Changes to LinkedIn Company Pages are afoot. On the 14th April 2014 your Products & Services tab will disappear from the Company Page.
LinkedIn have decided to replace the Products & Services section with a new feature – Showcase Pages. Now you might think they’re just the same but with a different name, right? Wrong! Let me explain…..
Firstly before we look at the differences, let’s take a brief look at why Company Pages on LinkedIn are important for your business.
Company Pages
Company Pages showcase what your business has on offer. They give you a professional presence within LinkedIn which help you to be found through the profiles associated with the company and keywords can be added to improve search rankings. You can also post updates from the page informing your followers what’s happening in your world. Updates might include new service offerings, job offers, promotions or news about the company.
Products & Services going….
The benefits to having what you offer set out under the Products & Services tab are that it allows you to write a full, comprehensive description about that product or service. It also allows your visitors and clients to (1) see clearly what you do (2) see/add a recommendation directly to that product or service thus encouraging others to engage with you.
Showcase Pages arriving….
Not un-similar to the Products & Services tab in that a Showcase Page highlights a particular product or service. However you only have 200 characters to describe the offering & your clients can’t now add a recommendation. Showcase Pages will ‘hang off’ your main Company Page & can now be shared in your company updates whereas this was not possible before with a product or service tab. Much more powerful way of promoting what you do on your Company Page. Sadly the followers of your Company Page are not automatically followers of your new Showcase Pages. People will need to follow each & every Showcase Page too (if they want to).
What do you need to do NOW?
Although the content from your products & services will still be retrievable for a short while it’s probably best to get on with generating your Showcase Pages now & using part of the content you had on your products & services to help you with these.
Also with products & services disappearing you’ll lose any recommendations you build up. Although LinkedIn have issued the following announcement:-
If you’re a Company Page admin, you can save recommendations by copying them from the tab into your own document. You can also request a copy of the recommendations that were present as of March 4, 2014. The recommendations will be available through Customer Support until Friday, May 30, 2014. Note: If you want to use the recommendations in promotional or marketing materials you’ll need to get permission from the individual who made the recommendation.
But you won’t be able to add these to Showcase Pages or to your main Company Page. But it may be worth adding them to your own website testimonials.
For further support please see LinkedIn’s Help Center article Showcase Pages – Frequently Asked Questions.
If you need any help in getting your products & services into the new Showcase Pages then give us a call or drop us a line we’d be happy to help.
And finally we’d love to hear your thoughts on the changes & how it will impact your business. Have you invested time in building up recommendations only to have them swept from under your feet? Do you think the new Showcase Pages will help you to promote what you do in a better way?