It seems as of late LinkedIn has been playing catchup with a lot of the other social media platforms. In recent times we’ve seen the addition of stories. The social platform has moved further away from being just a place where professionals hang out to find future employees and business partners.
One of the biggest things that have always slightly irritated me with LinkedIn is that it is heavy on community engagement and if a business is to succeed in making connections you need to invest a lot of time communicating on forums. I’ve always thought the process would be easier if it wasn’t just the responsibility of the social media manager of the company but all its employees working together as a little connected army. After all, everyone who works within the business walls is invested in the success of that business, sometimes whether they like it or not 😉
Now bring on global pandemic and lots of people from around the world are working from home. One of the biggest struggles with any business is the ability of teams and stakeholders to stay connected. We know from our own experience during heavy lockdowns we’ve struggled to maintain effective communication across the team, and we’re a small team so we can only imagine the hurdles larger corporations have had during these times.
So LinkedIn has seen an opportunity here and is now launching several new pages featuresMy Company Tab
My company tab is sort of like a private group you’d expect to see on Facebook, however, this is set up solely for employees within the business to connect. It has a bunch of new features like – Trending employee new content, new hires, work anniversaries, promotions and lots of other information
Your employees aren’t just a workforce — they are the heart and soul of your business community and its most powerful advocates,” explains Alex Valaitis, Product lead for Employee Experience & Elevate. “When we announced the integration of LinkedIn Pages and Elevate, we recognized that we could help organizations better engage their employees at scale and build stronger communities in a safe and trusted environment.”
LinkedIn will be adding more to the “My Company” Tab, like the ability to curate content, broadcast it to all employees. Tools to help them share it organically and better measurement tools to measure the impact. It certainly sounds like LinkedIn has seen the benefits of employee advocacy which will no doubt go back to its core of recruitment and professional networking. Who wouldn’t want to work for a company where all its employees are spruiking it.
Events Tab
The “Events” tab is exactly what it sounds like. This feature allows page admins to showcase any upcoming events and drive engagement to the business with the organisation’s target market.
“As more events move online, organizations have found that virtual events offer incredible value because they keep our industries — and the communities that they’re built upon — connected as we all work remotely,” explains Valaitis. “But, discovering these virtual conferences, panels and webinars and keeping track of them can be tricky — even among LinkedIn members who actively seek them out.”
In the Events tab you will be able to see past, present and upcoming events, appearing on the left of the page allowing users to easily find and even register interest for events.
In a previous blog for our website I wrote how the world is on a fast trajectory toward a more virtual experience. Social experiences are limited with lockdowns. There’s no social distancing online. Being able to attend a work conference or event anywhere in the world and network with your colleagues from your home is something many people miss. I have no doubt even when things return to a “new normal” the convenience of being online will not go out of fashion as quickly as it is being implemented.
View Page Followers
This is a really cool feature and will let the company admins better organise their page followers. They will have the ability to sort them via – company, industry and location. Want to know if your competitors are watching you? Well, this feature will certainly help with that 😉
Probably why I see this as a huge leap into the right direction is up until now Admins could only see the aggregate number of followers and their general demographics. This never helped with making more informed decisions on where and how a brand could present itself. This new View Page Followers feature certainly brings an increased understanding and allows for more effective decision making to help grow the followers to the page.
Overall these changes are great. They allow for better communication and advocacy from those that are really the most invested in the success of a business. It also allows LinkedIn to take on a new evolution as a whole of business communication and culture management system.
Blogged by Jason Armstrong
I started my career in hospitality working all aspects of a restaurant from back of house cook to front of house server, bar and management. The last 15 years of my career have truly been a journey of discovery. I have worked for some of the major telecommunication brands in Australia as Sales both in store and B2B, Manager, Trainer and Marketing. I have worked in the Job Services industry which in my role I was exposed to many different businesses and curious as to how they operated. I also returned to Telco only to discover I had a passion for wanting to do my own thing. I am a keen learner and Social Media was not only fun but the biggest change to marketing since television.
My first experience of sales and marketing was when I was 18 and I interviewed for a job with an electrical/telecommunications retailer who tossed a blue BIC pen on the desk between us and said “Sell me this pen” my natural instinct was to start talking, and to anyone who has known me for a very long time, I didn’t stop for a number of years.
Karen Denny is a real powerhouse who is both driven to succeed with a clear understanding of how to get there! Karen comes from a diverse background with a plethora of qualifications behind her.