While many of us are familiar with LinkedIn as a professional network, not everyone has created a LinkedIn page to compliment their LinkedIn profiles, or to grow their business audience.
In today’s article, we will look at
- Who should have a LinkedIn page
- How to properly set up a LinkedIn page
- How to manage a LinkedIn page as a social media manager
- What content should be shared on LinkedIn pages
- How to grow a Linkedin page audience
Who Needs a LinkedIn Company Page
I’d like to answer this question with one simple word: ‘everyone’, but that does not make much sense given time and monetary restraints.
Brands, businesses and influencers should only be active on the platforms they are most likely to gain ROI from. Platforms that yield the highest ROI are those where their target audience is most active. If LinkedIn has proven to be one of these platforms from a personal standpoint, then I’d say look at adding a LinkedIn page to your line-up.
Everyone whose marketing strategy involves meeting new people, growing a brand and needing new business connections for collaboration, sponsorships or opportunities, should have a LinkedIn company page.
That includes solopreneurs, freelancers, and small agencies, just a few of the categories social media managers might fall into.
If done right, you too should consider starting a LinkedIn page.
Setting Up A LinkedIn Page
Setting up a LinkedIn page, a company profile for your brand or business is not that complicated!
While searching for a ‘How to’ article to share with our audience, I hit the jackpot with LinkedIn Marketing Solutions.
Learning how to set up a LinkedIn page is easy. In fact, LinkedIn Marketing Solution might be a great place to start learning more about LinkedIn.
Before inviting connections to follow your page, your bio should be complete. Here are some tips, straight from LinkedIn
- Complete your Page – Pages with complete information get 30% more weekly views. Here’s what you’ll need to fill out:
- Add your Logo – Add your organization’s logo and a cover image to bring your Page to life. If you don’t yet have a logo, you can create one for free at Canva.com.
- Overview – Lead with relevant terms and phrases that describe your organization’s mission and purpose (LinkedIn members can search by keywords).
- Organization info – Input your website URL and location, and select your industry and company size.
- Call-to-action button – Customize your button to align with your goals and track who’s clicked in the admin view or in visitor analytics.
LinkedIn Business Page Management
Once you’ve set up a page for your business, or your client’s business, you can give access to others to manage the page.
According to LinkedIn, this is simple to do, via email or your admin panel.
Next, create a content plan for your LinkedIn page and use a scheduling tool to set up posts.
LinkedIn tells us
- “Companies that post weekly see a 2x lift in engagement with their content.”
- “Images typically result in a 2x higher comment rate. We’ve seen custom image collages (3-4 images in one post) perform especially well for organizations.”
Let’s find out what additional types of content helps to grow a LinkedIn page.
What Content Helps Grow a LinkedIn Page?
Here are some ideas, keeping mind that sharing at least twice per week and adding images gives you better reach.
- Thought leadership type posts i.e. sharing an opinion, ask for feedback
- Blog posts, those that are yours, as well as other industry articles. Always, always, always read the article and add your own thoughts about the text to the copy.
- Highlighting LinkedIn members in your community – this is a great place to highlight your employees, sponsors, partners, collaborators, community members, and supporters.
- Share content your audience wants to see! This might seem like a simple tip, but don’t share what you want to get eyeballs on; share what your audience wants to see. If you don’t know what they want, ask. If you don’t have it, create it!
Bonus Tip: Encourage employees to share as well! Employees, faculty members, contractors; you can not require anyone to share your LinkedIn page posts. However, you can create a culture of caring and sharing, and when you do that, the shares will come!
Growing a LinkedIn Audience
Once you’ve set up the LinkedIn page, have a content plan, and you the social media manager is ready to post, how will you grow your audience? Simply put, what is the best way to showcase pages when you are the social media manager?
Here are a few ideas to get you started.
- Add the LinkedIn page to the email signature of those who work in management, including the CEO, CFO, CMO
- Share relevant content and trending industry topics
- Step up as a thought leader
- Set up and grow a LinkedIn group
- Join relevant industry LinkedIn groups
- Research the latest Linkedin Marketing techniques
- Share your page across other social networks
- Invite your personal connections to follow the page
- Use up to three hashtags when you share content
Top Tip: Invite to Follow a LinkedIn Page
Here is what ‘invite to follow’ looks like on LinkedIn pages.
You can invite up to 30 people per day.
This new feature had really helped us grow our LinkedIn page…
I am a Certified Social Media Manager, Strategist, International Keynote Speaker, Organic Specialist and Agile marketer! Blogging is my creative outlet. Running, hiking and skiing are how I recharge. You’ll recognize me on stage and online by my always present orange glasses, a nod to my Dutch heritage.
