How to Optimize Your Company LinkedIn Page

You probably have a personal LinkedIn page, but you likely only look at it or add any content when you are actively searching for a job. But what you may not be aware of is that there are ways to incorporate the use of your personal page into your strategy for your company page. First you need to focus on optimizing your company profile. Not sure where to start? Not to worry, I’m here to steer you in the right direction.

LinkedIn is the largest and most influential professional social network. 70% of people on LinkedIn are considered decision makers in their company, giving the network that much more buying power over Facebook or Twitter. In fact, LinkedIn has 3 million company pages and 225 million members.

What are you waiting for? Get on the bandwagon! To help you take that step into effectively using a company page on LinkedIn, let’s take a look at some best practices.

Be Consistent

When creating/editing your company page, be consistent across all of your social networks. This means keeping your brand consistent, your tone the same (whether it be formal, or casual and friendly), the graphics similar. You want people to be able to flip from your Twitter to your LinkedIn and not be surprised and think, “Is this the same company?” Brand consistency is extremely important in all forms of social media. And from there, don’t forget to make sure your company information is accurate and up to date, and is the same on LinkedIn as it is on all your other channels. LinkedIn is for professionals and tends to have a very well-educated audience – they’ll notice if something is off.

Optimize Your Company Profile

It’s a phrase that’s easy to brush over. Optimize your profile? What on earth does that mean? Generally, it’s fairly simple. The above practice, consistency and accuracy, is huge. But another step is to define your target keywords and use them in your updates. Use target keywords that are industry specific, or even more technical if you want to go there. You can also use banners for your products and link them back to your website, which will add color and flair to your page as well as providing a way to calculate ROI (clicks from LinkedIn to your company website). Plus it never hurts to add a relevant, well-done video or two.

Expand Your Social Network

This isn’t something that happens overnight. Expanding your social network and getting a social media strategy to effectively work takes time, effort, and patience. Join groups and communities on your personal LinkedIn page and get involved in conversations. People will see your name, start to respect your opinions and the articles that you post and comment on, and soon they will link back to your company and the work that you’re doing on the LinkedIn company page. Following other company’s pages and creating conversation on there is also a great practice.

Update

Don’t let your LinkedIn flounder. Social media moves quickly, and LinkedIn is no exception. No one is going to bother following or interacting if they see that your last post was 3 months ago. Be sure that you are linking back to your website, posting relevant and interesting content, and creating a conversation rather than just telling people how things are.

Get Some Recommendations

Recommendations are important. When people see a recommendation, it’s proof that you are who you say you are and that you do good work. A great way to go about this is to reach out to your customers and ask them. If they like what you did, they’ll give you a great recommendation and you’ll have proof to others who visit your page that you follow through as a company. If they don’t, they’ll just ignore your email. It’s a win-win, right?

Encourage Your Employees’ Involvement

Your employees should be advocates of your company (make sure their LinkedIn profiles are appropriate and up-to-date). You should encourage them to like and share the company posts. The message will begin with them and spread to others through increased engagement and community. Your employees being enthusiastic about where they work says a lot about the company.

So, in short, utilize LinkedIn to its fullest capabilities. It’s only becoming bigger in the professional world, and you could wind up seeing a huge return on investment. Keep your brand consistent, expand your network, use your employees’ enthusiasm, and keep your social media up-to-date. Best practices will also vary from company to company (I’d love to hear some of yours!), so be sure to research and know your audience and what will work best for you.

Be sure to check out EnVeritas’ company page on LinkedIn while you’re at it.

Vanessa Levin-Pompetzki – Digital Media Coordinator