I said what I said. Now, for all the brand marketers out there, don’t freak out on me just yet.
Don’t get me wrong. Your company should have a LinkedIn page and your social media team should post content on a regular basis. But understand this:
The strength of your brand on LinkedIn is not your company’s page. It’s in the voices of the employees who post content on the platform.
Why? Because people connect with people. 🙋♂️
No offense, but let’s be real. People don’t connect with press releases, stock quotes or links to whitepapers that so many organizations post on their company LinkedIn pages.
People connect with people.
Let your people be the voice of your brand
If I could offer one piece of advice to the Marketing VP’s of the world, it would be this:
If you truly want to promote your company’s brand, culture and values on LinkedIn, let your employees tell that story by actively posting content and engaging with their personal network.
Brands should develop a clear, concise social media policy to be shared with all employees. The policy should define guidelines of what is appropriate, but doesn’t stifle or discourage creativity. Bonus points if you keep it to one page. Or, just use this:
“Don’t share confidential or proprietary information. More importantly, don’t post content that would conflict with the core values of our company. “
“Use common sense.”
The end.
And if you’re thinking to yourself: “I don’t know if we can trust our people to say the right things on LinkedIn”, then you didn’t hire the right people. That’s on you.
By encouraging your employees to actively post content on LinkedIn, they become Brand Ambassadors for your organization. That’s a powerful marketing tactic when properly executed.
There’s also a huge upside for employees who participate. By posting content on a regular basis, they will build their own personal brand and establish themselves as thought leaders in their industry. That’s a priceless employee benefit in today’s world.
The Ducks Unlimited Digital Hashtag
A few years ago, our team created the #DucksUnlimitedDigital hashtag. I encourage my team to post as often as they like and use that hashtag in content related to their projects, lessons learned and other company related posts.
Click here to follow our hashtag and see examples of content we’ve posted.
You see, I want people to form a favorable opinion of Ducks Unlimited based on the content posted by my team on LinkedIn. I want them to see our culture. I want people to want to work here. I want people to want to work for MY TEAM!
Here’s more about #DucksUnlimitedDigital