LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 740 million members worldwide. As a business, having a company profile on LinkedIn can help establish your brand, attract talent, advertise jobs, engage with your target audience and more. But an important question businesses have is – is it free to create a company profile on LinkedIn?
The short answer is yes, it is free to create a basic company profile on LinkedIn. However, LinkedIn also offers premium paid solutions and features to enhance your company’s presence and maximize your investment. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll look at what’s included with a free LinkedIn company profile, the premium paid options, tips for optimizing your profile, and the benefits of having a strong company presence on LinkedIn.
What’s Included with a Free LinkedIn Company Profile
Here are some of the key features that come with a free basic LinkedIn company profile:
- Company Page – This is your business’ profile page on LinkedIn where you can showcase your brand, products/services, culture, careers and more.
- Company Updates – You can publish updates to your followers to share company news, promotions, events and more.
- Showcase Pages – Highlight important company initiatives like your diversity & inclusion, sustainability, or community impact efforts.
- Followers – Build an audience of followers interested in your brand. Followers see your company updates in their feed.
- Analytics – Gain insights into your follower growth, page views, update impressions, visitor demographics and more.
- Share Company Updates – Amplify your reach by sharing company update posts to employee’s personal profiles.
- Careers Tab – Promote your employer brand by showcasing open positions, employee photos and videos, employee spotlights and more.
- Recommended for You Tab – Get discovered by showcasing content and followers your target audience may be interested in.
- Products Tab – Feature and showcase your products and services.
- Content Creation Tools – Tools to create engaging text, photo, video and live video updates.
So in summary, a free LinkedIn company page allows you to establish your brand presence, reach a professional audience, promote your products, services and jobs, and engage with your followers. But LinkedIn also offers several premium solutions for businesses looking for enhanced capabilities.
LinkedIn Premium Options for Companies
While a basic profile is free, LinkedIn offers three paid plans to amplify your company presence:
LinkedIn Career Pages
Career Pages allow you to showcase your employer brand in a more interactive and engaging way. Key features include:
- Career Page Website – A customizable microsite for your employer brand.
- Dynamic Profiles – Spotlight employees, projects and culture.
- Analytics – Insights on Career Page performance.
- Targeted Status Updates – Promote open roles to relevant candidates.
Pricing: Starts at $99/month
LinkedIn Recruiter
Recruiter is LinkedIn’s recruiting and talent acquisition solution. Features include:
- Search – Search LinkedIn’s full database for the best candidates.
- Profile Tracking – Follow candidate’s career progress over time.
- InMail Messages – Directly contact prospective candidates.
- Pipeline & Analytics – Manage your hiring funnel and measure results.
Pricing: Starts at $99/month per recruiter seat. Volume discounts available.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator focuses on helping sales professionals find prospects, build relationships, and close more deals. Features include:
- Advanced Search – Identify the right decision makers.
- Saved Leads – Organize your prospect list.
- Notifications – Get real-time alerts when prospects update profiles.
- InMail – Directly reach out to prospects.
- Analytics – Track sales productivity and performance.
Pricing: Starts at $64.99/month per seat. Volume discounts available.
The premium solutions require more investment but can generate significant value in terms of building your brand, recruiting talent, and driving revenue.
Tips for Optimizing Your LinkedIn Company Profile
Here are some best practices for creating an compelling, optimized LinkedIn company profile:
Complete Key Profile Sections
Fill out all the key sections including Company Description, Website, Industry, Company Size, Headquarters, Company Type, Founded Date, Specialties, and Company Updates. This provides essential information to visitors.
Showcase Your Products & Services
Leverage the Products tab to create a visual catalog of your offerings. Include images, videos, descriptions, and call-to-action buttons.
Highlight Company Culture
Bring your employer brand to life by spotlighting employees, diversity, events, community outreach and job openings that convey your culture.
Publish Regular, Valuable Updates
Post updates at least 1-2 times per week with relevant content like thought leadership articles, infographics, workshop invites, case studies and more.
Use Rich Media
Incorporate visual content like images, videos, polls, presentations and live videos to boost engagement.
Follow an Editorial Calendar
Plan updates in advance around events, campaigns, and announcements to promote.
Engage Followers
Reply to comments, participate in groups, and share employee’s content to engage your audience.
Analyze Performance
Use Page Analytics to understand follower growth, engagement, post reach and visitor demographics to refine your strategy.
Promote Your Profile
Add a LinkedIn “Follow” button to your website. Share updates on other platforms. Feature the URL prominently on marketing materials.
Implementing best practices can maximize the impact of your LinkedIn company presence.
Benefits of Having a Strong LinkedIn Presence
Here are some of the main benefits of investing in an optimized LinkedIn company profile:
- Recruitment – Promote your employer brand to attract and engage top talent.
- Lead Generation – Identify, connect with, and nurture new prospects through the sales funnel.
- Thought Leadership – Position your company as an industry leader by sharing expertise.
- Brand Awareness – Increase awareness and build affinity for your brand.
- SEO – Boost website traffic by optimizing LinkedIn content for search engines.
- Market Intelligence – Gain insights into your audience, competitors and industry trends.
- Customer Engagement – Interact with and gather feedback from your target audience.
Investing the time and resources into your LinkedIn presence can yield significant long-term dividends across your talent acquisition, marketing, and sales efforts.
Conclusion
In summary, it is free to create a basic company profile on LinkedIn, which is a great starting point to establish your brand presence, showcase your products and services, and foster engagement.
To take your company profile to the next level, LinkedIn offers premium paid solutions like Career Pages, Recruiter, and Sales Navigator with more advanced capabilities.
Optimizing your profile and incorporating best practices can help maximize your investment. Having a strong company presence on the world’s largest professional network provides valuable opportunities to connect with talent, prospects, and your target audience.