LinkedIn Employee Activation Playbook
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This document provides a 4-step guide for companies to empower employees to share professional content and strengthen their talent brand on social media. The 4 steps are: 1) Build a team to lead the initiative, 2) Educate employees on benefits of sharing content and how to do so appropriately, 3) Empower employees by providing share-ready content, training sessions, and recognition programs, and 4) Measure the impact on hiring and talent brand. The goal is to leverage employees' existing social networks to extend the company's talent brand and attract more quality candidates.
LinkedIn Employee Activation Playbook
- 1. Strengthen Your Talent Brand 4 Steps to Empowering Employees to Share Professional Content Talent Solutions
- 2. Table of contents 03 Introduction 05 Build 07 Educate 11 Empower 16 Measure 19 Final Thoughts 20 About Us Strengthen Your Talent Brand 2
- 3. You don’t know it, but you’re sitting on a gold mine Let’s start with the good news… You’re effectively building your talent brand. Our 2015 Global Recruiting Trends show that organizations are investing their efforts into social professional networks, which is the fastest growing source of quality hires. Sharing company related articles and blog posts with your social media followers are signs that you’re doing the right things. Hate to break it to you, but... You’re ignoring one of your greatest assets: your employees. Employees embody your culture and values, and are 3X more trusted than your CEO**. To attract talent in today’s digital age, you need to leverage your current talent’s social networks to extend your talent brand even further. Imagine how candidates could perceive your company if more employees shared company and professional content across social. The great news is… Fewer companies are empowering all of their employees to act as talent brand ambassadors. This is a huge opportunity to enhance your employer brand strategy. It’s a challenge, but don’t worry, we’re going to help you. * Source: LinkedIn Data ** Source: Edelman Trust Barometer A small group of people drive big results Your employees’ social networks are over larger than your company’s followers* While only of employees share your company’s social content, they’re responsible for of your overall social engagement* 10X 2% 20% Strengthen Your Talent Brand 3
- 4. We make it easy Getting your people to engage is tough. But when they do, it’s mutually beneficial. When employees share knowledge across social media, not only do they establish themselves as thought leaders, they ultimately help you attract, recruit and hire talent. It’s a two-way street. That’s why we created this guide. Consider this your roadmap to strengthen your talent brand by empowering employees to share content – as well as their own professional expertise – across the social sphere. There’s four parts, each with executable tips. By the end of this guide, you’ll know how to rally the troops, curate content, share it with employees and measure its impact. Let’s get started… Build Educate Empower Measure Strengthen Your Talent Brand 4
- 5. Build Before you start asking employees to create and share content, take a step back to identify the right people to work with you.
- 6. When building your program, consider these two approaches: Go broad Cast a wide net using a top-down approach with an internal cross-department tiger team. Gather 6-10 colleagues outside of Talent Acquisition to help evangelize content sharing. We recommend folks from Social Media, Corporate Communications, Marketing and department team leads. Start Small A bottoms up approach allows you to start small and scale up. Focus on your top hiring priority, find your existing social stars in that group, and ask them to participate. Consultant Lars Schmidt suggests applying some lightweight peer pressure over 1:1 coffee chats. “Employees might be skeptical if HR or leadership pushes them to act. If they see their peers participating, they’ll be more compelled to follow suit and your initiatives can grow organically and authentically.” Lars Schmidt Amplify Talent Strengthen Your Talent Brand 6
- 7. Educate Time to convince people to share content across social media. Educate your employees using any of these 5 methods.
- 8. Explain the Benefits Employees might not understand why they should position themselves as social professionals. Here’s what to tell them: “Be known as an expert” Employees who share and create career-related content will get more LinkedIn profiles views, InMails and connection requests, ultimately elevating their professional brand. “Impact our business” Employees who share company content help build their organization’s talent brand, driving more LinkedIn Company Page followers, job views and applicants. Every 6 pieces of content a LinkedIn member shares, it influences profile views 6 new connections 2 job views 6 company page views 3 company page follower 1 When Dell encouraged business lines to share content, they answered the question, “What’s in it for me?”. Here are some examples: � Build your credibility by sharing your expertise on LinkedIn and Twitter. � Position yourself as a leader, and find talent like you to join your team. � Build your network by connecting with new people. � Learn something new by joining LinkedIn groups, following new people on Twitter, etc. Strengthen Your Talent Brand 8
- 9. Provide Social Media Guidelines Employees want to know what content is and isn’t appropriate to share. If you don’t have time create a Do’s and Don’ts list from scratch, leverage social media guidelines from your social media and corporate communications teams. Training Sessions To get employees comfortable using social media personally and professionally, Adobe and Dell created certification programs that include interactive training modules, monthly Lunch & Learns and “Power Hour” webinars. These sessions offer various ways to learn at scale. Want something more on-demand? Scrappy SlideShares, PowerPoint decks and short videos are timesaving ways to educate employees. Don’t forget to ask your employees to follow your company and talent- focused social media channels. Encourage them to like, comment and share! Strengthen Your Talent Brand 9
- 10. Think like a Marketer Adobe found it critical working with their internal communications partners. They built a marketing plan that included employee competitions, splashy videos, break rooms posters and giveaways. As a result, they achieved high awareness and fast adoption. Hit the Road No matter how many emails you send, people still might not know what’s going on. Follow up to digital communications with a mini-roadshow. Present at All- Hands and team meetings, or offer hands-on training sessions monthly. Good old face-to-face interaction builds trust and deepens commitment. In 2014, Dell recruited 43 employees via regularly published posts on LinkedIn and SlideShare. Read How “If you don’t create a large-scale internal marketing plan, it will be a lot harder for you to succeed.” Cory Edwards Adobe Strengthen Your Talent Brand 10
- 11. Empower Now that your employees are signed up to share content, how do you inspire them to start and continue? Read on.
- 12. Curate Share-Ready Content Make the most of your employees’ limited time by collecting and suggesting relevant content for them to share simply and quickly. For example, send an email suggesting 2-3 blog posts, or send LinkedIn status updates and tweets that they can quickly copy, paste and post. To make their shares more personal and authentic, recommend they edit these share-ready updates to fit their personal voice. Empower employees to become social professionals with LinkedIn Elevate. With one swipe on their mobile phone, employees can instantly share quality articles, blog posts and more on LinkedIn and Twitter. Strengthen Your Talent Brand 12
- 13. “Rock Your Profile” Sessions Your employees are an extension of your talent brand, so they need to accurately represent that with up-to-date social presences. With your tiger team or talent brand ambassadors, run quarterly LinkedIn profile makeovers. Include 15 minute consultations and a headshot photo booth. Hook them in early Onboarding is the perfect opportunity to lock-in eager talent brand ambassadors. Ask for 30 minutes at new hire orientation to explain how new employees can share their job experiences, and where to go for more info. It’s also the perfect time to for “Rock Your Profile” sessions. * Source: LinkedIn Data Short on time? Pull tips and tricks from our Rock Your Profile Tipsheet and 6 Steps to Improving Your Recruiter Brand. We know what you’re thinking “If I encourage employees to share more content on social networks, they’ll be more visible and poachable.” Perhaps. But, they’re more connected to potential talent and are a more trusted source of your company. Sharing content regularly can increase employee profile views by 6X*. Consider their profile views your talent brand views. Strengthen Your Talent Brand 13
- 14. Meetups Increase camaraderie and knowledge sharing by hosting monthly or quarterly meetups. Elevate top performers, welcome new members, and share best practices. Whether it’s in-person or over video conference, make it informal and interactive by asking for feedback and leaving time to network. Shine the Spotlight Employees want to be recognized for their contributions, so give them a shout- out via email or during team meetings. Compliment those who are creating and sharing content exceptionally well. Hootsuite went a step further, curating their employee’s talent brand content onto a public-facing Tumblr page. Identify top-performers with LinkedIn Elevate’s analytics. “If you help brand your people, they will help brand your company.” Jennifer Jones Newbill Dell Strengthen Your Talent Brand 14
- 15. Incentivize There are many ways to motivate your employees to share professional content and talent brand experiences, and they don’t have to be monetary. Here are a few examples of intangible and tangible rewards to consider: Awards Get competitive with a monthly leaderboard and reward the top performers. Give awards like the Top Talent Brand Ambassador, Most Engaging Post, and Rising Star. Exclusives When Dell Champions reach certain milestones, they are recognized by their peers and executive leadership. They also receive opportunities to participate in special assignments for fun Dell schwag. Gifts Celebrate and thank ambassadors for their contributions with physical gifts (gift cards and schwag) or delightful surprises (cupcakes and happy hours). Strengthen Your Talent Brand 15
- 16. Measure Congrats! Your employees are actively sharing content across social media! Ensure your talent brand and employees are successful with these measurement tips and tricks.
- 17. Put a Hashtag On It Hashtags do more than define and market your talent brand across social media. The string of hashtagged posts, tweets and photos help measure the impact of your program. Check out these top employer branding hashtags to see how companies leverage great content and active employees to build their talent brand: #lifeatHP #dreamjob #AdobeLife #LinkedInLife#insidezappos #nprlife #iwork4dell #targetvolunteers #hootsuitelife #gotripadvisor#tobeapartner #joblove Strengthen Your Talent Brand 17
- 18. Key Stats to Track Measure success at the company and employee level by tracking these KPIs. Participants When Dell and Adobe kicked off their talent brand ambassador programs, their focus was adoption. Measure new and total participants on a weekly or monthly basis. Reach Estimate the number of people who saw your employees’ tweets and posts. Use free social media tools, or manually pull the number of followers of each employee. Posts Get a sense of volume by measuring your talent brand hashtag. Use the native social media platforms or common social media tools like Tweetreach, Iconosquare, and Tagboard. Rich insights in LinkedIn Elevate make it easy for you to see your influence (share rate, reach and engagement) as well as business impact (demographics, job views and hires). Employees get instant access to their personal stats, raising their profile and their ego. Strengthen Your Talent Brand 18
- 19. To Talent Brand, and Beyond Now you’re ready to strengthen your talent brand and empower your employees to share smart, professional content across social media. Remember that the tips in the guide are ideas to get you started. Similar to launching other programs, it takes time and experimentation to see which works best for your organization. We can’t wait to see what you do. Would you recommend this ebook to friend or colleague? Let us know here. Strengthen Your Talent Brand 19
- 20. Authors Editor: Stephanie (Howell) Bevegni Content Marketing Manager LinkedIn Contributors: Cory Edwards Head of Social Media Center of Excellence Adobe Jennifer Jones Newbill Senior Manager, Global Talent COE Dell Lars Schmidt Founder AmplifyTalent Ryan Batty Director of Marketing, Global Content & Channels LinkedIn Strengthen Your Talent Brand 20
- 21. About LinkedIn Founded in 2003, LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful. With over 347 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, including executives from every Fortune 500 company, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. LinkedIn Talent Solutions offers a full range of solutions to help recruiting firms of all sizes recruit amazing talent, build their brands, and grow their businesses. Continue the conversation Learn more about LinkedIn Elevate www.business.linkedin.com/elevate Connect with us on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/linkedin-talent-solutions Get cutting edge insights on our blog www.talent.linkedin.com/blog Follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/HireOnLinkedIn Click through presentations on Slideshare www.slideshare.net/linkedin-talent-solutions Watch our latest videos on YouTube www.youtube.com/user/LITalentSolutions © LinkedIn Corporation 2015. All Rights Reserved.