As part of the longstanding strategy to position LinkedIn as a marketing platform for brands, a new program has been released that lets brands embed a “follow company” button from the social network on their homepages. The option is similar to Liking a brand on Facebook or following them on Twitter. Followers will receive automatic updates from the brand through their LinkedIn feeds.

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The “business” social network — which now claims 150 million members — has offered various social media plug-ins in the nine years since it started. Building on the site’s Company Pages, which were introduced back in 2011, the new features enhance brands’ ability to engage directly with their audiences in a professional and trusted social environment.

A LinkedIn representative said that the new button “marks the first phase of LinkedIn’s follower ecosystem strategy that will unfold over the coming weeks,” though she did not offer any further details. Internal research shows that 70% of LinkedIn’s members follow or would follow a company and 60% expect industry insights as well as news from the companies that they follow.

Marketing experts believe that the company has now reached brand-friendly scale and while Twitter and Facebook offer advertisers similar follower features, the ‘magic’ of LinkedIn is its audience; better-educated, more affluent, professionals seeking a business-first context.