Everything you need to know about new LinkedIn Company Pages

It?s been a busy time for LinkedIn, with a series of announcements over the last few weeks including notifications and?endorsements.

And it?s been no secret that LinkedIn was on the verge of announcing new pages for companies too as revealed in a blog written about a month ago. Since then, a number of companies have been testing the new pages including?Philips,?Citi,?HP?and?Dell.

And last week, the new pages were opened up to all businesses on the network.

So what has changed and what do you need to know? We?ve pulled all the must read information in one place for your viewing pleasure.

What?s new?

The main reason behind launching new company pages is to make it easier for users to access information about businesses on the platform. ?As LinkedIn says in the launch blog post:

For members, this means easier access to the information you want about the companies you care about. For companies, this means a more powerful way to build relationships with your target audience on LinkedIn.

There is a lot to like in the new pages. Here are the main differences between the new and old pages:

• A new streamlined design that makes it much easier to navigate
• Company updates (essentially status updates) are now much more prominent which ties into the notification roll-out mentioned above
• LinkedIn continues it?s push into mobile by making pages available across all types of devices and apps
• You can now add an image associated with your company, much like photos on individual profiles
• Companies can now?companies share status updates and job opportunities with specific members on LinkedIn
• Navigation more prominent, helping businesses to highlight products, services and careers opportunities

Why should you care?

LinkedIn is still widely regarded as the network for business people across the world. It has 160 million registered users and yet is still often overlooked in social strategies. B2B companies should certainly be thinking seriously about how LinkedIn can be used but, even for consumer brands, the network has a lot to offer, especially from a corporate PR standpoint or recruitment.

I know many journalists who will go straight to LinkedIn to source company information and check up on company spokespeople. So making sure your individual and corporate profiles are updated is important.

Increasingly, following the ?split? with Twitter and as seen with the launch of notifications, LinkedIn is ramping up the way the network can be used to share and distribute content which should have an important role to play in any B2B content marketing or PR strategy.

This is also maximised by the impact on search results. LinkedIn pages generally rank very well in search. For example, when you search for EML Wildfire, our LinkedIn page currently comes up in third place, ahead of our Facebook page and even Google+!

What should I do now?

Now that new pages are live, there are a few things you should do right now to make the most of the new features. Here?s five simple steps that shouldn?t take you too long:

1. Upload a picture

We all know that pictures are worth a thousand words, so make use of the additional screen real estate that LinkedIn now gives you for images. This is in addition to your logo. The image can be PNG, JPEG or GIF and can be a maximum size of 2MB.

It is very easy to upload in the ?edit profile? section. Once uploaded, you can crop your image to 646 x 220 pixels.

Don?t forget to push the ?publish? button when you are done ? it?s kinda hidden in the top right of the edit screen.

2. Post content

If you don?t do this already, then now is the time to start. Company status updates are now front and centre on your page and, with the launch of notifications, status updates are clearly an area LinkedIn is looking to push.

So make sure you are posting regular content, whether that is blogs, company updates, jobs or just industry information that could be of interest to your followers.

Social sharing is increasingly a factor in search so this could help your SEO strategy. Encourage your employees to share content on their individual LinkedIn profiles too.

3. Create targeted audiences

If you are familiar with LinkedIn advertising, then the ability to target your status updates to certain followers will be familiar. It?s now a really powerful addition to pages.

Essentially you can now create certain segments of followers based on company size, geography, industry or job title and ensure that your updates are only seen by those specific individuals.

This will make your content more targeted and relevant. As we?ve said already, your content is now more prominent than other information about your company on the page so it?s worth paying attention to this.

4. Check out your stats

LinkedIn has made the stats about your followers and your page easier to access. So if you?ve never looked at these, now is a good opportunity.

You?ll be amazed at some of the information here. If only Twitter would follow LinkedIn and Facebook down the route of providing more insight about followers.

While you are at it, you should look at your social referrer stats in Google Analytics (other web analytics packages are available). See what traffic you are getting from LinkedIn and see if, by increasing your activity on LinkedIn, you see an increase in this metric.

5. Time for a spring clean?

While you are at it, it?s worth checking all the other information about your company on your LinkedIn page. It?s easy for this to get out of date.

Check the company description, product and services list, employee information and don?t forget to post any jobs you might be advertising at the moment.

We?d love to hear your experiences using the new pages and, of course, don?t forget to follow the EML Wildfire page here!

Source: http://blog.emlwildfire.com/2012/10/everything-you-need-to-know-about-new-linkedin-company-pages/

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