LinkedIn has announced a new feature that allows you to promote your business more effectively than ever before.

Up until now, LinkedIn’s real strength has been connecting individuals.  The power of the personal account has always been its ability to break down the natural barriers that exist between individuals and companies by enabling the folks behind the business to be introduced as real people, building real trust and real relationships.  This is especially important for micro and small businesses.

The main limitation of the personal account is that the only way people outside of your first degree connections can be exposed to any content you share (such as a blog article) would be by sharing a group with you or by manually completing a search for status updates containing specific keywords using LinkedIn’s “Signal” tool.

Therefore, promoting your business beyond your current network is difficult – especially if you’re not interested in becoming a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker).  Open Networkers will accept invitations to connect with anyone who asks.  This approach doesn’t guarantee a quality of connections but certainly guarantees an abundance of opportunities.

Up until now, the only useful way to promote your business as its own entity has been to add your company information to the LinkedIn Company Directory.  This directory allows you to create a summary of your company, post your logo, highlight all of your products and services, and post jobs.  As part of this company directory listing LinkedIn offered a “follow” feature so individuals could follow your company.  For the most part this feature was really only useful for job seekers who would be notified as people joined or left a particular company.

Today that has changed.

Now a business can post updates through their LinkedIn company profile.  These updates appear in the home page LinkedIn newsfeed of anyone who has chosen to follow that particular company.  The post appears under the company name and, in place of an individual profile picture, you will see the company’s logo.  Here's an example:

If this reminds you of following someone on Twitter or “subscribing” to a Facebook user’s public updates then you are absolutely right.  Twitter’s strength has been its ability to facilitate connections beyond an individual’s existing network – albeit quite often a one-way connection between followers and the followed.  Now, meaningful following is no longer the exclusive realm of Twitter – it’s available through both Facebook and LinkedIn.  So, for those of you who haven’t been comfortable exploring Twitter (it really is its own little world) you can now achieve many of Twitter’s benefits through LinkedIn.

Consider adding a link to enable people to easily follow your company on LinkedIn – now there’s an actual benefit to follow.  For social media hints and tips feel free to follow Social Media Coach through LinkedIn…

Geoff Evans, Founder of Social Media Coach