Want to learn more about an individual. Check out their LinkedIn profile. But for marketers concerned about brand identity, customer retention, and sales staff turnover, LinkedIn can be a nightmare.
How much control do you have about your staff’s listings on social networking sites such as LinkedIn? Do you really want prospective or current customers to find out about your staff on LinkedIn? And perhaps start using LinkedIn to communicate with your employees. How do you feel about having your competition target current and past employees? What happens when the employee leaves?
You can improve brand awareness, customer retention, and minimize staff turnover issues by taking a few easy steps. Think about:
- Creating a landing page or blog for each public facing employee. This not only helps your web visibility, but also gives you complete control over content. Add a “learn about our staff” button at appropriate places in your website.
- Include a clause in your standard employment agreement or policy that states what the employee can publicly post about his/her position with your firm during and after their employment with your firm.
- Make sure you control and edit your company profile on LinkedIn and other popular social media sites.
- Keep your employees’ LinkedIn information about their position with your firm to a minimum and make sure the employee directs visitors to your website to learn more about their position with your firm.
Following the above steps, not only ensures your brand positioning, but also turns social media sites into a marketing channel. It may also have the additional benefit of ensuring employees leave on good terms.
