Quick Answers
LinkedIn company pages and education pages serve different purposes on the platform. Company pages showcase businesses and organizations, while education pages highlight schools, universities, and bootcamps.
The key differences include:
- Purpose – Company pages market brands, products, and services. Education pages provide info on academic programs, admissions, campus life.
- Audience – Company pages engage customers, employees, investors. Education pages target prospective students, alumni, faculty.
- Admins – Company pages are managed by official reps of the business. Education pages are run by school admins, faculty, or students.
- Content – Company pages highlight company news, jobs, products. Education pages share academics, research, events, student life.
- Followers – Followers of company pages include customers, partners, talent. Followers of education pages are primarily students, alumni, staff.
In summary, LinkedIn company pages serve as a marketing platform for businesses while education pages act as a hub for academic institutions to connect with students. The target audiences, administrators, and content for each page type differ significantly.
Purpose of LinkedIn Company Pages
LinkedIn company pages enable businesses and organizations to establish an official presence on the platform. The primary purposes of company pages include:
- Brand awareness – Company pages showcase brands, products, services, and culture to the LinkedIn audience.
- Recruitment – Pages highlight job openings and company culture to attract qualified candidates.
- Customer engagement – Share company news, offers, and thought leadership content to build relationships with customers.
- Lead generation – Features like Follow Company, Showcase Pages, and LinkedIn ads help drive leads and sales.
- Thought leadership – Position subject matter experts as trusted voices by sharing insights, trends, and best practices.
- Investor relations – For public companies, share financial updates, earnings reports, and leadership changes.
Essentially, LinkedIn company pages enable businesses to tap into the professional network’s audience of over 850 million members. It serves as a versatile platform for multi-faceted business marketing and engagement goals.
Key Company Page Features
LinkedIn offers several features to help businesses optimize their company pages:
- Company Updates – Share news, articles, events, images, and videos to actively engage your followers.
- Careers Tab – Highlight open positions at your company to attract qualified candidates.
- Followers – Build an audience of customers, partners, employees, and other relevant profiles.
- Page Analytics – Gain insights into your follower demographics, content engagement, and page visitors.
- Showcase Pages – Create dedicated pages for your products, services, content, and campaigns.
Optimizing these features helps businesses connect with LinkedIn’s audience to achieve their marketing, recruitment, sales, and engagement goals.
Purpose of LinkedIn Education Pages
In contrast to company pages, LinkedIn education pages serve educational institutions seeking to connect with students, alumni, faculty, and other academic audiences. The main goals of education pages include:
- Student recruitment – Share academics, campus life, and admissions info to attract prospective students.
- Alumni engagement – Foster ongoing relationships with alumni by highlighting school news, events, and ways to give back.
- Faculty recruitment – Promote open faculty positions to attract academic talent.
- Thought leadership – Position faculty and administrators as subject matter experts by sharing research and insights.
- Fundraising – Use the page to promote giving opportunities like scholarships, capital campaigns, and endowments.
Overall, education pages create a hub for academic institutions to connect with students, faculty, alumni, donors, and other members of their community.
Key Education Page Features
LinkedIn provides the following features to help schools get the most value from their education pages:
- School Updates – Share news, events, articles, and other content updates with your follower base.
- Alumni Tool – Connect with alumni by location, graduation year, major, employers, and more.
- Recommended Alumni – LinkedIn suggests alumni you may know based on mutual connections, shared interests, location, and other factors.
- Alumni Stats – Gain insights into where your alumni work, live, and went to undergrad to optimize your content.
These features allow education institutions to tap into LinkedIn’s powerful alumni and student data. Schools can leverage these insights to improve recruitment, engagement, fundraising, and more.
Key Differences in Company vs. Education Pages
While company and education pages both create an official presence on LinkedIn, they cater to distinct audiences and serve different purposes:
Page Administrators
| Company Pages | Education Pages |
|---|---|
| Administered by official representatives of the company (marketing, HR, execs, etc.) | Run by school administrators, faculty, student ambassadors |
Company pages are managed by official business reps. Education pages are administered by schools’ faculty, students, or marketing teams.
Target Audiences
| Company Pages | Education Pages |
|---|---|
| Current and prospective customers | Prospective, current, and former students |
| Investors and shareholders | Faculty and administrators |
| Employees and HR talent | Alumni |
| Industry professionals and partners | Donors and community partners |
Company pages target consumers, talent, and business audiences. Education pages cater to students, faculty, alumni, donors, and academic community members.
Page Content
| Company Pages | Education Pages |
|---|---|
| Company news and announcements | Campus news and events |
| Industry insights and thought leadership | Academic program details |
| Product and service spotlights | Faculty, research, and academic highlights |
| Job openings and career opportunities | Student life activities and culture |
| Leadership changes and executive spotlights | Alumni spotlights and career outcomes |
| Awards and company recognitions | Accolades, rankings, and recognitions |
Company pages focus on corporate, product, services, and industry news. Education pages highlight academic programs, campus life, research, and alumni.
Followers
| Company Pages | Education Pages |
|---|---|
| Customers | Current students |
| Prospective candidates | Former students |
| Partners and investors | Faculty and staff |
| Industry professionals | Prospective students |
| Acquisition targets | University affiliates |
Followers of company pages include customers, talent, and partners. Education page followers are primarily students, alumni, faculty, and prospective students.
Best Practices for Each Page Type
To get the most out of LinkedIn company and education pages, admins should follow these best practices:
Company Pages
- Showcase company culture and CSR initiatives to attract talent.
- Feature multiple employee voices and personalities – don’t just focus on executives.
- Share useful, relevant industry insights vs. overly promotional content.
- Refresh content frequently – inactive pages lose followers.
- Respond promptly and thoughtfully to comments and messages.
- Analyze follower demographics and engagement metrics to refine content.
Education Pages
- Highlight notable alumni regularly to engage this audience.
- Feature current student stories and perspectives – not just school marketing content.
- Share student, faculty, and alumni achievements to make followers proud.
- Promote ways for alumni and community to financially contribute or get involved.
- Respond quickly to comments and inquiries from prospective students.
- Analyze follower base and activity to inform content strategy.
Optimizing for each audience and use case drives maximum value for both page types. Analyzing data and iterating constantly improves performance.
Conclusion
In summary, while LinkedIn company pages and education pages both create an official brand presence, they serve distinct goals for their respective audiences. Businesses use company pages for marketing, engagement and recruitment. Schools leverage education pages to connect with students, faculty and alumni. Tailoring content, features and measurement to each use case makes these pages more effective. With customized strategies, both companies and educational institutions can thrive on the LinkedIn platform.