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LinkedIn company pages are getting a brand new look and feel for the first time in about five years. This is big for companies on LinkedIn everywhere, and if you are not using LinkedIn to your full advantage right now, it is time to start considering how the platform could help your business networking reach. As a social media account, LinkedIn is one of the best ways to reach out to customers and clients you’ve worked with before, as well as other business to business networking and industry-specific outreach.
As of now, these new LinkedIn company pages are still in beta, which means that they are not quite ready for use at this point, but they will be soon. As always, it is better to be prepared for upcoming changes and be ready to dive right in, rather than being the last person on the tail-end of the new profile trend. Let’s take a look at some of the changes on the horizon and how your brand will need to adapt but also, how it will benefit from these LinkedIn changes.
Visual Display & Profile Improvements
As mentioned, the new profile view is still in beta, so not every page is going to show this view just yet. IBM is one of the companies that does have the new profile page, so I am going to use them as an example in this post.
Large Banner Image. Compared with the existing LinkedIn business page, the new business profile page allows you to have an even larger banner image (which is also situated in the banner position behind the profile image). This is a great space to be creative and really enhance branding in an otherwise uniform format.
Clean Design. The initial information: industry, company size, and location are still present at the very top—however, it is a much cleaner design, which really highlights the main image and company name. As a web design company, we’re happy to help if you need a logo that fits your new page!
Overview & Life. There are 3 main sections right below the initial company information: overview, jobs and life. (We will get to jobs in the next section). Overview really allows you to give visitors insight to your brand and business model, while life gives a glimpse into company culture.
Formatting. Formatting has also seen many improvements. With an expandable “about us” section and room for additional details about your business as a streamline presentation that was not available before. While the company overview has not changed a ton content-wis, the formatting and aesthetics have organized the information in a new way which is more visually appealing and informative.
Company Photos. One of the new additions to the overview is the “company photos” section, which allows you to add photos of employees, company events, products, or the office to your profile. This can be especially great for showcasing events such as trade shows, conventions, or holiday parties. Providing some visual examples of company culture on your LinkedIn profile is good practice for both networking and branding.
More Videos. In addition to photos, the “About Us,” “Life,” and “Culture” sections all allow for more videos than previous LinkedIn company pages. Not only does this give you even more space to touch on mission, culture, and branding—but it stresses the importance of visual content for social pages. If you haven’t designed any company videos, now is the time to start compiling and designing visual content for your page.
Culture Section. The culture section is totally new, and can be used in a variety of ways depending on your brand/business. One example is the use of “employee perspectives” where you can have articles your employees have written displayed and available to view/share easily. Below is an example of General Electric’s new LinkedIn page:
Focus on “Jobs”
The new company pages definitely focus on “job” listings and networking. “See Jobs” is the first call to action button on the business pages, with “follow us” immediately after. The page also allows you to show demographics of employees—such as education level, causes they care about, or other network information. This is a great way to give others insight into your brand/business, but also an awesome way to contribute to company culture and branding. It is also good to know that the focus on jobs is going to make hiring new employees, or looking for new additions to your existing team especially easy.
Recent Updates
According to Viveka von Rosen, LinkedIn specialist, the “recent updates “ section has gotten a major upgrade, with more of an infinite scroll “Pinterest” kind of feel. This particular change definitely shows that LinkedIn is trying to maintain and improve it’s place as a sharing platform for the professional community.
The Takeaway
It is not totally certain when the new LinkedIn business pages will be taking effect, as there are only a few pages in beta at this point. With big companies like IBM and GE being some of the first profiles, it is no doubt that LinkedIn is collecting data to make improvements and user experience even better before they fully launch. While there might be some alterations and improvements to the platform as it stands right now, some of the unique and new features like the “culture” and “life” sections are sure to stick around. By being aware of all of the changes to come you can be prepared. Start making new videos and generating photo content. Start having your content-savvy employees start writing and publishing articles to share. These kind of steps in preparation will allow you to take full advantage once the business pages launch.