“We already have a website. Why should we have a LinkedIn company page, too?”
Great question. And one I get asked quite frequently. Here’s the answer:
You should have a LinkedIn Company Page if …
- Your key employees/partners/sales force are active on LinkedIn
- Your clients/customers/prospects are active on LinkedIn
- You’re using content marketing to build relationships and grow your business
- You want to establish a strong online network that generates new leads and referrals
Let’s look at each of these in a bit more depth …
You should have a LinkedIn Company Page if your key employees/partners/sales force are active on LinkedIn.
For two reasons:
1. To make it easier for your staff’s LinkedIn connections to find out more about your company
If people representing your company are active on LinkedIn, other people are likely viewing their profiles. And their profiles can and should feature your company as their current employer … with a clickable link to your LinkedIn Company Page, if you have one.
So imagine that you’re a professional service firm, and a LinkedIn connection of one of your key employees is considering doing business with you. That prospect may very well go to that employee’s LinkedIn profile as a starting point for more information about your company.
If they can simply click on your company name in the employee’s profile and go directly to your LinkedIn Company Page, that’s a lot easier than having to do a separate search for your company name.
And let’s face it, we as a society are all about the easy button … right?
So having a LinkedIn Company Page makes it easier for your staff’s LinkedIn connections to find out more about you and moves them closer to doing business with you.
2. To give your staff company content to share
If your staff is active on LinkedIn, they’re posting updates and sharing information they think their connections will find helpful and valuable. If you have a LinkedIn Company Page — and if you regularly post valuable content on your company page — then your staff can in turn share that content with their connections.
Getting your content shared is how you expand your social reach and visibility. Having a LinkedIn Company Page and posting shareable content to your page is a key element to an effective social media marketing strategy … as long as your clients, customers, and prospects are active on the platform.
You should have a LinkedIn Company Page if your clients/customers/prospects are active on LinkedIn
If you knew that a person you wanted to hook up with was going to be at a specific party, you’d go to the party. If you knew the prospect you’ve been trying to be introduced to was going to be at a networking event, you’d go to the event.
The same is true on LinkedIn. If your clients/customers/prospects are active on LinkedIn, you should be there, too.
It’s good marketing to be visible where your target audience is. Think about highway billboard signs for gas stations and attorneys who can help you fight a speeding ticket …
These billboards give the gas stations and attorneys visibility to their target audience. The signs bring the companies’ marketing message to their audience where they are — driving down the highway.
You want to make it as easy as possible for prospects to find you. And that means showing up where they are.
So if your audience is active on Facebook, you should have a Facebook Page. If your audience is active on Snapchat, you should have a Snapchat account for your business. If your audience is active on LinkedIn, you should have a LinkedIn Company Page.
You should have a LinkedIn Company Page if you’re using content marketing to build relationships and grow your business
Content marketing is all about publishing valuable content that helps your audience get to know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you. The bulk of your content is likely published on the blog pages of your website, but good content marketers also publish strategic related content on social platforms to drive traffic to their blogs and websites.
A LinkedIn Company Page can be a lucrative publishing channel and source of traffic.
Here’s how it works:
- You publish an article to your blog on your website
- You post updates that give snippets of information from the article on your LinkedIn Company Page, along with the article’s URL so your audience can read the full article on your website
- Your Company Page followers see the updates and hopefully comment and/or share them with their own connections, creating a ripple effect and expanding your reach
- Your staff shares the Company Page update with their connections, creating another ripple and expanding your reach even further
Of course, you’d do the same on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social platform where your target audience is active. The key is to use these platforms as a source of traffic back to your website.
You should have a LinkedIn Company Page if you want to establish a strong online network that generates new leads and referrals
The bottom line is establishing a source of new business. That’s your return on the investment of maintaining a LinkedIn Company Page that serves as a resource to prospects and to your existing clientele — new leads and referrals from a customer base that’s engaged and keeping you top of mind.
If you give people a reason to talk about you within their circles of influence … if you publish valuable content they can easily share with others … if you’re visible and active where they are … then you’re keeping yourself, your business, top of mind with them.
If you make it easy for them to introduce you to new prospects (by sharing your content), they are more likely to do so.
Consider your LinkedIn Company Page as another channel through which you can serve your audience. The updates you publish on the page are seeds that will grow into a bountiful harvest of new business if you nurture them properly.
LinkedIn is a social platform all about professional connections and conversations
In today’s age of social media, it’s more important than ever to connect and communicate with your clients, customers, and potential prospects. LinkedIn has been the social platform of choice for business professionals to do just that.
As of the last count (March 31, 2016), there are 433 Million registered users of LinkedIn. And that number continues to grow.
It’s NOT too late to join the party! It’s NOT too late to create a LinkedIn Company Page … or to start actively using the one you set up years ago and then let sit idling at the starting line.
Rev up the engine. Put it in gear. Start connecting with your audience.
