When your business is B2B, the social network you can’t overlook is LinkedIn. While most people use LinkedIn to build personal brands and personal connections, LinkedIn business pages are growing in popularity for businesses wanting to diversify their social reach, especially if other channels like Facebook and Instagram don’t suit their market.
What is a LinkedIn Business Page?
Most of us are used to seeing LinkedIn personal pages, but there are actually pages on LinkedIn for businesses, too, in the same way that a business can set up a Facebook Page. Pages on LinkedIn often have a far more business-related content — sure, you might talk about your latest products, but you’re much more likely to see businesses sharing how they support work/life balance for their employees rather than the latest meme. LinkedIn, is, afterall, the social network for those who want to do business.
Some of my favourite LinkedIn Pages which really show off what can be done here include Google, Xero and KeepCup. You can also check out my amazing LinkedIn Page here too (and give it a follow while you’re there! ;)
Why would I set up LinkedIn Business Page?
Giving your business a professional front is a great way to build trust between your audience and your business. Having a LinkedIn page that is polished means that when people search for you, they will find your gorgeous page and see that you’re a pretty switched on business.
For small businesses, it can make you look a bit bigger than an freelancer or solopreneur, and, having a business page allows you to run ads on LinkedIn from your brand.
It’s not enough just to create a LinkedIn Business Page and leave it idle — there is also a lot you can do to jazz up your LinkedIn Business Page so it’s ready for visitors.
Let’s do this!
Checklist for setting up a LinkedIn Business Page
Profile Picture
One of the first things we always start with when setting up a new account is setting up our Profile Picture. We’d suggest a clear version of your company logo, sized to 300 x 300 px.
Cover Image
Many people forget about the cover image, but it really helps your social channel look next level. Create a cover image representing your business, whether it’s a representation of your business, a photo of staff or series of stock photos which thematically relate you your business. This cover mage needs to be 646 x 200 px. I’m a massive fan of Canva as a tool for creating simple images like these.
About Us
It’s tempting to copy your ‘About Us’ from your website and leave it at that, but I’d recommend spending a little bit more time on it. When you look at LinkedIn Business Pages, you’ll see that the first 100 or-so characters are visible before people expand the text box to read more about you. Put your most important info here, whether it’s your vision, mission or what drives you.
Don’t forget to load this section full of keywords you want Google to love you for — whether it’s your industry or location.
Don’t forget to fill in all the nooks and crannies like products and services. It will all helps Google send a little love your way.
Content creation
When setting up a new channel, I always recommend posting content to the channel to start before you promote it. This means that when your first visitor comes to your page, they can see the kind of content you share, so they can decide whether they want to follow you or not. I’d put up at least 3 or 4 pieces of content.
When you’re creating images, it’s not a great look to cross-post straight from Facebook or Instagram, as those big square images won’t look great. LinkedIn Images look awesome at 1200 w x 627 h.
Here’s an image posted to LinkedIn that is cropped unless you click on it (which looks a bit awkward on web):
Don’t forget that if you’ve got a special post you’d like to get more people to pay attention to you, you can also pin important posts to the top of your LinkedIn Page.
Most social media scheduling tools these days, like Hootsuite, allow you to schedule content to a LinkedIn Business Page. When you’re posting your content, keep in mind when LinkedIn users are online. While overall, social media has a huge peak in the evening during “primetime” and first thing when people wake up, LinkedIn is a little different as it’s such a business focus. This means there are plenty of peaks during the day, around 10–11am and 3pm — 4pm.
Custom URL
Instead of your company URL being a string of numbers, or if you want the URL to be a bit cleaner than your official business name (like removing an ‘inc.’), you can customise your URL. LinkedIn has a great guide here.
Spin Off Pages
If you’re working for a larger company or multinational, you might want to consider taking advantage of Showcase Pages, which are subpages. For example, if a company has specialist industries it serves, or a specific set of products or services, you can create a Business Page just for that niche. Some companies have even created a separate page just for their careers and recruitment team.
Canva has done this with a ‘Life’ tab on their LinkedIn Business page. :
If you’re really want to get hands-on, some companies also set up Groups about their products or services, to set themselves apart as a thought leader or engage their community for feedback. See how Microsoft has done this for Microsoft Office here.
Get the word out
Once you’ve set up your page, it’s time to spread the word, and let the world know you’ve got a LinkedIn Business Page. I’d always recommend linking to it from your website and other socials, but there’s no reason you can’t add it to your email signature, annual report, email newsletter and more. And, if you’re really want to spend some creative time in Canva, why not create a poster for you break room letting staff know about it?
As a rule with LinkedIn, I’d always encourage businesses to make the most of their staff. It’s likely your staff are already in the networks with the people you’d like to spread your message to. While LinkedIn Business Pages often have few followers from the outset, if you staff share your business page posts, the reach will be much great. Consider how you will inspire or incentivize your staff to share your Business Page content to their LinkedIn profiles.
Related: 6 Ideas for LinkedIn to Boost Your Online Reputation
And, if your staff update ‘Where they work” to ensure your business page is tagged, there’s another level of visibility and authenticity you’ve got, too.
Ready to make a sweet LinkedIn Page? Get in on it!
