Company Pages and Followers
Relationships That Drive Results
5 steps to engaging followers on LinkedIn

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Table of contents

STEP

01
STEP02Intro03

Establish your presence

05

Attract followers

06

STEP

03
STEP

04
STEP

05

Engage followers

07

Amplify through the network

10

Analyze and refine

12

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Build relationshipsthat drive results
For businesses, relationships matter more than ever.
Why? Because people tune out irrelevant or
promotional messages to focus on useful, engaging
content. Companies that inform and engage aren’t
just selling – they’re building relationships.
LinkedIn helps marketers forge relationships withthe world’s largest professional community. Ourmembers are almost 50 percent more likely to buy
from a company they engage with on LinkedIn.1
And a whopping 80 percent of LinkedIn members
want to connect with companies 2 – because thoseconnections provide them opportunities to enhancetheir professional decision making.

Use this proven model to fuel successSocial media leaders employ a 5-step model for establishing
relationships with customers and prospects.
After reading this guide, you’ll understand how to apply this5-step model to your social media strategy on LinkedIn.
5 steps to engaging followers on LinkedIn
1. Establish your presence
2. Attract followers
3. Engage followers
4. Amplify through the network
5. Analyze and refine

In this guide, we’ll show you how to use yourCompany Page to build relationships, attract new
followers, and create brand advocates.

1. LinkedIn Audience 360 Study, August 2011
2. Ibid

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Set your team up
for success

Quick tipsIdentify expert contributors

Continuous, relevant communication createsstrong relationships. Here are some teambuilding strategies to help you create and deliver
strong content:

Enlist colleagues who understand customers’ needsor have specific content creation skills (e.g., video
production, infographic design).

Centralize

Make an editorial calendar

Appoint a social media “champion” tocoordinate content creation and track
performance. Product and brand managers
can help the champion ensure content reflects
everything your company is doing.
Divide and conquer
Split ownership between a global social media
team and your company’s HR or recruiting
department to meet both marketing andhiring needs.

Create a calendar with campaign themes and postingtimelines. Stick to it as much as possible – but don’t
hesitate to throw in timely content as opportunities arise.

Make content go further
Break up big themes into a series you can publish at
fixed intervals to get followers regularly “tuning in” fornew content.

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STEP01

Establish yourpresenceYour company page is your home on LinkedIn.
Here’s how you can use it to tell your brand story.
Design your page
Click the “Edit” button in the upper right ofyour Company Page to update your company
description, specialties, industry, website, andmore. Use rich, descriptive language that helps
readers understand your vision, purpose, and thevalue you offer.
Optimize for searchCompany Pages are very SEO-friendly. Google
shows previews of up to 156 characters of yourpage text, so be sure your description leads withpowerful, keyword-rich sentences. Members
can also search for companies by keyword
on LinkedIn, so include words and phrases
that describe your business, expertise, andindustry focus.

Showcase your Products & Services
Marketers who build out their Products & Services page
tend to have twice as many company followers. Use thispage to tell members what you do best – and give themcompelling reasons to follow you.
Tailor your offerings
You can design multiple configurations of yourProducts & Services page based on one or twoof the following criteria: members’ geography,
company size, seniority, job function, or industry.
Go beyond products
You can link to just about anything from yourProducts & Services page. Direct membersto your latest and greatest white papers, casestudies, or how-to content.
Tell a story through video
If your company has a YouTube channel,embed product demos or customer
testimonial videos that tell a compelling
narrative about the value you offer.

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STEP

Attract followers
Once you’ve established your company
presence on LinkedIn, you can begin fostering
relationships by attracting followers to yourCompany Page. Here are some simple, effective
strategies for attracting followers.
Engage your colleagues
Employees are 70 percent more likely to engage
with your Company Updates. Encourage themto add a link to your Company Page to theiremail signatures.
Announce your Company Page to customers
and partners
Once your page is all set, drive traffic its way
with a compelling blog post or email newsletter
announcement.
Add a “Follow” button to your website
Your web team can pull code for a “Follow”
button from developer.linkedin.com to add toyour blog or website. This lets LinkedIn members
follow your company with a single click.

02
Join the discussion in LinkedIn Groups
The members of LinkedIn’s 1-million-plus Groups often
engage with companies, so it makes sense to join thediscussion! Participating in these discussions is a great way
to attract new followers from targeted audiences.

Find the right Groups
Target Groups relevant to the industries or customers
you serve. Use LinkedIn’s search bar to find groups
by keyword.

Step up to the mic
Contribute to popular discussions members have started.
As people like and reply to your comments, you havea chance to become a “Top Influencer” in the group.
When appropriate, link to your Company Page to help
interested members gather more insights and info.

Be a connector
When you post in Groups, aim to help members solve
problems and share insights with one another.

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STEP

03

Engage followers
The best relationships are rooted in great conversations – and your tool for starting thoseconversations is the Company Update.
Every update should convey your brand promise and values. But don’t forget that LinkedIn
members want informative, insightful, inspirational content – not self-serving promotion.
By delivering useful and engaging content, you’ll foster engagement and help yourmessage spread faster.
So, what makes a good status update?

Be helpful and friendly, not sales-yOne-sided conversations are no fun. So don’t post
overly promotional messages. If you do post
occasional company-related news or productannouncements, make sure they deliver a specificbenefit to your followers.

Think about timing

Updates posted in the morning usually earn thehighest engagement, with a slight bump occurring
again after business hours. Experiment to see whatworks best for your company.

Link to great content

Post at least once per weekday

Consistent posting encourages engagement
and fosters familiarity.

3. LinkedIn U.S. survey-based follower report, January 2012

Company Updates containing links can have up to45 percent higher follower engagement than updates
without links.3 Just remember to write a compelling
sentence to accompany the link, inspiring members
to click through.
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STEP

03

Tailor your content tospecific audiences
What resonates most with followers? Content that’s
customized to their professional interests. With
LinkedIn’s Targeted Updates, you can easily matchyour message to your audience.
When you create an update, you can decide
whether to share it with “all followers” or a“targeted audience.” Choose the second option tosend your update to a subset of followers basedon geography, job function, industry, company size,or seniority.

Audience targeting best practices
Audience size matters
Limit yourself to one or two targeting criteria per update
to ensure that your content receives many high-value
impressions. Targeting too narrowly limits your reach.
Engage locally
Use Targeted Updates to let colleagues in regional offices
contribute content that speaks directly to your customers orprospects in different areas.

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Learn from the best
Across LinkedIn, companies are seeing the benefits of engaging their followers: recent research showsthat LinkedIn is 277 percent more effective at lead generation than Facebook or Twitter.4
Here’s how some leading marketers are engaging their followers.

Enterprise cloud computing company
salesforce.com used Targeted Updates
to promote its Cloudforce London
conference to a UK audience. During
a five-week period, the company
experienced a 30 percent increasein follower engagement. Plus, these
Targeted Updates showed a 30 percent
increase in amplification (the ratio oflikes, comments, and shares to total
update impressions).

HP wanted to engage professionals
and gather recommendations for its
products. The company launched
its own page, inviting members torecommend and comment on itemsin their Products & Services page.
The company also ran LinkedIn Ads
to generate recommendations atscale. The results: more than 2,000
recommendations, 20,000 new
followers, and 500,000 viral updates
about HP products in two weeks.

A relative newcomer to the HR space,
Reconverse wanted to raise awarenessand create conversation about its
mission to change the corporate
recruiting model. Speaking to an
audience in the HR field, the company
used status updates to stage a contest.
The first update alone generated 1,403
likes, 120 comments, and 87 newfollowers. Reconverse attributes 90
percent of its revenue to its LinkedIn
community-building efforts.

4. Rebecca Corlis, “LinkedIn 277% More Effective for Lead Generation Than Facebook & Twitter [New Data]”, HubSpot Blog, January 30, 2012,
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30030/LinkedIn-277-More-Effective-for-Lead-Generation-Than-Facebook-Twitter-New-Data.aspx

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Amplify throughthe network
Nothing impacts people’s perceptions andbehavior like the recommendation of a trusted
friend, colleague, or family member. When you
post content to your Company Page, your followers
can like, share, or comment on your updates,
amplifying your messages to reach their firstdegree connections too.
Each amplification acts as an endorsement of yourcontent and brand. In fact, a study of thousandsof Company Updates found that amplification
was a primary driver of over one-third of all
impressions.5 Each additional impression is achance for your company to nurture relationships
with LinkedIn members.

5. LinkedIn study of all Company Updates with at least 1,000 impressions posted
June 1-15, 2012

Encourage amplification outside LinkedIn
While your followers spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, yourrelationships should continue off the site too. These plugins(available at developer.linkedin.com) will help you further
amplify members’ enthusiasm into endorsements for yourbrand off-site.

Recommend
Recommend plugin: Embed this plugin on web pages
that showcase the products on your LinkedIn Products& Services page. With one click, site visitors canrecommend a particular product to all their first-degree
LinkedIn connections.

Share
Share plugin: Empower site visitors with LinkedIn accounts
to share your content with their networks. Using the Shareplugin turns every visitor into a potential champion foryour brand.

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STEP04

Help your content go viral
How do you encourage followers to amplify your content?
Here are some ways to get started:

Link to relevant “best-of” lists
Posts that point followers toward “Top” lists (e.g.,“Top 10 social media tactics in B2B marketing”) can
get almost 40 percent more amplification.6

Invite customers to write reviews
Their recommendations of your products and services
will get amplified throughout the network.

Post interesting videos

Ask members for feedback

A recent study found that followers who engaged
with posts containing links to YouTube videos took
twice as many amplification actions (likes, shares,and comments) as they did with posts that did notcontain videos.7

Your followers will welcome the chance to respond toquestions about industry trends, business problems,
new products, and more. On average, status updates
that contain questions receive almost 50 percent
more comments.

Listen to conversations outside LinkedIn

Dive into the commentsCollect findings from your contact forms, call centers, andblog comments to create content on the most popular
topics. When you post content that better reflects yourcommunity’s interests, your followers will find yourupdates more worthy of a share, like, or comment.

Since conversations are two-way affairs, it pays toappoint a team of social media ambassadors to respondto your followers’ input. Be sure to answer questions
in a timely manner and thank followers who shareinsightful, useful comments.

6. LinkedIn study of all Company Updates with at least 1,000 impressions, posted June 1-15, 2012. Viral reach measured in number of uniques. Best-of list
analysis based on updates that included the words “Top” and the numbers 3, 5, 10, 25, 30, 50, and 100 (whether spelled out or as numerals).
7. Video analysis based on updates with links to youtube.com or youtu.be.

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STEP

Analyze and refine
In any marketing campaign, success depends on
your ability to measure performance and use thatdata to optimize content. LinkedIn’s analytics
tools empower you to do just that, ensuring
you have the insights you need to strengthen
follower relationships.
Experimenting with different kinds of content
is the best way to improve engagement andamplification.
Measuring engagement
Engagement rate is the ratio of clicks, likes,
comments, and shares to total impressions. Thisis a key metric for understanding how often
members take action on your updates.
Measuring amplification
Amplification rate is the ratio of likes,
comments, and shares to total update
impressions. This helps you understand how
often members are sharing your content andwhat they find most interesting.

05

Track your progress

Your Company Page includes helpful analytics that showchanges in the size and composition of your follower
community, as well as activity on your page. Here’s how to
get the most out of this data.

Establish growth goals
Set targets for acquiring followers who match yourideal customer profile and post updates designed toattract them.

Measure lead gen and conversion
Find out if your updates are driving leads by tracking
conversions from your LinkedIn landing pages. Your
conversion rate is the number of leads generated fromthese pages divided by the number of visits. Use alink-shortening service to create trackable links foryour updates.

Set engagement targets
Your Analytics page also displays monthly engagement
metrics for all your posts collectively. As you optimize
your updates based on individual performance, you
should see an uptick in your overall engagement monthover month.

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Cultivate thriving
relationships with yourfollowers
As in any good relationship, your followers require care andattention. Follow the five-step model in this guide to deliver
high-quality content that addresses members’ professional
needs and you‘ll not only grow your follower community,
but also forge bonds and foster honest conversations withpotential customers.
Of course, there’s always more to learn, so be sure to stay on
top of the latest news and advice by visiting our Company
Page at linkedin.com/company/linkedin and our blog at
blog.linkedin.com. Thanks for reading, and happy posting!