Why To Encourage Your Employees To Use LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the World. Saying that, you might not be surprised that, if your employees are joining this channel, they will get exposed, and perhaps they might be discovered and contacted by other companies looking for new employees. However, this channel is not something to be afraid of. If your employees join LinkedIn it is not necessary to find a new job. In fact, they might be more interested in helping your company to get more (free) visibility.

LinkedIn is a rich channel, full of clients or prospects, business partners, potential hires, etc. Use this strategically and encourage your employees to do so.

Start by creating your company page/profile:

You need a good picture and a -even better- company presentation.

Remember to be clear and to use the right keywords to be found. You need to think as a marketer to provide clear information about what your business is all about. Of course, you also need to talk about your products and what you can offer to your audience. As in every marketing step, you need to know your audience well. Please, do not get the terminology too complicate. You want new prospects to find you. They need to understand you.

Remember to show your website address, your blog, and your links to other channels such as your company Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Keep your Profile Updated.

Encourage your team to join LinkedIn

Invite your employees to create their own LinkedIn profile.  Make sure that they describe your company well. Again, keywords are essential! Your employees are your brand advocates. Your company name and brand will be exposed which can be translated into more traffic to your website and more customers.

Encourage them to actively participate sharing information and joining the discussion groups. At the end of the day, LinkedIn is a channel for networking, so they need to network there.

Instead of checking what you employees are doing on the channels, create interesting and good quality material that your employees feel very proud to share. When your employees share e.g. news on LinkedIn they will help you to increase media mentions. This applies to other channels, too. When your people are using any social media they are a great source from information for journalists.  

Being on LinkedIn has become more and more important every day, not only for companies but, also for individuals. Take this channel seriously and prepare relevant and good quality information to share there.  You will see better results by getting your own troops, your employees, well trained, encouraged and especially, involved.