Top Three LinkedIn Tools for Maximising Employee Advocacy Success

B2B marketing is a perfect field for those who thrive on change and challenge. 

With paid search and social advertising costing more and delivering less, branded channels' reach diminishing, and a flood of low-quality, AI-generated content spamming the internet, marketers need to constantly innovate to drive results. 

This, in practice, means going beyond traditional ways of promoting their company.

As confirmed by many of the top global brands we have had the pleasure to work with, incorporating the activation of your employees on social media channels, known as employee advocacy, into your wider marketing strategy is a powerful way to make your brand stand out. 

According to LinkedIn, even though only around 3% of employees share content about their company, they’re responsible for driving 30% of the total engagement a company sees.

And, because one of the key success factors in social advocacy is being able to access relevant content, LinkedIn is a great platform for linking employees with just this content. 

Below, I dive deeper into what, in my opinion, are the top three and most budget-effective tools provided by the platform for driving employee advocacy success.

1. LinkedIn Company Page 

LinkedIn Company Pages are instrumental for employee advocacy because they help you recommend content to employees.  

This is especially beneficial early in your advocacy journey with a small group of brand champions. Formerly LinkedIn Elevate, it's now integrated into the Company Page as the "My Company" feature. 

Top benefits of My Company:

• Recommends tailored content, including third-party, reducing research and content creation time.
• Encourages more frequent and meaningful engagement by providing employees with content that resonates with their professional networks.
• Amplifies company reach by making it easier for employees to share the content.
• Offers a free (but basic) solution for companies without the budget for sophisticated advocacy tools.

This feature is essentially LinkedIn's own tool to help employees share ready-made content. However, it’s important to encourage your employees to add their unique perspectives to posts before publishing them, highlighting their expertise and perspective. 

There are two key components of My Company - "Recommended Content" and "Trending Coworker Content".

Recommended Content is a curated selection of articles, posts, and updates specifically chosen for your organisation.




How It Works:

• Content Curation: your company's administrators curate a stream of content relevant to your business and industry using the ‘Recommend to Employees’ section of their LinkedIn page.
• Easy Access for Employees: This content is made readily available to employees through the My Company tab.
• Sharing Made Simple: Employees can easily share the content using the ‘Start a post’ option.
  
  

Trending Coworker Content highlights popular and engaging posts shared by colleagues within your company.




How It Works:

1. Discover Popular Posts: Employees view colleagues' popular posts.
2. Encourage Engagement: Prompts likes, comments, and shares for wider reach.
3. Boost Internal Visibility: Enhances internal company culture visible externally.

Here’s how to implement My Company:

1. Ensure your LinkedIn Company Page is set up and verify that employees have added their association with your company on their personal profiles.
2. Inform your employees about My Company and its features. Encourage them to check the tab regularly for new content.
3. Regularly update the Recommended Content and monitor what's trending among co-workers to keep the content dynamic and engaging.
4. Utilise LinkedIn analytics to track the performance of shared content and adjust your strategy accordingly.

The key with My Company is to educate and train your employees on how to use it and continue to encourage their involvement.

2. LinkedIn Sales Navigator

LinkedIn Sales Navigator is an advanced tool primarily designed for sales professionals, but its features can be leveraged for broader employee advocacy and engagement.

Instead of merely reposting content, Sales Navigator allows for a more strategic approach to content interaction on LinkedIn.

Here are some ways to get the best from Sales Navigator:

1. Identify Key Accounts and Influencers: Start by identifying prospects, clients, competitors, journalists, specialists, and industry influencers relevant to your industry.
2. Create a Lead List: Add all those names to a lead list (or multiple lists) to find them easily within the tool.
3. Create Alerts: Set up alerts in Sales Navigator for the selected list. This will keep you informed about their latest posts and activities.

Utilise Sales Navigator for Learning and Sharing:

• Stay Informed: alerts allow you to review the news and updates about your selected accounts and industry influencers. This saves you time, keeps you informed, and inspires your content creation.
• Curate Content: Use the insights gained from your research to curate content for your network. This could include sharing industry news, trends, and thought leadership articles.
• Comment and Share with Insights: Add valuable comments or share the content with your insights. This demonstrates your understanding and adds value to the conversation.
• Engage and Connect: Regularly engage with their content and, where appropriate, reach out to connect. This helps in building a network of influential contacts.
• Personalise Your Approach: Tailor your comments and shares to reflect your professional perspective or your company's stance, making your engagement more authentic and impactful.

For more insights on leveraging LinkedIn for professional growth, explore our detailed blog: How to Use LinkedIn for Professional Learning. 

3. LinkedIn Learning

This leads me nicely to LinkedIn Learning, an important element of employee advocacy that is often overlooked.

You can use all the tools in the world and have the best content to share but if you don’t walk the walk and invest in your employees, you’ll never make true advocates of them. 

Employee advocacy is born from mutual respect, shared values and feeling part of the bigger picture. One of the best ways to make employees feel valued is to invest in their personal development.  

LinkedIn Learning provides expert-led courses on thousands of topics and provides the opportunity for an organisation to employ continuous learning through the LinkedIn platform.

Investing in Personal Development with LinkedIn Learning

So how do you utilise LinkedIn Learning to enhance Employee advocacy?

• Continuous Learning: LinkedIn Learning offers a vast array of expert-led courses covering numerous topics. By promoting continuous learning, you empower your employees to acquire new skills and knowledge, keeping them engaged and motivated.
• Aligning Courses with Company Goals: Select courses that align with your company's goals and values. This ensures that the learning experience benefits the employee's personal growth and contributes to the company's objectives.
• Personal Branding Courses: Encourage employees to take courses like "Creating Your Personal Brand" on LinkedIn Learning. This course provides valuable insights into building a strong personal brand, which is essential in today's digital world.
• Sharing Learnings Inside the Organisation: Encourage employees to share their learnings and insights from these courses within the company. This can be done through internal presentations, workshops, or even informal discussions. It fosters a culture of knowledge-sharing and collective growth.
• Sharing learnings Outside of the Organisation: Learning something new often inspires employees to want to share it with a wider audience. And what better place to do that than LinkedIn! 

Ensure Your Employer Advocacy Success 

In this blog, I’ve covered LinkedIn's array of tools for enhancing employee advocacy. By leveraging these resources, organisations can boost brand visibility and nurture a culture of belonging, ​​learning and development.  

This approach not only amplifies online presence but also bolsters employee satisfaction and retention. Find out how our team here at Tribal Impact can help you ensure the success of your employee advocacy efforts.