Some will say that LinkedIn’s become too much like Facebook – it’s not about B2B interactions any more but simply people looking get engagement by sharing the most emotive content (whether that’s related to work or not). And that’s a bit of a controversial subject in itself, because at the end of the day we’re all human, whether we’re working or enjoying time outside of work – and to get engagement on social media, LinkedIn included, we know we need to be producing content that really appeals to people.
But there are ways you can offer value through your company’s LinkedIn page whilst also showing some personality – but without having to resort to sharing cute cat photos (or dogs – we’re not biased here!).
Below I’ve shared six LinkedIn company page tactics you could try to not only show the personality behind your business, but to also increase engagement – and make LinkedIn work harder for you as a marketing channel. I know these tactics really do work too, because I’ve seen it generate results for our clients. A great example is our client in B2B sustainability that drive 50 leads each year from LinkedIn alone, with many more enquiring through team members that share the content. If you’re ready to start seeing your LinkedIn achieve results like this, then get planning your content using these six tactics:
1. Celebrate milestones
Don’t be afraid of ‘blowing your own trumpet’ on LinkedIn – it’s the perfect platform for it, and even better if you’re doing it in a way that celebrates the achievements of your hard-working team. Sharing good news and milestone achievements can be a big morale boost for your team, whilst also demonstrating to a wider audience the knowledge within your business – positioning you as experts in your field.
Here are a few milestone ideas you might want to share:
- Team member anniversaries from when they joined your business
- Remembering or celebrating awards won or qualifications achieved
- When your business grew to a certain size – a number of employees reached or a new office space moved into, for example
2. Run a ‘meet the team’ campaign
Ask your team members if they would be up for taking part in a mini ‘meet the team’ campaign on your company’s LinkedIn page. This could be as simple as sharing a few facts about a team member on your page – helping people to ‘get to know’ who’s behind your business. Think about asking participating employees questions like:
- What do you enjoy most about working for us?
- What feels like your biggest achievement?
- What do you like to do in your spare time?
This can really help show the personality behind your business and particularly help in a world where we might all be working more remotely but looking to still get to know people.
If you feel it’s right for your company you could take this to another level and introduce a monthly employee appreciation award or scheme, where you (or your team) nominate different team members to be celebrated for their work or achievements. You could share the news of the winners on your page and why the person was nominated – great for engaging your team too!
3. Share advice directly from your team
Ask a knowledgeable team member to answer a question in a few sentences and share this advice on your page. This could be top tips from a customer services representative on maintenance for one of your products, it could be a member of your product development team discussing the future of the industry, or the head of a department focussing on something relevant to your sector that’s hit the headlines recently.
In our experience, this is a really nice way to showcase the depth of expertise in your business whilst engaging your team and offering value to your LinkedIn audience – it’s definitely worth giving a go!
If your team members are feeling particularly brave, why not ask them to create a short video of them going through their advice – instead of relying on a written post alone? A video adds even more personality, and it plays in your favour when it comes to LinkedIn algorithms.
4. Enable your employees to be active on their own profiles
Don’t forget that it’s not just about your company’s LinkedIn page, but what your employees are doing on their profiles too. You’ll want your employees to be positively engaging with your company posts but also reinforcing the good work you’re doing on your page with posts of their own.
Consider investing in some LinkedIn training to help equip your team with the knowledge – and confidence – to start sharing on their own profiles. Don’t forget to keep revisiting this training over time, as new team members join or to simply refresh everyone else’s minds as to why LinkedIn can be such a valuable platform.
5. Share the results of your hard work
When you see engagement increasing on your LinkedIn page, share this achievement with your team. Let them know that it’s their involvement and own content creation that is helping to fuel that engagement.
We’ve seen particular success with clients where team members have been able to show, directly, the influence positive LinkedIn engagement has had on a sale. It brings to life just how effective LinkedIn can be as a platform and naturally encourages more people to ‘get on board’!
6. Show the faces behind your business
Last, but not least, don’t be camera shy! Whether you’re on a team outing together, or you’re sharing the latest product advice from a sales representative, use photos to help people put a face to a name. It can be as simple as sharing a great headshot photo of a team member alongside a relevant post or capturing a few action shots from a team building day.
A top tip here is to invest in getting great team photos taken, whether that be headshots on a regular basis or photos of your team doing their jobs. These can be great assets to use in your marketing, although be prepared to have to rejig things if an employee leaves and asks for their photo to be removed – so you may want to have plenty of non-team member photos on hand too.
Of course, it would be remiss to not mention one of the common hesitations many feel with this more personal approach to LinkedIn, and marketing generally – and that is the fact many employees will move on at some point in their career, leaving your company for a new opportunity. You may worry this may leave a negative impression if people have come to associate team members with your company but, in reality, the vast majority will understand this is part of business. Plus, if you’re sharing expertise and stories from many team members it will only show the depth of knowledge across your company – not just relying on one or two employees.
All in all, adding a bit of personality to your LinkedIn page is not only great for increasing engagement with your target audience but it’s a good boost for employees too – and that in turn can be very attractive to job seekers as well. In our opinion, it’s definitely worth a go!