Exciting LinkedIn Company Page Updates & New Features Unveiled

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Michelle J Raymond: G'day listeners safe to say, I am very excited this week about a couple of different things. One of them is very soon. I'll be heading over to Denmark to speak on LinkedIn company pages at the Linked Summit and because I am preparing that talk, I'm actually doing a lot of research. And thankfully for me, LinkedIn, have decided that right about now, they're going to release a whole bunch of new features and updates to company pages.

[00:00:26] Michelle J Raymond: So for those of you who won't be joining me in Denmark, don't worry, I've got you covered in today's show. And when I looked at some of these features, there are some which I was super excited about. There are some which I was a little disappointed in, and I'm going to step you through each of those features.

[00:00:43] Michelle J Raymond: Now, this isn't a how to show, but if you want to know more about that, be sure that you go over to the YouTube channel @MichelleJRaymond, because I'm going to be releasing videos over there.

[00:00:53] Michelle J Raymond: When it comes to LinkedIn company pages, one of the things that I have been adamant for years, any chance I get to talk to the Pages product team, I beg for this feature to be improved. It's an existing feature. It is where we go in to use our 250 invite credits per month. Currently, if you go in there and you're a page admin it's a one by one invite process. And those people already following the page or already invited are mixed in with those that you haven't invited. And when you're going one by one to get to 250, it's actually a right royal pain in the butt to hand select them.

[00:01:31] Michelle J Raymond: And so what I really wanted to see was those that are already invited out of the way, those that are already following the page showing as different to just invited. And I'm very pleased to be reporting that that change has come through and it really made my process to use up those 250 invite credits much faster.

[00:01:51] Michelle J Raymond: So that was something I was like high fiving. I think if there was a filter to remove anyone that's already following the page, that would be the next level up, but I'll take what we can get because again, anything that makes our lives as page admins either more efficient or get better results, I'm definitely onboard for.

[00:02:11] Michelle J Raymond: So keep an eye out for that one. It's a small change that you probably won't even notice when you go in there.

[00:02:16] Michelle J Raymond: Similar to, I noticed that as another change to the settings layout. They've moved some of the settings for like the, my company tab, just to make it easier and stand out more.

[00:02:26] Michelle J Raymond: So it's a big tick for me when it comes to that change that we've seen. Like I said, that is something that you won't realise how much it annoyed you until you try it the new way and go, Oh yeah, why wasn't it like this the whole time? So that's a quick win, an easy win. And like I said, just going to make page admins make their job a little bit easier, which I think given most page admins that I talk to, they're managing more than just the company page. They are managing, blogs and websites and newsletters and other social media platforms. So if that's you, congratulations, you just got a little bit of your time back.

[00:03:04] Michelle J Raymond: What else have I seen that's coming through and this one's exciting. I am in the processes of making a video for the YouTube channel. This is a feature that LinkedIn surprised me when they launched it for Pages.

[00:03:15] Michelle J Raymond: I've known about it, that it was coming for a little while, but I haven't actually seen it till today. That's how hot off the press it is. Haven't even got a chance to play around with it properly. And that is the new content sharing feature, which is generated from rSS feeds. So they're the feeds that come through for YouTube channels, blogs, podcasts, et cetera. It will pull the content that you're putting out on these other platforms and via the RSS feed directly bring it across to your LinkedIn company page where you can share it from there. Again, reducing double handling.

[00:03:51] Michelle J Raymond: Given that I have, you know, a couple of podcasts and a YouTube channel, I was super excited to see this, we're often told that LinkedIn doesn't want anyone to go off LinkedIn and that's all well and good but if you're growing channels, like I'm trying to do, then having people come across and reusing that content without the extra double handling, uh, definitely on board.

[00:04:12] Michelle J Raymond: And that one is all included in the free option for LinkedIn company pages. And I say free, and some of you might be thinking, well, of course, company pages have always been free. Well, that is until my friends that they started to roll out the LinkedIn company pages, paid subscription offer. And that is all about company page premium, similar to what we've got over on the personal side of things.

[00:04:39] Michelle J Raymond: It applies to company pages. It also applies to showcase pages. So we've got options on both of those. Now the question is, would I pay for it?

[00:04:50] Michelle J Raymond: Look, the pricing that I've seen on this works out at roughly 99 us dollars a month, which here in Australia, that adds up to closer to 150, I think New Zealand add on probably another $20.

[00:05:01] Michelle J Raymond: So this isn't actually cheap. And if you're already paying for premium plans for your employees, again, these kinds of expenses are just adding up and adding up. And that price is if you pay annually, which LinkedIn typically gives us about a 30 percent discount. If your company page signs up for the premium plan, it applies to all of the admins that are currently registered to the page.

[00:05:25] Michelle J Raymond: So no matter who's on there or who's managing it, you all have access to those features. I have to say that I was pretty excited when I heard that this was coming because there are some definite features that I would love to pay for, and I'm not anti paying for features that are stepping us up that next level to get us, maybe better analytics, better reporting, being able to remove people that are attached and following our page or employees of our page that don't actually work there.

[00:05:56] Michelle J Raymond: Having control over that instead of having to go to LinkedIn help, I would definitely pay for that feature for some of my clients. When I first heard about it, I raced to, you know, do my research to find out as much as I could so I could report back to you listeners.

[00:06:12] Michelle J Raymond: And I have to say that I was a little disappointed and I'm going to tell you why. The features that are included with this are a custom call to action button. Now, what that is, we already had it for free on the free account, but now they've moved things around.

[00:06:28] Michelle J Raymond: So that was the learn more, contact us, go to the website button that was front and center when somebody landed on your page. So I really loved that. It made life easy for people. Now that's moved and that's become a premium feature. So I don't like that because it was free. Now it's not, but such is life.

[00:06:48] Michelle J Raymond: You also now get some really cool demographics around who's visited the page. And this is something that I was definitely excited for because as Page admins or marketing managers who want to know is our content attracting the right audience? Then of course that absolutely makes sense that that, information might become a premium feature.

[00:07:10] Michelle J Raymond: Now, the only problem that I have with that is that when somebody comes along and they land on your company page, they're greeted with a message that says, Do you want to allow this page to know that you've visited the page? And it's a settings feature as an individual. And if I say, no, I don't want them.

[00:07:31] Michelle J Raymond: It turns the whole setting off. And that means that no matter what other page that person goes to, there's no traceability and tracking as per what this premium feature is suggesting. And so if everybody turns it off, because you don't get an option, it's, you have to choose then and there on the spot. I think most people are going to turn it off and say, no, I don't want the page to know that I've been here.

[00:07:55] Michelle J Raymond: And it could be anything. It could be your competitors. It could be former employees. It could be people just wanting to have a look around.

[00:08:02] Michelle J Raymond: So I looked at that and I thought, if the visitors have got the option to turn it off, I don't think that's fair to the people that are paying for it on pages. Um, just my personal opinion. If you've got a different opinion, let me know. Have you turned it off? Are you going to leave it on?

[00:08:16] Michelle J Raymond: Let me know either in the comments or drop me a message over on LinkedIn.

[00:08:20] Michelle J Raymond: What else do we have? We also have a custom testimonial. And this was another thing where I got super excited. You know, I. Thought that wouldn't it be great just like over on product pages to have a testimonial front end center so that when someone landed on your company page, you had that really great social proof.

[00:08:41] Michelle J Raymond: And it is front and center, but you almost have to squint or get a magnifying glass to be able to see it. My biggest bug bear is the fact that it can only be 80 characters long. What can a client really say that's of any value in 80 characters?

[00:08:59] Michelle J Raymond: Great job. You know, thanks for sharing. It's the equivalent when we see those silly comments over on our post no substance, I guess is what I'm trying to say here. And for me, that was another, you know, two thumbs down on this one.

[00:09:13] Michelle J Raymond: What could have been. And I hope that it'll evolve cause these features often do over time as they get feedback, shout out to any of the pages team who might be listening to this podcast episode. Love the idea, but if we can extend that so it's a little bit longer, that would be amazing.

[00:09:30] Michelle J Raymond: What else do we have? We have something, another feature included in the premium plan, which is called credibility insights. Now I haven't seen how this one actually works and it's just popped up recently. I don't think it came out with the first round. Uh, and ultimately what's happening with this one is you get to highlight some bits and pieces and have links to it, which have images possible, so it's This one, I'm a little confused about the LinkedIn help section wasn't much more helpful.

[00:09:57] Michelle J Raymond: So I'll report back on that one when I do the video, which steps people through all of this. We also have AI powered writing assistants, and that's a bit of a mouthful. And I have to say everywhere on LinkedIn where I have tried the AI generated text suggestions, whether it's over on my personal about section, cause I've got a premium account.

[00:10:20] Michelle J Raymond: Every time I look at that, I just think it is absolutely rubbish. Now I get that AI will get better with time, but where it's at right now, if I have to say to listeners, you should pay for this feature so that you have, you know, much more opportunities to have, you know, better content written on your company page. I don't think I can hand on heart do that today. I'm always happy to be proven wrong and we'll report back down the track as these things evolve, as I always do, but where it stands right now, I think it would do more harm than good for your brand, and you're better off using proper tools that are there to help you write, even if that is the latest version of ChatGPT, which has just been released or any of the other copywriting tools that are out there that use similar technology.

[00:11:07] Michelle J Raymond: Okay. So again, it's a big no from me on this one. I'm not going to be paying for it. So we've also got, uh, auto invite engaged members to follow your company page. Now, currently when you want to invite people to come and follow your company page, essentially the whole process is manual. I'm super excited to know that if someone comes across onto my page, engages with my content. And they aren't following the page.

[00:11:35] Michelle J Raymond: Then an automatic invite will come out. Now, from what I understand, the other upside to this is you don't have to be a first degree connection with this person. I like the idea of anything that helps the page grow followers quickly is something that I'm going to be on board with, but I'd like to see how this turns out because if you think about it, our posts for company pages, aren't being shown in the home feed as much.

[00:12:00] Michelle J Raymond: And from that perspective, I find it difficult to believe that they're going to actually have that much of an impact with this process. The other thing that they've got is you also get a LinkedIn premium logo on your company page. Head scratcher on this one. Don't even know why anyone worries about it.

[00:12:21] Michelle J Raymond: I don't think anyone even knows when we've got that little gold in that shows you've got a premium account personally. I don't think most people even know what that's about. And I don't think it adds any credibility to a brand. Maybe people will know that you pay for these features. I don't know. Look, the thing with this and you know, I've had a bit of time to settle down after the initial shock of what this was and how it was released and it is being rolled out so if you don't have access to it right now, don't worry, your turn will come. But LinkedIn will give you a free 30 day trial. So rather than take my word for it, give it a go. I'd really love it if after that trial finishes, if you could reach out, let me know what you thought of it. If you saw any difference, did it make any impact that you noticed? Any kind of insider tips from people that are using this on their company page would be welcome.

[00:13:12] Michelle J Raymond: I think company pages are still getting love. And despite what everybody would have, you believe on the platform that because reach is down, there's no value for putting time and effort into your page.

[00:13:23] Michelle J Raymond: I think that that's absolute rubbish. You know, there's lots of different ways to build your company page brand on LinkedIn. It is not just about posts. And I think a lot of that has to do with how you build the community. And if you're doing that strategically, I don't think you have a lot to worry about.

[00:13:39] Michelle J Raymond: So all in all, I'm pretty excited that we're still seeing LinkedIn invest into company pages. And I don't think that that's going to stop. And why? Because we're still seeing record ad spends as far as , LinkedIn goes, they're making lots of revenue from this part of the business and you need a company page to make that happen.

[00:13:58] Michelle J Raymond: And I've noticed a few more little signs that LinkedIn are really trying to push some of those revenue generating, you know, parts of their business. And I've noticed like a little pop up saying, try out LinkedIn campaign manager on my page. And so you can see where they're going. , in some ways I'm kind of glad everyone's spending their ad money over on LinkedIn because these features are paid for by things like that. So all in all, I think these are good things. I think we're moving in the right direction. I am excited to see where else we go in the future.

[00:14:32] Michelle J Raymond: If you spot any others, by all means, please reach out. Let me know that you found something new. Love to stay across what's happening so that I can, you know, share it with everyone, because I think the more that we all learn from each other, the better that we can be at using company pages to grow our businesses.

[00:14:48] Michelle J Raymond: Make sure that when you go across to my profile on LinkedIn, top right hand corner, underneath the banner, is a bell and your actionable tip this week is to go across, ring that bell on my profile. So you're notified of all of my posts and don't miss out on these daily updates that I am letting people know how to get the most out of LinkedIn to grow their business every day.

[00:15:10] Michelle J Raymond: So until next week, listeners, cheers.