A LinkedIn business profile is a company page on LinkedIn that represents a business or organization. It allows businesses to establish their brand, showcase their products and services, share company updates, attract and engage with potential customers, and connect with other businesses on LinkedIn.
Why have a LinkedIn business profile?
A LinkedIn business profile offers many benefits for businesses and organizations:
- Increased visibility – Having a LinkedIn business profile makes your company more findable in LinkedIn search results and exposes it to LinkedIn’s audience of over 740 million members.
- Credibility – A complete, optimized LinkedIn business profile lends credibility by showing your business is established and active on a major professional social media platform.
- Recruitment – Your business page functions as a talent magnet by broadcasting employment opportunities and your organizational culture.
- Lead generation – LinkedIn profiles let you attract new leads and customers by prominently featuring your products/services, content, and calls-to-action.
- Brand building – You can shape your brand image on LinkedIn through messages, content, employee spotlights, and interaction with followers.
- Thought leadership – Share industry insights, trends, and best practices to establish your company and employees as trusted subject matter experts.
In short, a LinkedIn business profile serves as your company’s hub on the world’s largest professional social media platform, enabling you to expand your reach, engage your audience, and drive measurable business results.
How to create a LinkedIn business profile
Follow these steps to create a complete, optimized LinkedIn business profile:
- Sign up for a LinkedIn page – Visit LinkedIn.com and click on “Create a page” under “Work”. Choose “Company page” and enter your company details.
- Add a logo and cover image – Upload a professional logo and eye-catching banner that convey your brand identity. Optimize images for clarity.
- Write an informative “About” section – Briefly describe what your company does, how it started, company culture and values, and any defining aspects of your business.
- Showcase products and services – Feature and describe the key products and/or services you offer. This helps visitors understand your business and offerings.
- Highlight employees – Adding team members with LinkedIn profiles lets you humanize your brand and attract talent.
- Insert relevant media – Embed videos, slideshares, pdfs, and other content that engages visitors and shows your expertise.
- Publish regular updates – Post company news, announcements, content offers, event listings, and other updates to grow your audience and keep followers in-the-know.
- Analyze page analytics – Review visitor demographics, page views, and follower growth to refine your page and content strategy.
Maximizing your LinkedIn business profile leads to higher visibility, wider audience reach, increased engagement, and more brand awareness.
LinkedIn business profile best practices
Here are some top tips for creating an optimized, high-impact LinkedIn business profile:
- Choose an easy-to-recall, recognizable profile URL – www.linkedin.com/company/yourcompanyname
- Craft an engaging headline and description – Summarize your value proposition and make it skimmable.
- Add industry tags – Help users and LinkedIn’s algorithm better categorize your business.
- Personalize the LinkedIn profile URL – Customize the URL with your business name for better branding.
- Leverage all available sections – Fill out as many sections as possible, such as Story, Careers, and Products.
- Use relevant keywords – Incorporate keywords your audience may use to find you throughout your profile.
- Maintain a consistent brand image – Align to your brand identity in tone of voice, messaging, visuals, etc.
- Produce helpful, engaging content – Share useful content that establishes your company as an industry thought leader.
- Interact and respond – Reply to any comments and messages in a timely, professional manner.
- Promote across platforms – Cross-promote your LinkedIn profile on your website, other social channels, email, etc.
Investing time in optimizing these elements of your LinkedIn business profile will help maximize your business impact and visibility on the platform.
LinkedIn business profile sections
LinkedIn business profiles contain a variety of sections to highlight different aspects of your company. Here are some of the key sections to fill out:
About
The About section is one of the most important parts of your LinkedIn business profile. Use it to provide a short overview of your company, products/services, history, mission, and differentiators.
Company size
Specify the size of your company, such as the number of employees. This gives visitors a sense of your scale.
Company type
Select whether you are a public, private, non-profit, government, or self-owned company.
Specialties
Detail the specialized products, services, skills, and industries your business focuses on.
Website
Add a link to your company website to drive visitors to your site.
Industry
Select your company’s primary industry from LinkedIn’s list of industries.
Locations
Pinpoint the locations where your business operates and has offices/headquarters.
Followers
Grow your followers to expand your audience reach and updates visibility. Engage followers by liking/commenting.
Page statistics
Track weekly page views, follower growth, and update engagement through page analytics.
Life
Showcase company culture, values, team events, and community involvement through photos and updates.
Products
Feature and describe your product lines and current offerings through images, videos, and details.
Careers
Promote open positions and view analytics on job post performance to attract top talent.
Hashtags
Incorporate relevant hashtags in updates to tap into larger conversations and increase discoverability.
Optimizing these profile sections provides a robust, comprehensive view of your organization on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn business profile vs. Showcase Page
LinkedIn offers two types of business profiles – a standard Company Page and a Showcase Page. Here is how they differ:
Company Page | Showcase Page |
Represents overall parent company, brand or organization | Highlights specific brand, product line, or business unit |
1 per company | Multiple Showcase Pages allowed |
Followers receive updates from company page only | Followers receive updates from all associated Showcase Pages |
Admins can post updates and interact as the company | Admins post updates as themselves |
Appears prominently in search results | Less prominent in search results |
The main LinkedIn Company Page should represent your full brand, while Showcase Pages highlight sub-brands, product groups, or business divisions.
LinkedIn business profile vs. personal profile
While LinkedIn business profiles represent companies, personal profiles represent individual professionals. Here are some key differences:
- Business profiles showcase a company, its work, culture, products/services, content, and job opportunities.
- Personal profiles highlight an individual’s career history, skills, education, accomplishments, recommendations, and professional brand.
- Business profiles attract customers, investors, partners, and talent to the company.
- Personal profiles attract career opportunities, clients, expertise recognition, and professional connections.
- Business profiles convey the company’s voice and messaging.
- Personal profiles reflect the individual’s voice and personal brand.
- Any employee can administer a business profile.
- Only the individual owns and manages their personal profile.
While business and personal profiles have distinct purposes, individuals should align personal brand messaging with the company’s employer brand.
LinkedIn business profile statistics
Here are some noteworthy LinkedIn business profile statistics:
- 95% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content
- 45% of social media traffic referral to B2B company sites comes from LinkedIn
- LinkedIn pages with more than 10 employees listed see 30% more weekly page views
- Company pages with complete profiles have 40% higher follower growth
- Nearly 80% of B2B leads on LinkedIn come from company pages
- 93% of marketers use LinkedIn Company Pages to increase brand awareness
These statistics illustrate how vital it is for B2B companies to maintain complete, optimized LinkedIn business profiles.
Conclusion
A LinkedIn business profile serves as a company’s professional hub on the world’s most popular B2B social platform. Business profiles enable companies to extend reach, build engagement, attract talent, generate leads, and convey thought leadership.
Creating a robust LinkedIn presence requires adding rich company details, multimedia, employee spotlights, optimized content, and regular interaction. Maintaining a complete, well-managed LinkedIn business profile is essential for driving measurable business results.