When marketers and businesses are delivering messages and updates via social networking channels, they are mostly using the default “send to all followers” option. In many cases (maybe even most) their purpose is pretty obvious- To reach to as much people as possible.

But what happens when the message isn’t suitable for the general public and only for specific type of audience? In some cases the sender (marketer/business) might alter the message so it would be more “appropriate” for all and in some other cases the sender might avoid sending the message at all in order remain relevant in the eyes of the followers.

Sure, certain social networks provide some targeting possibilities – Facebook allows location or language targeting and Google+ allows Circle targeting – But when thinking about the enormous amount of personal data these social networks are holding, you would have expect for some more advanced options.

But now, LinkedIn is offering those advanced targeting options for companies in a new feature. This new feature, that is designated for businesses with LinkedIn company page, is providing the opportunity to deliver updates for defined criteria audience which potentially can increase the level of the followers’ engagement as they receive more “personal” message.

LinkedIn launched in February the follow button for companies and this current feature suppose to allow companies better communication with those followers. To access these targeting options, enter your company page and under the update box click on the “Share with:” option. Then, click on “Targeted audience”.

Then, the targeting audience box will appear where you could specify the criteria for advanced targeting of your audience. The targeting can be be based on company size, industry, function, seniority, geography and also choosing if to include all employees and non-employees or non-employees only.

Another great advantage of this option is that it offers stats 24 hours after the message has been posted on a line below the post. Here’s an example of how it appears (the arrow is pointing at the stats line):

LinkedIn also beginning rolling out a new “Follower Statistics” tab under the company profiles (which will be visible only to the company’s admin). While until now companies could see only their total number of followers, this tab will offer more details such as impressions, clicks, shares, demographics and related graphs to see the company’s following progress.

The professional social network announced couple of months ago that it has more than 150 million members and more than 2 million company pages. These new options can surely improve the communication in this giant community, between the users and the companies. The features will roll out to all users in the next upcoming weeks.

For more information about the new features, you can watch the following video: