How to Double Your Exposure as an Author Thanks to Linkedin Showcase Pages

When Linkedin introduced their new Showcase page feature in 2013, it was to enable companies who have a variety of brands and products to highlight them individually and build a community for their specific brands or products. Linkedin Showcase pages would also enable audience members to remain up-to-date with the brands and products they care most about and receive more targeted updates in their newsfeed.

In other words, a Linkedin showcase page is an extension of your company page. It allows you to showcase certain areas of your business, such as a certain department, a certain brand or a certain product. Linkedin showcase pages therefore allow you to segment your audience and publish more laser-targeted content for that specific audience.

For example, as an author you could have written several books on self development. To market all your books on Linkedin, you could create a Linkedin company page about self-development and create one showcase page for every single book.

For example, Dale Carnegie, author of many best selling books such as ” How to win friends and influence people” and “How to stop worrying and start living” has one Linkedin page called “Dale Carnegie Training”, and one showcase page titled “Dale Carnegie Training – Southern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Alaska”. This allows him to segment his audience geographically and serve them accordingly.

The layout of a Linkedin company page and the layout of a Linkedin showcase page is very similar. There is a profile picture which is usually the logo of the product or service, a banner with further information about the product or service and target audience, a description, followers and posts allowing for people to either comment, share or like the content. The only difference in the layout is that a Linkedin company page has a smaller banner and the profile picture appears above the banner and posts are displayed one after the other. With a Linkedin showcase page, the banner is bigger, the profile picture is shown on the banner, and posts are displayed in 2 columns.

To create a Linkedin showcase page, you will need to have already created a Linkedin company page. Once you have, simply click on “edit” and select “create a showcase page”. Then select a name for your Linkedin showcase page, making sure it includes keywords you would like to rank for in the search results.

Then, add an additional administrator if you wish. Having administrators allows you to give access to certain people to manage, moderate and update the page. Any LinkedIn user can be assigned to be a Showcase Page administrator, but that user must be a 1st-degree connection to the Company Page administrator.

It is important to customize your showcase page by adding a profile picture, a description, a banner, your website url and the industry you belong to.

To attract followers, make sure you share the link of your Linkedin showcase page in:

• your email signature
• business card
• social media posts

To build your audience further, you can also invite existing email contacts or Linkedin connections to follow your page and add a Linkedin badge on your website which redirects to your page. Should you have a marketing budget, Linkedin also allows you to create “sponsored updates” to reach a broader audience and therefore, build a following much faster.

Remember to manage your page by logging in daily, posting interesting, engaging content for that specific audience segment, as well as monitoring and acknowledging comments. Ideally, content for Linkedin showcase pages should include relevant company news, industry news, educational content such as blog posts or articles, special product announcements such as discounts or promo codes and when possible, posts that humanize the brand such as pictures from events or pictures of happy customers.

Another important aspect of managing a Linkedin Showcase page is tracking at least weekly the performance of the page by using their built-in analytics tool. This tool allows you to see through graphs your reach, engagement rate and follower demographics and identify particular trends. The data collected by checking the analytics of your page will not only allow you to better tailor your content based on the page’s demographics, it will also enable you to run A/B tests.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post on how to double your exposure as an author thanks to Linkedin showcase pages. Remember to like this post, share it, and leave a comment below. To receive more social media tips, make sure you subscribe to our Youtube channel.

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