3 Benefits of Employee Brand Ambassadors on LinkedIn
Your employees are on LinkedIn now. They are there along with your clients, prospects, partners, and potential candidates. Prospective buyers and candidates are using LinkedIn for research and finding your employee’s profiles. Unlike other social media platforms, your company is prominently displayed on individual employee profiles. Do your employee’s profile pages and online activities optimally represent your brand now?
Here are three benefits of your team being on LinkedIn as your company’s “brand ambassadors”:
1. Be found online
Your employee’s network of first level connections is likely to be much larger than the number of LinkedIn company page followers. Typically, it’s a 10:1 ratio. The number one activity on LinkedIn is to look at an individual profile. People are more actively connecting with people on LinkedIn. Your employee’s friends and connections may click over to the company page or website if the profile is compelling. Make sure the employee pages are correctly linked to your business page, so you don’t lose your prospect.
Do the Math of a typical small business and see the opportunity for amplification:
Company page followers: 1,800
Employees: 100
Average number of employee connections: 180
Total Employee Connections: 18,000
2. Share the company brand message
Consider syncing up your Marketing and HR Content for use on LinkedIn. The next step is to train your employees to apply to their LinkedIn profiles. This exercise should not be mandated. Allow the employee to express their unique “personal brand” along with the company brand authentically. Based on my experience running these types of programs for my clients, the employees are thrilled to add company branded language and images to their profiles. If at all possible, it’s a good idea to provide professional headshot portraits for employees too. The end goal should be a team with compelling and authentic individual profiles that incorporate both personal and company branding together.
Consider sharing content with your employees by leveraging an employee advocacy program. These programs are increasingly popular. Companies are pro-actively distributing content to employees to share with their networks. It is best to begin content sharing after the profiles are completely optimized and branded.
3. Expand company networking for sales and talent acquisition
Your employees are busy doing their jobs. They don’t always think about growing a professional network. The value of the employee network to the company can be significant. Consider these statistics from LinkedIn:
- 75% of applicants view an employee profile six months before applying.
- Employee referrals are the #1 source of new hires.
- The top way that new hires find jobs is from “someone they know.”
- 57% of buyers research online in advance of the traditional sales process.
- Buyers are using LinkedIn as part of their pre-sales research.
Encourage employees to connect more and grow their network of valuable professional contacts. Certain industry or alumni groups may be the perfect opportunity to take things to the next level of networking on LinkedIn.
Additionally, your employees may want to share information with their personal and professional networks that might include:
- New job opportunity in the department
- Helpful tips, ideas or strategies
- Company participation at a trade show
- Industry insights
In summary, your employee’s profiles and their online actions are all able to generate interest in your firm from sales prospects, candidates, or potential partners. Many savvy leaders are effectively partnering with employees to amplify their brand. What about your company?