A Quick Guide to Creating The Perfect LinkedIn Business Profile

When LinkedIn launched in 2003, it was poised to become a powerful networking site for business and professionals, and now, more than a decade and 500 million users, it's the essential social media platform for business.

And it's still growing. The statistics on year-over-year growth and engagement are impressive, with the most active business accounts have seen a triple-digit increase in engagement this year — so what's stopping you from joining?

Hopefully, it's the fact that you didn't have a social media guide until this post, so don't worry, we're here to help! Let's walk through the necessary steps and best practices for creating the perfect LinkedIn Business profile.

1. Create Your LinkedIn Company Page

Starting from square one — it wouldn’t be a guide to creating the perfect LinkedIn Business Profile without walking through how to create one, right?

Assuming you've already created and optimized your personal LinkedIn profile, it's pretty straightforward:

1. Log in
2. Move your cursor over Interests at the top of your homepage
3. Select "Companies"
4. Click "Create" in the "Create a Company Page" box
5. Enter your company name and work email address
6. Click continue
7. Enter your additional company information
   
   

2. Optimize Your Company Description And Specialties

One of the first things you need to tackle is your Company Description and Specialties within your company profile, as these are what your prospects and other users will read to learn more.

Each one of these will help bring your products, services, and company information to the forefront of your audience.

This is an ideal place to place some of your most important keywords related to your products, skills and services for a boost in SEO and visibility to your LinkedIn page. Your description should have keyword-enriched sentences for increased search visibility. Specialties show off your company's skills and services to your audience.

3. Add A Logo And Create A Visually Appealing Banner Image

There are two big image-related areas where you can stand out on this platform: your logo and banner image.

Your logo is an immediate way to brand your page and will be shown throughout company listings throughout LinkedIn, so you want it to be a clear, high-res 400 x 400 pixel photo (under 4 MBs).

Your banner image is a larger, full-width image right above your company description for another opportunity to visualize your organization, and there are a few considerations to take into account when selecting one:

• An ideal image size for your banner is 1400 x 425 pixels
• Make sure the banner image is under 2 MBs), otherwise it will not upload
• The mantra “less is more” falls into place with your profile banner, so stay clear from it being visually distracting from the remainder of the page
• If you're still unsure, go with a company or facility photo and optimize the size in a free tool such as Canva

You're able to update both as desire, which creates a great opportunity to showcase current campaigns and causes, recent milestones, and achievements. It provides a place to showcase your company’s culture visually for all to see, but keep in mind — it won't post as an update to all your followers like it does on Facebook.

4. Showcase Your Important Updates

Your page is created, and you’ve filled in all of the blanks, now it’s time to put together status updates that are relevant to your content and industry.

Maybe you want to post regarding a recent blog post or content offer you’ve created, or share a very interesting research article.

To help alleviate the stresses of everyday updates, find a tool that you can schedule your social posts ahead of time (preferably a tool that is linked to your blog and website efforts) to better align your content to your other campaign efforts.

Additionally, it's recommended that you showcase your best performing or most relevant content offer by setting it to the top of your company updates for increased exposure.

5. Show Your Company Culture

One of the most important things you can do for your organization is show off your company’s culture to the masses. (This is especially good if you're looking to hire new employees.)

Give your viewers a taste into the life of your organization, the passion you have and help tell your “story.” These types of culture can be displayed in your updates, showcased in your banner image or through the Careers Tab.

This post was originally published in February 2016 and has been updated as of November 2019.