LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 810 million members worldwide. It allows users to connect with other professionals, find jobs, promote their business, share content and build their online brand. LinkedIn business pages are profiles specifically designed for companies, organizations and brands to establish an online presence and connect with customers and prospects. A key feature of LinkedIn business pages is the ability to “follow” other pages to receive their updates in your feed. However, there has been some confusion around whether business pages themselves can follow other profiles and pages on LinkedIn. In this comprehensive guide, we will examine if and how LinkedIn business pages can follow other users and pages on the platform.
Can Business Pages Follow Other Profiles?
The short answer is yes, LinkedIn business pages can follow other user profiles and pages on the platform. When you create a LinkedIn business page, it functions very similarly to a standard personal LinkedIn profile. This includes access to core features like connecting with other members, joining groups, sharing content and viewing updates in your feed. Following other profiles and pages is one of the main ways for business pages to expand their reach, gain exposure and keep up with industry news on LinkedIn.
Some key pointers on LinkedIn business page following:
- Business pages can follow individual member profiles. This allows them to see all public updates from those members in their feed.
- Pages can also follow other business pages. This helps pages stay updated on content from related or competing brands.
- There are no restrictions on how many profiles or pages a business can follow.
- Following is visible on the business page’s profile and follows are public.
- Pages have full control over who they follow and unfollow at any time.
So in summary, LinkedIn does enable business pages to follow other users and pages on the platform as part of their standard functionality. This allows businesses to leverage follows to grow their audience, promote their content and monitor their industry or competitors.
How Do Business Pages Follow Other Profiles?
The process of following another member or page from a LinkedIn business page is simple and straightforward:
- Navigate to the profile or business page you wish to follow.
- Click the “Follow” button on their profile. This button will be located along the top of their profile under their cover photo.
- A confirmation pop-up will appear. Click “Follow” again to confirm.
- The profile will now be followed. Their public updates will appear in your business page’s feed.
- To unfollow a profile, navigate to their page and click the “Following” button that now appears. Confirm you want to unfollow.
The follow process works seamlessly both on the LinkedIn desktop site and in the LinkedIn mobile app. One tip is that you can also follow multiple profiles and pages at once by navigating to search results and using the “follow all” option. Overall, LinkedIn makes it simple for business pages to discover relevant profiles and keep up with their activity.
Does Following Profiles Benefit Business Pages?
Now that we’ve confirmed LinkedIn business pages can follow profiles, is it actually beneficial for them to do so? The short answer is yes; following select profiles aligns with several key goals for business pages on LinkedIn:
Expand Your Audience and Reach
When your business page follows another profile, their network and followers are exposed to your page. This increases discoverability and can prompt their connections to follow your page. Following industry influencers and thought leaders can be especially helpful to tap into their large networks.
Stay Updated on Your Industry
Following profiles of companies in your industry, key partners, media publications and industry experts ensures important news and updates appear in your page’s feed. This allows you to stay current on industry trends.
Monitor Competitors
By following competitor business pages, you can keep tabs on their content strategies, product updates and company news. This enables you to benchmark your performance and respond with your own updates.
Promote Interactions and Engagement
When you follow someone, they will receive a notification prompting them to follow you back. This can spark engagement between your page and other relevant profiles. Increased engagement helps boost your page’s visibility and reputation.
Research Leads and Prospects
Following target customer and prospect profiles lets you research their experience, interests and professional history. You can use this to inform your sales and marketing outreach to them.
So in summary, strategically following other profiles and pages generates more value and visibility for your own LinkedIn business presence. Moderation is key, but used effectively following can become an impactful part of your overall LinkedIn marketing strategy.
Best Practices for Business Page Following
When leveraging your business page’s ability to follow others on LinkedIn, keep these best practices in mind:
Be Selective
Avoid indiscriminately following thousands of profiles. Carefully target and follow professionals, brands and pages that are most relevant for your goals and audience. Quality over quantity.
Follow Back
When prospects and partners follow your page, be sure to follow them back. This helps build relationships.
Unfollow Irrelevant Profiles
Periodically review profiles your page is following to unfollow contacts that are no longer relevant. Keep your follows focused.
Share Your Follows’ Content
Don’t just passively consume updates from profiles you follow. Like, share and comment on their posts to multiply engagement.
Make Your Own Content Shareable
Post updates, articles and multimedia that followers will be excited to interact with. Make it easy for others to engage with your page.
Follow Competitors Selectively
Be cautious following and interacting with competitor pages. Do so strategically without crossing any ethical boundaries.
Adhering to these best practices will ensure your business page gets the most mileage out of its LinkedIn follows. Always focus on value-driven, authentic engagement.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn does enable business pages to follow other profiles and pages on the platform. This allows pages to tap into larger networks, monitor their industry, research prospects and boost engagement. Following other users can be extremely beneficial as part of a business page’s overall LinkedIn strategy. However, be selective and strategic with follows. Focus on quality over quantity and engage genuinely with the profiles and brands you follow. Used effectively, LinkedIn following can help business pages expand their reach and achieve their marketing objectives on the world’s largest professional network.