s also surprisingly old, at least in social media years. This means that it’s survived a number of technology changes and has managed to come out just fine.
According to the most recent LinkedIn statistics, there are 414 million users, with 2 new members being added each second. Only 107 million of these users come from the United States (or 30%), which shows that LinkedIn is truly a global community. It reaches over 200 countries and territories. That’s pretty impressive!
Now that you have a better idea of just how popular LinkedIn is, hopefully you are more motivated to secure your spot on the professional network.
Exploring 6 Reasons to Have a LinkedIn Page
Let’s discuss 6 of the top reasons why your company should have a LinkedIn Page.
1. Showcase Your Company
This first point is obvious. But it’s important to talk about because many of the things I hear from people is that they already have a personal LinkedIn Page and so do their employees. Why is a Company Page needed?
A Company Page showcases your brand rather than a single person. You and your employees are using LinkedIn for other reasons aside from working at your company, so there are all kinds of things listed in these profiles that have nothing to do with your company.
Creating an independent page puts all the focus on your company and what it has to offer. It’s also good for SEO. Unlike your personal profile, your Company Page is set public by default, so anything you share on this page is ranked on the web.
2. Employees Become Brand Ambassadors
When your employees add your company to their “Experience” section, this is automatically linked back to your Company Page. The link will include a clickable button and a logo of your company so that a user can move back and forth from your Company Page and back to the profile of the individual. At the very least, it’s more brand exposure for free.
3. Measure Your Updates
When you post a news update from your Company Page, LinkedIn provides you with a ton of data such as:
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How many impressions your post received
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Number of clicks your post generated
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Number of interactions your post received
When you post from your personal page, you don’t get these types of updates. The only type of information you can see is how many people liked or commented on your post.
4. Get Alerts from Mentions
When someone mentions your company, you want to know about it, right?
Thanks to LinkedIn’s Notification feature for Company Pages, you are notified with an alert whenever someone mentions your company in their personal LinkedIn status. This is beneficial because it allows you to communicate with people in real time.
If you need to address an issue, you can do so before your reputation is damaged. But more hopefully (and more likely) what you will see are great things about your comapny, which you can thank people for.
5. Promote Important News
One of the common gripes about posting on social media is that if you don’t post often, your posts get pushed down by other news. That’s why the major social networks have moved to new algorithms and paid search options that help advertisers get their posts into the hands of their fans and followers.
By having a Company Page on LinkedIn, you’re able to pin your most important post to the top of your page’s news feed and it will stay there until you want to unpin it. This is a cool feature that allows you to share important news, such as a new product launching or special event. You can promote it for as long as you wish, and you don’t have to spend additional money either. Win!
6. Showcase Your Services
A final benefit to having a Company Page is that you get to make showcase pages for your various products and services. Not everyone has liked the replacement that took over the original Products & Services page, but it looks like it’s here to stay.
If you have a large company or a lot of products, you may want to showcase your items on individual showcase pages. You can use your main page as the landing page, and the other pages to better explain your individual products. Either way, it’s precious real estate that allows you to better explain what your company has to offer.
Final Thoughts
Having a Company Page on LinkedIn shouldn’t be an afterthought. It offers many wonderful benefits such as improved SEO, enhanced brand visibility and opportunities for engagement. But to make the most of your profile, you need to monitor it often, build a following and interact with your connections.
The good news is that LinkedIn doesn’t require as much involvement as other social networks, so just a bit of time on the site will bring you wonderful rewards.
