9 Tips for Managing LinkedIn Company Pages
Although LinkedIn started as simply a job posting site, it has since become a full-fledged content hub. 91% of marketing executives list LinkedIn as the top place to find quality content. There are nine billion content impressions in the LinkedIn feed every week. Whether the content comes from peers, newsfeeds, thought leaders, or brands, LinkedIn is now more about content engagement than job searching. And just like with any other content platform, your success on LinkedIn is increasingly determined by how meaningful your content is.
We’ve managed some LinkedIn company pages in the past. Here are nine tips to help you manage content for a company page more effectively and efficiently:
Process
Whether you’re dealing with a four-person team or an 80,000-person enterprise, as a manager of a social platform your job is to get content out as efficiently and accurately as possible. To do this, try these key process elements:
- Start with a “bible.” You will need to store, track, and maintain content in a place that is easily accessible. We like using editorial calendars for this purpose. The level of detail depends on the client’s needs. What doesn’t change is the necessity of a “single source of truth.” For our larger enterprise client, we organized the calendar by month and included who owned the content, whether it was part of a paid or organic campaign, any hyperlinks, and where to find the photo for each post. Having these details readily available saves time when you need to resolve issues and answer questions. For smaller companies, the calendar was a simple spreadsheet containing the web links and posts for each week.
- Schedule regular check-ins. Whether it’s a weekly email or biweekly conference call, set up a recurring check-in time to show the client how their page is performing. A brief PowerPoint presentation works well to highlight findings, spotlight high-performing posts, and note any issues. Doing this in a clear, concise, and visual manner is a great way to keep the client abreast of the page’s performance.
- Take plenty of screenshots. When a post is being tracked as part of a larger initiative or a sponsored campaign, always take a screenshot. Depending on the involvement of the client, we often email that image to the campaign manager, indicating the post is live and confirming that everything looks good. It’s also just a good habit to get into because you’re creating an inventory of what you’ve posted and when.
Governance
As a page manager, you become an officer of LinkedIn law enforcement. Without careful governance, a LinkedIn page can make a company seem disorganized—or worse—not accurately reflect the company’s brand and voice. Follow these two tips to stay on the straight and narrow:
- Do your background research. Get a sense of the company’s tone, style, and social media policy. Does its social media team use a link shortening service, such as ow.ly or bit.ly? Do they have a web style guide you need to follow? Are there phrases or terms they want you to avoid using? Keep a record of those details. Get the information you need, put it somewhere safe, and become its enforcer moving forward.
- Require consistency. As a company page manager, you serve as the page’s editorial director. Part of your job is providing editorial stability and direction. Followers will notice a lack of routine. Also, your client communicates its brand messaging and positioning partly through its LinkedIn presence, and your job is to help present that as clearly as possible. Doing so means you’ll develop and maintain an editorially savvy page that stands out from the rest.
Audience and Goals
The client’s goals should always at the top of your mind. Ask yourself, “Is there any way to modify this process to reach the goal faster?” Here are four proactive things we’ve done at Tendo to help our clients quickly achieve their goals:
- Align the page to the goal. Does your client want to increase followers or boost engagement (or both)? Depending on the answer, the amount of time you spend monitoring and analyzing metrics will shift. If your client wants to engage with followers more, one easy way to comply is by incorporating a question into each post.
- Understand what your audience wants. Clients have sometimes identified which segments of their LinkedIn followers they’re most interested in targeting. Through this lens, you can decipher what topics and content types the audience most often engages with. Then it’s just a matter of giving the people what they want.
- Make the analytics tab your best friend. This section is home to engagement percentages, shares, clicks, trends—you name it. We recommend browsing through the tab at least once or twice a week—depending on the volume of content you’re posting—to stay up to speed with trends.
- Make sense of the numbers. Each organic post made on a company page comes with a set of reporting measurements: impressions, clicks, interactions, and engagement. Understand what is involved in each. For instance, “clicks” can be misleading—it sums up the number of clicks made on the content, company name, and the company logo within the post, rather than just the number of clicks on the link. By researching how LinkedIn keeps its metrics, you will be the expert—the reason why your client came to you in the first place.
LinkedIn has the power to make connections and help companies lead conversations within their industries. As a company page manager, you are the vehicle that can drive a page to success. Knowing the ins and outs of LinkedIn will get you on your way.