LinkedIn, the worker-focused social platform, has quietly begun testing another way to increase revenue. This is a new service for small and medium-sized businesses. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that it is working on a new LinkedIn premium company page subscription. This includes things like AI to create content and new tools to increase your follower count, all for a hefty $99 per month. To use them to increase the company's profile.
The move is significant because it highlights how Microsoft-owned LinkedIn is continuing to diversify its business model while becoming more useful overall. LinkedIn has been the subject of many jokes over the years about how it feels like a cesspool of shameless self-promotion, or (with a nervous laugh) how creepy it gets when you realize how much data it can collect about your actions on it. It has been made into a joke.
But as others have pointed out, LinkedIn has a great opportunity right now. With so many changes going on on other social platforms and search engines, with advertising and other algorithms determining what users discover, and misinformation running rampant, LinkedIn is a safer place. So we've been looking to carve out a space where we can record our social profiles. Professionals and prosumers out there.
Six days ago, LinkedIn quietly began posting information describing its new Premium Company Pages. The post got little attention, but we discovered it by accident ourselves, and apparently our marketing consultant also discovered it. Now, LinkedIn has confirmed the details to TechCrunch.
“We are always looking for new ways to improve our customers' experience and help them achieve their business goals. We're testing the service, which is designed to attract customers, build credibility, and stand out to our audience. We look forward to sharing more with you soon.” Susie Owens, senior director of communications, said in a statement.
Pricing for premium company pages is not immediately revealed, but it appears that the administrator of the page in question can see it. According to this marketing consultant, pricing starts at $99.99 per page per month and drops to $839.88 per page for an annual subscription.
This new Premium Company Page is the latest in a growing list of premium services LinkedIn has created for organizations on the platform, with a variety of uses and price points built for individuals and recruiters using the platform. is reflected.
Other business-focused tiers include Premium Career for job seekers, Premium Business for business intelligence, Sales Navigator for sales teams, Recruiter tier for talent discovery and hiring, and LinkedIn Learning for professional development. And so on.
In summary, premium services are very big business for the company. In March, the company announced that premium user subscriptions would reach $1.7 billion in 2023, an increase of 25% year over year. The company's overall profit that year was $15 billion, of which $7 billion was from the recruitment business.
Premium Company Page subscriptions look very familiar in some ways, in that they leverage the well-known LinkedIn mechanics.
Page administrators can see recent visitors (unless those visitors have turned off their privacy settings). (Public service reminders: On by default.) You can use this to invite those visitors to follow your page, regardless of how connected they are (previously it was It was not possible to do this for those with a company degree). Administrators can also create a “call to action” button that displays contact information and her website details prominently at the top of the page. Testimonials, which LinkedIn actually promotes as a feature on a person's profile page, also get a boost here. Admins can display these prominently at the top of their premium pages.
Meanwhile, AI Writing Help becomes one of the latest ways LinkedIn is building more AI assistance into its platform, which it began rolling out last year by leveraging its relationships with Microsoft and OpenAI.
Last but not least, LinkedIn is all about authentication these days, and Pages can earn golden badges with a premium subscription.