LinkedIn™ has recently introduced a paid-for version of company pages. The claim is it will help pages grow faster and gain more visibility.
Whether this will ultimately prove the case remains to be seen but given that post visibility has been almost non-existent for the better part of two years, we can only hope so.
LinkedIn™ is offering a free trial for a month after which it will cost around $US100 a month with a substantial discount for an annual subscription.
It comes with just 5 features although this is expected to increase as new features come on stream.
The features are:
- Custom button visibility
- Visitor analytics
- Testimonial
- Auto-invite followers
- AI post writer.
(Plus a Premium badge which displays under the banner.)
This move is not unexpected, in fact it’s been surprisingly long in coming. But now that it’s finally here, the question is whether companies will take up the offer.
Certainly small businesses will be unlikely to have the appetite for it. There’s hardly a cost-benefit argument that can legitimately be made. It’s expensive for what is provided.
Medium sized businesses may see the value. They are likely to already have a solid following for their page, and those with smarts are using features like events and newsletters to reach a wider audience. Unfortunately, neither of these is attached to the Custom button so that’s not an incentive to pay up. But if they see an increase in reach on posts that may encourage them.
Large organisations may see benefits and therefore be the primary market for this, LinkedIn™ hasn’t been clear.
What is clear is that it’s expensive for small businesses given the features currently offered. It’s also not clear if the introductory price will remain for those who sign up early or whether the days of early adopters receiving legacy pricing are over.
All the details currently known about Premium for pages can be found in the Company pages section in the members area of this site. You can read it as part of the 7-day free trial we offer.