• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, December 15, 2020

LinkedIn’s big aspirations are much greater than being a passive platform for companies to connect with people. The vision will see the company transform into a digital storefront for B2B products.

“This gets me excited because then we’re allowing businesses to use LinkedIn as the backbone to power their business needs,” said Rishi Jobanputra, senior director of product management at LinkedIn. “We’re evaluating and really thinking about the future, adapting the product to our customers’ needs.”

Today, LinkedIn is focused on upper and mid-funnel awareness. As companies see a need, that will change.

LinkedIn is open to exploring different tasks to help companies grow their business, whether it’s closing the transaction or onboarding and retaining customers, Jobanputra said.

While there is nothing wrong with helping a brand connect with consumers to grow, LinkedIn’s long-term strategy focuses more on innovation.

As part of that strategy, the company on Tuesday launched LinkedIn Product Pages, a dedicated tab on the company’s LinkedIn Page. It aims to help promote conversations and build brand connections with customers and followers around what they love most about the company and its products.

Product Pages helps companies build a community of enthusiasts and experts around products to raise awareness for solutions, generate qualified leads, and ultimately grow their business. 

Once upon a time, companies used LinkedIn as a passive platform -- meaning a place to post jobs and acquire talent -- but now they are posting more content and engaging with employees, and creating communities around a company’s products, so they can provide feedback.

What’s the vision for Product Pages? LinkedIn continues to create a web of connections.

And through these connections, marketers can spotlight product endorsements and testimonials, gather ratings and reviews, and generate leads with a custom call-to-action button such as a demo request or contact sales form in the new “Products” Tab, added to new products, companies may want to feature. Marketers also can include rich media like videos or product screenshots, descriptions and more.

Jobanputra described it as “building a network of people who can become advocates of the products.”

LinkedIn is investing in SEO and other tactics to drive awareness and funnel traffic to the pages, as well as using artificial intelligence.