LinkedIn Helps Users Follow and Connect with Brands

With more than 2 million companies on LinkedIn, the site has finally activated a way to connect with them: a Follow Company button, which is now live. The video above demonstrates how to find and follow a company, with more details in a blog post and a free webinar at 1pm EST today.

“Click on the Follow Company button and, as long as you are logged onto LinkedIn, you will automatically ‘follow’ the company,” says LinkedIn’s Mike Grishaver. “If you are not logged on, a box will appear asking for your LinkedIn credentials. Just type those in and you will automatically begin to follow the company. Companies will engage with you from their Company Page on LinkedIn and through status updates. Status updates will appear on your LinkedIn homepage – so check back frequently to see what’s going on.”

Brands’ updates feed directly into the status updates of LinkedIn members’ personal homepages, making it that much easier to target audiences and ‘amplify’ messages as they spread across the network.

The Follow Company Button is part of LinkedIn’s strategy to "evolve brands’ social communications" and “marks the first phase of LinkedIn’s follower ecosystem strategy that will unfold over the coming weeks.”

Key Stats about U.S. LinkedIn Members include:  

• 63% expect companies to have a presence and engage on LinkedIn

• 70% follow or would follow companies on LinkedIn

• 50% follow or would follow companies “indefinitely”

• 49% of current followers are more likely to purchase products or services from a company that is more engaged with its followers

• 47% of current followers agree that LinkedIn is an appropriate social environment for hearing company news and updates

“We’re excited to have several well know brands who already use LinkedIn Company Pages eager to install the Follow Company button onto their websites: American Express, AT&T, Starbucks, Sony, Rypple, DonorsChoose, Kiva,” blogs Grishaver.