Why Your LinkedIn Company Page is More Important than Your Website

LinkedIn has over 3 million companies on its database – and these are a great source of information for recruiters and candidates, but the average company page on LinkedIn is a total mess. Here’s why and how it could be affecting you…

I often tell my clients that they should consider their LinkedIn Company Page as website number 1, and that the one they spend loads of time and £$€ developing maybe website number 2 – thus they are not investing enough on (free) tools within LinkedIn that their ideal talent and clients are already looking at.

Here’s a scenario which may help you see where I’m coming from:

1. Recruiter surfs LinkedIn for talent
2. Recruiter finds talent
3. Recruiter looks at talent (perhaps talent looks back?)
4. Recruiter contacts Talent through LinkedIn (talent definitely looks at the recruiter)
5. Then perhaps (very likely) Talent nips into the recruiter’s Company page (that handy link on the recruiter’s profile makes it easy to click through)

Talent looks at company page and perhaps sees:

1. Very little information about the business
2. Lists of employees with very little information about themselves (and perhaps either no photo or some dodgy looking line-up of “the usual suspects”)
3. If the company has bothered to start using the Company Updates feature, I bet that it’s just #job, #job, #job, or maybe just news about their own business
4. Maybe the jobs aren’t relevant to the Talent (Russian Roulette)
5. There are no Products or Services pages (which would give confidence to the candidate about whether the Recruiter is able to help them in their sector)
6. If the Products and Services pages have been created, I wonder if they have been key words optimised so that Talent can find them?
7. Perhaps there are old staff on the page which left some time ago and no-one’s bothered to get them removed (you can do that, you know!)
8. Don’t get me started on the fact that clients will be looking at your company page too!

So, some tips to help you maximise your company page on LinkedIn

• Check regularly who “works” for you – anyone can add your company name to their profile and link through to you… what are you doing to check that your company page accurately reflects your workforce?
• Create some Products and Services – don’t bore me with what you sell, talk to me about your outcomes and what you are looking for… don’t be restricted by LinkedIn telling you what to put – advertise your charitable causes, your mantra, news about your business – help me buy-in to you.
• Company updates – please don’t just dump your jobs in there! Be more original and focus also on the 80% of users who are NOT looking for work and perhaps clients who have no vacancies at the moment… can you publish sector information, demonstrate your specialisms and approach?

Have a good look at your company page… is it really a true reflection of your business? What could you do with it to attract talent and clients – and ultimately engage them?

The best advice? Speak online the way you would if in a room with a client and you’ll go a long way!

Related: How Business Recommendations on LinkedIn Can Help Candidates.