Why Your Employees’ LinkedIn Profiles Should Be Part of Your B2B Marketing Strategy

We’ve covered the benefits of using LinkedIn for B2B marketing before, but many companies fail to see the benefits of helping employees with their own profiles.

Because employees list their current job on their own profile, potential clients, colleagues, and hires could be looking at someone’s personal profile from a company before getting to the company’s official page or group.

This is why it’s important to make sure all employees know the basics of a good LinkedIn profile.

Let’s take a look at some key points to consider:

Proper Information

Many potential hires or clients search job titles at specific companies on LinkedIn to find the right person to talk to. As a result, you need to make sure all employees update their profile any time they change jobs, with the best description that fits their job.

Additionally, if your company changes logos, taglines, or names, make sure your employees update this as well in their profiles. Make it easy—attach new images and other collateral in the announcement email so they don’t have to hunt for it and set a deadline so they are motivated to make the change. Often, reminding them that an outdated profile doesn’t look professional is enough to make the change.

Contact Information

How are leads going to be able to talk to your employees if they don’t know how to contact them? Make sure everyone has their email address listed on their profile and the visibility is set to allowing anyone to send and see contact information.

This might lead to a few spam emails a couple times a year, but not missing out on opportunities because your employees are accessible makes up for it.

Connected Accounts

LinkedIn allows you to add a few of your social media accounts, like Twitter, to your LinkedIn profile. This is useful to promote the company Twitter account, or if the employee has a Twitter account they use for business info and communication, make sure they add it to their profile.

Users can also link up Slideshare accounts to a LinkedIn profile, so if anyone on your team has an account to share speaking presentations, content, etc., make sure it’s added to their profile.

Great Images 

If you haven’t done it already, hire a local photographer to come in and take headshots of all your employees. Not only can you use these for a great About or Staff page on your website, but you can also give employees a professional LinkedIn (and other social media) headshot.

Depending on your company size, it may even be a good idea to design custom cover photos for LinkedIn profiles, with employees’ contact information or just your company logo and tagline. This makes it easier for employees to have a cohesive profile that looks professional to whomever may end up seeing it.

LinkedIn Pulse

Anyone can blog on LinkedIn now, and if your employees are writing for your company or industry anyway, they should repost or repurpose their posts for their LinkedIn Publisher profile. Many studies have shown that reposting content on LinkedIn (and Medium) doesn’t result in duplicate penalties.

Just be sure to add the link back to the original post at the end.

Group Participation

If they don’t already, encourage your employees to join local business and industry groups on LinkedIn and set aside 30 to 60 minutes each week to answer questions, share content, and participate in the discussions that are going on in the group.

Depending on your industry, many companies also lead industry groups to foster discussion with colleagues, share information, and increase their thought leadership.

Page Content Engagement

If your company LinkedIn page is regularly sharing content, make sure employees are logging into their individual profiles to answer questions and engage with any questions or comments that might be happening on shared content. This helps users know their engagement with a brand isn’t going unanswered.

Final Thoughts

Because LinkedIn is all about business and furthering your career, it makes it a natural fit for B2B marketing. While most marketers have content sharing and even LinkedIn publisher content covered, the majority are ignoring their colleagues’ profiles as a reflection of the company’s social presence. Follow these guidelines and you’ll ensure that you’re a step ahead of most your competitors.

Images via Pixabay