Most B2B brands are running their Company Pages like personal brands, and

quietly it is killing their results.

G'Day everyone.

It's Michelle J Raymond here, and we are back to talk about my favourite

topic, LinkedIn Company Pages, what's in store for them in 2026.

Great question and one that we're going to take a look at in today's episode.

We're gonna have a look at the biggest mistakes that I see, the biggest

opportunities, where the future really is for LinkedIn Company Pages in 2026.

I got pretty excited over the break and realised that a lot of my positioning and

messaging was all over the place, whether it was on the podcast descriptions,

or on my website, my Company Pages.

So I went in and I was updating my Company Pages and bam, my Page got cancelled.

And I was like, no.

How can the Company Pages Queen have no Company Page?

Good news is I actually flushed out a bug that was on LinkedIn and that's since been

fixed, so it won't happen to anybody else.

But you know, I know that there's a lot of noise on the platform that

Company Pages are a waste of time.

I also know that a lot of my listeners to this podcast are responsible

for the success of their LinkedIn Company Page in the business.

So I'm excited about today's episode, but we're gonna dive into everything

right after this quick word from our podcast sponsors, Metricool.

Let's have a look at the three biggest mistakes that come up when I'm doing

my LinkedIn Company Page audits with B2B brands, and you'd be surprised,

but pretty much there's a common theme that runs across every kind of Page,

every size, every country, whether it's multinational or a small business.

The actual same mistakes keep coming up, and the first one is probably the

one that presses my buttons the most, and that is when people try and copy

the LinkedIn strategies or tactics of those big LinkedIn influencers.

So imagine that a LinkedIn creator has got 200,000 plus followers.

They must know what they're talking about, right?

Like because they're got so big and therefore what they're talking about

will apply back to your Company Page.

Except the fact is most of them have ignored their Company Page,

have no idea what it's like to run one within a corporate environment.

And to be honest, I'm gonna say at least seven or eight out of 10 have

cheated their way to get to that number.

Yeah, I'm just putting it out there.

This year is a year where I call a spade a spade, and those big

influencers pretty much, have got there buying engagement, joining

engagement pods or buying followers.

You know, this is just the way that social works, but there are still

people out there that don't recognize that this is actually a problem on all

social platforms, not just LinkedIn.

So trying to copy what they are recommending is a sure fire way to break

your LinkedIn Company Page strategy.

And that is the first mistake that I see is trying to make your Page perform

exactly the same as personal content.

News flash.

While there may be some grey areas, it just doesn't work.

It's not designed that way.

It's the classic comparing apples and oranges.

So if you are trying to do that and wondering why it's not working, that is

the first mistake that I would say I see.

And I get it like you're looking for answers and it makes

sense that if someone's got a big account, it should work.

And then you're probably left scratching your head wondering why it's not.

The second biggest Company Page mistake that I see is writing the Company Page off

completely and saying that it's a waste of time and trying to basically put all

of your focus on getting your employees and your colleagues active, because of

course, if you do a post on your personal account, it will be seen by more people.

I am not here to change anybody's mind on that unless you happen to

be the Page Admin on one of the huge corporate Pages that is doing really

well and got great engagement because you have a huge brand off the platform.

Lots of advertising dollars have probably been spent along the

way, or it's a heritage brand.

And so those kind of brands, I'm gonna park you to one side just

for a minute, so bear with me.

I'm talking to those people that have probably listened to those big

creators who tell you that a Company Page isn't worth your time and effort,

and so slowly ,but surely, you have been neglecting it more and more.

And I'm not saying that people always do this intentionally,

because I get what it's like for marketing managers out there.

You are getting pulled in every single direction.

It could be that you've been asked to write the internal comms,

you've been asked to make sure that blogs go up on the website.

Can we have a new AI strategy for marketing?

Can you get all of the employees active?

Like the list goes on and on and on.

So.

I can understand why the LinkedIn Company Page, which doesn't feel like it ever

gives you much love back again, is the first thing that gets pushed to the side.

But that is, in my opinion, a mistake.

And I'll talk about why I think that's a mistake and how we

can fix that a little later on.

The third mistake that I see with LinkedIn Company Pages is probably the biggest one

that I am going to keep repeating over and over is you are talking at your audience.

Your Company Page is just a broadcast channel that is dominated by other

people within the business telling you they want a particular message

to go out because you've built a certain audience on LinkedIn.

So, they think the purpose of the Company Page is pretty much just

like a billboard or an advertisement.

We want you to tell everybody we're gonna be at such and such event.

You know how it goes.

And then all of a sudden, that amazing LinkedIn strategy that you probably

created at the end of last year goes out the window as these requests come

in and over the top and dominate things.

And then what happens is, no surprises, is that you don't get any

responses from people on the platform.

So your engagement goes quiet.

It feels like you're talking to yourself, and quite frankly, you probably are.

If those are the three biggest mistakes that I see on LinkedIn Company Pages,

what are we gonna do differently going into 2026 B2B marketing managers

that are listening to this podcast?

Here's what I would recommend.

It's time to switch off broadcast mode and go into service mode.

How can you create content on your LinkedIn Company Page that

is in service of your audience and lets go of that self-promotion?

Now, this is easier said than done because I understand what it's like

to work in the real world, where you have the best intentions, but other

people come in over the top, like we were talking about in the previous

segment, the biggest mistake is when we are just self-promoting the business.

So how can you change this?

Well, sometimes it could be a little bit of just the language that we use.

So a great hint that we got when Nancy Harhut was on the podcast a few

episodes ago was changing our language.

Instead of talking about the product, talk about the benefits that you get from using

this, or you'll get from buying this.

Your whole job is to try and help somebody on the other side get

a little bit closer to whatever their goals are in their business.

And you'll have heard me talk about this over and over and over again if you've

listened to this podcast for a little while, shout out to anybody that has,

I appreciate you all, but ultimately, why do I keep going on about this?

Well, quite frankly, it's as simple as that's what works.

So take a look at the content that your Page has been putting out and let me

know, is it in service of your audience?

Or is it stuck in self-promotion mode?

I'd love to hear in the comments, or you can always DM me over

on LinkedIn and let me know.

What did you discover when you took a look at the last post?

Are you stuck in self-promotion mode?

Chances are it's highly likely a yes.

If we're now switching up to creating content in service of our audience,

that's going to take your Page a long way to hitting those goals,

whether it's impressions or followers growth or getting more saves.

What else are we gonna do?

Well, it's time for Company Pages to stop sitting on the sidelines.

What's the easy fix if we've got a Company Page that's sitting on the sidelines?

Well, my answer is Page advocacy.

This is something that I launched last year and I wanna talk to you about

today because Page advocacy is all about getting your Page proactively

out there, supporting your business, your employees, and their content,

or even others within your industry.

There is so much more to Pages than just posting content.

As a Page admin, I want you to think, what are the opportunities that you

could proactively go out and search for and get your Page engaged in content

that is being created by other people?

Now, it's a really easy thing to do if your Page is being tagged

in content, it becomes a little bit trickier if it hasn't been.

You have to look for the right conversations, and the search

bar is gonna be your friend.

Also having confidence to do this is gonna be so important.

'cause quite often Page admins say, you know what?

That's not really my job.

That's more the sales team or the customer service team or the social care team.

They should be out there doing that.

Well, I'm here to argue the point that as a Page admin, you can be in service

of your colleagues and do so much more.

It might involve a conversation with your teammates and coming up with some

standardised responses, but no more just posting and praying that your content

will be seen because as I discussed last week, we are not in that era

anymore, that is long gone, and Pages that are proactive are Pages that will

build their brand, be seen, and build up that real brand affinity, which is

so hard to measure, but so important.

What is the third thing that I think is the opportunity for

2026 for LinkedIn Company Pages?

What's a third opportunity for Company Pages in 2026, which I

think is really untapped, and that is using your Company Page as the

backbone of your infrastructure, positioning, messaging, clarity.

This is your real opportunity Page Admins to lead from the front.

And Pages are always consistent.

They're there week after week, year after year, unlike

employees that might come and go.

And that turnover for employees is becoming more and more frequent

with different generations.

So this is why I love Company Pages.

They are the ultimate loyalty in the business, they are not going anywhere.

There is no turnover.

So from that perspective, think about how can you use your Page to lead the way.

It is not just a publishing channel.

That is like the lowest common denominator that could happen

for your LinkedIn Company Page.

And I think for too long we've been convinced that thinking about

Company Pages as the poor cousin to personal profiles is actually true.

And I'm gonna argue that it is not.

And I think marketers, those smart marketers that I know, listen to

this podcast, you already know this, but it's time to rise up and

really own it and drown out that noise that we quite often hear.

Because you know your stuff.

You've got the experience, you've got the marketing fundamentals.

This is the game changer if you'll step up and own that position.

How do I think that your B2B brand can evolve when it comes to

LinkedIn Company Pages in 2026?

Well, there's some really simple fixes on top of what we've already discussed as

the opportunities, and that is it's time to throw away the templated approach.

Refresh, reset a message that I've been sharing week after week recently

because if we keep trying to do the same thing, 360Brew the LinkedIn

algorithm and the way that it works is going to cut off your success.

Conversely, the real opportunity is when we try different things and we

have content that is in service of our audience, and be really clear who that

audience is, and how you're showing up for them, and be consistent with

our message and build conversations through content and comments and

community building things, then that algorithm is going to love you.

So templates out the window.

And with that I'm asking you, can you try for 2026 to be the

year of smart experimentation.

Check the analytics, what's working, what's not?

Have you tried a different content format recently?

Did you try something fun?

Maybe it's more serious.

Is it really specific and written by one of your technical experts?

Have you tried a short form video when everything else is text?

Have you thrown out the images that just come from stock photos

and put your real people in there?

There are so many different ways that you can experiment with this

without even worrying about where this fits within your brand guidelines.

It's time to get creative.

It's try.

It's time to do things that your competitors aren't, and that would be

one other piece of advice that I would give right here with experimentation

is, look at what your competitors are doing and do the opposite.

If they always do long form text, try really short, try

a video, try a carousel post.

There are so many different ways that we can do this.

And what else do I think is really important for Company

Pages when it comes to 2026?

I think it's time as I'm gonna repeat from last week's episode

that we get back to strategy.

What is your clear message that you wanna get across to your clear audience?

Is it really clear or are you still trying to be everything to everyone?

Because quite often products can be sold here, there, and everywhere, but

if you have a chat to your sales team, maybe you'll discover that you're

really strong in a particular market.

Double down on that and you'll be very surprised that the more

narrow you go with your audience, the more opportunities come in.

It always feels counterintuitive to me.

It still does.

It's something that I have tried so hard to wrap my head around in my business

because I've always thought the broader and the bigger the opportunity that

I say to people, I can do everything.

The more opportunities would come my way, and it just doesn't work like that.

The more I stick with, I'm the Company Page led growth and

scaled with employee advocacy.

As long as I own that space, there's nobody else out there that does what I do.

So underutilised Company Pages being the backbone of a strategy.

I can't wait to see more of that in 2026.

As I wrap up this episode, I'm here to tell you that Company Pages aren't dead.

They're just often misunderstood and misaligned from the rest of the business.

Now if today's episode has inspired you to try new things, to do things different

to your competitors, to have a look at what's been working and not working well,

that's amazing and I hope that you'll reach out and connect with me on LinkedIn.

I say that every single week on this podcast because it's important to

me to know that you are not just listening to the podcast, but you are

taking an action that will help you get closer to your business goals.

I have to walk the talk.

My content should be in service of you, just like with your Company Page.

This is the year to stop copying every other brand and really create a

strategy that has your brand standing out and leading your industry.

Sound good?

Well, next week we're gonna talk about how your employees can help

you really scale that message.

Until then, cheers.