Are LinkedIn showcase pages right for your business? | Hallam

What is a LinkedIn showcase page?

A LinkedIn showcase page is simply an extension of your company page and works in a very similar way. They’re designed to highlight one particular area of your business – whether that’s a specific product, service, or sub-brand. LinkedIn users can follow your showcase pages in the same way they follow your company page.

If your company offers a range of products or services and you have a diverse target market, then showcase pages can be an effective way of segmenting your audience and delivering tailored content for each specific group of customers.

Google has several showcase pages sitting underneath their main company page, with the likes of Google Chrome, Google Analytics and even Android being a showcase page. You can find a company’s showcase pages down the right hand side of their profile under ‘Affiliated pages’, from here click, ‘see all’.

These showcase pages help to segment Google’s audience by product. People only interested in Google Ads, for example, can choose to follow that affiliated page to receive purely Google Ads related updates.

L’Oréal uses showcase pages to highlight its various brands:

Each brand has a distinct identity and target market. By creating a showcase page for each of them, L’Oréal are ensuring they each have a presence and an audience on LinkedIn.

You will have noticed on both Google and L’Oréal that some of the pages in the affiliated section are classed as ‘subsidiary pages’. These are slightly different to showcase pages because they are LinkedIn pages in their own right that have requested to be associated with the main parent LinkedIn page. This may happen when one company buys or acquires another.  

LinkedIn showcase pages might be useful for your business in a variety of scenarios: 

• When you have several sub-brands, products or services.
• When you want to target or talk to specific audiences, e.g. a marketing agency may create pages targeted at particular industries such as healthcare or construction.
• If you’re a global or international company looking to communicate in a country’s native language or engage with a selective audience by using local content.
• It might be useful to split content by business unit or function – such as customer services or public relations. 
• To highlight business initiatives, such as social and environmental impacts, or diversity and inclusion.

Benefits of LinkedIn showcase pages

1. Showcase pages are a good way to focus on your sub-brand or business area in detail as they provide an opportunity to optimise that affiliated page with a specific product or service you have in mind. You can edit company information, add a unique website URL, custom hero image and description.
2. They’re displayed in LinkedIn search results just as company pages are, meaning they’re an effective way of driving traffic to your parent company page and increasing brand awareness.
3. You can create posts on the page specifically tailored towards a specific audience and purpose. Essentially, it can be treated as an individual page, with a need for its own content calendar and posting schedule. 
4. They also include their own analytics section where you can access all the usual stats, figures and graphs about your page’s performance, including seeing which of your posts are receiving the most engagement so that you can adjust your strategy accordingly.
5. The pages now allow you to create vanity URLs so you can’t promote them seamlessly through your digital marketing efforts. 

What should you post on a showcase page?

A LinkedIn company page can host up to a whopping 25 showcase pages. However, these pages will only be successful if they’re updated on a regular basis with fresh and engaging content. Your business situation may mean you have the opportunity to create all 25 showcase pages, but it’s a good idea to start with two or three so you can get used to managing several pages at once and all the content that feeds into them. 

The type of content you might post on a showcase page is pretty much the same as you would on a normal LinkedIn page. Your topics could include:

• Product announcements or launches
• Relevant company and industry news
• Information on upcoming events
• Feedback, reviews and case studies
• Links to blog posts or web articles

A combination of interesting and relevant content, striking visuals, and regular updates will see you on your way to increasing your engagement levels and boosting your overall number of followers.

Considering creating a showcase page?

Showcase pages aren’t right for all businesses. Before deciding whether your business needs a showcase page, consider the following:

1. Your showcase page will have no followers to begin with. This can be particularly problematic for small business owners, who already have limited time and resources.
2. Showcase pages will increase your content workload. You’re already posting to your company page regularly, but your showcase pages will require their own unique content. This is the down-side of being able to segment your customers – now you have more channels that require their own messaging and posts.
3.  By creating a showcase page, you could dilute the following of your main company page.
4. If targeting content to distinct customer groups is one of your goals, you could use the targeting feature LinkedIn already provides with your company page. This allows you to target your updates by geography, job function, seniority and more. 

Is a LinkedIn showcase page right for your business?

As we’ve seen, showcase pages can be extremely beneficial for your business and your social media strategy. They’re advantageous if your company provides products or services that each have distinct target audiences for one reason or another. If this isn’t the case, you probably don’t need a showcase page.

Consider the content requirements too – do you have the resources to update extra pages regularly? If so, take the opportunity to demonstrate your skills and expertise and start growing your showcase page.

Need a hand setting one up? Our social media team is always here to help.