First of all if you are reading this before April 14, 2014 and you have a LinkedIn company page, make a back-up now, open up all of your products and services pages, copy and paste all of your hard work, download any graphics you may have forgotten, then mark what you would do differently if you could do it all over. Because by April 14th, you’ll have to. The good news is that it should not change for some time thereafter, but that’s never a guarantee!
Now pay special attention to the amazing growth that LinkedIn has experienced and the many reasons to update your pages accordingly even though some of you might feel a bit discouraged by this.
According to Econsultancy’s recent analysis of 2014 marketing budgets, 26% of companies plan to spend the bulk of their social media budget on LinkedIn. That is pretty good considering many companies do not take this seriously enough. It is also the no.1 social network for driving traffic to corporate websites, accounting for a hefty 64% of their traffic, so my B2B and B2E friends need to pay attention to their LinkedIn Networks or their competitors most certainly will!
Most of our clients already have a LinkedIn Business Page. In fact we include it as a standard build for all of our social media accountclients. These are great for Google Search, LinkedIn Search, listing locations, core services, contact information, engagement (posts) and general company information. Don’t forget you can still have nice header graphics and make yours very appealing. At this point, you can count on having everything but Products and Service pages. With LinkedIn’s transition, you will lose any product and service recommendations, this is probably the most disconcerting part about this move.
Late last year you may have attended one of our online webinars or workshops were we spoke of LinkedIn’s release of Showcase Pages. So, let’s talk about some of the good news. Showcase pages were created so that companies could distinguish their brands and allow specific, relevant followers to receive updates and information regarding those brands in which they’re interested.
For instance, Forward Progress as a company has two primary divisions. One is Coaching and Training and education services. We provide workshops, webinars, online education, systems and anything involving learning about online sales and marketing. That division has a brand of its own called SocialJack.com – now we can feature everything to do with our coaching and training updates for SocialJack.com’s specific audience. We also have another division which provides Marketing Services. We work with websites, blogs, online apps, content marketing, social media, and online advertising to name a few. Now people who want to know about those online services, track the news, and stay up on industry trends, can now tune into that part of our brand.
To help distinguish Company Pages and Showcase Pages, the latter offers a larger sized lead image and a two-column layout. With graphics and content this should allow folks to not become confused. Showcase Pages do not display associated employee profiles or job listings and there is only one placement for ads. They have kept it neat and classy so your Showcase Page doesn’t look too spammy.
If you’re already the administrator of your Company Page, it’s pretty straightforward to set up a new Showcase Page.
In the Edit menu, click on the drop-down and go to the Create Showcase Page option as shown below.
Add your page name, and list the administrators for that page. Then, click Create page.
Add your page description (up to 200 words), your industry sector, and your main image. Remember to be clear and unique with your Showcase page – so people do not become confused. Once you’re happy with the page then you can publish it. It will then be linked to your main Company Page and appear in related search results – which will get you extra search indexing, allowing more of you to get found.
You add and edit content in exactly the same way as your Company Page and your most recent updates will always appear in the top section. Currently, you can create up to 10 Showcase pages for your company (you can request additional pages from LinkedIn) and your Showcase page will have its own unique metrics to track engagement, trends, and audience demographics. This is important to know as you play these out.
We’re going to begin building our own Showcase Page once we get the client pages done – only about 200 to go! Once we spend a little more time at the wheel we will share anything we learned as we go, so stay tuned. Please also share with us, as many of you do, what you like or don’t like and what you learn once you have completed your Showcase Pages.
To register for our April 3rd Webinar that will discuss this topic further visit:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/414904362
Author Dean DeLisle is President and CEO of Chicago based marketing company Forward Progress, Inc. Come visit our website at www.forwardprogress.net for more information on our services. If you find yourself looking for more, then visit some of our other sites at www.LinkedInOnDemand.com and www.SocialJack.com where you can join us for more coaching and training programs. Or ask us for a private quote for your company – we love doing workshops and boot camps or even custom coaching contracts. We have programs to fit most any budget. Consider working with Forward Progress to learn more about expanding your business including strategies such how to use Linkedin to generate more sales.https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/414904362
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