supercharge your linkedin company page - amazon s3 · 2015-08-03 · linkedin-makeover.com 5 polite...

Supercharge

Your LinkedIn

Company Page

by

Donna Serdula

LinkedIn-Makeover.com

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Table of Contents

Why a Company Page? ................................................................................................................................. 4 How Do I Create a Company Page? .............................................................................................................. 6

Anatomy of a Company Page .................................................................................................................... 6 Editing Your Company Page .................................................................................................................. 7

Designating Additional Administrators ..................................................................................................... 9 Featured Groups ..................................................................................................................................... 10

Create a POWERFUL Company Description ................................................................................................ 12 Using Bullets ........................................................................................................................................ 13

SEO and Keywords .................................................................................................................................. 14 Specialties ............................................................................................................................................... 14 Images for Your LinkedIn Company Page ............................................................................................... 15

Image Options ..................................................................................................................................... 15 Showcase Pages .......................................................................................................................................... 17

Creating a Showcase Page ...................................................................................................................... 18 Editing a Showcase Page ......................................................................................................................... 19 Images for Your LinkedIn Showcase Page ............................................................................................... 19

Broadcasting Updates ................................................................................................................................. 20 Update Ideas ........................................................................................................................................... 20

Increasing Your Company Page Followers .................................................................................................. 22 Sponsored Updates ..................................................................................................................................... 24 Analytics ...................................................................................................................................................... 26 Notifications ................................................................................................................................................ 27

Get Your Employees on the Same Page .................................................................................................. 28 Final Takeaway ............................................................................................................................................ 29 Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................... 29

LinkedIn Company Page Image Dimensions ........................................................................................... 29 Freelance Graphic Designers for Hire ..................................................................................................... 30 Frequently Asked Questions ................................................................................................................... 30

About the Author ........................................................................................................................................ 35 Limits of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty .............................................................................................. 35


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Why a Company Page?

You keep hearing about the importance of a LinkedIn Company Page, and you can’t help but wonder

WHY? You most likely already have a personal LinkedIn Profile Page. You most likely even have a

Website. Perhaps you have a Twitter account and a Facebook Company Page. What’s the point of yet

another Social Media outpost?

LinkedIn is the largest professional network, with approximately 350 million members across the globe.

People use LinkedIn for more than just as a way to keep in touch with their colleagues and business

contacts. LinkedIn is used for branding, research, job search, prospecting, and more!

At one time, people visited your Website, got the info they needed, and surfed away, but Social Media

has made the Web more complex, and people don’t simply visit just your Website anymore. The path to

your company’s door can be quite varied.

You see, people don’t always start out thinking, “I need to visit Widgets R Us’s Website today to learn

more about them!” A prospective client may start the morning reading her LinkedIn newsfeed (rather

than the daily newspaper.) As her eyes scan the listing of status updates she notices a friend received a

new recommendation. Curious, she clicks to read what was written. The person writing the

recommendation looks interesting, so she clicks to their LinkedIn Profile Page to learn more. She sees

that this person actually sells widgets, the exact kind of widgets she needs! She scrolls down to their

current employer and clicks on the company’s logo. Instantly she is transported to the Company Page

where she can read a description of exactly what this company produces. She even sees that she’s

directly connected to two employees. Her interest is piqued, and she decides to pick up the phone to

find out more.

Here’s another scenario: Let’s say your business is hiring. You’ve posted a number of job positions on

different boards, and you even reached out to an interesting candidate you feel would truly elevate your

company. You arrange a phone call. This perfect candidate is interested in the potential position and

decides to do his due diligence. Prior to the call, he visits your LinkedIn Profile Page, looking to learn

more about you. He reads about your favorite nonprofit organizations and associations. He makes a

mental note that you both belong to the same industry association and that you both graduated from

the same university. He then scrolls down to your experience, noting your career trajectory. He clicks on

the logo next to your current employer and visits your Company Page. After reading the Company

description, he clicks on the employee list to see that he knows three employees directly and has

connections to two more through other first-degree connections. He reaches out to the people he is

connected to and gets a better understanding of the company culture and goals. When he picks up the

phone, he’s ready to impress you with more than his background.

Here’s one more way a LinkedIn page can help. A salesperson on your team is busy prospecting for

business. She reaches out to a prospect that definitely needs your widgets, but he’s not ready to pull the

trigger today. The prospect asks her to send him some information by email, but she knows that’s just a


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polite way of saying, “Go away, I don’t need you right now.” Instead, she sends him a link to your active

LinkedIn Company Page and asks the prospect to follow. Over the next few weeks and months, the

prospect sees updates from your company via his LinkedIn newsfeed and LinkedIn update emails. He

begins to find himself learning more about the widgets he needs and slowly finds himself realizing that

he can’t put off purchasing any longer. When he’s ready to move forward, he naturally reaches out to

the company that has maintained active contact with him.

LinkedIn Company Pages allow you to spotlight your company on LinkedIn. Your LinkedIn Company Page

is where you tell your company’s story, mission, and goals. It offers a centralized place where LinkedIn

users can stay up to date on your company news, products, services, business opportunities, and job

openings.

Not only does a LinkedIn Company Page provide you with a presence on LinkedIn, but it also allows your

employees the ability to link to your Company Page on their personal LinkedIn Profile Page. Linking to

your Company Page means employees are able to show allegiance to your company, and by doing so,

your company logo appears on their LinkedIn Profile Page. This logo is a live link that allows readers to

quickly and easily connect to your LinkedIn Company Page where they can learn all about your company.

When a person visits your Company Page, they will not only see products/services, company

information, and recent news but also a dynamic listing of current employees that highlights

connections to their LinkedIn network.

Your LinkedIn Company Page provides you with a digital outpost on LinkedIn and allows you to

showcase your mission and employees. But that’s not all!

A Company Page also allows you to post status messages from your company rather than you as an

individual. When people follow your Company Page, they receive these status updates on their LinkedIn

Homepage’s newsfeed.

By broadcasting updates, you are engaging and interacting with people (potential customers, business

partners, and employees) interested in learning more about your company. Followers of your Company

Page are also providing marketing opportunities by having your logo on their LinkedIn Profile Page.

Ultimately, a LinkedIn Company Page is a digital outpost that provides insight and credibility to others

looking to learn more.

Are you ready to learn how to set up your Company Page so it impresses prospects, customers, and

potential job candidates and sets you up for future opportunities?


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How Do I Create a Company Page?

If you don’t currently have a LinkedIn Company Page, it’s easy to create one!

First off—do you meet the requirements?

You can add a new Company Page only if you meet all of the following requirements:

You're a current company employee and your position is listed in the Experience section on your

LinkedIn Profile Page.

You have a company email address (e.g. [email protected]) added and confirmed

on your LinkedIn account.

Your company's email domain is unique to the company. Ex. [email protected]

(Using an @gmail or @aol email address? You are out of luck)

Your company’s domain is not being used by or for another company.

Your profile strength must be listed as Intermediate or All Star.

You must have several connections.

If you meet those requirements, visit this page to get started:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/add/show

Anatomy of a Company Page

There are four types of pages that comprise the Company Page:

Home

Showcase Pages

Analytics (Only available to the Company Page Admin and not customizable)

Notifications (Only available to the Company Page Admin and not customizable)

Your Company’s LinkedIn home page looks like this:

mailto:[email protected]


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This is where readers can learn more about your company and read your company’s status updates —

all in one place. Readers can also see how they are connected to employees of your company.

Editing Your Company Page

To edit your Company Page, it’s as simple as clicking the Edit button, but first you need to navigate to

your Company Page.

1. Click Interests > Company on LinkedIn’s top navigation bar.

2. On the right side bar will be a list of your Company Pages and Spotlight Pages. Click the logo to

open the page.


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3. Click the blue Edit button in the upper right.

4. Make your changes and click Publish to save.

Your Company Home Page is comprised of six sections:

Company Name, 100 maximum characters.

Company Description, 200 minimum and 2,000 maximum characters.

Company Specialties, 256 maximum characters.

Featured Groups

Company Address (Up to five locations)

Company Information:

o Company Type

o Company Size

o Company Website URL, 256 maximum characters

o Main Company Industry

o Company Operating Status

o Year Founded


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Designating Additional Administrators

Only company administrators can edit Company Pages and send company updates. This can quickly turn

into a job fit for more than just one person. In this case, you can add additional administrators to handle

the workload.

1. Within your Company Page’s Edit mode, scroll down to the Overview page and find the

Company Page’s Admins section on the left. This is below the Company Description and Default

Language fields.

2. Under Designated Admins, start typing the name of a connection that you want to assign as an

admin. You must be connected (first degree) to the new admin through LinkedIn before you can

add them.


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You can have a maximum number of 50 admins for a Company Page. If you need to remove a Company

Page admin, all you do is repeat the steps above and click the x after the administrator’s name. This will

remove them from the list of admins and revoke their administrative duties.

Featured Groups

Does your company manage a LinkedIn Group? LinkedIn Groups are a great way to bring together

people who are interested in a common subject and provide them with a forum to question, discuss,

and learn. If your company administers a LinkedIn Group, you can add it to your LinkedIn Company

Page.

You can also feature LinkedIn Groups that your company doesn’t administer. You can include LinkedIn

Groups that are run by a company you often partner with or an association you work alongside that

utilizes a LinkedIn Group. To add the group to your Company Page, the Company Page administrator

must either be a member or an admin of that group. LinkedIn limits you to three featured groups.


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By Adding a Featured Group, you are creating a link to the Group at the bottom of your LinkedIn

Company Page and providing more information to your visitors.


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Create a POWERFUL Company

Description

Your Company Page is a place to market your business on LinkedIn. LinkedIn states the Company Page is

where you “raise awareness of your brand, promote career opportunities, and educate potential

customers on your products and services.”

As you build your Company Page, always think of your target reader. What will they find interesting

and/or want to learn? Speak directly to readers and make sure you are providing the information they

need to feel confident and comfortable reaching out to you and moving forward with a relationship.

Although it is easy to copy and paste the content from the About section of your Website into the

Company Description field of your LinkedIn Company Page, I caution you against doing so. Keep in mind,

people may have already visited your Website, or they may visit your Website after reading your

Company Page. You don’t want to bore them with the exact same information.

Instead, recognize that people are visiting your Company Page on LinkedIn for a reason. They want to

know more about your company and what your company can do for them. In fact, they may not just be

potential clients. Visitors to your LinkedIn Company Page may be prospective employees trying to learn

what you can offer them as an employee. You want to create a Company Description that gives your

reader not only information on your company but evokes a sense of your culture and brand.

Here are some ideas to help you craft a compelling Company Description:

Boilerplate Summary: You want to tell people in the simplest and easiest to understand terms what

your company does. Don’t get too fancy. You want to be very clear; make this statement something a

child can understand. Think of it a little like an elevator pitch for your company.

Credibility Builders: How many locations does your company have? How many employees work for you?

Are you a private company or publicly traded? What is your annual revenue?

Founding Story: How did your company come into existence? Why was it formed? Let people know that

your company is attempting to fill a spot, make life easier, or create a better process.

Success and Achievements: What are your proudest achievements? List some honors or awards your

company has received. Tell the story of your greatest successes so people can see the potential.

Brief Description of Products/Services: It’s important to realize you only have 2,000 characters for the

Company Description so you can’t go into too much detail, but it’s still worthwhile to devote some

screen real estate to your products and services. I always think in terms of what my old sales manager

used to say: “Be brief, be bright, be gone!” Post just enough information to whet your reader’s appetite

so they will visit your Website to learn more or call to talk to a salesperson.


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Clear Call to Action: A clear call to action tells your reader what to do once they have finished reading

your Company Description and an explanation of what they can expect in return. Why is this important?

The last thing you want is your reader to surf away and forget all about your company. To ensure a clear

call to action, determine how your reader should get in contact with you. You have a number of options:

Visit our Website

Send us an email

Call us

Download our marketing material

Watch a video

Listen to our podcast

Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn

Here are a couple examples:

For more information on Widgets R Us, please visit our Website: WidgetsRUs.com

To learn how our widgets can streamline your life, download our Widget Whitepaper:

widget.org/WWP

To schedule a demonstration of our amazing widgets, call our sales department: 215-555-1234

Using Bullets

LinkedIn doesn’t allow text formatting on either the Company Page or LinkedIn Profile Page. This means

you cannot bold, italicize or even underline text. To make your Company Page visually interesting,

consider using symbols. You see, there are more characters available than what you see on your

keyboard: Text is more than just numbers and letters. Symbols are available to add flair to your content.

Rather than giving you directions on how to access Window’s Character Map tool, it’s much easier to

provide you with the symbols below. All you need to do is copy the one you like and then simply paste it

wherever you want on your Company Page.

Stars: ★ ✪ ✯ ✰

Arrows: ☛ ☚ ☜ ☝ ☞ ☟ ⇨ ► ◄ ► »

Traditional bullets: ■ ♦ ◆ ●

Ticks: ✔ ✘ ☐ ☑ ☒

Email: ✉ ✍ ✎ ✏ ✑ ⌨

Phone: ✆ ☎ ☏

Lines: ☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲

▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

▓▒░▓▒░▓▒░▓▒░▓▒░▓▒░

If you are unable to copy from the symbols above, visit my LinkedIn profile for a slew of symbols you can

copy and paste: http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/todonna.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/todonna


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SEO and Keywords

LinkedIn is more than just a professional network. LinkedIn is also a search engine. People query

LinkedIn for service providers, strategic partnerships, job candidates, etc. Make sure that searches for a

company like yours or for products and services like yours result in your company topping the list. The

way to do this is to make sure your Company Page is keyword optimized.

To appear in search results, you must identify what words people use to find a company like yours.

What words describe your business, expertise, and industry focus? What services do you provide? What

products do you sell? What issues do you help resolve? What processes do you streamline?

As you write your Company Page description, use these keywords in your narrative. Do not obnoxiously

repeat keywords. Write for your reader first and the search engine second.

Specialties

Keywords are important in the LinkedIn universe, and LinkedIn provides you with a Specialties section

on the Company Page where you can list the keywords people may be using to find your company. If a

person is searching LinkedIn using keywords, your Company Page will show up on the results list when

there’s a match with your listed Specialties and content.

LinkedIn provides up to 20 fields to enter individual keywords; however, there is a maximum character

limit of 256.

Don’t waste this opportunity with useless keywords like: professional, problem solver, dynamic, ethical,

or creative. Instead, determine the words a person might be typing into the search engine to find your

company. You can reach out to your Webmaster and ask for a list of all the keywords that people typed

into Google to find your Website. If your company has already put money into SEO, ask the person who

headed up that project for your company’s keywords. If you are truly stuck for keywords, think in terms


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of the products and services you provide and the pain points that your products and services solve.

Images for Your LinkedIn Company Page

The most striking part of the Company Page is the imagery. For your Company Page to truly stand out,

it’s imperative that you use professional images.

There are two images you can add to your LinkedIn Company Page:

1. Intro Image: The Intro image sits atop the Company’s Home page. It is 646 x 220 pixels and can

be in PNG, JPEG, or GIF format. The maximum size is 2 MB.

2. Company Logo: This image is obviously your company logo. It will represent your company at

the top of your Company Page and will appear on your employees’ LinkedIn Profile Pages under

Experience. This logo will also accompany your company’s status updates on followers’ LinkedIn

home page newsfeed. It is 300 x 300 pixels and can be in PNG, JPEG, or GIF format. The

maximum size is 4 MB.

Image Options

Depending on the resources you have on hand, you can use your in-house Graphic Designer or hire a


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freelance Graphic Designer to help you. If you want to try your hand at creating your own Company

Page intro image, it’s not that hard.

Your Intro Image can be a shot of your company building, a group photo of your employees, a picture of

your products, or whatever you think best represents your company. You may choose a stock photo that

represents your services or products.

If you are interested in perusing stock images, there’s no shortage of companies to choose from. Here

are a few of my favorites:

Free Stock Images

http://www.morguefile.com/

http://www.freeimages.com/

Stock Images

http://www.istockphoto.com/

http://www.shutterstock.com/

http://graphicriver.net/

You can also utilize your Website for images. Using a printscreen tool like Microsoft’s Snipping Tool

(available in their Accessories folder OR if you are on a Mac, use Command (⌘)-Shift-4), you can

capture images from your Website. You can use a tool like Canva.com to create a montage image, or you

can simply take the images into an image processing application and combine them to fit the intro

image dimensions.

To crop the image for the required dimensions, you can use a free tool like Paint.Net, Gimp, or Inkscape.

Of course, you could also choose Photoshop. If you want to get really fancy, you can super impose your

mission statement atop the image using Canva.com.

Whichever way you go, make sure the image is sized correctly. Images sized incorrectly will look blurry

or pixelated, and that comes across as very unprofessional.

http://www.morguefile.com/

http://www.freeimages.com/

http://www.istockphoto.com/

http://www.shutterstock.com/

http://graphicriver.net/

http://www.canva.com/

http://www.canva.com/


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Showcase Pages

Showcase Pages are child pages of your Company Page dedicated to specific aspects of your business

and may represent a brand, business unit, or initiative within your company.

As an example, Microsoft has a Company Page that represents their entire company. They also have

Showcase Pages for Office, Microsoft Training & Certification, Microsoft in Government, etc. The idea is

that some potential followers may be more interested in certain aspects of your business and would

prefer to receive just those updates. By following a specific Showcase Page, they get only the

information they are interested in.

It is worth noting that a Showcase Page doesn’t contain much information. The description only consists

of 200 characters. That’s just slightly more characters than a single Tweet. The core functionality of a

Showcase Page isn’t to provide static content but rather to broadcast relevant status updates. Before

creating a Showcase Page, it’s important to make sure you plan to maintain an active presence, regularly

broadcasting updates for that Showcase Page. If not, it’s best not to create the Showcase Page.


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Creating a Showcase Page

1. From your Company Page, click the down arrow next to the blue Edit button on the Company

Page.

2. Select Create a Showcase Page.

3. Enter a page name and assign administrators for the Showcase Page. (You can only assign first-

degree connections as Showcase Page administrators.)

4. Click Create.

5. Click Publish to make it public.

You can create up to 10 Showcase Pages for your Company Page. If you need more than 10 Showcase

Pages, you can contact LinkedIn and ask for them to provide you with more. They typically oblige.


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Editing a Showcase Page

To edit your Company Page, it’s as simple as clicking the Edit button:

1. Go to your Showcase Page.

2. Click the blue Edit button on the top right.

3. Make your changes and click Publish to save.

Your Showcase Page is comprised of five sections:

• Showcase Page Name

• Showcase Page Description (200 characters)

• Featured Groups

• Showcase Page Website URL

• Main Showcase Page Industry

It’s important to note that the Showcase Page Description only has room for 200 characters. This is not a

lot of room so you must be as succinct as possible. Describe exactly what your Showcase Page is about

and what a person can expect once they follow and subscribe to your updates.

Images for Your LinkedIn Showcase Page

1. Showcase Logo: This image sits at the top of your Showcase Page and will appear next to status

updates on followers’ LinkedIn feeds. It is 300 x 300 pixels and can be in PNG, JPEG, or GIF

format. The maximum size is 4 MB.

2. Showcase Hero image: It must be 974 x 330 pixels or larger and can be in PNG, JPEG, or GIF

format. The maximum size is 2 MB. You can crop this image once it's uploaded.

The Showcase Logo sits atop the Showcase Hero image roughly 19 pixels in and 40 pixels up from the left

lower corner.


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Broadcasting Updates

A successful LinkedIn Company Page isn’t static but provides frequent and interesting status updates.

You should aim to post status updates at least a few times each week. If you intend to post articles

concerning your industry and specialty, a great tool to use is Google Alerts. Google Alerts will notify you

of interesting articles that you can share with your Company Page followers. To subscribe to Google

Alerts:

1. Visit Google Alerts: https://www.google.com/alerts.

2. In the "Create an alert about" box, enter the words you want to receive email notifications

about. Think in terms of keywords that apply to your industry.

3. Click Show options to customize items such as how often you get alerts, types of websites you

want to search, and the email address for your alerts.

4. Click Create Alert.

It’s not easy to consistently broadcast updates. Sure, we all have the best intentions, but when it comes

down to it, there are always other things that take precedence over finding and posting information on a

social network site. A great tool to help keep updates rolling out is Hootsuite. Hootsuite allows you to

manage your social media presence across all social networks AND lets you schedule messages in

advance to make campaign planning easier. Using Hootsuite, you can sit down with a cup of coffee on

Sunday morning and brainstorm all your updates for the next week or month. Choose the day and times

you want the updates to go out and VOILA...it only looks like you are updating your LinkedIn Company

Page statuses through the week.

Visit Hootsuite.com to create a free account.

Update Ideas

Not sure what to post? Here are a slew of ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

Blog articles written by your employees

Industry-related articles

Links to whitepapers

Case Studies

How to Guides

Support issue updates

Podcasts

Interview industry experts and post video

Recent Press releases

Job opportunities

Product and service updates/information

Employee promotions

Links to interesting articles

https://www.google.com/alerts

http://www.hootsuite.com/


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Ask questions, start discussions

Advice to solve your reader’s problems/pain points

Testimonials from happy clients

Offer technical support assistance

Information about charities you support

Examples of industry expertise

Infographics and images

Videos and presentations

Upcoming events and conferences

Honors and awards received

Host contests or provide giveaways


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Increasing Your Company Page Followers

A successful LinkedIn page has followers. Followers are LinkedIn users who want to stay updated on

your company. A LinkedIn user can follow up to 1,000 companies on LinkedIn. To become a follower, a

person must click the Follow button at the top of your Company Page. Once they become a follower of

your Company Page, two things occur.

First, they become subscribed to your company updates. Any updates that your Company Page

broadcasts will show up on their LinkedIn Homepage’s newsfeed. They can then comment, like, or share

these updates with their LinkedIn network. Secondly, your company’s logo shows up on their LinkedIn

Profile Page under the Company part of the Following section. Personal LinkedIn Profile Pages will show

the first four logos of companies that have been followed. After that, to see the additional companies,

the reader must click the See more link.

It’s not easy getting people to follow your Company, but there are a few things you can do to increase

the likelihood a person will do so. One of the most important things you can do is regularly post

compelling updates. If a person sees that you regularly post intriguing updates, they are more likely to

follow your company. Also, when you post good, quality status updates, people will like your content

and potentially share and comment on it. Once people start commenting and sharing, your status

update may reverberate through their network, getting views by people who are not even your

followers. As the number of people seeing your updates raises, so does the chance of them exploring

your company’s LinkedIn Page and potentially choosing to follow your Company Page to continue

receiving great updates.

The next thing to do is make it easy for people to follow your company whether or not they are on your

Company Page. “How can people follow your Company Page if they aren’t on the Company Page,” you

ask? By creating a Company follow button that you can include on your Website!

Visit this page to obtain the code to insert into your Website:


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https://developer.linkedin.com/plugins/follow-company

A great place on your Website to add the Follow button is on your Company’s job listings page. Let

prospective employees know that by following your LinkedIn Company Page they will be notified of job

openings as soon as they become available. You can also place the Follow button on the area of your

Website where you post news and updates. Again, you will want to let visitors know that they can have

this information delivered to them directly by clicking the Follow button.

It’s not enough to just have a Follow button on your Website. “If you build it, they will come” only works

in Kevin Costner movies. It’s more accurate to say, “If you build it and it’s good and you tell people about

it, maybe they will come.” Tell people about your Company Page by including a link on your email

signature, business card, and any email broadcast campaigns. If you have an audience on Twitter, you

can tweet out the link to your Company Page. You can even send messages to your first-degree LinkedIn

connections.

Depending on how enthusiastic you are, you can post a discussion with a link to your Company Page to

any of the LinkedIn Groups you are a member of. Now I am not suggesting that you get obnoxious in

your Company Page marketing but rather realize that you do need to get the word out and there are

multiple places you can announce it.

https://developer.linkedin.com/plugins/follow-company


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Sponsored Updates

You can send free Company Updates to the followers of your Company Page or you can send paid

Sponsored Updates from your Company Page to LinkedIn members who meet specific demographic

criteria. Sponsored Updates are a great way to reach professionals who may not know of your company

or are not yet following your Company Page. Sponsored Updates allow you to expand beyond your

Company’s network. With Sponsored Updates, you are able to publish content to the LinkedIn feed of

any LinkedIn member, not just followers of your Company Page.

Sponsored Updates allow you to target the right people with articles, infographics, whitepapers,

presentations, videos, updates, and more. You can define your audience using location, company size,

industry, job function, and seniority.

Reaching people outside your Company’s network costs money. LinkedIn provides you with two types of

campaign options: CPC or CPM. CPC stands for cost per click, and you pay only if a person clicks your

update. You can consider CPC for direct response or performance advertising when you want people to

click and consume your content. CPM stands for cost per impression, and you pay for the amount of

times the update is shown. Think of CPM as a brand awareness tool that helps you gain lots of exposure.

The good news is you do not pay for likes, shares, or comments on your Sponsored Updates. Social

engagement is considered free in the LinkedIn Advertising world. And if a person follows your Company

Page from your Sponsored Update? That too is free.

To determine whether CPC or CPM is right for you, you need to consider the update you are sending. Is

it a link to an article and you want to ensure 1,000 or more people see? CPM would be the best choice in

this situation. If you are instead looking for measured results in terms of how many people actually took

action and clicked the link in the status update, CPC is the best option. Perhaps you are sending out a

link to a signup form to gather leads or you are sending people to an online shopping cart, CPC ensures

that you are only paying for those leads who actually clicked the link in your update.

Here’s the thing, regardless of what option you choose, it’s easy to spend a fortune and come away with

nothing. You need to make sure that when you are ready to spend the money, you are strategic in what

you are posting, you know your budget, and you define the types of results you want. My best

recommendation is to make sure you are sponsoring updates that provide some type of conversion. If

you are linking to an article, make sure there is a sign up form to your mailing list.

Things to consider when creating sponsored content:

Create a compelling headline that attracts attention. You want the headline to catch a person’s

attention and inspire them to click and read more.

Match a great headline with quality content. Don’t get too salesy. Concentrate on adding value

and educating.

Include relevant images to get your post noticed.

Choose your targeting options carefully. A target audience that is too large means a less


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qualified base; one that is too small means fewer views and less potential leads.

To begin sending Sponsored Updates to your target audience, you need to create a Business Account on

LinkedIn. To get started, click here: https://www.linkedin.com/ads

https://www.linkedin.com/ads


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Analytics

LinkedIn provides you with analytics that show how well your Company Page is fairing in terms of views

and engagement. As long as you are logged in to your Company Page as an administrator, you can see

the Analytics page. Regular visitors of your Company Page do not have access to this page.

The Analytics page is divided into 3 sections:

Updates

Followers

Visitors

These sections provide you with deeper insight into your page performance.

The graphs and charts allow you to see how many interactions your individual posts receive, your

follower demographics, and where they come from as well as information regarding audience activity

and page traffic.

The information on this page is quite clear and my best recommendation is simply to dive in and check it

out.


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Notifications

As you broadcast updates via your Company Page, you will find that your Company Page followers will

interact with these updates by liking, commenting, or sharing your status updates. You may also find

that LinkedIn users mention your company in a post they broadcast. Rather than having to view each

individual post to see all the interactions taking place, LinkedIn aggregates this information under the

Notifications tab so you can see exactly how people are interacting with your company and its Company

Page under one dashboard.

Now don’t worry, this tab is only visible to administrators of the Company Page.

When people interact with your page, it’s important that you respond back. When you comment on

updates via the Notifications tab, you are commenting as the company and not as yourself. Be sure to

thank people for sharing your updates and don’t be afraid to engage them in conversation.


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Get Your Employees on the Same Page

Now that your Company Page is optimized, it’s time to announce its debut to your employees. You will

want to make sure they update their LinkedIn Profile Page and choose your Company from the Company

drop list. This way, not only will there be a link back to the Company Page but your employees will have

your pretty logo alongside their job experience.

Here’s an email you can copy, paste, and tweak:

Dear Team,

We are proud to announce the debut of our very own LinkedIn Company Page.

You can visit our page by following this link:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/your-company-name/

On the upper right hand corner of the Company Page, you can follow our page to keep updated

on our news and postings.

Now that we have a LinkedIn Company Page, we highly recommend updating YOUR LinkedIn

Profile Page. All you need to do is visit your LinkedIn Profile Page and scroll down to your

current experience.

Click the edit/pencil icon and choose: Change Company. Begin typing our company name, a drop

list will appear; choose our company from the drop list. By doing this, you are ensuring that the

company logo is on your LinkedIn Profile Page and a link is created back to our Company Page.

Should you have any questions, feel free to contact our Technical Support department.

Sincerely,

Your Name Here

Send this email to all your employees to provide them with instructions to follow your Company Page

and update their individual LinkedIn Profile Pages.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/your-company-name/


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Final Takeaway

Congratulations! Your LinkedIn Company Page is SUPERCHARGED, and you are showing the world that

your company is a true player in the LinkedIn world with a digital footprint that extends beyond just a

simple Website.

Now that you have an impressive LinkedIn Company Page, it’s time to start thinking in terms of your

employees’ LinkedIn Profile Pages. Zig Ziglar said, “The only thing worse than training employees and

losing them is to not train them and keep them.” I feel this quote can also be applied to LinkedIn. Many

business owners are afraid to showcase their employees in fear that recruiters and competitors will

poach them away. Yet, when you showcase your incredible team with optimized LinkedIn Profile Pages,

you attract amazing candidates who want to work with the best, and you provide your prospects and

clients with the peace of mind that the people working with them are strong, unique individuals.

This may be the end of the book but it doesn’t have to be the end of your experience. For updates and

information on our LinkedIn Company Page and individual Profile Page optimization services, visit

LinkedIn-Makeover.com.

Appendix

LinkedIn Company Page Image Dimensions

Company Page Intro Image: The Intro image sits atop the Home page of your Company Page. It is 646 x

220 pixels and can be in PNG, JPEG, or GIF format. The maximum size is 2 MB.

Company Page Company Logo: This image is obviously your company logo. It will represent your

company at the top of your Company Page and will appear on your employees’ LinkedIn Profile Pages

under Experience. This logo will also accompany your company’s status updates on followers’ LinkedIn

home page newsfeed. It is 300 x 300 pixels and can be in PNG, JPEG, or GIF format. The maximum size is

4 MB.

Showcase Logo: This image sits at the top of your Showcase Page and will appear on your employees’

'LinkedIn Profile Pages under experience and next to status updates. It is 300 x 300 pixels and can be in

PNG, JPEG, or GIF format. The maximum size is 4 MB.

Showcase Hero image: It must be 974 x 330 pixels or larger and can be in PNG, JPEG, or GIF format. The

maximum size is 2 MB. You can crop this image once it's uploaded.

The Showcase Logo sits atop the Showcase Hero image roughly 19 pixels in and 40 pixels up from the left

lower corner.

http://www.linkedin-makeover.com/


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Freelance Graphic Designers for Hire

Here are a few places on the Web where you can hire a freelance Graphic Designer:

99Designs.com ELance.com Craigslist.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: To have a successful LinkedIn Company Page, must I blast out status updates?

It depends on your goal and what you define as a successful page. You may decide that you simply want

to have an outpost on LinkedIn and provide your employees a way to attach the company logo to their

LinkedIn profile. If that’s all you want, then you do not need to spend time broadcasting status updates.

Similarly, if you want to offer people a place to learn more about your company and see a listing of

current clients, you don’t need to blast out updates. However, if you want a place to share information,

interact with followers, and provide updated information then yes, you need to create the content to

push out to support that initiative.

Q: Where are the Products and Services Pages?

Once upon a time, LinkedIn’s Company Pages were more robust containing not only a Home Page but

also pages dedicated to Products & Services and Recommendations. For some reason, LinkedIn decided

to pare down the Company Page and removed these additional subpages. All is not lost! You can still

mention your company’s products and services within your Company Page description. You can even

create Spotlight pages around your different products and services.

Q: Can I embed media like a video or presentation slides in my LinkedIn Company Page?

Along the same lines as the answer above, at one time you could embed video. Currently, that

functionality has been removed. Instead, you can post status updates containing links to videos and

presentation slides.

Q: An ex-employee created our Company page, how can I take it over?

The first thing to do is contact the ex-employee and attempt to get them to add you as an administrator

of the page. Not sure who is the administrator of the page? Visit the Company Page and scroll down

looking for the sidebar item, “Want to help manage this page?” Within that section is a link to see the

admins of the page. Click the Message button next to the administrator and write a message asking to

be added as an administrator.

http://99designs.com/

http://www.elance.com/

http://www.craigslist.com/

http://www.craigslist.com/


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If you are not a premium LinkedIn user and not a 1st-degree connection of any admin(s), you’ll need to

connect with the admin before you can message the member on LinkedIn.

If the person is unresponsive, your next option is to contact LinkedIn’s technical support department

and open a support ticket. Visit LinkedIn’s help desk via this link: https://help.linkedin.com. Once there,

click the Contact Us menu item and open a support ticket. Your message to them will read something

like this:

Subject: Need Assistance Removing Unresponsive Company Page Admin

Your Question: I am writing to you regarding the Company Page for Widgets R Us. The previous

Company Page administrator has left the company and is not responding to our requests to add

me as the new administrator.

The old admin's name is Jane Dowl and her profile link is LinkedIn.com/in/JaneDowl23

https://help.linkedin.com/


32

You may contact our HR Department to confirm this change at [email protected]

Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

It typically takes LinkedIn a few days to resolve most technical support issues. Be patient and before you

know it, you will have access to your company’s LinkedIn Company Page.

Q: Why can’t I become an administrator of my Company Page?

There are a couple reasons why you are unable to become a Company Page administrator. The most

widespread issue is not having your company email address added to your LinkedIn account. Instead you

are using only your personal email address. LinkedIn can’t confirm you are associated with your

company without a company email. You can add your company email by visiting your LinkedIn Privacy &

Settings page (https://www.linkedin.com/settings/). If you do have your company email address added

to your settings, do you have the company listed on your LinkedIn profile as your current position? Add

the company as your current experience and make certain to use the company drop list to add the

correct company. As long as these two things are in place, you should have no issues becoming an

administrator.

Q: We just realized we have two LinkedIn Company Pages; can we merge them into one?

It is not possible to merge two Company Pages at this time. Rather than merge the Company Pages,

determine which one should be retained and which should be deleted. Post a status update on the page

you wish to remove asking followers to begin following the page you are keeping. After a period of time,

close the Company Page. You will also want to alert any employees with the deleted Company Page to

update their LinkedIn Profile Page’s current Experience to the retained page by selecting the correct

company from the Company drop list.

Q: How do I close/delete a Company Page?

Unfortunately, you can’t delete a Company Page on your own. In order to delete a Company Page you

must notify LinkedIn by visiting this page: https://help.linkedin.com/app/ask/path/cprr

https://help.linkedin.com/app/ask/path/cprr


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Q: We have former employees still listed as current employees on our Company Page, how do we

remove them?

It is up to the former employee to end their tenure by editing their current experience and adding an

end date. If an employee is not updating their experience with the proper end date, the best thing to do

is suggest a profile update. As long as you are a first-degree connection to the former employee, visit

their profile, move your cursor over the down arrow in the top section of their profile, and select

Suggest an Update. Select an Experience update and fill out the rest of the form. Click Send Message.

You might write something like this: “This is a polite reminder that your engagement with Widgets R Us

ended on January 2, 2015. Please update your LinkedIn profile accordingly.”

Q: We have false employees listed on our Company Page, how do we remove them?

LinkedIn members list the company where they work so it's not possible for an administrator to remove

employees from a Company Page. If you have reached out to the individuals and asked them to remove

your company from their profile and they have not complied, you can ask LinkedIn to investigate by


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filing a formal complaint using the Notice of False Profile form:

https://help.linkedin.com/app/ask/path/TS-NFPI

https://help.linkedin.com/app/ask/path/TS-NFPI


35

About the Author

Donna Serdula LOVES LinkedIn. She is the author of the popular book, LinkedIn Makeover: Professional

Secrets to a POWERFUL LinkedIn Profile. It was back in 2009 that she decided to break free from

corporate America and set out on her own path. Donna started Vision Board Media with the goal of

helping businesses and individuals leverage the Internet in their quest to market themselves.

Donna is the foremost expert in LinkedIn profile optimization. She founded LinkedIn-Makeover.com

where she helps individuals from around the world brand themselves successfully using LinkedIn. Donna

has appeared on Sirius XM Radio, NBC, and many other news outlets.

Limits of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty

The author and publisher of this book and the accompanying materials have used their best efforts in

preparing this document. The author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect

to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this book. They disclaim any

warranties (expressed or implied), merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The author and

publisher shall in no event be held liable for any loss or other damages. As always, the advice of a

competent legal, tax, accounting or other professional should be sought.

This book contains material protected under Federal and International Copyright Laws. Any

unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

Copyright © 2015 Donna Serdula

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