Depending on what you choose to do with LinkedIn will determine if you want a personal page only or if you need to have a personal and company page. Even if you are a small business and/or a business owner, you most likely will want a personal and business page. It is better for you to have both, especially if you have products to list on a product page that links to your online store. You cannot do this on a personal page.
A personal page is only to be set up for your personal information, not a company name or company information. You have to be a real person with verifiable information to set up a personal page. It is about just you. Not your company information. It is used to network personally and professionally, but just to market yourself. And you can use it to link to your company page.
Your personal page is you key to connecting with other professionals and even customers. It allows you to network, establish sales leads, and prove yourself as a leader or expert in your field and even to sell yourself to potential employers. You should have an upstanding personal page to make your networking a success. Use your status updates to share information and allow your connections to get to know you.
A company page allows you to set up a presence for your company, even if it is a self-owned company. It allows you to brand your company and its products or services. If you do not have a business/company page you are missing out on opportunities to connect with your customers, future customers and even employees.
The potential reach you have to market and brand your company through the LinkedIn company pages is far and wide. It is definitely something you want to spend some time setting up and maintaining. As mentioned earlier, the searching ability in LinkedIn is not the only platform that you can utilize, SEO and traffic will increase your other search rankings as well.
Company pages offer you excellent analytics to gage how you are ranking and where you should concentrate more. Unlike the other social media arenas posting too much is not a good thing. You want to post important items and great content, maybe once a day or 5-7 times per week. Don't post just to post, it needs to be relevant and usable information for your audience. You also do not want to try to hard sell. You want to engage your audience not shove your brand down their throats. You want to offer content or information that is relevant to your brand and/or audience that makes them want to follow you, click through to your full website or blog.
So if you are a small business or a business owner you really want to have a personal profile and a company page on LinkedIn. They both serve separate purposes while being connected. Customers want to learn about your company but they may or may not want to know about you personally. Having both pages allows them to choose how deeply and personally they get to know you. You also may have potential employers who want to contact you personally that will go to your personal profile rather than your company page.
