Users: Skypilot: How to Set Up a LinkedIn Company Page CIO.com

PC World — If you or your customers are using a social network for pure business purposes, chances are good that social network is LinkedIn, which boasts more than 150 million business users.

LinkedIn Bible: Everything You Need to Know About the Social Network for Professionals

Whether you operate a multilocation business with a well-known name in your industry or work as a lone professional, a LinkedIn company page is an excellent way to show a community of professionals what you can do, and it's an opportunity for free advertising that you shouldn't pass up.

Get Started

First you must sign up for a LinkedIn account. Don't worry about upgrading to a paid account; you don't need that to start a company page, or even to do most things a business should do on the social network. Choose a password that you're comfortable handing out to employees or contractors if they maintain your company page, or change it if you already have a profile.

After entering the name of the company and your email address, you'll find yourself on the Overview page. To add data to this section, click the Admin Tools button on the right side of the page, and choose Edit. Here, you'll enter your logo, your description, your blog's RSS feed, and, most important, your company specialties. If you really want to narrow the terms down, use the Google AdWords Keyword suggestion tool to find key phrases for your industry.

For an example of a well-built LinkedIn page, take a look at the one for GoodLife Fitness. This page does it right, showing statistics about the size of the company and how many members belong to the club, combined with a short and well-written description. Cutting and pasting your entire 'About Us' section from your website isn't recommended if it's wordy. On LinkedIn, if you can whittle the description down to one paragraph as GoodLife has done, you'll speak to your busy LinkedIn audience. To improve your description even more, learn about buzzwords to avoid on LinkedIn entirely.

Post Careers

To post jobs in the Careers section of your company page, you must have a paid LinkedIn subscription, and then pay for a Gold or Silver career page. Paid subscription fees start at $26 a month. This feature is likely of benefit only to a larger company; a smaller business can get by with listing open jobs on its own site and posting a status update to its LinkedIn page when a new position becomes available.

Continue Reading