LinkedIn is the world’s top business social media network, but smaller marketing departments tend to struggle with a simple question: Should you create and maintain a company LinkedIn page? Our answer is an unequivocal yes. What’s a bit murkier is how much time to devote to it.
Let’s dive into the compelling reasons why you should create a page, and then we’ll look at three courses of action you can take once it’s built. For a more in-depth look at all these issues, check out our post on growing a company LinkedIn page.
1. LinkedIn has over 740 million members and more than 55 million companies.
Those numbers are current as of 2021.
Your company page could be viewed by a vast number of potentially valuable business connections. Why would you ignore such an opportunity? (Note: There are fake profiles on the platform, but those should be relatively easy to spot.)
2. People will look at your company page after they look at your personal profile.
Perhaps you’re a leader of a smaller marketing department, and LinkedIn isn’t your top priority. Okay. But you should still create a company LinkedIn page at the very least. And you’re the proof why.
Think about what you do after you look at someone’s individual profile on LinkedIn. You’ll likely want to learn more about the company they work for. If you click on the icon by their company, that will take you to the company page.
That’s an opportunity to share more information about your company!
3. People will look for your company page if you run ad campaigns.
When we recently ran an ad campaign for a client, we found that yes –– people looked at the ads. But then, the visits to the company page dramatically jumped.
Once again, you have a tremendous chance to share great information about your company.
Bottom line: You have to have a company LinkedIn page. It’s table stakes, folks.
But how much effort should you put into creating it and growing it? Here are three potential strategies for you to follow.
Strategy 1: Just Create a Page.
For your company LinkedIn page, you can take a similar tactic people use with websites that are effectively what we call “brochure sites.” They essentially function like brochures, giving basic information about your company. Here’s a great article by LinkedIn on creating a company page.
Strategy 2: Create a Company Page and Train Employees On Their Individual Pages.
For time-strapped marketing departments, this is a solid approach. It’s also faithful to LinkedIn’s true intent: The platform was created for individual networking, which is why so much emphasis is put on individual pages.
Your employees make personal connections and build their personal brand through LinkedIn. That’s great –– people want to do business with people, not corporations. As a marketing leader, you can train your team on effective use of LinkedIn on a personal level. This includes:
- Helping them set up their profiles.
- Sharing the true intent of LinkedIn (i.e., building a network, not lead gen).
- Updating them on LinkedIn changes.
We’ve created posts on individual LinkedIn marketing as well as LinkedIn updates. Use them for Strategy 2.
Strategy 3: Grow Your LinkedIn Company Page.
This is going to take active participation by someone in your marketing team. You’re going to manage the company page as actively as you’ve asked your employees to manage their personal pages. You can accomplish three things with this approach:
- Increase the visibility of your company.
- Provide your employees with curated content they can easily share.
- Enhance your brand by sharing content that represents your goals.
With Strategy 3, it’s all about constantly sharing exceptional content and inviting new followers to the page on a monthly basis. We share an effective approach for option 3 in this post.
The Only Thing You Can’t Do: None of the Above.
As a marketing director, your effectiveness is based on where you devote your time and resources. The strategies listed here increase how much effort you need to devote, with 1 being the least and 3 being the most.
However, if you consider the data-backed reasons above, doing nothing and not having a company LinkedIn page is NOT an option. Or, at least, not a smart option.
Devote the minimal work required to get this done. Too much is riding on your company page to do otherwise.
Author: Greg Mischio
Greg Mischio is the founder and chief strategist for Winbound, a manufacturing marketing firm specializing in content marketing. He has over 25 years experience as a writer and digital marketing strategist. He lives in Madison, WI with his wife and assortment of pets. Learn more about his company at https://www.winbound.com.
