Every modern business knows that social media should play a role in their marketing efforts.
And I’d wager that more of us than not have gone on a cheeky LinkedIn scroll during office hours.
So if we know how important it is, and we know we’re all spending time on it, why aren’t we encouraging our staff members to use it to actually get seen?
After all, we live in a world built on relationships and social credit, but even though the ability to encourage those relationships has fallen in our laps… many of us can’t quite seem to nail using it, or getting our staff to do the same.
As someone who has worked with many business leaders across the professional services with my marketing consultancy Edward & James, here is the advice I give to clients when they can’t quite seem to crack the mystery of employee posting.
Set an Example
In my experience, fear of judgment is the biggest thing stopping people from posting on LinkedIn. And I get it – we’ve all been there. It’s scary, putting yourself out there – especially on a stage of all your peers.
But there are two ways to combat this, I’ve found.
Firstly… just take the leap and do it. It’ll take a moment to get comfortable, but soon enough, it’ll start to come naturally. No more clammy hands as you stare at the ‘Post’ button.
However, that’s easier said than done when you’re trying to get other people to post, which leads me to option number two: lead by example and show people how it’s done.
If you’re the one struggling with posting-anxiety, one helpful tip I often give people is to go ahead and schedule posts for the following day once you’ve written them. It’s a little trick that makes it feel a little less daunting in comparison to publishing right now.
Once you’ve gotten over any lingering discomfort you may have, if you have any, you can set a high standard for your team members. Show them that it’s easy to post well and often, and encourage them to do the same.
Otherwise, you can push all you want… they might not respond as well if your last LinkedIn activity was a “congrats, Lisa!” comment from eight months ago.
PS – if you need help leading by example and are looking for some support on your LinkedIn posting, it can be great to get an expert LinkedIn content manager in.
Educate
The more your team understands the ins and outs of LinkedIn, and, more specifically, how it can benefit them personally, the more personally incentivised they are to use it.
Once they realise that they are not only helping to build your brand, but building a personal brand that could help progress their career, they will be more keen to start posting.
Plus, the more they know, the less scary the whole prospect of posting will seem. Once they understand the overall purpose and algorithm, posting may become less of a source of dread and instead a quick, regular career maintenance task for them to partake in (you know, like the cheeky job board scroll we know they’re doing every so often).
If you’re not sure how to actually help them get educated, there are LinkedIn Training courses that can be offered to the entire office and help bridge the understanding gap.
Give Control and Encourage Leniency
At the end of the day, for all your encouragement, you must always remember it’s THEIR LinkedIn profile.
Encouraging them to post doesn’t mean asking them to post 2x per week about your business or to completely remake their profile in brand colours.
It does mean reminding them that professional posting and profile accuracy will benefit their network, and the bigger their network, the better for the business overall. It’s a win-win, even (and perhaps especially) when their posts lean into their personal brand. After all, nobody is interested in a walking, talking billboard.
That said, always give them the materials they need should they want to champion your brand; things like a branded cover photo, a headline template and branded headshots come in handy here.
Support their Efforts
Throughout this entire process, it’s important to always remember that it’s another marketing channel, and it should be treated as such.
It should have a budget, team members should be supported with strategy and given guidance, and should have access to your designers, copywriters and social media team when appropriate.
Ultimately, it’s likely not a part of their job description, so any level of involvement from them is going above and beyond; because of this, you want to make the process as simple and supported as possible.
Reward Them Accordingly
Finally, if you really want to push for an increased brand presence, incentivise your team.
There are multiple ways to do this, but the easiest and most straight forward is to run competitions. Some simple ones to test the waters are:
- First person to get 10,000 impressions gets a £1,000.
- Anybody that refers business from Linkedin gets £1,000.
- Run a quarterly draw and enter all staff posts from the quarter; random post gets picked the winner gets an extra day off once a quarter. More posts = more entries.
Be a Good Employer
Okay, okay, this one is a bit corny, but one of the best ways to incentivise posting is to be an employer that your team actually wants to post about.
Even aside from the rest of the proven benefits of being a good employer (better productivity, employee happiness, easier recruitment), doing so will make your staff want to sing your praises, helping to encourage growth both internally and externally.
James Le Gallez (main picture) is the Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Edward & James, a qualified marketing consultancy helping professional service providers make confident decisions, execute effectively and grow with intent.
Working across finance, legal and beyond, Edward & James helps professional service businesses get to the strategic heart of their work, whether it be the first week of their company or the thousandth. Get in touch today: [email protected]
