As with all social networks out there, LinkedIn is doing its part to constantly improve the user experience and provide you with more value. You may have already optimized your personal LinkedIn profile to its fullest advantage, but can the same be said about your company’s page? If not, you are missing prime opportunities for brand awareness, product or service promotion, and search engine optimization (SEO). With 277 million users worldwide (as of February 2014), there are plenty of reasons to make sure you’re getting the most out of your company’s LinkedIn profile.
As the No. 1 social destination for professional networking, LinkedIn is where prospective clients and candidates go when looking for information about your company, so don’t miss this opportunity to put your best foot forward. Here’s a quick list of items you should complete to take advantage of opportunities for LinkedIn to help your business:
1) Clear and easy-to-understand company Description. Did you know that the first line of copy in your company description is what shows when someone is viewing your profile on a mobile device? And with more than a third of LinkedIn users accessing the site via a mobile device, you should always be thinking about how to optimize for mobile. The bottom line? Make sure your company description is straightforward and to the point.
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2) Banner that visually reinforces who you are and what you do. This is another great piece of real estate that can help separate you from the competition. But don’t just set it and forget it. Make sure to change out that banner as appropriate to promote events, a new product/service, etc.
3) Three banners featuring your top products or services. The products/services tab offers tremendous opportunity to promote various business offerings. I’ll get into that more in the next bullet, but I want to focus first on visuals. LinkedIn offers unique opportunities to visualize your business and its offerings, including potential for up to three banners on the products/services tab. Whether you use a simple graphic or have something custom created to really showcase your products/services, be sure to take advantage – visuals really resonate with LinkedIn visitors, and they create a more engaging page.
4) A complete list of your products/services. Did you know that the first product/service listed on this tab is also the one that will be featured in the right column on the home page of your company profile? This is important to know, because you want to make sure you’re using that real estate wisely to feature either your most important product/service OR one that you’d like to highlight for additional attention. Don’t be afraid to re-order the list periodically to feature a particular product/service. The page administrator can see how many impressions each product/service is receiving, so use that data! Plus you can request recommendations for each product/service. Have a highly satisfied client? Ask them for a product/service recommendation on LinkedIn.
Here’s another tip when it comes to your product/service listing: Be creative! Don’t feel like you have to list just traditional products/services. Do you have a newsletter? Great! Then list that as a product/service and use it as an opportunity for people to join your list.
5) Fully completed product/service page for each one you list. The beauty of listing your products/services is that you get to create a page featuring more information about each one individually. That’s an opportunity to really make your offerings shine! Plus, in the right column of each product/service page, you can add a call to action that encourages page visitors to visit your website, download a case study, view a video, join your e-newsletter list – you get the idea. The opportunities are endless!
These tips are just scratching the surface when it comes to optimizing your LinkedIn company page. It’s definitely worth taking the time to review your current listing and update it appropriately. Remember, you never get a second chance to make a first impression!
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