If you’re reading TMCnet, chances are you’re also a LinkedIn (News - Alert) member. As you know, LinkedIn has grown into a hugely successful social network for tech-savvy professionals and one of the most effective ways to grow a relevant network.

What you might not know is that LinkedIn is also a powerful tool for businesses – far beyond recruiting. LinkedIn has generated new momentum for companies to create growing “fan bases” of business professionals.

Early last month, LinkedIn launched a new feature called Company Pages, which lets companies showcase products, services and recommendations. Rypple was lucky enough to participate in LinkedIn’s pilot program for advanced testing of this feature. We were quickly impressed. Within two weeks of the launch of Company Pages, we saw dramatic benefits. Our LinkedIn Company Page increased in traffic by ten times, we tripled our followers and added nearly 100 recommendations to our page.

If you’re not already on board with a Company Page, it’s time to get going. Below are a few reasons why:

Compelling content: Company Pages allow you to take your digital assets to LinkedIn and directly share them with a community of like-minded business professionals. Video, display banners, product listings, followers and recommendations – all can live on LinkedIn Company Pages and let you tell your story to customer with the full range of tools.

Meaningful endorsements: LinkedIn recommendations are valuable because they take time. Members have to write a testimonial and associate their name with the recommended brand or product. Plus, each recommendation is blasted to all of that user’s peers. These recommendations are hugely flattering and rewarding because they’re high-profile. They also provide much more context than simply becoming a fan or “liking” someone.

Growing community: Company Pages are ideal for building an online community. Users that log on to your page can see who uses and vouches for your product. When it comes to how you engage on LinkedIn, Company Pages will become standard practice.

While we’re thrilled with the results driven from our Company Page, what has been even more exciting is the response we’ve received from customers. Our Company Page is another forum to hear how people actually talk about our product – critical to us as we evolve our products and step up our marketing strategy. We are now incorporating words and phrases from those comments right into our marketing materials, because they describe the value of our tools to our customers so well. For us, LinkedIn Company Pages is a key part of our social media strategy going forward.


David Stein is a co-CEO of Rypple. Previously, David was one of the founders and the Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of Workbrain. He is a recognized HCM strategist and has helped some of the biggest companies in the world to get the most out of their people. David holds a BSc in Computer Science from McGill University. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons.