Things are changing on LinkedIn. The professional social network is slowly revolutionizing itself into a social media channel with a professional attitude. LinkedIn is catching up with the times and becoming a source for content on the web. In the past few weeks, the site has rolled out two big changes that may affect the way companies use it.
The first and most impactful modification is to company pages. LinkedIn has decided to do away with the product page tabs effective April 14th, 2014. In place of product pages will be ‘Showcase Pages.’ Designed with companies that have a diverse range of products or services in mind, Showcase Pages allow a company to feature these specific products or services on their own in order to differentiate between audiences. Showcase Pages will be available through a navigation panel on the right-hand side of a company’s LinkedIn page.
So, what does this mean for you? While each company will have to decide what’s best for them, we have come up with a few recommendations below:
- A company page on its own is most useful for a business with one main product line and/or service.
- If your company has multiple business units or business lines, you should consider creating one overarching company page with Showcase Pages for each business unit/line.
- Don’t let your product pages disappear on April 14th! Create a plan to replace this content.
LinkedIn has also introduced two new tools for measuring and creating relevant content on its site. One is a content marketing score similar to Klout that shows how you rank among your competitors on LinkedIn. The other is a trending topics tool that gives you a list of currently trending topics on the site that are relevant to your company’s products and services. For more information on these tools, visit the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions hub.
LinkedIn is moving away from its origins of job searches and résumés towards a content-providing hub for professionals. In a time when content is king, don’t let your company miss out. Stay on top of the changes in order to get the most value out of LinkedIn.
