LinkedIn Social Media Branding for Companies & Leadership

Published:01/10/2023 | Posted by

LinkedIn Social Media Branding for Companies & Leadership

By: Stacy Kelly, Vice President – Midwest Search Practice Leader

Most people think of LinkedIn as a tool to help in your personal career search or avenue to promote products and services. Social media isn’t going anywhere and right now the largest professional network in the world is currently LinkedIn. With 875 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide no one can argue that if used correctly it’s a great way to engage with the professional community from both a company and hiring manager perspective. When faced with such an active platform to profile your business, you need to ask: Are you leveraging this powerful tool to attract top talent to your team?

We are currently living in unprecedented times on the heels of the pandemic, with record-low unemployment and the Baby Boomer generation retiring in droves. Companies and hiring managers must be creative in how they brand themselves to potential candidates. These types of tactics are how you bring and secure the best talent for your organization.  Ask anyone recently that has “posted a job” the good old fashion way, and likely you will hear how that didn’t produce the results they were looking for.

Posting and hoping the right candidate falls in your lap on any platform doesn’t work like it used to and is not how premier candidates are finding roles.  They are educating themselves on the company from what they research online, just like employers are looking up candidates to see how they position and present themselves online.  It’s the same thing!  Yet we always hear how candidates need to be mindful of their online presence and rarely hear the same notion directed at companies.  But the truth is, your business’s online presence, from hiring managers all the way to the leadership, is critical to your success when getting potential hires to commit, especially when it comes to recruiting the best talent in your category.

5 Tips That Set Your Company & Leadership Apart from the Competition on LinkedIn:

1. BE PRESENT: Gen Z is on their way into corporate America and they grew up on social media, so you need to take it seriously and have no reservations about finding new opportunities or resources on social platforms. You must catch up and know that when someone is looking for a new job, they are researching who they will be working for and what they are all about.
2. BE INSPIRATIONAL: Consistently post about what is going on in your organization and insights on your team and leadership style. People want to work for inspirational leaders that are making a difference and really care about purpose and people. Take it from the top influencers on LinkedIn: Bill Gates, Sara Blakeley, Richard Branson, and more who have made their social presence a priority.
3. BE CONSISTENT: Post 2-3 times per week – once you post regularly, getting on there and posting consistently should only take 15-30 minutes a week. Most platforms allow you to schedule posts so you can set your week’s posts all at once.
4. BE ENGAGING: Interact on the platform you’re posting on with post reactions and positive comments daily. You must stay connected to the network you’re building so you can count on it when you are ready to hire talent. This ongoing activity is when a job posting and sharing that job posting on your social network really works!
5. BE INTERESTING: When working with a recruiter, we can leverage and promote your profile to our personal network to drive traffic to the job post and create additional visibility to the hiring company, as well as further understand, who is a cultural fit for your organization, and who is not.

You may be thinking that perhaps social media is a bunch of hype that isn’t impacting your hiring process and doesn’t create better hiring options.  Or you’re not convinced that the time and effort it takes to establish and maintain a social presence is a priority for your company right now. Recently, I worked with a client that proved social branding can make a major difference when you’re looking for the right person to fill a critical role.

This year I partnered with a CEO to place their top finance person and every prospective candidate I spoke was blown away by his active LinkedIn profile where he gave industry updates, interesting achievements of the company, and praise to his team. Every potential candidate I approached was impressed and EVERY qualified candidate said YES to wanting to meet him and discuss the role, primarily because his online presence and brand was very strong and clear.  It wasn’t just buy-in from a website visit, these were people who felt connected to the CEO already, were intrigued, and wanted to learn more.  They were already partially invested in the company and the success of this CEO before they even spoke.  That’s an intangible that you can’t buy, making a major difference in the quality and quantity of potential hires that were clamoring to know more and be considered for this position.

I’ve also seen this approach work firsthand. As a professional recruiter, I have been building my brand on LinkedIn for over 10 years. I post very consistently, usually 1-3 times per week and almost every person I talk to comments on how they feel like they “stay in touch with me” and “know me” even though I may not have actually talked to them in months, or years, or sometimes even at all. When you invest in your personal brand it takes time, just like going to the gym, you won’t see results overnight and most people give up. I encourage you to invest in your personal brand as a hiring manager and as a company to utilize these existing tools to enable you to build a dream team that can grow your company to the next level. Also, if you decide to work with a recruiter, don’t be afraid to ask your partners about their personal brand. It matters in the war for talent, and everything counts when you are trying to attract the best employees in a demanding and high-turnover market.

Do you have any questions on how to enhance your company or personal brand on LinkedIn? If so, you can reach out to Stacy Kelly at any time by calling her directly at 414-378-2142 or email her at [email protected].

About the Author: Stacy Kelly is Vice President – Midwest of the Finance & Accounting Search team at StevenDouglas and has been an F&A recruiter in the upper Midwest for over 13 years and over 25 years in business starting her career in real estate and the hedge fund world.  Stacy focuses on long-term relationship building and being a true partner with deep roots in the accounting and finance community.  She has a track record of success accessing key talent, and in referral-based recruiting for manager to executive positions. Stacy has a genuine interest in understanding people’s motivation, identifying quality candidates, and the ability to connect with top talent in the region through the network she has built for over two decades.