Earlier this month LinkedIn announced Company Status Updates adding a social media feature to company profiles.

This update gives businesses an opportunity to build communities and actively build relationships by posting status updates.

But this function should be used with care to avoid inundating followers with spam. Updates posted to a company page appear in the news feed of followers.

While LinkedIn is a network of professionals it’s still social. Status updates can be used to drive traffic and engagement with your organisation but simply broadcasting messages will result in you losing followers fast.

LinkedIn Status Updates improve the social network’s functionality as a business-to-business tool that can help with sales, audience engagement, media relations, employee engagement, recruitment and even R&D.

PR programmes can make the most of this through an integrated approach that includes blogs, forums, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other online networks as well as traditional media.

We’ve produced a client briefing paper on how to best use LinkedIn Company Status Updates – please drop me a line if you’d like a copy.