LinkedIn in their quest to be a social connected network has taken the plunge into the “follow” frenzy that has made headlines with Facebook’s Like and Link, formerly known as Become a Fan, LinkedIn’s Sharing Tool and Matching Job Seekers with Employers. This move has taken the connecting with a company a step further with the launch of Company Follow. Company Follow allows users to connect with a company as a means of acquiring information about the company such as their overview, specialties, hiring trends, new developments, current employees, new hires, former employees as well as potential business opportunities that are posted in their recent activity. While this seems yet like another time where LinkedIn is beginning to look a lot like Facebook, the premise is different (for now) where on Facebook Pages, there is interaction through comments where with the LinkedIn Company Follow the Company Pages do reveal the other followers, but they are not interactive. This, I am sure is likely to change to allow for interaction with people you are connected to. It seems like the natural progression to increase user experience, to increase time on LinkedIn as well as increase ad revenue as more time on the site, the more exposure to the ads.
How to Company Follow
1. Profile Page. You can follow a company from a connection’s profile page by clicking on the company they have listed on their profile and clicking the “Follow Company” in the hover bar that appears.
2. Company Profile. Search for a via their name or a keyword and click on their Company Page and click “Follow Company” on the icon to the right.
3. “More”. In the menu bar that appears at the top of your profile, you can find search for companies to follow as indicated above through the company name or keyword or select from the recommended companies.
4. Recommended Companies. In the “More” next to Company Name or Keyword search there is a menu for “Following”. Click on "Following” and companies will be recommended for you to follow. Additionally when you follow your first company, an email is sent to you welcoming you to Company Follow as well as suggesting companies you may want to follow that includes a link to find and follow more companies.
5. Links. As expected, companies and employees will be promoting the link to their company page to follow. Once on the page, simply click “Follow Company”.
Change your mind? Click “Stop" Following” and you are no longer following that company.
How to Adjust Frequency of Notifications
With each company that you follow, a notification will be sent to you confirming the following as well as emails of their activity. If they update their page frequently you may find yourself inundated with emails. LinkedIn has addressed this where you can determine how and when you receive the update notifications.
This is a feature that is bound to be built upon. As LinkedIn has worked to connect users as well as the functionality for users by adding new features to place resumes on the top of the pile, the LinekdIn Blackberry App, Integrating LinkedIn with Outlook and Semi-customizing your LinkedIn profile. The opportunity to create a personal profile that gets noticed and for job seekers has become easier. If you become a fan of a page, your profile is exposed to all the other followers so if are you are seeking employment, tweeking your Professional Headline to reflect what you do and that you are a job seeker will get noticed.
What do you think? Will you follow companies or is this just another chance to see and be seen? Is this more or less credible than the Facebook Company Pages? Let’s talk about it in the comments.
photo credit: Base3.photography