LinkedIn Showcase Pages Debut

LinkedIn announced last week that it replaced its news aggregator site LinkedIn Today with Pulse, an app it acquired in April for $90 million. This week, LinkedIn released another feature designed to promote content to specific users, called Showcase Pages.

Showcase Pages are spinoffs of Company Pages, which the social network first launched in 2010. While Company Pages are high-level resources for company news, job postings, and more, Showcase Pages promote content specifically about companies' brands and products. Microsoft, for example, has a Company Page where it posts general news, and a Showcase Page for Office where it posts content related to Office 365.

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Aviad Pinkovezky, product manager at LinkedIn, said that these pages -- which are available now -- are intended to help you stay up to date on news surrounding brands and products that interest you. "Showcase Pages are dedicated pages that allow companies to highlight different aspects of their business and build relationships with the right community," he said. "Whether it's a brand, a business unit, or an initiative, following a Showcase Page will provide you the updates you are most interested in."

[ Attract recruiters and improve your profile. Read more: 10 Top LinkedIn Tips, Tricks. ]

You can subscribe to Showcase Pages the same way you would a typical Company Page: Click the "Follow" button in the top-right corner to get the brand's or business's updates to appear in your news feed. You can unfollow Showcase Pages in the same manner: Navigate back to the page and click "Unfollow."

While Showcase Pages are similar to Company Pages, they don't have the same features. For example, Showcase Pages don't include tabs for careers or products and services. They differ from LinkedIn Groups -- which many products and services may also have -- in that Groups are run by an administrator who may not be affiliated with the company, while Showcase Pages are controlled exclusively by company admins.

Company Page administrators are the only ones who can create Showcase Pages, LinkedIn said. Company Page admins can start by identifying the business areas of your company that need a Showcase Page, LinkedIn recommended, then go to the "Edit" drop-down menu and select "Create a Showcase Page." Fill out the necessary information and then start sharing content to your page. LinkedIn's Pinkovezky said that admins will have access to analytics tools to monitor Showcase Page performance.

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