If there’s one thing we Brits understand, it’s the art of making an impression while pretending we’re not trying to make an impression at all. It’s that peculiar combination of ambition and self-deprecation that somehow works brilliantly—especially on LinkedIn company pages.
Having spent the last decade managing social media for brands ranging from quaint Cotswold tea shops to behemoths like Virgin Atlantic, I’ve collected some observations about what makes British company pages stand out amidst LinkedIn’s corporate jungle. Spoiler alert: it’s not about posting more “We’re thrilled to announce” updates!
The Banner Image: First Impressions and All That #
Your banner image is the digital equivalent of your shop front, and just like British high streets, the ones that stand out combine tradition with unexpected touches.
Take Fortnum & Mason’s approach—rather than a generic office shot with smiling employees (who were clearly bribed with pastries), they showcase their heritage through seasonally updated banner images that feature their iconic hampers in unexpected locations. One quarter it’s their distinctive turquoise hampers on a Scottish hillside; the next it’s the same hampers in a London taxi.
The lesson? Your banner should tell a story, not just fill space. When Yorkshire Tea featured their team literally dressed as tea bags (I’m not joking—giant orange tags and all), their page engagement increased by 47%. Sometimes being memorably absurd beats being professionally bland.
About Section: The Art of the Understated Brag #
The British art of understatement finds its perfect home in your company’s About section. Compare these two approaches:
The American Version: “XYZ is a disruptive industry leader revolutionizing the way businesses approach office stationery.”
The British Version: “Since 1887, we’ve been helping people find quite nice paper clips and the occasional remarkable stapler. Some say we’re rather good at it.”
Innocent Drinks mastered this tone years ago, and their LinkedIn about section reflects it perfectly: “We make tasty healthy drinks. We started in 1999 after selling our smoothies at a music festival. The sign above our stall read, ‘Do you think we should give up our jobs to make these smoothies?’ People put their empty cups in ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ bins. The ‘Yes’ bin was full, so we resigned the next day.”
This approach—telling a genuine story with a touch of humility and wit—generated 3.6x more profile views than their industry peers who opted for corporate speak. Your company history doesn’t need to sound like you’re accepting a lifetime achievement award.
Content Strategy: The Queue-Jumping Technique #
If British people excel at anything, it’s queuing—except when it comes to LinkedIn content, where the goal is precisely the opposite. You want to skip ahead of the orderly line of forgettable corporate posts.
Greggs (yes, the beloved bakery chain) demonstrated this perfectly when they launched their vegan sausage roll. Rather than a straightforward announcement, they created a product unveiling video that parodied Apple product launches—complete with dramatic music, slow-motion pastry shots, and absurdly technical descriptions of “layers of 96 flaky layers surrounding a bespoke plant-based sausage.”
The campaign generated 390,000 LinkedIn impressions—for a £1.20 sausage roll! The lesson? Subvert expectations. When everyone zigs with earnest corporate announcements, you zag with self-awareness and humor.
Employee Advocacy: The British Sports Team Approach #
British sports fans support their local teams through relegation, humiliating defeats, and endless disappointment. That’s rather like how British employees feel about their companies—there’s a strange loyalty even when things go pear-shaped.
The most successful British company pages harness this peculiar loyalty. Timpson, the key-cutting and shoe repair chain, regularly features posts about their employees’ achievements outside work—from charity marathons to beekeeping hobbies. This “whole person” approach resulted in 76% higher engagement than industry standards.
More importantly, when they post job openings, their application rates are 2.8x higher than competitors. People want to work somewhere that values them beyond their job title—something British companies often communicate better than their international counterparts.
Analytics: British Empiricism in Action #
For a nation that produced Darwin and Newton, we’re surprisingly hesitant to dig into data. Yet the most successful British company pages embrace analytics with gusto—they just don’t feel the need to mention it publicly (that would be showing off).
John Lewis Partnership quietly runs some of the most sophisticated A/B testing on LinkedIn content among UK retailers. They methodically analyze what drives engagement while maintaining their warm, somewhat traditional brand voice.
Their key finding? Posts featuring employees from their actual stores (not headquarters) consistently outperform glossy product announcements by 58%. This data-driven insight guides their content calendar, though they’d never be so gauche as to mention the spreadsheets behind their decisions.
Putting It All Together: The Dyson Example #
Perhaps no British company exemplifies these principles better than Dyson. Their LinkedIn page combines:
- Technical prowess presented accessibly – Complex engineering explained with simple language and compelling visuals
- Self-deprecating origin stories – James Dyson frequently mentions his 5,127 failed prototypes
- Employee-centered content – Regular features on their engineers’ personal passion projects
- British understatement – Products described as “quite effective” (when they’re actually revolutionary)
The result? Engagement rates 4.2x higher than industry averages and a talent acquisition pipeline that receives 11,000+ qualified applications monthly without active recruitment campaigns.
The Most British Advice of All #
The most successful British company pages on LinkedIn understand something fundamental: professionalism doesn’t require pretension. Your company page should feel like a conversation at the pub with your smartest colleague—informative and impressive without trying too hard.
So channel your inner Britishness—be ambitious but self-aware, sophisticated but accessible, and for goodness’ sake, don’t take yourself too seriously. The data shows it works, even if we’d find it terribly embarrassing to point that out.
Edward Harrington is Head of Digital Presence at Uncommon London, where he advises FTSE 100 companies on social media strategy. He previously managed social media for John Lewis Partnership and Virgin Atlantic Airways.