LinkedIn Showcase Pages Target Brand-Consumer Relationships

LinkedIn flexed its social muscle this week when it announced Showcase Pages, a new feature that has the potential to change the way brands and consumers do their moving and shaking.

With 259 million users as of October 2013, LinkedIn remains a major social media player (Facebook has 1.26 billion, Twitter has roughly 1 billion), especially in the professional market.

Before now, companies that wanted to engage their audience on LinkedIn could create and publish to a single company page.

However, with Showcase Pages, brands now have the ability to create child pages for the different branches, departments or products that make up the parent company.

LinkedIn introduces Showcase Pages as a means of targeting communication.

In the example above, HP Converged Infrastructure is a LinkedIn Showcase Page that belongs to the HP parent page.

LinkedIn Showcase Pages have a follow button just like company pages, allowing users to “cut the fat” from general company pages and get only the updates they really want.

But it’s not just consumers who benefit; brands also get a closer look at consumers’ real interests, paving the way for more targeted content and (hopefully) higher conversions.

One might call it a divide and conquer method.

Who Should Use Showcase Pages

Any brand that feels their company page doesn’t provide the flexibility needed to cover specific products, services or divisions should consider adding Showcase Pages.

For example, law firms can use LinkedIn’s Showcase Pages to communicate about each area of practice.

Banking institutions can differentiate between commercial and personal services, or branch out with separate pages for savings, lending and investment products.

With Showcase Pages, we will see brands expanding their presence on LinkedIn and establishing even more authentic connections with followers.