Having a LinkedIn company page is essential, but few brands take full advantage of what the platform can do. It’s not enough to simply be on LinkedIn. You need a profile that’s going to stand out from the other 55 million brands on the platform. LinkedIn routinely pulls in well over a billion site visits per month and users spend an average of seven minutes per visit. Optimising your LinkedIn company page means you have a better chance at improving your brand’s reach and authority, as well as your prospects for recruitment. So, let’s get down to it. Here’s how to optimise your LinkedIn page.
LinkedIn basics – a checklist
Complete everything you can, even if it’s optional. More info on your page can mean more views and conversions – for example, brands that upload a logo on their LinkedIn page get six times more visits than those that don’t.
- Be sure you have a “Company” page and not a personal one
- Fill in all the details and choose what your URL will be – try to keep it consistent with your username and other brand socials
- Add your logo and tagline
- Add your brand description – use strong keywords and include your location
- Upload a cover image (1,128px by 191px format)
- Integrate a custom call-to-action button
- Invite any existing connection you and your brand have to get the ball rolling
8 ways to optimise LinkedIn
Once you’re done with the basics, it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. Here are 8 tips to grow your business by optimising your LinkedIn company page.
#1 Optimise for SEO
It’s likely that most of the traffic to your LinkedIn page will come from Google. That’s why it’s crucial your page is easily found via searches. Google displays a max of 156 characters of page text in search results. This means you’ll want to include the most relevant and searchable words within this limit for your ‘About’ section.
To find the best SEO words, you can use Google Trends or a number of other tools out there – be sure to strike a good balance between popular SEO words and those that best express the nature of your brand.
#2 Use a strong profile and banner image
These are what form the first impression of your brand on LinkedIn. Keep your images consistent with the branding you use across other platforms while ensuring they are high quality and without any pixilation. It’s best to crop your images to the specifications recommended by LinkedIn. This will ensure your images look as they should across all devices and screen sizes.
#3 Reel visitors in with your ‘About’
There’s rarely a scenario where your LinkedIn ‘About’ description should be any longer than 2,000 characters. It shouldn’t be overly complicated but it should tell visitors everything they need to know about your brand as succinctly as possible. Allow the text to be driven by your research into keywords as mentioned in tip #1, but don’t neglect the style and punchiness.
It’s imperative you answer the questions that are likely to be in the heads of the majority of visitors to your page. These are – what is your brand’s niche? Where are you based? What products or services do you offer? What is your brand’s voice and approach to business? What’s your brand’s ethos? How can people learn more about you or do business with you?
#4 Post regularly
LinkedIn reports that brands that post at least once a month gain followers six times quicker than those who post more infrequently. There’s a huge variety in the types of posts your brand can publish – articles, thought leadership, whitepapers, images, video etc. Some of these require significant time to produce but an image-based post, for example, could be as simple as snapping a pic and adding a clever caption.
There’s not a magic number for posting frequency but generally at least once a week is recommended, and for most brands, twice a week is ideal. A good policy can be to post on Tuesday and Friday – Tuesday’s post can be a more serious, insightful post such as an article, which your audience can read as they head into the business week. Friday’s article can be more fun, such as a back-office staff photo, celebrating the start of the weekend.
Lots of brands find it difficult to keep up with a regular post schedule – after all, they’re busy running a business. Have a chat with our team at Contentworks if you require bespoke content for your brand to be posted on LinkedIn or other networks.
#5 Use a mix of content formats
You’re able to post a good variety of content formats on LinkedIn. These include:
- Articles: You can post articles on LinkedIn up to 125,000 characters (around 17,000 to 31,000 words), although LinkedIn recommends keeping articles at around 500 to 1,000 words. A nice feature of the site is the ability to embed photos and other imagery and links – LinkedIn has found that posts that include images result in a 98% greater comment rate. Additionally, links to YouTube videos can play directly on the site and can get you a 75% higher share rate.
- Images: Photos or other imagery, such as infographics or diagrams, are hugely popular material on LinkedIn. These can also be quick and easy to create.
- Video: Users of LinkedIn are 20 times more likely to share video than any other type of post.
- PDFs and slides: You can upload documents in the form of PDFs as well as slides such as PowerPoint. If well-produced, these kinds of posts can set your brand apart from the pack and establish you as a leader of thought.
- Sharing: You don’t always have to create and post your own content. Brands that share existing and/or trending content demonstrate that they’re abreast with crucial topics and discussions within their niche.
#6 Create ‘Product Pages’
Not everyone has the capability to make a ‘Product Page’.
LinkedIn says: “You must be a LinkedIn Page super admin to create Product Pages, and a super or content admin to edit Product Pages. Product Pages are currently only available to Pages in the following types of industries: business-to-business (B2B) software, computer hardware, financial services, insurance, education, healthcare, and pharmaceutical.”
By clicking on one of these products, you’re brought to that product’s page where potential customers can learn more about it with a description and media such as photos or videos. Customers can also leave reviews and you can spotlight testimonials. You can then add a CTA button that links to the relevant page on your site. Head here to learn more about Product Pages.
#7 Grow your audience
What’s the point in putting all this work into optimising your LinkedIn if no one’s going to see it? There are a few methods of growing your audience for your brand’s page. These are:
Paid ads: It’s not organic growth but hey – if it works, it works. On LinkedIn, you’re able to ‘boost’ your page or individual posts to enhance your reach.
Invites: You can invite your community to follow you (as long as they are first-degree profile connections).
Hashtags: Hashtags aren’t just for Instagram – they work in the same way that they do on social media. LinkedIn recommends you use a maximum of three hashtags per post. If you do use more, your post will still appear in the feeds for each hashtag. However, it’s likely that the mystical LinkedIn algorithm favours posts that keep hashtags to a minimum in a bid to keep the platform being seen as professional.
Target the right market: You can set the targeting criteria for each post you make. This means that you can pick the region, language, brand size, industry niche etc. that you think will be most receptive to your post, making it more likely this demographic will see it (and respond to it).
Promotion: Let people know you’ve got a LinkedIn page. Promote it everywhere you can – on your site, on social media, as part of your email signatures etc.
#8 Optimise for recruitment
Consider adding a page on your LinkedIn for job-seekers that want to connect with your brand. Careers and Recruitment agency, Zippia, found that over 75% of people in new jobs say LinkedIn was a deciding factor for choosing that employer. A LinkedIn Jobs Page can bolster your recruitment efforts and help your brand find the ideal candidate.
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