Create LinkedIn Company Page

The most important thing you need to remember is that LinkedIn Profiles are for individuals and Company pages are for businesses. If you are asked to connect with a business using a profile, you should decline or ignore such an invitation. LinkedIn have said that they will be closing down these profiles as they do not follow their guidelines.

To be able to create a LinkedIn Company page, there are some strict guidelines - due to previous issues with scammers.

Criteria for user to create LinkedIn Company page

LinkedIn says that you have to have the company's website address as one of the email addresses used in your LinkedIn profile. So that is creator@NameOfCompanyWebsite.TLD

No gmail or hotmail addresses are allowed. To create LinkedIn business pages, the company's email domain must be unique to the company. This is something that small business should be particularly aware of. Many will not have bothered to set up a domain based email for their business. And it could cause them issues if they want to create a LinkedIn company page.

The person who wants to create the LinkedIn Company page must be a current employee with the position listed in the profile's Experience section. And that profile must be at least Intermediate in strength. It must also have several connections already.

How to make a LinkedIn Business Page for your Company

Hover over Interests in the navigation bar
Click Companies in the drop down menu
Then select the Add A Company option in the navigation bar on the right hand side.

If it is not there, you will need to click the following link http://www.linkedin.com/company/add/show

Fill out the required fields to set up your LinkedIn Company page. Remember, whatever you write in the field for Company name is set in stone so get it right first time.

Once you click Continue you will arrive on the page that allows you to fill in all the detail. Make sure you add a good cover image and complete all the available fields of information.

When you're done, remember to click Publish at the top right!

Add an Admin or Manager to my Company Page on LinkedIn

People who work for the company and have a company email address included in their LinkedIn profile can be made an Admin of the Page.

People who are LinkedIn connections of an Admin of the Company Page can be made a Manager.

Here's a post on how to make LinkedIn Admins and Managers.

Edit your LinkedIn Company page

If you are an admin or manager of your Company page on LinkedIn, you will be able to see the edit button at the top right of the page, next to the Followers button. Click on the drop down menu and select Edit Page.

Share an Update on LinkedIn

If you are an admin or manager of your Company page, you can share a status update. You have the choice of a text update or adding a photograph or link with an accompanying text remark.

Changes to LinkedIn Company page format

The Products and Services tab will disappear from 14th April 2014. It will be replaced by Showcase Pages which can be set up for each of the individual products or services that you offer. As of July 2014, I would not advise setting up one of these.

Linking to your Company page on LinkedIn

You should encourage employees to link to the Company page. Also agree on a policy to show similar keywords in your LinkedIn profiles. This helps to establish your Company as an authority for those keywords within LinkedIn search.

It always amazes me how many people do not link their profile to a Company page. This is missing a golden opportunity for your business to stand out from your competitors.

However, you may find that you have employees you don't know. This could be scammers. Usually it is people who have selected the wrong company from a drop down menu by mistake. You can remove unknown employees by applying to LinkedIn Support.

Like Facebook, you can now make LinkedIn company status updates and reply to comments in the name of your business.