Ever wondered how to make a LinkedIn company page that gives out an instantly powerful impression? While many companies are starting to understand the importance of social media marketing and online presence, not quite as many know how to utilise platforms such as LinkedIn to get the full advantage of social influence. Perhaps you have made a few (botched) attempts, or maybe you are fed up with putting in lots of time working on your page only to still not be fully satisfied.
Whatever the case, we are here to help you discover exactly how you can take your page from zero to hero. If that sounds good, keep on reading to get the scoop on how to make a killer corporate LinkedIn page.
Anatomy of a Successful Corporate LinkedIn Page
Is it the description that makes a page pop, or is the images? How do you make sure that you are not getting lost in the search pages? How big (and what dimensions) does your logo need to be? If those questions are keeping you up at night (or making you clutch your head in frustration during the day), check out these top tips that provide all the answers you need…
- Search Visibility
First things first, you need to be found easily on LinkedIn’s search results page. All too often, company pages get duplicated when more than one employee creates or updates pages over the years. This means that you need to ensure that there is only one single version of your page. With a single version, employees will be able to align themselves with the right page and the public who view your page will be able to find the right page rather than that ancient, incomplete page that was started five year ago and forgotten ever since.
- Images
There are two images that you need to have on this page – your logo, and your featured image.
- Logo
Like most social profiles, the logo space is a simple square. Dimensions for this specific profile are 300×300 pixels. Adding a logo that is long or any other shape but squared will often result in too much dead space around the logo area or other issues that make your logo look less than stylish. The best way to make sure that your logo looks right is to get a square version designed by a professional. This will be well worth the investment and you may find that the square version can be used in many other ways besides your social profiles.
- Featured Image
As you can see from our own WSI LinkedIn page, a featured image works much like a Facebook banner.
The featured image is that large banner that shows at the top of your page. Without an image loaded in this space, it is left blank. When an image is loaded, it shows just under your logo, above the description. Ideally, this image should suit your company branding so that it is consistent. A strong visual impact can make all the difference, so it is essential to put some thought into your featured image. As far as dimensions go, this image is 646 x 220 pixels. It can be changed once a quarter or once a year (ideally the former to keep your page fresh).
- Description
Think of this part as your primary pitch – the space where you get to make that all-important first impression, and make it count. Without putting you under pressure, this is the single most important bit of content that you can have on your corporate LinkedIn Page. It is important because this is what people will read when they land on your page, and as such, it needs to give a clear, concise summary of what your company is all about. It is also important because search engines such as Google use this description in their results, meaning that it will show up when people search for your company online (essential for your search engine optimisation efforts).
The description can be up to 2000 characters. The first sentence is most critical, as this is the bit that is shown. The rest will only be seen when a visitor clicks the ‘See More’ tab. The first line or two therefore needs to say everything you need to say without wasting a single comma or dash. Do not waste space in the descriptions by listing your specialities – these can be added to the dedicated section that is meant for this information. Descriptions should be engaging and rich in keywords relevant to your industry and core services or products. For best results, consider hiring a professional copywriter who is fluent in content marketing to assist you in writing a winning description.
- Company Information
Next up, you have the section where all of your company information is shown. This is pretty straight forward. This section is where the specialities can be added, so if you have those still listed in your description, you can remove them and move them over to this section.
- Company Updates
In this section, you have the chance to share a variety of content, including pages, documents that can be downloaded, photos, videos and pretty much anything else you wish to share with visitors and connections. Simply loading stuff onto your page is not going to cut it however – what you really need is meaningful content that actively engages, informs or helps in some way. More than one employee can be given admin status on your page, so it can be useful to encourage selected team members to post updates.
Some tips on how to create such content include:
- Questions. Ask meaningful questions that can be followed up by a company blog post relating to the topic of the question, and see how this allows you to forge a discussion with your audience.
- Industry News. Share issues and news relating to your industry – particularly news that is topical and relevant. Not only does it show that you know your stuff; it also offers a platform for discussion within the industry.
- Statistics. Statistics and numbers are another great conversation point. Look for accurate statistics relating to your business, use customer surveys or research other interesting numbers relating to your industry. Note here that we said accurate though – use trusted sources and avoid stats that are not backed by evidence.
- Links. Updates that include a link to a blog post, video or other source can bring twice as much as engagement as updates without a link. Keep it relevant and try not to spam your audience by only posting links from your own website.
- Company News. Any interesting company news to share? Promotions, new employees, awards? Epic achievements made by your team? This is the place to share them with the world. This is a great way to offer an inside ‘peek’ into your company, while also cementing that great impression.
The best updates are the ones that evoke some kind of emotional response form the audience – make them laugh, cry, get angry or feel disgusted. You are almost sure to get engagement then!
- Employee Profiles
As time consuming as it is, this is important to keep your page up to date. When one of your employees adds your company as their place of work, your logo is displayed. A click on this logo takes visitors to your company page. You can search for current employees who are on LinkedIn or send out an email asking for your team to send their profiles. People who want to work for you should be able to represent your company on their page. A current employee who has not updated their profile with their current employer will seem as though they work for someone else. Likewise, former employees who no longer work for you but have not updated their profiles may seem as though they are still employed at your company. Both scenarios are less than ideal, so it is best to take the time to do these checks and make sure everything is current and correct.
- Showcase Pages
While they are not the absolute cannot-afford-to-not-have elements of your company page on LinkedIn, showcase pages are nonetheless a good tool to promote your products, divisions or brand. Showcase pages are standalone, but need to have a company page to be created. They can have their own likes and followers and can be thought of as a mini company page. See how Adobe does their showcase pages to get an idea of how this feature works:
Make sure that you include keyword rich content that is relevant to your company and searchable. All showcase pages that you have for your company will be displayed in the right hand column of your page. To get started, select the edit button, and then select ‘create showcase page’. From there, the same guidelines that you use for company pages will be applied to create these pages.
As you can see, creating a super amazing LinkedIn page for your business may not be an instant thing, or even a particularly quick thing. But with that said, there is no doubting the value that an optimised, fully functioning page can do for your social media marketing efforts. Taking the time to get all these elements in place is the best way to ensure that your company LinkedIn page sends out the right message, from the very first second a visitor lands on the page.
