The 6th annual PR + Social Media Summit, hosted by The Diederich College of Communication at Marquette University in Milwaukee, was held on Tuesday, October 7. The event included a wide range of speakers highlighting the latest tools and trends advancing Marketing and Public Relations.
As a Social Media Specialist working with a number of employer brands and talent acquisition teams, I was most interested to hear from Yumi Wilson (@Yumiwilson), Director of Communication for LinkedIn. She gave an insightful presentation centered on how to best leverage LinkedIn for the purpose of engaging people and representing the company brand. Yumi covered everything from LinkedIn user statistics to Company Pages and Groups.
As someone who spends the work week invested and engrained in promoting companies via social media, these were my five most notable takeaways – specifically, how recruiters and companies can leverage LinkedIn to optimize talent acquisition and brand strategy:
- People are coming to LinkedIn with a professional mindset.
When individuals join LinkedIn, they do so with the intention of connecting with people and companies on a professional level. This is a great forum for being able to educate people on your brand either as a job seeker, recruiter or business. This is also the social network you can use to establish yourself as an industry expert, because LinkedIn’s audience joins the network with an appetite for thought leadership and industry-specific content. Save your posts about visiting the pumpkin patch over the weekend for Facebook or Twitter.
- Engage with like-minded professionals in LinkedIn Groups.
According to Yumi, individuals who are actively engaged in LinkedIn Groups receive four times as many profile views as users who are not active in any groups. Without question, recruiters should be active in industry groups, joining discussions and sharing opinions. This is where real conversations take place and connections form. If you don’t see any groups that fit the type of people you are looking to connect with, create a group! Anyone can create a group, so take the initiative to create a meeting point for similar people. And yes, sharing your jobs in groups is a great idea too, but don’t limit yourself to just that. While out there engaging, be more than just a job pusher.
- Company Pages should be treated as important as your company website.
In 2014, an organization with any hope of success must have a website. The same can be said about LinkedIn Company Pages. According to LinkedIn, there are currently more than 313 million registered members – 313 million! That number is just too grand to ignore when it comes to representing your company. Not only should businesses have a Company Page, but they should be actively posting and sharing content to attract and engage followers. Failing to utilize a LinkedIn Company Page is a missed, easy opportunity to represent and optimize brand, employee perks, culture and many others factors pertinent to recruiting the best talent.
- Employees need to engage with Company Pages.
Employees should be a company’s No. 1 fan as well as front-line brand ambassadors for their companies. This is especially true for executives. Leading by example is not only simple but incredibly effective. When executives actively engage with the Company Page – commenting and sharing posts – employees at all levels are more likely to get involved. When candidates look at a Company Page and see the current workforce engaged and excited about the company, intrigue will set in regarding culture and work environment – and potentially lead to open positions being looked at and opportunities for recruiters to take action.
- Use Showcase Pages to call out individual brands within Company Pages.
The main Company Page on LinkedIn is usually focused around a company’s overall brand, and content is typically focused around the type of products/services offered or industry news. Many organizations have pieces of their business that warrant their own focus but still want to be grouped under the larger company umbrella. From a talent acquisition perspective, Company Pages must have a Showcase Page – according to LinkedIn, Showcase Pages are, “extensions of your Company Page, designed for spotlighting a brand, business unit or initiative. Create a page for aspects of your business with their own messages and audience segments to share with.” When candidates are looking at prospective employers, they come to LinkedIn. Utilizing a Showcase Page can help the best talent find you!
I walked away from the 2014 PR + Social Media Summit with a number of solid insights into leveraging LinkedIn to its full potential. Hopefully the above tidbits can be used to ramp up your talent acquisition, brand and engagement efforts as well!
Post contributed by Molly Perszyk, Senior Social Media Specialist. Follow Molly on Twitter @MollyPerszyk