Maintaining a social media presence these days is as important as having a website. LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world, but only 57% of companies are taking advantage by creating a company LinkedIn page. Setting up your own company page is completely free and an amazing way to get exposure for your benefits agency.
Company pages can help establish new contacts, maintain relationships, recruit top talent, highlight company culture and demonstrate expertise in the benefits space. After coming back from a trade show like BenefitsPRO Broker Expo, the first thing I do is connect with benefits professionals on LinkedIn. (We’ll be at the show so pass by our booth and say Hi!)
Your company cover photo is the first image people see when they land on your page. This is the best chance to show off your benefits agency. You don’t have a lot of room – the image is only 646 x 220 – so use those pixels wisely. The logo size is 400×400 but looks smaller on the page, so you might want to use a service mark instead of your full logo.
LinkedIn automatically assigns a URL for your company page based on your company name, so make sure you’re extra careful when naming your page initially. If you want to change your URL after you have added a company name, you’ll need to write to LinkedIn Support to make it happen.
Some people have issues identifying their company URL. LinkedIn uses the following format:
http://www.LinkedIn.com/company/YourCompanyName?trk=tyah
You can safely delete anything after the “?” and have your personalized LinkedIn URL. Each of your products and services also gets its own URL, so be careful when naming your products as well.
You can also make different letters upper or lowercase in the URL. Our company is “HealthJoy” with the H and J capitalized, so we’ve changed the URL to reflect that: https://www.linkedin.com/company/HealthJoy
It might sound funny, but as the Admin you are not automatically added as a follower to your page. Also make sure to invite all company employees to join your page. It’s everyone’s job to be involved in social media as an advocate of your benefits agency.
Showcase pages are an extension of your LinkedIn company page and allow you to highlight a particular product line or brand. Showcase pages can be managed separately, with their own updates, followers, etc. I would avoid going crazy with this feature since it requires more time, but if you’re a larger company it might be worth considering.
LinkedIn Group is an amazing feature that enables discussions about your company in a controlled environment. If it makes sense for your company to host a LinkedIn Group about your product or services, make sure to add it to your company page.
If you want to grow your following on LinkedIn, try LinkedIn ads. The ads can be fairly expensive, but if you’re going after a specific B2B niche, it’s one of the best platforms around. At healthjoy.com, we spread the word about our enterprise healthcare engagement solution to HR managers, business owners and benefits agencies. For our audience, Linkedin ads work better than any other social media platform.
See how your LinkedIn page is performing by checking out the LinkedIn analytics dashboard. It provides valuable insights into which posts perform best for your audience and who you’re reaching.
Employees might not share the latest news in employee benefits on Facebook, but they will happily support your company on LinkedIn – if asked. Their business network is highly relevant for this type of update. LinkedIn reports that employees are 70 percent more likely to engage with your company updates vs. other social networks, so get the word out.
LinkedIn is arguably the most powerful social media platform for benefit agencies. With only a little effort, you can have an outstanding LinkedIn presence that showcases your benefits agency and helps develop sales leads and recruit the best talent.