Why Interior Designers Need a Company Page on LinkedIn. An Indepth Look.

An in-depth look at how you can grow your design business using LinkedIn.

Originally posted on our GA Interior Solutions Blog, 1/21/20

I have been talking a lot about using LinkedIn to market your design business. The truth is, I love LinkedIn, and I have found a lot of value in promoting my brand and company using LinkedIn.

I find my clients are available and willing to connect via LinkedIn whereas, on other social channels, it is more of an uphill battle to reach my audience. With that said, I know it can feel overwhelming when you don’t know where to start. In a previous post, I suggested starting with your personal LinkedIn profile. My next suggestion is to start a LinkedIn company page.

Related Article: "8 Steps to Improve your LinkedIn Profile for Lead Generation in Your Design Business"

Although you may think a LinkedIn company page is just one more thing to manage, I am here to tell you that it is fairly simple to create and keep current. As I discussed in “Why LinkedIn Should be a Part of Your Social Media Strategy,” there are many ways to use LinkedIn to grow your interior design business, including attracting new clients, driving visitors to your website, meeting new people, and generating business partnerships.

Related Article: "How to Create a Company Page on LinkedIn that will Jumpstart your Marketing Efforts"

In this post, I want to look more in-depth at why a company page is necessary, especially if you are targeting business-to-business clients. Even if that isn’t your primary audience, a company page can give your design business additional credibility.

How to Boost Visibility through a LinkedIn Company Page.

Have you ever heard the old adage that it takes three views of an advertisement for someone to remember a company or product? Well, in today’s world, it is much more than three times which is why you often see the same company or product over and over.

Marketing experts know that to reach their target audience, they must use several different media outlets, repeating the same message over and over, for people to remember.

Related Article: "What is Branding and Why is it Essential for Your Interior Design Business"

This consistent visibility helps resonate with what the company is selling in your memory. It is not much different than what you want for your design business. The more your company pops up in front of potential clients, current clients, or even prospective employees, the more you will be remembered. Now what you put out on the social channels will help generate positive thoughts with those you want to reach.

LinkedIn is a Free Marketing Tool

LinkedIn is one of the only social platforms that does not use tricky algorithms to manipulate what someone sees. This means when you post content, it will appear in your connections feed. When they like or make a comment, it will then be reshown to their connections’ feeds. See where this is going?

Marketing is a numbers game. The more people you expose your brand and message to, the more opportunities you will have for generating new business leads. With LinkedIn, you don’t have to pay for expensive ads or memberships, yet still, generate exposure.

You can easily repurpose the same content you use on other social platforms and your website on LinkedIn. Just today, I saw where someone excitedly announced a new project and mentioned pictures to follow. It caught my attention as I would like to see the level of work this person presents.

Expand your Search Footprint

A little-known fact is that social media channels are really just search engines. We don’t think about it that way, though. Let’s take YouTube, which is the second-largest search engine behind Google. I bet you didn’t realize that. In the case of YouTube, users go to the site and search for content that is relevant to their needs. LinkedIn is no different.

If you are going to search for a company to learn more, you might start at LinkedIn since it is a large search engine for businesses.

Your clients might do the same thing. Better yet, LinkedIn will serve you up to potential clients by adding you to “you might know.” It is important to continue your search engine optimization through LinkedIn.

In LinkedIn, you will use keywords much as you do for your website. This allows LinkedIn users to search and find you and your business. A company page is just one more channel to reach people through search engine optimization.

Open a Google search, then type in a competitor. You should see the company website, but you should also see links to LinkedIn and other social sites. Now do the same for your business. Are you appearing in a Google search as you would want? If not, try beefing up your SEO on all social channels including LinkedIn.

Create Brand Awareness

Your company brand is its personality. The more you show that personality, the more brand awareness you create. Share your content, your wins, your employees, and your client’s causes can showcase who you are as a company. People do not do business with a company, they do business with people. I think we often forget that our business is really just a group of people who are working toward a common goal, which is usually serving the client in the best way.

By adding personality to your company and showing who you and your employees are as a cohesive group, you will entice people to want to get to know you and work with you. A company page is a great way to demonstrate your company’s brand and personality. The more you share through LinkedIn, the more people start recognizing your brand.

Engage Employees

Employee engagement can help you retain great employees. One of the biggest things that employees complain about is communication. LinkedIn gives you yet another channel to communicate and engage your employees. By encompassing your employees into your social strategy, you are building a bridge between the company and its lifeline. You need your employees, and by engaging them, they will work harder for you.

Additionally, your employees can be a marketing tool as well. That sounds sort of cold but stay with me. If an employee enjoys where they work and is proud of it, what happens? They share it with others. The better you engage your employees, treat them well, the more they will sing the praises of you and your company. A LinkedIn company page allows them to do share updates more easily.

Serving Your Customers

Sharing content that is helpful or relevant to your audience opens the door to opportunities. An example might be a facilities manager or leasing agent responsible for an outdated business building. They have received multiple comments from potential renters about the lobby being uninviting to clients.

This may trigger a need for help from a designer on sprucing up the common areas. It just so happens you have posted several blog posts outlining “10 Ways to Update a Lobby,” or something to that effect. You also included images of recent projects or show products that might work well in a lobby.

All of these updates are showing up in this person’s feed. This content drives viewers back to your company page will allow prospects to see the significant amount of help you provide through content and images.

Expedite Recruitment

I had to add this one, as it is important. Not only can you list a job posting, but you can also attract new employees with a complete company page. A potential employee, if they do their research correctly, will look at your company page to see what the company is posting.

Related Article: "How to Find Your Next Intern on LinkedIn"

Much like you might review the job applicant’s profile, they are doing the same to you. If a job applicant sees your company as a creative, fun place to work, they are more willing to apply. If they see happy employees and a company that seems to care about employees just as much as their clients, then it leaves them eager to work for you.

Attracting talent isn’t just when you have a job opening. You should be thinking of expanding all year by continuously posting content that will drive interest. I tell students every semester to go out to LinkedIn and research firms they want to work for. I hound them about making connections at that firm. Emerging professionals are going to be attracted to those companies that engage employees and their audience with good content.

Don’t forget to use LinkedIn to review an applicants’ profile. It can give more insight than just their resume. If the applicant is using LinkedIn actively, you can get a good overview of that person, how they work, and their general views on business-related topics.

LinkedIn is a great tool to help you grow your interior design business. If you need more help with your LinkedIn profile, I have provided several resources free to download, including a LinkedIn Strategy template. Plus, on Thursday, I will have a new post showing you a step-by-step guide to creating a company page on LinkedIn.

Don’t forget to follow GAI on LinkedIn.