LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 810 million members worldwide. LinkedIn allows members to create profiles that summarize their professional accomplishments, skills, and experiences. In addition to personal profiles, LinkedIn offers companies and organizations options to establish an official presence on the platform. The two main options are showcase pages and company pages. While there are some similarities between the two, there are important differences that impact how each can be leveraged.
What is a LinkedIn Showcase Page?
A LinkedIn showcase page is designed to highlight a specific brand, business line, initiative, campaign or program. Showcase pages operate independently from an organization’s main LinkedIn company page. Some key facts about showcase pages:
– Showcase pages are best for highlighting a specific product, service, initiative or campaign. They allow organizations to provide more focused information beyond what is on the company page.
– Showcase pages have their own followers separate from the company page followers. This allows organizations to target content and build an audience interested in that specific brand or initiative.
– Showcase pages can be created and managed by any employee. Multiple employees can manage a single showcase page.
– Showcase pages allow you to publish content just like a personal profile or company page. This includes status updates, articles, images, video and more.
– Showcase pages appear in LinkedIn search results independently from the company page.
– Analytics provide data on follower growth, content engagement and visitor demographics.
In summary, showcase pages operate independently from company pages. They allow organizations to build a targeted audience and publish focused content for a specific brand, product, initiative or campaign.
What is a LinkedIn Company Page?
A LinkedIn company page is the main hub for an organization on LinkedIn. Company pages establish an official presence and help organizations engage with the LinkedIn community. Some key facts about company pages:
– Each organization can only have one main LinkedIn company page. This is the central hub for that organization on LinkedIn.
– Company pages showcase overall information about an organization’s products, services, culture and work opportunities. The focus is broader compared to a showcase page.
– Followers of the company page are interested in the organization as a whole, not just a specific product or initiative.
– Company pages can only be created and managed by official admins approved by the organization.
– Content published on a company page represents the brand and offerings as a whole. This may include industry news, company updates, leadership spotlights, job postings and more.
– Company pages have robust analytics tracking followers, visitor demographics, content engagement, talent recruitment and more.
In summary, the company page is an organization’s primary presence on LinkedIn. There can be only one per organization, and it establishes the official brand profile across the network.
Key Differences Between Showcase Pages and Company Pages
While showcase pages and company pages both allow organizations to establish a presence and engage audiences on LinkedIn, there are some important differences:
Purpose
– Showcase pages highlight a specific product, brand, initiative or campaign
– Company pages represent the organization and its full suite of offerings
Content Focus
– Content on a showcase page focuses just on that product or initiative
– Content on a company page covers high-level news about the organization
Audience
– Showcase pages develop an audience interested in that specific area
– Company pages build a follower base interested in the full organization
Employees Who Can Manage
– Any employee can create and manage a showcase page
– Only official admins approved by the organization can manage the company page
Number Per Organization
– Multiple showcase pages can be created for different brands/campaigns
– There can only be one single company page per organization
Appears In Search
– Showcase pages appear independently in search results
– Company page dominates search presence for that organization
Analytics
– Showcase pages provide analytics on their specific audience and content
– Company pages offer full suite of analytics on followers, talent recruiting, and content
In summary, the key differences come down to purpose, content focus, audience targeting, search presence, number per organization, and employee access. Showcase pages offer greater flexibility while company pages are the single hub for an organization.
When to Use a Showcase Page vs. Company Page
So when should you consider a LinkedIn showcase page versus focusing exclusively on the company page? Here are some best practices:
Use a showcase page when you want to:
– Promote a specific brand, product line, or initiative
– Test out content focused on a niche audience
– Extend reach for campaigns and events
– Enable employees to publish content directly
– Analyze performance for specific content categories
Focus exclusively on the company page when you want to:
– Represent the full brand and key offerings
– Target followers interested in the full organization
– Control brand consistency and messaging
– Promote corporate news and culture
– Manage administration centrally through marketing
– Analyze company-level recruiting and engagement
In general, most organizations will want to maintain a company page as their primary LinkedIn presence supplemented by showcase pages as needed for specific initiatives. The company page should be the go-to location for followers to engage and learn about that organization.
Best Practices For Using Showcase Pages
If you’ve decided a LinkedIn showcase page aligns with your strategy, here are some best practices to optimize it:
– Choose a very specific niche for each showcase page. For example, do not create a general “services” page. Go narrow with something like “AI Consulting Services”.
– Make sure the showcase page name and description clearly convey the specific focus. Include relevant keywords.
– Cross-promote the showcase page through your other LinkedIn assets and company website. Drive followers directly.
– Develop content specifically tailored for that product, brand or initiative. Avoid too much overlap with the company page content.
– Take advantage of LinkedIn’s analytics to assess performance and dial in your strategy.
– Assign page admin access to employees directly involved with that offering so they can publish content quickly.
– Ensure the overall visual brand is consistent with the company page look and feel.
– Set objectives for the showcase page and analyze frequently whether it is achieving goals.
Best Practices For Managing Your Company Page
To maximize impact of your LinkedIn company page, keep these best practices in mind:
– Fully complete the page including description, images, videos, employee photos and job postings.
– Communicate regularly with a mix of relevant industry news, company updates, culture spotlights, recruiter tips and thought leadership.
– Promote the page across your website, emails, other social channels and offline marketing. Make it the hub for your LinkedIn presence.
– Analyze follower demographics, content engagement and job views to inform your content strategy and recruiting efforts.
– Designate a few official admins to manage the page, responding to messages and comments.
– Develop content guidelines for the page that align to overall brand standards and company messaging.
– Seamlessly integrate the page with your other LinkedIn initiatives like employee advocacy and recruiting campaigns.
– Fully utilize Company Pages analytics to benchmark performance and optimize efforts over time. Maintain consistency.
Should You Keep the Showcase Page After a Campaign Ends?
For short-term campaigns like a product launch, events or promotions, you may wonder whether to keep the showcase page live or delete it once completed. Here are some factors to consider:
– If the page has developed a strong audience, retain it and pivot the purpose over time. Redirect the followers to other relevant brand pages.
– For one-off campaigns without ongoing activities, the page can likely be removed once concluded.
– Evaluate SEO and inbound linking factors. If the page serves as a strong backlink to your website, that’s a case for keeping it.
– Assess whether old content will become outdated or irrelevant over time after the campaign wraps up.
– Determine whether staff will be able to keep maintaining and updating the page regularly after the initiative ends.
In general, successful showcase pages that build a strong audience should not be removed just because the campaign ended. Repurpose the page for other uses over time. Only consider removing one-off pages with very campaign-specific content.
Conclusion
LinkedIn showcase pages and company pages both provide excellent ways to establish an official brand presence and engage audiences. Showcase pages allow organizations to highlight specific initiatives, campaigns, products and services. Company pages represent the central hub for that brand across LinkedIn.
Best practices generally suggest maintaining an active company page supplemented by showcase pages for any niche focuses. Content and follower-building strategies may differ between the two. However, both showcase and company pages enable organizations to achieve visibility, establish thought leadership, and connect with professionals on the world’s largest professional network.