LinkedIn company pages are changing with the addition of new features.
Last week’s announcement will change your experience with and use of pages on this site in both subtle and not so subtle ways.
New Feature: Post custom images
This change is subtle. It’s essentially giving you a choice of the image that is paired with a link you are posting as a status update. If you run a Facebook page, I expect it’ll work similarly. It provides added control that is desirable though it’s not likely to significantly change the experience of people following your page.
New Feature: Like and comment as your company
This change can significantly change the experience of people following your page. Even on great nonprofit LinkedIn company pages, I don’t normally see much interaction. So maybe this change will encourage that to happen if staff no longer need to interact through their personal profile. To be done successfully, this means that organizations will need to talk as people talking to fellow professionals. But it could depersonalize LinkedIn company pages, if staff hide behind their logo and use corporate voice.
For pages that already feature interaction, they’ll want to give thought to how to use this new ability. Likely they are best to use a mix. A “organizational response” when appropriate and a “individual staff member’s response” when that is better. Their could be strength in that mixed approach as I’ve seen on my neighbourhood association’s Facebook page.
New Feature: Stay up to date
“See an at-a-glance feed of all the companies you follow, plus access all the Company Pages you manage from your Companies Home.” These are nice enhancements that make for a better experience if you follow companies on LinkedIn or manage a company page but they are refinements of previous changes.
Showcase pages
The announcement also highlights the last major new feature launched: Showcase pages. Since LinkedIn company pages still hold untapped opportunities for many nonprofits, I’m not expecting to see many of these pages used by charities over the short term. If you’re making great use of your existing LinkedIn company page and/or you have more than one distinct brands, it’d be a good idea to look at what this feature offers your organization. In general though, I think this feature is better suited to for profit organizations with a more sophisticated approach to managing brands.
