Along with a bunch of little changes, there are a few major ones: The redesign itself, cover images, and the fact that company pages are now visible through the LinkedIn mobile and iPad apps.

These hip new LinkedIn company pages are sort of like when smarty-pants Steve Urkel transformed into Stefan Urquelle thanks to his “Cool Juice” DNA serum on “Family Matters.” Still smart, but way smoother.

All this means that now is a great time to optimize your company page, whether you’ve just created a page or you’re giving your page a check-up. Let’s jump in.

Step 1: Optimize the basics

Start here if you haven’t already filled out the basic information on your business page. Click “Edit” in the upper-right.

You’ll then see the below fields: Company Type, Company Size, Company Website URL, Main Company Industry, Company Operating Status, and Year Founded. Make sure these are filled out as accurately as possible to give people the best sense of your business.

Next, look just below all those fields and you’ll find “Company Locations.” For local SEO purposes, make sure you’re entering the address of your business the same way across the Internet. If you have more than one location, click “Add another location.”

Now scroll to the bottom of the page. Add a company description that’s at least a couple of sentences long and then add some of your company’s specialties.

Step 2: Optimize logos and the new cover image

• Cover Image (646 x 200): Your cover image should represent your brand. For now, we’re just using our Facebook cover photo. If you’re worried about uploading an image larger than 646 x 200, rest assured that you can crop your image after uploading.

• Standard Logo (60 x 60): The standard logo appears at the top of your company page. LinkedIn will lay the square logo you upload over a white rectangle, so we recommend using a logo that already has a white background so they match up. Otherwise, your logo will have an awkward cutoff like the example below from Mashable.

• Square Logo (50 x 50): The square logo is used in network updates. For example, when someone sees a status update in their feed from your business. Keep the square logo consistent with your standard logo.

Step 3: Add designated page admins

Adding company page admins makes it easier to keep your page updated. Of course, some type of a social media manager should have admin access along with possibly a designer and copywriter. To add them, just start typing their name and then click. If the person you’re looking for doesn’t show up, it’s likely because you aren’t connected to them yet.

Step 4: Post updates and target audiences

Try posting updates daily to keep people up-to-date with your company, or at least the industry your company is involved in. Here at Portent, we make it a habit to update our LinkedIn page with blog posts and events like our monthly webinars.

When posting an update, make sure the image doesn’t look like crap. If it does, uncheck “Include photo.” If you want to see statistics about your individual posts, they’re now sitting just below the image. You also now have the ability to keep a post at the top of all your updates. Just click “Feature this update.”

Target Audiences

Moreover, you’ll probably notice that the targeting feature is more visible.

For instance, if you’re posting an update you think only small business employees would find interesting, then specify a target audience using company size. Then check “1-10 employees” and “11-50 employees.” When your update is posted, only followers who work for companies of that size will see the update. Other categories include industry, function, seniority, and geography.

Step 5: Add job listings

Is your company hiring? When you’re in “Edit,” click the tab “Careers” and then select “Post a job.”

Posting jobs on LinkedIn isn’t free, but it can be useful to post openings on a website where so many professionals reside. Below is an example of one of our job postings on LinkedIn to give you an idea of how these can be organized.

Step 6: Add products and services

Setting up your “Products” page and adding products or services can be the most time consuming part of optimizing your company’s new LinkedIn page.

The “Products” page (shown below) can be edited to include a description of what your company offers, up to three custom 640 x 220 banner images, a YouTube video, and audience targeting. To find all of this, go to “Edit” and then select the “Services” tab.

Add Products and Services

Once you’ve finished setting up the main “Products” page, you’ll be ready to add products and services (up to 25!). For an idea of the types of products and services you can promote on your company page, we list Search Engine Optimization, our PPC Essentials Program, Social Media Marketing, Copywriting, and more.

To get started, hover over the arrow next to the “Edit” button on your company page and click “Add product or service.”

Give potential customers the best idea about your product or service by being thorough when filling out each field. Don’t forget to:

• Include a URL for the product or service that points back to your company’s website (Step 7).
• List an employee as a contact from your company. Type their name below Step 8 to select them.
• Do you have a special offer for this specific product or service? Go to Step 9 and include the details.
• Do you have YouTube video you’d like to include? Fill out both Step 10 and Step 11.

When finished, click “Publish.”

Step 7: Measure your page’s success with Insights

If you’re not measuring how your page is doing, then you’re doing internet marketing wrong. For your company page, LinkedIn Insights makes this easy.

Follower Insights

Click “Follower Insights” and you’ll be taken to the page below. It keeps track of things like:

• Company Update Engagement: How followers are interacting with your company’s updates, broken down into clicks, likes, comments, shares, and engagement percentage.
• Follower Demographics: What industries do your followers work in? What’s the follower breakdown between non-employees and employees? Find out here.
• Company Update Impressions: See how many impressions your updates have made month-by-month.

Page Insights

On the other hand, “Page Insights” keeps tabs on things like page views, page visitor demographics, unique visitors, and products and services page clicks. Like “Follower Insights,” all of these can be broken down into several sub-categories.

So what’s the takeaway? Measure and learn. If company update engagement has decreased over the past few months, what are you doing differently? Maybe you’ve been updating too frequently and people aren’t sharing your updates as often. If that’s the case, update less and see if engagement increases next month.

How do you feel about the changes LinkedIn made to company pages? Leave a comment or question.

The post Optimize Your New LinkedIn Company Page in 7 Steps appeared first on Portent.

As the Facebook of the business world, LinkedIn has become the go-to social media scene for career movers and shakers, and now it’s more influential than ever. Once known as just a social network for tech-savvy professionals to find a new gig, the leading business-oriented social network recently gave companies the ability to strut their stuff with a new Products and Services tab.

One Giant Leap into B2B Marketing

LinkedIn’s latest addition isn’t just important because it looks hi tech and it’s easy to use – it transcends the ability of this social media to service both people and businesses.

“We are glad to provide companies a place on LinkedIn to showcase their products, services and associated recommendations,” says Director of Product Management Ryan Roslansky on the LinkedIn blog. “Company Pages will enable companies to build their brand through network-aware recommendations, giving members rich, credible insights into how any given product (or service) is perceived by their fellow professionals.”

What this means is that companies can list off what they do best, and other LinkedIn members can provide direct recommendations to the each of the products and services, or to the company as a whole. This is measurable word-of-mouth marketing that goes beyond a simple Facebook “Like” because the LinkedIn user’s profile image is attached to the recommendation.

Creating Your Product & Services Page

LinkedIn makes this process really easy, which is great for the technically challenged, but doesn’t allow much room for creativity for internet professionals and business owners. Once you’re on your business profile, go into the Products and Services tab and then click Edit.

As you go through the step-by-step process, you’ll find as you write your company descriptions that the text boxes only allow simple text. This means no bolding or italics and no use of HTML links or images. On the upside, LinkedIn does pay attention to optimization for keyword phrases. Sprinkle in targeted phrases and long-tail keywords within your description, as well as using CAPS LOCK or direct visitors to a phone number, email address or website as a call-to-action.

Example:

As you can see, I highlighted the company name and also described what we do. Search phrases like “internet marketing company”, “search engine optimization” and “PPC” are keywords I want Portent to be relevant for on LinkedIn. I also included our phone number and email as a call-to-action for people to contact us if they have any questions about our services. Also keep in mind that LinkedIn allows you six to seven lines of text before it cuts your description off with a “More” button.

One of the more interesting options in your custom Products and Services page is the ability to create separate page versions to target specific audiences. Think of it as if you were creating a landing page for Suzie-the-CEO and a different landing page for Bob-the-builder. While I think it’s really confusing to make this the first step in the customization process (not to mention that it’s major overkill for many small businesses) this option will give medium to large companies a chance to increase their conversion rate with an exclusive copy or images based on specific demographics.

Adding your Company Showcase Image & Video

The Product and Services page allows you to add up to three showcase images on a rotating spotlight module. Surprisingly, the links you can add for each image appear to be followed (although it is redirected through LinkedIn).

My advice is to commission a designer for this one because you’ll need a custom-size banner. LinkedIn asks for a 640×220 pixel image and if you use an image of any other size, it’s liable to look like it was stretched out on the side of an overinflated balloon.

As for adding a YouTube video, simply add the URL into the text box and add a video header to describe the product or service.

Adding a Product or Service on LinkedIn

To add a product or service to your company’s LinkedIn profile, click on the Products and Services tab and then click “Add a Product or Service.”

Just like creating the Product & Services page, follow LinkedIn’s step-by-step process to add each specific product or service. In addition, each product/service page allows you to create a bullet list of product/service features, as well as list a set of contacts using their LinkedIn profiles.

Adding a thumbnail image gave me the most trouble (and it should be pretty simple). The 100×80 pixel thumbnail display is confining, and unless your image is a horizontal rectangle, you’re going to have the same issues you had with the company showcase image. As a workaround, if you have a square image as your thumbnail, add an equal amount of white space to the left and right of the logo to create a proportionate rectangle.

Promote Your Products/Services

After you’re done creating your Products and Services page, it’s time to tell the world about it. LinkedIn gives you the option to request a recommendation for an individual product/service, or the option to promote your product/service or company with paid advertising.

To request a recommendation, click on the Request Recommendation button from within the product/service page.

LinkedIn provides you with an adequate standard message, but since you’re asking for a sincere recommendation, take the time to write a personal greeting.

Never Stop Optimizing

It’s easy to build up your LinkedIn profile. The hard part is using this social network to your advantage. Dedicate a few minutes to it every week. Make a few connections. Ask for a recommendation. LinkedIn basically provides FREE ADVERTISEMENT. If you do it right, your LinkedIn profile will rank reasonably in search engine results pages (SERPs) for your brand, giving you added reputation management.

Since LinkedIn Company pages are still in the Beta phase, things are still changing. Feel free to share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below or send a direct message (or better yet, a recommendation) to the Portent Interactive LinkedIn profile whenever you get the chance.

The post Promoting Your Company on LinkedIn Just Got Easy (Kind of) appeared first on Portent.