For me, the LinkedIn corporate page is that unexplored bit of the internet is ripe for a fresh look.
Years ago the channel was lazily dismissed as ‘Facebook for Accountants’ but in recent years it’s really come to the fore. It’s a safer space compared to other platforms. It’s also where a lot of professional discussion now is.
LinkedIn now has 10.9 million monthly users in the UK.
I’ve updated the training I run to take on more of LinkedIn and thought I’d share some things you may well be missing.
So what of it?
Simple ways to improve your corporate LinkedIn page
Have a LinkedIn page in the first place
Pages on LinkedIn used to be pretty dull corners of the internet that HR took over back in the mists of time as a place to pimp jobs. Thankfully they’ve improved a heck of a lot.
Have more than one admin
LinkedIn give a number of levels of admin to allow the smooth running of the page. The super admin is top of the tree with the content admin the next rung down having around 80 per cent of the permissions. Below that is the curator who can create and edit content. Below that in permissions is the analyst who can see the backend and that’s it. Use the admin levels rather than just have one person.
On your LinkedIn page know your audience
This feels absurdly obvious but I’ve come to realise that not everyone in your organisation will realise that LinkedIn is for professionals. Post content that is likely to land with your audience.
Push back on the request from the middle manager for the table top sale to be posted on LinkedIn as well as every other available channel. This blunderbuss approach to communication last worked in 1973. You are only going to irritate people if you use that approach.
Age demographics are remarkably consistent for LinkedIn. Around 20 per cent of all age groups to 65 use it but you’ll see your own audience in your page insights. If you are starting your career or maintaining it a LinkedIn profile is really important.
So have a LinkedIn page content strategy
You have a page and so you’ll get insights so you’ll see your audience. Experiment with content but do come at it from a professional perspective. If you’re a company in public transport you may want to talk about journey times, safety figures and big picture announcements. But you should also focus on staff. The long serving employee, the HR person who has done something really interesting in HR and wants to share it by writing a blog on his or her own profile that the page can share.
It’s maybe about posting a pdf guide to how farmers can apply for a certain grant and what help is available if you’re a rural council. Or maybe there’s a meet the buyer day where a house builder wants to connect with electricians, plumbers or safety equipment suppliers. That’s the value.
For me, there’s a mix of staff to make people want to join that company and also some innovative work that can help so the other part of your audience can plug in.
Experiment with LinkedIn page content
There’s a stack of things you can do. Words are fine but images and short form video are more engaging and can stop people scrolling. This behind the scenes video on the restoration of Marble Hill by English Heritage works.
Use the repost functionality as a page
This is a really usnderused tool. The retweet back in the day was a powerful resharing of content. The reshare button does the same on LinkedIn. Maybe its a post from an organisation you are sharing or maybe its from an individual.
Use LinkedIn groups and encourage your staff to too
LinkedIn groups are an underused tool and it maybe there is a group you can set-up for a specific reason. Have a look first to see if there’s a group that you’d want to plug into as an organisation. But I’d recommend doing so via the people in your organisation who need to talk to professional people.
But this is also where you want to encourage people to use their own LinkedIn profiles.
When I worked in local government, the deputy leader who was cabinet member for regeneration used to go to the Chamber of Trade business breakfast to talk about town centre redevelopment. He’d go along with some senior officers. Of course they were the right people. Think of LinkedIn groups as the same.
I was born in Staffordshire, and a quick search of LinkedIn shows more than 200 groups. So, if there’s things in the offing in Uttoxeter in Staffordshire, the 520 people of the Uttoxeter Business Network would be the space to go to.
Happily, LinkedIn is a space that more people are happy to use in their own name. Yes, there is a problem with women being sent unsolicited messages but there are tools to clamp-down on that.
Aside from campaigns, the HR person talking about HR to their network of HR people is good karma for a place where people would want to work.
Experiment with LinkedIn Newsletters
The platform has been pushing LinkedIn newsletters as a tool for LinkedIn. To work this would need to be tailored for a specific audience rather than be a receptacle for every piece of content.
Experiment with LinkedIn Ads
Other organisations are using ads to reach an audience particularly around recruitment. However, English Heritage use ads to target film production for their portfolio of properties to be used as filming locations.
Experiment with documents
Pdfs can be uploaded to LinkedIn as a means of content. Uploaded documents to LinkedIn can’t be bigger than 100MB or 300 pages but this does open the door to extra content. The National Trust, for example, posted a short guide to summer gardening that worked well as a short pdf.
Experioment with posting jobs
Your new chief executive is likely to be found via LinkedIn. So is that niche senior post. There’s really good functionality with LinkedIn for jobs. Other jobs where you’ll need fewer qualifications maybe more successful with a post to Facebook.
Experiment with LinkedIn live video
You can find live video either on a page you are following or through the events page. Live video can create more comment and engagement than a standard video. Basically you creator an event and then you add a date and time for people to sign-up to. You can run it through a third party tool like Streamyard or your own URL which can point at something like Teams.
As a summary
As with anything, this is about investing time and effort for the medium to long run. If you’re worried about being locked into a channel that you maybe don;’t want to be wedded to that’s fine. Call it a three month trial. At the end of the trial and it;s not worked just say thanks and dial back. If its worked then what do you know, you’re listening to the public and keeping on LinkedIn use.
One of the thing. The arc of conversation on LinkedIn has always been longer than other channels. Post something to X (formerly Twitter) back in the day and within 20 minutes you’ll know if that content worked. For LinkedIn, its around a week for the discussion to take hold and for there to be a back and forth.
LinkedIn pages to look at for inspiration
Manchester City Council A really good local government page that’s well maintained.
National Trust A well resourced membership organisation that uses a variety of content.
English Heritage The organisation that looks after historic buildings in England has a good range of content.
Counter Terrorism Policing is a niche area of policing with more than 80,000 followers on LinkedIn through their content mix.
Cheltenham Borough Council This council doesn’t have the resources of larger orgabnisations but is using its page and content wisely to reach an audience.
NHS Supply Chain has some good focusn on staff.
I deliver the updated ESSENTIAL COMMS SKILLS BOOSTER workshops which is now updated to include LinkedIn pages.
Interested in this Dan