LinkedIn offers 2 types of accounts – Personal Profiles and Company Pages. On LinkedIn, you make Connections with other Profiles (users) and you can choose to follow Company Pages. LinkedIn Profiles have the ability to interact with other Profiles, send Connection requests, ask for and receive Recommendations, post status updates, and like, comment on, and share other users’ updates. LinkedIn Company Pages, on the other hand, are very limited in what they can do. As an admin of your LinkedIn Company Page, you can post status updates, but you cannot engage other Company Pages or Profiles as your brand page unless a comment is left on one of the updates published to your Company Page.
For a long time, many users have questioned the value of LinkedIn Company Pages, especially if you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur. Having a Company Page does give you a business presence on LinkedIn and a way to link your place of employment on your profile, but there’s not a lot of added value beyond that.
Now that LinkedIn has rolled out a feature that allows Profiles a way to showcase services they offer through their business at the top of their Profile, it begs the question even more of, “Is a LinkedIn Company Page valuable?”
Let’s take a look at how to add services you offer to your LinkedIn Profile.
How to Add Services to your LinkedIn Profile
When you sign in to LinkedIn and click to visit your Profile, you’ll see a dashed section beneath your headline that reads, “Showcase services you offer so you and your business can be found in search”.
Click on the blue Get Started link.
You’ll be shown 3 reasons why you may benefit from adding services to your LinkedIn Profile, including having the option for potential clients to message you for free to ask about your business.
There is a limited, preset list of industries to select, as well as a preset list of additional services to choose to add. These lists are based on what LinkedIn already knows about your position and industry you work in.
Click on the Business Focus dropdown menu to see other available choices.
Click “Add Service” to see the list of other available service options.
At the bottom of the pop-up you can make other selections like whether or not you would like to work remotely and if you want these services shown publicly or limited to current Connections.
When you are done, click the blue Add to Profile button.
Now you’ll see the completed “Providing [Industry] services” section under your Profile headline.
At this time, there is no additional information nor data provided to you to understand what – if any – impact having these services listed on your Profile provides you.
This was actually really helpful! It’s great to have as much relevant information on your account, so thanks for the step by step.
I do not even see the option shown on your profile to “Showcase services you offer so you and your business can be found in search”. I have spent days trying to figure out this! It’s simply not there on my profile! Any ideas?
Hi DaLorean,
Since it’s a newer feature, it’s totally possible it hasn’t rolled out to you yet. What you can try to do is visit this URL and replace my name for yours: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizjostes/opportunities/service-marketplace/edit/
This method actually worked for me. Thank you so much. Spent the better part of the morning trying to locate this feature and had almost given up.
The problem with this is that the services listed seem to be slanted to certain industries and do not work for others. Is there a way to add a service that is not on the list. For example, you do not seem to have much of a set options for professional coaching. I have been trying to get “Conflict Coaching” a recognized specialized service requiring advanced training on to my list and I can’t.
You are right – I’ve found the same thing. Currently, there’s a preset list of services to choose from. Hopefully LinkedIn will expand that list or allow for custom additions in the future.