LinkedIn Company Page Marketers Guide to Using It

A Company Email Every CMO Should Write

This blog post is a follow up to an article I wrote entitled Eleven Sales Attributes of a LinkedIn Company page. That article addresses a checklist for improving your LinkedIn Company page as a valuable marketing asset.

In that article I point out that a LinkedIn company page is in part the responsibility of the marketing department. Marketing should set up the company profile and the products and services and any career opportunities. However, the real strength of a LinkedIn company page is in the employees. Think about it, your customers conduct business with your employees, not your logo.

All too often a LinkedIn company page is weakened by its faceless employees (as in no pictures on their profile), and employees with weak profiles. I’m not referring to weak credentials. I mean their LinkedIn profile is incomplete or lacks thoroughness in communicating professional and social credibility.

Marketing should step up its leadership responsibility to communicate to all employees the need to beef up their LinkedIn profiles. I suggest the CMO send an email to all employees. Below is a sample email on this subject:

Team,

Subject: Our LinkedIn Company Page

“We are competing against the big guns in our industry, and while we are generally fairing well, it’s a battle that wages daily. Our competitors get stronger everyday and we do too. In the battle for mindshare with our clients and prospective clients we embrace the power of LinkedIn. As you know, LinkedIn is the social networking platform of choice for professionals. It offers both individuals and companies a rich set of communication and networking tools.

In order for us to get the most marketing value from LinkedIn as a company we need to work together. When someone visits our LinkedIn company page, they gain access to a lot of information about us that is not on our website. Namely, LinkedIn offers visitors to our company page insights about the mix of our employees by job function, years of experience, educational degree, and universities attended. LinkedIn pulls this data from your individual profiles.

Therefore, it’s imperative that each employee visits their LinkedIn profile to check its completeness. Here’s a checklist for you to run through:

1. Is your profile 100% complete?
2. Is your profile photo representative of you in a business setting?
3. Do you have a clearly written summary of your experience?
4. Are your last three positions clearly described in your profile?
5. Have you updated your status with a professional comment in the last week?
6. Do you belong to at least three professional groups and participate in discussions?
7. Have you written recommendations for colleagues?
8. Have you received recommendations from colleagues?
9. Have you listed your “skills” using the LinkedIn Skills function?
10. Have you customized your LinkedIn URL so it displays your name?

As your chief marketing executive I ask that you contribute to our marketing strength by giving this the attention it deserves. Collectively, we’ll contribute to the company’s overall position of strength when our prospective customers visit our LinkedIn company page and consider doing business with us.”

Thank you.
Cindy Marketeer
CMO

In my opinion, this email would be most effective if it is emailed by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and “replied all” by the CEO with a note of his support for this request and a comment that he’s doing his part by updating his LinkedIn profile.

Additionally, I recommend that all the executives on the leadership team embrace LinkedIn for its marketing potential. Employees that use advanced LinkedIn features such as Answers, should be given periodic shout-outs to recognize their contributions. Others will take notice.

You probably know that LinkedIn went public in mid May. Their Initial Public Offering (IPO) was one of the most popular in recent years for many reasons. One reason is the recognition that LinkedIn’s 100 million (and growing) network of professionals are influential (representing a high valuation to LinkedIn).

LinkedIn’s overall marketing potential is largely untapped by many companies. Getting all your employees to beef up their LinkedIn profile can “rise the tide” for your LinkedIn Company Page and your company’s overall marketing efforts.

Learn more about how to beef up your LinkedIn profile on Career Central by Bernie Borges.

• First Name *
  

  Last Name *
  

  Email *
  

• HubSpot

  

• Social Icons

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

• Social Business Engine

  

• Facebook Fan Box

• HootSuite University

  

• Marketing 2.0 by Bernie Borges

  

  

• Newsle

  Newsle

• BB Social Media Training