Can a LinkedIn company Page send messages?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional social network with over 740 million members worldwide. As a platform built to connect professionals, LinkedIn offers many options for businesses and individuals to connect, network, and communicate.

One of the main ways businesses establish a presence on LinkedIn is through creating a Company Page. LinkedIn Company Pages allow businesses to share information about their company, job openings, company news and updates, and more. Company Pages help businesses connect with customers, potential employees, industry partners, and other professionals.

Messaging capabilities on LinkedIn

When it comes to messaging and communication capabilities on LinkedIn, there are a few different options:

• LinkedIn member messaging – All LinkedIn members can send private 1-on-1 messages to connect with other members.
• InMail – A paid feature that allows sending private messages to any LinkedIn member, even if they’re not directly connected.
• Company Pages – Can post updates, share news, articles, etc. but cannot directly message other members.

So while individual LinkedIn members have messaging capabilities, Company Pages do not have the ability to directly message other members or followers.

Why Company Pages can’t message

There are a few reasons why LinkedIn does not enable messaging capabilities for Company Pages:

• Prevents spam and abuse – Enabling Company Pages to message followers at scale could lead to issues with spam and abuse.
• Maintains user control – Users must opt-in to following Company Pages. Allowing unsolicited messages would remove user control.
• Promotes relevant conversations – Public posts encourage relevant on-topic conversations rather than unsolicited outreach.
• Filters promotion – Direct messaging could be seen as promotional, instead Company Pages can use paid products to reach followers.

LinkedIn focuses on creating a professional community and prevents features that could undermine the user experience or trust.

How to contact followers as a Company Page

While Company Pages can’t directly message followers, there are a few workarounds to contact followers and share information:

• Post updates – Share relevant news, articles, events, offers, etc. Followers will see posts in their feed.
• Engage with followers – Reply to comments, answer questions, and interact with followers who engage with your Company Page.
• Utilize employee accounts – Have individual employees message and connect with relevant followers.
• Use sponsored content – Target followers through paid advertising and content promotion.
• Export followers list – Export a list of Page followers and contact them off of LinkedIn if appropriate.

While not as direct as messaging, these tactics allow Company Pages to get information out to their followers through LinkedIn.

Other LinkedIn capabilities for companies

While Company Pages don’t have built-in messaging, LinkedIn provides other capabilities to help businesses market themselves and connect with professionals:

So while direct messaging isn’t available, Company Pages do provide a robust platform for companies to connect with the right professional audiences.

Should Company Pages have messaging capabilities?

There are valid arguments on both sides of whether LinkedIn should enable messaging capabilities for Company Pages:

There are good arguments on both sides, but ultimately LinkedIn has decided to keep Company Pages focused on public sharing rather than private messaging to maintain a professional environment.

The case for enabling messaging

Here are some of the main arguments in favor of adding messaging capabilities to Company Pages:

• Allows for more direct and private communication – Company Pages could answer questions, provide support, or share confidential information one-on-one with connections.
• Delivers information timely – Messaging enables real-time communication versus waiting for a post to be seen.
• Provides an alternative contact method – Some followers may prefer messaging over other channels like email or phone.
• Enables better customer service – Could improve ability to provide customer support at scale through messaging.

For certain types of businesses, messaging may allow for better communication and interactions with interested followers.

The risks of adding messaging

However, there are also risks if LinkedIn opened up messaging for Company Pages:

• Increases unsolicited messages – Sales people and recruiters could message at scale leading to spam.
• Harder to monitor abuses – LinkedIn would have to monitor millions of private conversations rather than public posts.
• Undermines user control – Messaging removes the opt-in nature of following Company Pages and engaging in conversations.
• Data privacy issues – Private messages may contain sensitive data that LinkedIn would have to manage and secure.

For these reasons, LinkedIn has maintained limits on Company Page messaging to prevent potential abuse and spam at scale.

Conclusion

In summary, LinkedIn does not currently enable Company Pages to send direct messages to followers. This limitation is in place to maintain a professional environment free from spam and abuse. Though messaging capabilities could enable more direct communication, it also creates moderation challenges and undermines user control.

Instead of direct messaging, LinkedIn provides Company Pages with other tools to engage followers through content sharing, conversations, and paid promotion. For individual outreach, employee accounts can directly connect with relevant members through LinkedIn’s messaging features.

LinkedIn’s approach aims to balance useful business capabilities with maintaining trust and a spam-free professional community. The lack of messaging for Company Pages reflects their strategy to keep communication open and relevant for the entire community.