Most labs end up with a LinkedIn company page because it feels like the official choice, the same way a company gets one. Almost nobody weighs it against the alternative first, which is a mistake, because the alternative usually performs better.
Why personal profiles outperform company pages
LinkedIn’s algorithm treats posts from personal profiles and company pages differently, and the difference isn’t small. A personal post reaches the poster’s own network and can spread further through shares and comments in a way company page content rarely does. A company page post, by contrast, mostly reaches people who already follow the page, which for a new or small lab is a modest number.
This means a PI willing to post under their own name will generally reach far more of exactly the people worth reaching, funders, collaborators, prospective trainees, than the same content posted from a company page ever will.
What a company page still does well
A company page doesn’t depend on one person. If a PI moves institutions, retires, or stops posting, a personal profile’s history and following stay with that individual, not the lab. A company page persists as the lab’s own identity regardless of who’s currently running it, which matters for a lab that expects to outlast any single person’s tenure, including the founding PI’s.
A company page also reads as more official to some audiences: a partner organization or a funder doing due diligence might expect to find a company page rather than only a personal account, even if the personal account has stronger content.
The practical answer for most labs
Run both, with most actual posting happening from the PI’s or lab manager’s personal profile, and the company page kept current as a secondary, lower-effort presence: a link to it in the lab’s team pages, and roughly a monthly cross-post of the most substantial personal-profile content, not full duplication of everything posted.
This gets the reach advantage of a personal account and the institutional durability of a company page without doubling the actual writing effort, since one piece of content, written once, can serve both.
What this looks like week to week
A PI posts a paragraph about a new result on their own profile, the way they’d write it for any other update. The lab manager, checking the page once a week rather than daily, copies the same text to the company page with minor tweaks, drops it under the company page’s own header image, and moves on. No separate drafting process, no second piece of content to think up. The company page exists and stays current without becoming a second job for anyone.
When a PI won’t post personally
Some PIs, for entirely reasonable reasons, don’t want their personal LinkedIn tied to lab announcements. In that case, a company page run by a lab manager or a trainee is the right call, made consciously rather than by default. The tradeoff is real: expect a smaller reach than a personal-profile-driven presence would get, and plan the posting cadence accordingly rather than being surprised when engagement stays modest.
Making the choice on purpose
The mistake most labs make isn’t picking the wrong option. It’s not picking at all, defaulting to a company page because that’s what came to mind first, then wondering later why the account never seems to reach anyone. Deciding this deliberately, even if the answer ends up being a company page alone, produces a better outcome than inheriting the choice by accident.
Common questions
Should a research lab use a LinkedIn company page or the PI's personal profile?
A PI's personal profile usually reaches more people, since LinkedIn's algorithm favors personal accounts over company pages by a wide margin. A company page adds legitimacy and survives staff turnover, so many labs benefit from running both, with the personal profile carrying most of the actual posting.
Does a lab need both a company page and a personal profile?
Not strictly, but running both covers each option's weakness: the personal profile gets more reach, and the company page gives the lab a stable identity that doesn't depend on one person's account or disappear if the PI changes institutions.
What if the PI doesn't want to post personally?
A company page run by a lab manager or a designated trainee still works, and it removes the reach advantage of a personal account. That's a real tradeoff worth making consciously rather than defaulting to a company page for feeling more official.
Does switching between the two later cause problems?
Some, mainly lost history and a fragmented audience. It's worth deciding deliberately at the start rather than switching a year in, since followers on one don't automatically transfer to the other.