LinkedIn — the social platform aimed at the world of work — has quietly begun testing another way to boost its revenue, this time with a new service for small and medium-sized businesses. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that he is working on a new one LinkedIn Premium Company Page subscription, which — for fees that appear to be as high as $99/month — will include artificial intelligence to curate content and new tools to grow followers, among other features to raise company profiles that uses.
The move is significant because it underscores how Microsoft-owned LinkedIn continues to diversify its business model — while also trying to become more useful overall. For years, LinkedIn has been the running joke of many about how it can feel like a cesspool of shameless self-promotion, or (a nervous laugh) creepy when you realize the amount of data it can gather about what you do there.
But as others have pointed out, LinkedIn has a great opportunity right now. With so much changing on other social media platforms and search engines — where advertising and other algorithms dictate what users discover and where misinformation causes riots — LinkedIn is trying to create a safer space, a place to have a social profile. the professionals and buyers out there.
LinkedIn quietly began publishing information describing its new Premium Company Page six days ago. The posts got almost no notice, but we stumbled upon it ourselves, and it seems a So did the marketing consultant. Now LinkedIn has confirmed the details to TechCrunch.
“We are always exploring new ways to improve our customers’ experience and help them achieve their business goals. We’re currently testing a new offering with small to mid-sized clients called the Premium Company Page, which is designed to help them attract customers, build credibility and stand out to their audience. We look forward to sharing more soon,” Suzi Owens, senior director of communications at LinkedIn, said in a statement.
Pricing for premium business pages isn’t immediately disclosed, but it appears that admins of pages that qualify for it can see it. This marketing consultant notes that fees start at $99.99 per month per Page, dropping to $839.88 per Page for an annual subscription.
This new premium company page is the latest in a growing list of premium offers that LinkedIn has created for organizations on the platform, reflecting the different usage and pricing tiers it has created for individuals and recruiters using the platform.
Other business-focused tiers include Premium Career for job hunters, Premium Business for business intelligence, Sales Navigator for sales teams, Recruiter tiers for sourcing and hiring talent, and LinkedIn Learning for professional development.
Overall, Premium services are a very big deal for the company. In March, the company announced that Premium user subscriptions grew 25% year over year to $1.7 billion in 2023. Overall, the company earned $15 billion that year, with its operations accounting for $7 billion of that.
The Premium Company Page subscription will somehow feel very familiar as it uses familiar LinkedIn mechanics.
Administrators for pages can review recent visitors — if those visitors have not disabled their privacy setting, that is. (Public service reminder: it’s on by default.) This can be used to then invite those visitors to follow the page, regardless of their level of connection (which in the past would have been impossible for casual visitors who aren’t already attached to a company degree). Admins can also create “call-to-action” buttons with contact or website information prominently displayed at the top of the Page. Testimonials, which LinkedIn has actually promoted as a feature on profile pages for individuals, also get a boost here: Admins can display them prominently at the top of their premium pages.
AI writing assistance, meanwhile, becomes one of the latest ways LinkedIn is incorporating more AI assistance into the platform, something it began introducing last year, leveraging Microsoft’s ties to OpenAI.
Last but not least, with LinkedIn getting a lot of verification lately, a Page can get a gold badge with a premium membership.
