Many companies leverage the power of Facebook by establishing a fan page for their business, but until recently, many companies were not aware that a company page can also be established on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network, now has a section completely dedicated to companies and their pages.
In comparison, personal profiles on LinkedIn, much like a Facebook personal profile, is a way for individuals to detail their work history, education, likes, and contacts.
A company page, on the other hand, details a company, its history, field of expertise, products, services, and location.
LinkedIn.
com/companies is a portal for company pages and LinkedIn company pages are rapidly growing in popularity as marketers see the benefits of showcasing their company's strengths front-and-center to professionals in their industry or those that are searching for their product or service.
If your company has a page on LinkedIn, you can post status updates for your company.
Any company page administrator can type a note in the status box on your company's overview page.
This is helpful and keeps your followers thinking about your company.
Updates will appear on your followers home pages.
Followers can like, comment on, share updates or develop unique conversions with your company and, best of all, these conversations can be seen by their networks, exposing your company to a greater audience.
You can view metrics to see what followers found interesting, which allows you the opportunity to optimize the conversation.
Now, LinkedIn users who 'follow' certain companies will be able to receive more information such as breaking company news, employee moves, job opportunities, or updates on products and services (including multimedia content) directly from those companies.
Consider LinkedIn's new "company status updates" field as very similar to Facebook business page updates.
Companies can share text and links to other content as well as multimedia content like videos and images.
LinkedIn and Facebook offer many similar advantages for business marketers.

1. A company page brings awareness to your business.
   It keeps your company in the minds of consumers, or reminds them of your company's strengths, products, and services.
   
2. With LinkedIn and Facebook, companies can share and collaborate on content, start a discussion, and build a community of followers.
   LinkedIn's new "company status updates" field is very similar to Facebook "business page updates".
   Companies can share text and links to other content as well as multimedia content like videos and images.
   
3. By liking, commenting or sharing updates to groups, LinkedIn and Facebook users can reach out to like-minded professionals, and bring awareness.
   
4. Updates posted on company pages appear on followers' home pages, which in-turn can appear on their contacts' home pages...
   and so on.
   
5. Both LinkedIn and Facebook provide metrics and insights to track the success of conversations.
   

Building a business is no longer about passing out flyers or offering a sale.
Rather, social media has taken a front-and-center role and is essential in building and growing a business and marketers are capitalizing on the tools offered by LinkedIn and Facebook.