Does Your Business Really Need a Company LinkedIn Page?

By Joe Warner

The above is a fair question that was asked of me at a recent meeting with the marketing team at the Chester County Economic Development Council. They, and I’m sure many company leaders, think of LinkedIn primarily as a site for job hunters. And it is, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t also have value for your company. Let me explain.

Consider the genesis of LinkedIn. In May 2003 entrepreneur Reid Hoffman started LinkedIn as a way for individual professionals to conduct business with their network. It was the new, digital way, so to speak, to meet for coffee. And he had something, because today millions of personal profiles have been created to showcase individual skills.

Think about it. Those with personal profiles work for companies. In their profiles, they list their present employer. That’s your company! According to Quora, LinkedIn members have between 500 and 1,000 individual connections.  When you multiply how many connections each of those connections have, you quickly realize just how many professionals could be exposed to your company.

Further, when one of your employees updates their “Experience” section or posts new content on their personal LinkedIn profile, it would connect them to your company’s name. That employee is automatically attached to your company page. So, the person viewing your employee’s profile can seamlessly move to your company page and see your updates, offerings, and even get a sense of your corporate culture.

Think of it this way: If you brought your team to a prospective client for a new business pitch, your employees would have rehearsed to speak about your company in the exact same manner: “It is the greatest place ever, and our boss is super cool.” Well, something like that. But it’s safe to say a crystal-clear vision of your company’s strategic objective is shared and communicated by everyone at that pitch.

Simply apply this logic to your LinkedIn company page. Every employee needs the same company elevator pitch as part of their individual profile. You never know who your employees will connect with. Which means you never know who could visit your company page.

And unlike a personal LinkedIn profile, your company page is publicly visible by default. Content shared from this page is ranked by search engines. This indexing can create a positive impact on your brand’s SEO position. By developing or simply sharing industry-relevant, keyword rich content from your company page you can increase your business’s chance of appearing on page one of a Google search results page.

Let’s be honest – marketing can get expensive, especially if you’re paying for advertising to build awareness. Surely, all businesses would welcome free exposure, and that is where LinkedIn delivers. Leverage your time (and wallet) by leveraging your greatest asset, your employees, and have them share your company’s status updates and blog posts to reach business prospects.

The best LinkedIn company pages are lead generation machines. You can build authority through a well-developed and maintained presence.  Find out how to get started.  Download our LinkedIn 5-Day Prospecting Plan full of free and easy things you can do right now to build your LinkedIn presence.

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Joe Warner is the CEO of 20/10 Solutions is a full-service agency based in West Chester, PA specializing in Strategy, Marketing, Creative, and Interactive.

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