LinkedIn delved deeper into marketing with its launch Tuesday of Showcase Pages, through which companies can feature specific products within their branded pages.
Designed as an extension of LinkedIn’s Company Pages, users that follow Showcase Pages will receive updates on products, events or other content.
“We tell marketers, ‘Yes, we’re a professional network, but people are coming to us for information about companies to help them be more successful in their careers,’” said Linkedin product VP David Thacker. “So we encourage companies to talk about what they’re doing, whether that’s a product offering or event that they’re promoting.”
Thacker said Showcase Pages are free and that audiences can find the Pages organically or participating businesses can purchase a Sponsored Ad or Update. LinkedIn limits most companies to 10 Showcase Pages to keep participating companies from overburdening themselves.
Adobe, HP, Microsoft and Cisco received the first crack at the dedicated pages and the tool will be rolled out to all users by the end of this week. The Showcase Pages appear in a stripped-down version on LinkedIn’s mobile app. Adobe’s Marketing Cloud page, for example, mainly consists of text within one column.
LinkedIn has made several moves recently to strengthen its position as an advertising platform. This past summer, the company launched its self-serve Sponsored Updates feature and CEO Jeff Weiner said during the Q2 earnings call that the company is working on an ads API.
