Companies can do everything right when it comes to content. Creating and posting relevant and engaging content, using hashtags, and tagging the right people are all great, but, if they can’t get their employees to consistently share it, they’re missing a crucial piece. Your employees are a direct representation and advocate of your brand, and they should be sharing and engaging with your content routinely. Having your employees engage with your original content, employee milestones, company outings, or relevant articles to your industry increases your credibility and trust.
Sharing content from your company page targets your followers and sharing content from your profile targets your connections. However, when all of your employees share or engage with your content, you are now reaching entirely new audiences. Your posts will be shared with their network who then could share it with their network, it becomes a ripple effect.
Liking and commenting can be just as effective for reaching new audiences with your content. Have you ever seen a post that only appears on your timeline because one of your connections liked or commented on it? Your employees can have that same effect. With the click of a button, you are now reaching an entirely new audience and your company is now put in front of new people. It doesn’t always have to be an extravagant paragraph or profound insight added to the post. A like or comment is enough to help boost your company’s reach.
Your employees are a direct advocate and representation of your brand, culture, and company. Posting content on LinkedIn increases your personal and professional brand, and your employees sharing that content increases your credibility. It’s important for your employees to be ‘bought in’ to your company and mission, and sharing content is a great way for them to do so.
This also is important when you are adding new members to your team. Future employers will likely take a look at your company page when they apply or before they meet with you, and are more likely to be interested in your company if they see an engaged team sharing content, showing excitement for the company they represent.
It’s no secret that employee networks tend to have more connections than a Company Page has followers, but do you know who’s in those networks? Employees are likely connected to a multitude of people who only know about your company because of your employee. Sharing, liking, and commenting on company posts allows your employee’s connections to learn more about your company. They could be connected to potential customers, future employees, or a target company that you have been trying to work with for months. Having your content, news about your company or relevant articles related to your field shared to all of your employees’ networks will likely benefit you tenfold in ways you didn’t even think about when you created the post.
Creating a simple and effective strategy for you and your employees to follow regarding content will go a long way. If you have a schedule for when you post content it will be easier for your employees to know when to go in and engage. Perhaps you could send a calendar invite twice a week for 15-minutes and have employees treat engaging with content as an appointment.
LinkedIn has recently rolled out a ‘Notify Employees’ feature on their Company Page. As an admin, after posting, you can notify employees every 24 hours to remind them to engage with the post.
Using this new feature and having a strategy will minimize the “I forgot!” or “I didn’t see the new post!” and maximize your content.
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