Several times in the last two days I have seen company pages that are not complete, not set up correctly, are mapped to individuals who don’t work there, and perhaps worse, company pages that don’t exist. I actually see smaller companies doing a better job than larger organizations and that reinforces the thought that social media levels the playing field. It does, for those who pay attention, leverage the opportunity and the build it out thoroughly.
C’mon, don’t overlook what is a natural and obvious marketing opportunity. Potentially 120 million+ can see your organization, who is not interested in that type of reach? And why, would you not pay attention to what you could build there? I am not sure. Whether for branding, business development, recruiting or potential funding/alliances and partnership it provides a window into the type of organization you are, how vital, relevant, well postitioned and to be trite, innovative.
So what to do? Pay Attention Consider how you can build your LinkedIn Company Page to highlight your organization’s value propositions, products and services and recruiting efforts. Build it out [or build it: go to Companies on the nav bar, click and click again where it says Add Company on the right side of the page].
Ask someone to own the page and keep it updated. Maybe it’s more than one person, that’s ok but you don’t want anyone who has an email address associated with the company to have access, [definitely not a best practice for a larger organization…it has the potential for an unweidly situation]. I have seen this several times recently…that is a big “yikes”. Make sure all your employees are mapped to it [tip: they need to list the company on their profile the same way it is listed on the company page]
Your Company page is a great way to create a human side to your organization; feature your products and services, ask for recommendations, [this is new so you may have not noticed but consider how valuable]. This is interesting because many of us, me included, have terrific recommendations on our profiles and what I hope we can do is eventually cross reference them from our individual page to our Company page. Think microsite not page and then you will be on your way to creating a strong presence that reinforces your overall marketing objectives.
This is the first of the series on Company pages, yes, they are that important they warrant more than one post.