LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform with over 850 million members. On LinkedIn, members can create personal profiles to represent themselves professionally as well as company pages to represent businesses and organizations. While personal profiles allow individual users to form connections, search for jobs, and build their professional brand, company pages enable businesses to attract talent, promote their products and services, and connect with customers.
There are some key differences between personal profiles and company pages on LinkedIn that serve their unique purposes. This article will compare LinkedIn personal profiles and company pages in depth to help you understand when you need each and how to use them effectively.
What is a personal profile on LinkedIn?
A personal profile on LinkedIn allows an individual user to create a professional presence and build connections on the platform. With a personal profile, you can:
- Showcase your work experience, education, skills, accomplishments, and more on your profile
- Connect with colleagues, classmates, clients, industry peers, and more to grow your professional network
- Follow companies and topics of interest to stay up-to-date on industry news
- Search and apply for jobs
- Join relevant groups to connect with professionals in your field
- Publish long-form posts, articles, and other content to demonstrate your expertise
- Message connections directly
Essentially, your LinkedIn personal profile serves as your professional resume and portfolio online. It is designed for individual users to form meaningful connections, search for opportunities, and build their personal brand.
With a basic LinkedIn account, you can create one profile to represent yourself. LinkedIn Premium career accounts give you access to more advanced profile features for self-promotion and opportunity searches.
Key sections of a LinkedIn personal profile
Some of the main sections of a LinkedIn personal profile include:
- Headline – A short, memorable professional slogan.
- Summary – Highlights your background, value, and professional goals.
- Experience – Details your work history and accomplishments.
- Education – Lists your academic credentials.
- Skills – Keywords describing your expertise; can be endorsed by others.
- Recommendations – Written references from your connections.
- Accomplishments – Honors, certifications, courses, projects, publications, and more.
- Interests – Your personal hobbies and interests outside of work.
You can also add media, links, and custom sections to further build out your profile. Prompts guide you to fill out the most important sections first to create a robust profile.
What is a company page on LinkedIn?
In contrast to personal profiles, LinkedIn company pages are designed specifically for businesses and organizations to have a professional presence on LinkedIn. With a company page, brands can:
- Promote their products, services, mission, culture, and job openings
- Attract and engage with prospective talent and customers
- Build stronger relationships with existing employees and followers
- Share company news and updates
- Curate content to thought lead in their industry
- Analyze visitor demographics and behavior through page analytics
Company pages help brands build awareness, generate leads, recruit candidates, and shape public perception on LinkedIn. Pages can be created and managed by designated admins within an organization.
Different types of company pages include:
- Company pages – For businesses and organizations.
- Showcase pages – To highlight a specific brand, business unit, or initiative.
- School pages – Represent schools and their alumni communities.
With a premium page subscription, companies can access more sophisticated features like advanced analytics, recruiter tools, lead generation campaigns, and automated messaging.
Key sections of a LinkedIn company page
Key sections of LinkedIn company pages include:
- Cover photo – Hero banner visually representing your brand.
- About – Highlights your company description, story, offerings, mission, team, and culture.
- Life – Photos and updates highlighting your work environment.
- Products – Showcase your product and service catalog.
- Careers – Promote open roles and employer brand.
- Posts – News updates, articles, videos, and other content.
- Analytics – Page visitor demographics and activity.
Additional sections like Locations, Videos, and Recommendations can also be added. Companies are prompted to complete key page sections during initial setup.
Comparing Personal Profiles vs. Company Pages on LinkedIn
While LinkedIn personal profiles and company pages can appear similar at first glance, they serve very different purposes. Here is an overview comparing profiles and pages on LinkedIn:
Purpose
| Personal Profile | Company Page |
|---|---|
| Represent an individual professionally with a resume, portfolio, and network | Represent a company or organization with mission, culture, products, jobs, and content |
Personal profiles are for individuals to manage their career, while company pages help organizations manage their brand and talent pipeline.
Content and Engagement
| Personal Profile | Company Page |
|---|---|
| Showcases an individual’s background, skills, experience, education, accomplishments, recommendations, and interests | Highlights company description, products/services, culture, news, jobs, media, employee spotlights, and industry content |
| Interacts by connecting, messaging, sharing, commenting, liking, and posting | Interacts by following, commenting, sharing, and liking company content |
Personal profiles feature individual professional details, while company pages publish a range of branded content.
Audience
| Personal Profile | Company Page |
|---|---|
| Followed by connections like colleagues, classmates, clients, and peers | Followed by prospects, existing customers, employees, recruits, partners, and more |
Personal profiles build professional relationships, while company pages connect with broader target demographics.
Management
| Personal Profile | Company Page |
|---|---|
| Managed individually by the account owner | Managed by appointed admins in the company |
| Reflects the personal brand of the individual | Reflects the employer brand of the company |
Individual account owners control personal profiles, while company pages require team management.
Analytics
| Personal Profile | Company Page |
|---|---|
| Provides statistics on profile views and post reach | Provides detailed visitor demographics, content analytics, and lead generation tracking |
Company pages offer more robust analytics capabilities to glean insights.
Advertising
| Personal Profile | Company Page |
|---|---|
| Self-promote skills and experience to advance career | Runs paid campaigns and sponsorships to reach target audiences |
Company pages invest more heavily in advertising initiatives.
Best Practices for Optimization
To get the most out of LinkedIn, it’s important to optimize both your personal profile and your company page:
Optimize personal profiles by:
- Including a professional headshot photo
- Writing an engaging headline and summary
- Showcasing your best work and strongest skills
- Customizing your public profile URL
- Growing your network of quality connections
- Participating actively in conversations and groups
- Publishing and sharing relevant content regularly
Optimize company pages by:
- Using branded cover and profile photos
- Crafting robust About, Products, and Careers sections
- Encouraging employees to follow and share your page
- Posting regular company and industry updates
- Publishing employee spotlights, job openings, and content
- Advertising open roles and content to reach wider audiences
- Analyzing visitor demographics and engagement metrics
Optimizing both profiles and pages makes your LinkedIn presence more discoverable, engaging, and impactful.
Putting Profiles and Pages to Work
Your LinkedIn personal profile and company page can work synergistically to meet your professional goals on the platform:
- Share company page updates on your profile to expand reach.
- Connect your page admins and active employees through their profiles.
- Promote company content, events, and job openings to your connections.
- Follow industry influencers, partners, and prospective customers through company pages.
- Publish and share content from both profiles and pages.
This coordinated approach helps build awareness, engagement, relationships, and reputation on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn personal profiles enable individuals to manage their professional identity and connections, while company pages empower organizations to manage their brand, promotional reach, and talent recruiting.
Optimizing both profiles and pages is critical to cultivate the right relationships and gain maximum visibility on LinkedIn. While profiles represent people and pages represent brands, working together they can help meet a diverse range of professional goals.