LinkedIn is rolling out new functionality for it’s Linkedin Company Pages. A few months ago, the rapid pace of enhancements to the Company Page feature caused me to suggest LinkedIn Company Pages might someday replace a company’s website. This latest enhancement takes Linkedin Company Pages one step closer and, in fact, delivers functionality that most websites cannot do today. Company page administrators, who are typically in the Marketing Dept., will soon be able to update segments of followers based on the LinkedIn profile criteria of Company Size, Industry, Job Function, Seniority, and Geography. As an example, a new product aimed at the small business market might be targeted to followers at companies with less than 100 people. An announcement about an upcoming seminar in New York City might only be sent to followers in the Northern United States. A case study about Proctor and Gamble may only go to followers in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry.
The segmentation benefits extend to analytics as well. Administrators can view the number of impressions and level of engagement by segment, extending the insight into social communications via LinkedIn.
The steps to leveraging this powerful Targeting technology are:
1. Build a robust LinkedIn Company Page including rounding out the Products and Service section with banners, videos, links, and promotions.
2. Build a base of followers for your LinkedIn Company Page using many of the same techniques used to build an email list or Facebook following.
3. Produce a steady stream of content for Company Updates and decide which segment to deliver the messages to.
While traffic is still minimal for most Linkedin Company pages, now is the time to capture followers before your competition does. After all, there are only so many companies any one person can follow so the first ones to start delivering relevant content to the market will capture the mindshare. This opportunity for Marketing to deliver messages via a new medium is yet another example of why companies need to create a corporate-wide strategy to LinkedIn. Find out more information about this new feature, watch this video from LinkedIn: http://youtu.be/gxGCKJAJlpE
