LinkedIn is a professional networking platform that allows users to create profiles, connect with other professionals, join groups, follow companies, and more. LinkedIn offers both personal accounts for individual users as well as pages for businesses, organizations, and influencers. While LinkedIn accounts and pages serve similar purposes in helping to establish an online presence, there are some key differences between the two.
LinkedIn Account Overview
A LinkedIn account is designed for individual users to network and manage their professional profiles and connections. With a LinkedIn account, users can:
- Create a profile highlighting work experience, education, skills, accomplishments, interests, and more
- Connect with colleagues, classmates, clients, and other professionals
- Join groups based on interests, professional organizations, alumni groups, and more
- Follow companies to receive updates on new products, services, job openings, etc.
- Search for jobs, people, and groups relevant to their professional interests
- Stay up to date on industry news and insights through LinkedIn’s customizable feed
- Message connections through InMail
- Get updates on connections’ career changes and milestones
A LinkedIn account is designed for an individual person to manage their own profile and professional network. Each LinkedIn user is limited to one LinkedIn account.
LinkedIn Page Overview
In contrast to personal accounts, LinkedIn pages are designed for businesses, organizations, institutions, brands, and influential individuals to establish an official presence on LinkedIn. Pages allow organizations to:
- Showcase information about the company, products/services, culture, values, and more
- Promote content such as articles, whitepapers, case studies, and multimedia
- Advertise jobs and recruit talent
- Interact with followers through status updates, polls, and message responses
- Analyze page analytics to inform content strategy and measure success
- Collaborate with employees to manage the page and post as the brand
While a personal LinkedIn account is limited to representing one individual, a company or organization can create multiple LinkedIn pages to represent sub-brands, locations, divisions, or initiatives.
Key Differences
While LinkedIn accounts and pages can both be used for branding and outreach, there are some notable differences:
| Factor | LinkedIn Account | LinkedIn Page |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | For individual users to network and manage professional profiles | For businesses, brands, organizations to establish an official presence |
| Customization | Limited customization options beyond adding profile/header photos and background colors | Highly customizable with banners, logos, color themes, and additional modules |
| Features | Standard account features like customized feed, profile editing, messaging, search, groups, etc. | Additional company page features like Showcase Pages, Analytics, Talent Solutions, etc. |
| Audience | Individual professional connections | Broad audience of prospects, customers, fans, industry networks, etc. |
| Admins | The individual account holder | Multiple authorized admins can access and post |
| Limits | 1 account per person | Unlimited pages per organization |
LinkedIn Account vs. Personal Brand Page
For individuals focused on building a personal brand, there is some overlap between a standard LinkedIn account and a LinkedIn page. However, there are still key differences that influencers, thought leaders, creators, and other professionals should consider:
| Factor | Personal LinkedIn Account | Personal Brand LinkedIn Page |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Networking, professional profile, job seeking | Establishing thought leadership, promoting content and initiatives |
| Content Focus | Background, experience, skills, endorsements | Ideas, expertise, articles, projects |
| Audience Interaction | Individual connections | Broad audience of followers |
| Brand Control | Limited to account holder | Additional admins, posting as page identity |
| Metrics | Profile views, connection growth | Follower growth, post reach, engagement |
While the personal account focuses on professional background and networking, the page provides additional flexibility and features to strategically build an influential personal brand.
Should You Have Both an Account and a Page?
For many professionals and organizations, the best approach is to maintain both a strong LinkedIn account and an optimized company or personal brand page.
The individual account is still useful for networking opportunities, showcasing credentials, finding jobs, joining groups, and connecting directly with contacts.
The page provides a hub to extend reach to a broader audience, promote thought leadership content, advertise openings, analyze audience insights, and interact with followers.
Having both allows professionals to tap into LinkedIn’s full range of opportunities for networking, brand-building, recruiting, and generating leads.
Best Practices
To maximize the impact of your LinkedIn presence, keep these best practices in mind:
- Optimize your individual profile with a professional headshot, concise and engaging about section, and detailed experience and education sections highlighting key skills and accomplishments.
- Expand your network proactively by connecting with colleagues, trade partners, alumni, and professionals in your industry.
- Engage thoughtfully with content and groups to establish yourself as an expert in your field.
- Use your page strategically by posting valuable industry insights, promoting events/offers, responding to messages, etc.
- Include rich media on your page such as images, videos, presentations, and infographics.
- Analyze your audience data and activity metrics on both accounts to refine your strategy.
- Promote your account and page consistently on other platforms to maximize visibility.
- Stay on brand by maintaining the same profile photo, cover image, messaging, etc. across accounts.
The Takeaway
In summary, while LinkedIn accounts and pages serve complementary purposes, focusing on networking versus branding, it is valuable for both individuals and organizations to maintain an active presence through both channels.
Professionals should optimize their personal account for career visibility and relationship building while also leveraging a page to promote thought leadership and connect with a broader audience.
For organizations, an actively managed company page provides a hub to extend reach, drive engagement, recruit talent, and generate leads from LinkedIn’s powerful professional network.
