This Little-Known LinkedIn Feature Will Transform Your Employees Into Passionate Brand Advocates

Getting your employees to engage with your company’s social media content can be like pulling teeth. According to Social Media Today, research has shown that content shared by employees sees 8 times more engagement, on average, than content shared through company pages. That said, if your company’s own employees aren’t engaging with posts, chances are no one else will. However, the burning question remains: how do you effectively encourage employees to share company content?

In October 2019, LinkedIn announced the launch of Employee Notifications, a new feature that allows employees to be notified when a company posts an important internal update which they can then engage with and share with their personal networks. Utilizing LinkedIn’s new (and free, I might add) feature is the perfect way to transform your company’s culture and turn your employees into passionate brand advocates. Here are a few questions to consider to ensure strong engagement from your Employee Notifications.

How fresh is the content?

It is important that the content you are notifying your employees about is recent and on brand with the current state of your company. Maybe your company was just included on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work, or Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list. Maybe your company just hired an influx of people, or did something charitable for the local community.

These are all great things to notify your employees of. Taking the time out of your schedule to share recent company successes or updates in general will only benefit you in the long run, and it is crucial to keep your brand’s image up-to-date.

Is the content something a lot of employees can understand and relate to?

If you are going to ask your employees to be advocates for your brand, it is important that they know what your brand is and the different layers associated with it. LinkedIn Talent Solutions suggests sharing your value proposition and values with employees. This could include creating a culture deck, talking about it at a company meeting, or passing it out as part of a fun show bag. Whatever you do, you need to get your employees excited about it.

In addition, employees need to know the benefits of sharing company content on their personal LinkedIn page and what’s in it for them. Sharing relevant company updates will grow employees’ professional networks, improve their personal brand and drive lead generation.

Will employees look like thought leaders if they share the content, and will your organization benefit from the increased reach?

According to Marketing Insider Group, thought leadership is a type of content marketing where you tap into the talent, experience and passion inside your business, or from your community, to consistently answer the biggest questions on the minds of your target audience on a particular topic. The content employees are sharing should help establish them as thought leaders to help build credibility.

There should also be a point to the content you are sharing/asking your employees to share in general. Are you trying to drive sales? Recruit? It is important to ask employees to share content that will not only benefit them, but rather your entire company.

Dylan Manderbach is a public relations associate at Flackable, a national, full-service public relations agency headquartered in Philadelphia. To learn more about Flackable, please visit www.flackable.com.