LinkedIn is a popular social media platform used primarily for professional networking and career development. Many businesses and organizations use LinkedIn to connect with clients, customers, and partners. An important part of managing a company’s LinkedIn presence is the company page, which allows brands to establish an official presence on the platform.
Company pages have access to various LinkedIn features for connecting with other professionals and organizations. One common question businesses have is whether a company page can follow another company on LinkedIn, similar to how individual users can connect.
Can Company Pages Follow Other Companies?
The short answer is no – company pages on LinkedIn do not have the ability to follow other company pages. While individual LinkedIn members can connect and follow other members, company pages cannot connect or follow other businesses and organizations in the same way.
However, there are a couple of exceptions. LinkedIn Company Pages can follow:
- LinkedIn Showcase Pages
- LinkedIn Influencers
Showcase Pages are a type of page on LinkedIn specifically intended for following brands and discussing industry news. They were created to replace the previous ability for Company Pages to follow one another. LinkedIn Influencers are notable thought leaders on the platform who share content regularly. So company pages can opt to follow Showcase Pages and Influencers in order to see updates, but not other company pages.
Why Can’t Company Pages Follow Each Other?
LinkedIn implemented this policy to prevent spammy behavior and encourage more meaningful engagement between companies on the platform. If company pages could freely follow one another, it would be easy for them to aggressively follow many accounts very quickly with the goal of gaining followers back. This behavior could clutter up followers’ feeds and decrease the overall value of connections.
By limiting company-to-company follows, LinkedIn aims to make the platform more useful and promote authentic relationship-building between businesses. Following a Showcase Page or Influencer as a company page indicates a real interest in their content. LinkedIn wants connections and follows between company pages to meaningfully represent a commercial relationship or partnership.
How Can Company Pages Still Connect With Each Other?
While directly following other companies is limited, there are other ways for LinkedIn Company Pages to connect and build relationships with each other on the platform:
- Commenting and liking updates – Company pages can interact with and react to content from other pages by commenting on posts and liking or sharing updates.
- Sharing content – Reposting and referencing content published by other companies helps build connections between pages.
- @Mentioning in posts – Company pages can organically mention each other in posts to help build connections and gain visibility.
- Joining common LinkedIn groups – Participating in the same LinkedIn Groups around shared interests is a great way for company pages to interact and network.
- Cross-promotion – Brands can coordinate cross-promotions across LinkedIn company pages to synergistically connect audiences.
While company-to-company follows are limited, LinkedIn does provide powerful analytics so you can see who is engaging with your company page content. This allows you to identify and nurture budding relationships with other businesses through your interactions.
Best Practices
Here are some top best practices for company pages to connect with partners and prospects on LinkedIn without directly following their pages:
- Regularly check analytics to see who is viewing and engaging with your page and content.
- Proactively like and comment on content from target companies.
- @Mention relevant companies in appropriate posts to grab their attention.
- Work together on co-marketing campaigns like content swaps or guest articles.
- Partner on LinkedIn polls, Q&As, or other interactive content.
- Join mutually relevant LinkedIn Groups to connect with other businesses.
Examples of Company-to-Company Engagement
Some examples of great company-to-company engagement on LinkedIn that builds relationships include:
- Adobe and Microsoft frequently interact through likes, comments, and @Mentions about their partnership and integrated products.
- HP and Canon engage in discussions in LinkedIn Groups about printing technologies and best practices.
- Oracle and SAP highlight how their technologies work together in the enterprise through co-marketing campaigns.
- Unilever partners with Walmart on sustainability initiatives and cross-promotes that partnership on LinkedIn.
These examples demonstrate how real demonstrated partnerships translate into organic LinkedIn connections without formal company-to-company following.
Should My Company Follow Other Pages?
Due to the limitations, companies need to evaluate if following Showcase Pages or Influencers is worthwhile for their brand on LinkedIn. Here are some key considerations:
- How relevant is the Showcase Page or Influencer’s industry and content to your brand?
- Will following them provide your company page useful insights or opportunities?
- Does the account regularly publish high-quality, business-relevant updates?
- Will your audience perceive value in your company following them?
In general, it only makes sense to follow a Showcase Page or Influencer if their content will regularly be valuable and relevant to your followers. Evaluate options carefully against those criteria.
Conclusion
While Company Pages on LinkedIn cannot freely follow one another the way individuals can connect, businesses still have opportunities to develop relationships and amplify each other. Professional engagement through likes, shares, comments, @Mentions, groups, and cross-promotion allows brands to authentically connect without direct following capabilities. Focus on cultivating partnerships that add value for your audiences by delivering great content together.