Recently, LinkedIn launched a new interesting feature called LinkedIn Showcase Pages. It’s an interesting new addition that can help you create an entirely new and unique identity for your individual brands or business units, which you can then market to different target audiences. Although this may sound almost perfect, there are some elements you need to evaluate yourself before you jump right into using Showcase Pages. Let’s take a closer look then.
LinkedIn Showcase Pages
Last time I’ve shown you a few reasons why you should consider using LinkedIn to increase your brand awareness and reach out to new audiences. We’ve even looked at the different ways of marketing your products using multiple languages to maximize the reach of your campaigns.
Showcase Pages is another feature from LinkedIn that’s worth exploring, especially if you happen to have a few brands or business units that require a slightly different approach than your typical company page. With this newly implemented solution, you can target completely different audiences and fans, and only deliver the information they are truly interested in.
This approach has a few Pros and Cons, which you should consider when deciding to use this new tool.
Pros
- Easier delivery of engaging content to people who are truly interested in particular brand or product
- Possibility to separate and discuss each business unit in more detail
- Better control over the frequency and type of content that’s being published
- Less intense competition amongst different departments willing to promote their achievements
- Access to complex stats and analysis on each individual page
Cons
- Company page and each separate brand page will have an entirely new separate base of followers. It’s the user that decides which of them he wishes to follow.
- You’ll need to spend more time and resources to provide enough valuable content to engage all of your fans
- Each showcase page has a different URL, which you need to promote separately on your own website
It seems that LinkedIn Showcase Pages is a solution aimed primarily at companies that tend to have larger audience groups and require individual approach to reach all of them accordingly. Through separating your pages you get to have more control over what kind of information is presented to whom. Through this you can communicate more clearly and build exactly the right brand identity you wanted for your products.
You’ll have to decide yourself whether this new tool will improve your marketing efforts and whether you have the right resources and knowledge to utilize it effectively. If you’re not sure whether you’ll be able to maintain the frequency and quality of content that’s supposed to be published on your pages perhaps it’s not the right time to use them just yet.
How to set it up?
If you’ve decided to create Showcase Pages, it’s a relatively easy process. All you have to do is to be log into your company profile on LinkedIn and click the drop down menu right next to the Edit button. There you’ll have the option to create a separate page for your brand or business unit. (Attention: You may be unable the ability to remove the Showcase Page once you’ve set it up. If you wish to delete one, simply contact LinkedIn’s Customer Support).
Once you’ve named your dedicated page and assigned the administrator that will be managing it (it has to be a person that’s listed in your contacts) you can finish up the process by filling in the necessary details and hitting the publish button.
Creative Examples
Some of the best known companies, especially in IT, have already tried using Showcase Pages. You can see the results of their efforts below. It’s actually interesting that in some cases, the individual brands have managed to collect larger numbers of fans than their own parent company.
It’s pretty clear they are doing something right!
Example 1 – Adobe
Example 2 – Microsoft
Example 3 – IBM
Don’t forget to promote your page!
Given the fact that newly created Showcase Pages start with a 0 fan base you’ll need to start attracting new ones a.s.a.p. Analyze the following quick ideas and implement them into your own marketing program to utilize your LinkedIn profile even better.
- Promote your newly created page by posting an update on your company profile
- Invite your colleagues to follow the brand
- Announce the new page on your website and company blogs
- Add the option to follow the new page on your website and blogs
- Use sponsored updates and targeted ads to attract new leads to your Showcase Page
- Promote your brand page using paid ads, discussion groups, and LinkedIn InMail