In my last article, Improving Your LinkedIn Profile, I encouraged you to spend a little bit of time updating your LinkedIn profile and keeping an eye on it on a monthly or quarterly basis. In this article, I’d like to share some tips organizations can use for improving their LinkedIn company profile.
A company profile is free and easy to set up for anyone who has their work email listed on their LinkedIn profile. However, it does take some planning. Most large organizations have a marketing or social media department that takes care of managing their LinkedIn company profile. But I’ve noticed that smaller organizations or independent contractors often do not have a LinkedIn company profile when they probably have more to gain than the larger ones.
Domain
If you do not have a custom domain- particularly those of you who are independent consultants- it is time to purchase a domain if you don’t already have one.
You’ll need a corporate email address that is registered to your personal LinkedIn profile to get started. It’s time to stop sending invoices from my_company_name@gmail.com and set up at least one email address and possibly some aliases for first_name.last_name@my_company_name.com.
Web Site
You do not need a web site to have a LinkedIn company profile. But if you don’t, I encourage you to build at least a one-page website. There are too many inexpensive yet easy-to-use solutions to not do this.
Branding
The first thing you will need is three images for branding. Note that the recommended dimensions can change over time, but LinkedIn and many social media marketing sites (like HootSuite) have articles with up-to-date dimensions and image formats. The three images you’ll need are:
- Profile image – typically your corporate logo, and currently in 400×400 pixel format.
- Header image – across the top of your profile, it can incorporate your logo but should be more aspirational – think stock photography or images of your products. Currently 1128×191.
- Post image – ideally each company post will have its own thematic image. But it’s a good idea to have a generic one in your back pocket. A resized header image with a company logo watermark in the corner isn’t a bad choice. Currently 1200×627.
If your organization uses other social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, or X, there should be a family resemblance for your organization across all platforms. It is preferable to have your graphic designer provide various social media image sizes with your corporate identity and logo design created with the original image software. Resized and pixelated images from Microsoft Paint do not convey professionalism.
LinkedIn to Your Employees
Once your page is finished, you’ll want to update your own LinkedIn experience section and link your company’s blurb to your LinkedIn Company Profile. You’ll know if you’ve done this correctly when your corporate logo appears next to your blurb instead of the generic LinkedIn placeholder image.
If you have employees, encourage them to update their profiles to also link to the new corporate page. It’s worth some time to coach your employees on how to update their profile pages- not because you want them to find other jobs- but because you want their profiles to accurately reflect their professional qualifications. Potential customers will likely click through your company page and do some due diligence to confirm the employee they spoke with is the real thing.
Create Content
If your organization is already using other social media channels, you are now in a position to post from your new corporate page. Your employees will see these posts and can amplify the message by resharing on their own pages. Don’t feel pressured to spam or create content for its own sake. People will follow your corporate page if they believe in your brand, the products or services you create, and the trusted voice you project on LinkedIn.
More Information
I previously reviewed LinkedIn Profile Optimization for Dummies by Donna Serdula, who shares free resources on her LinkedIn Makeover site. I read her 2015 Supercharge Your LinkedIn Company Page Kindle as preparation for this article. As you can imagine, some of the technical details are dated but she provides actionable tips on how to utilize your LinkedIn company profile to generate business that are well worth the $3 USD cost of the Kindle book.
These are my tips for LinkedIn company pages. Be sure to read my companion article, Improving Your LinkedIn Profile. Did I leave out anything important? Feel free to share your LinkedIn company page best practices in the comments section.
