How foundit's LinkedIn Campaign Transformed Employees into In-House Influencers

Story by: Saurabh Srivastava

Last year, on November 27, foundit’s LinkedIn followers were in for a surprise. More than 600 employees, led by the CEO Chandra Sekhar Garisa, announced a change in their designation. While the CEO embraced the title of Chief Reimagination Officer, the rest of the employees changed their designations to ‘Reimagination Specialists’.?

This curious moment marked the start of our ‘Hiring Reimagined’ campaign on LinkedIn. The best part was that we had enlisted all our employees — turning them into in-house influencers for a day — to do this.?

The move initiated a flurry of activity on LinkedIn, sparking engaging conversations through 603 posts that went up almost simultaneously, generating over 550K impressions and a reach of 520K+ within 4 to 5 hours. The campaign also ignited a wave of organic conversations within our employees’ extended network of recruiters and talent acquisition leaders, setting the stage for the big day: the launch of a next-generation recruitment platform set to reimagine the hiring landscape.?

Choosing Authenticity: A Strategy Rooted in Organic Growth

Marketers are obsessed with ROI. I don’t think there’s a day that goes by without us considering, “Am I getting the most for every dollar spent?”?

I suspect the deeper fear is about whether we’re making enough of a dent in the headspace of our audience.??

And audience attention today, especially on digital channels, is a highly contested space. The only thing that resonates with an audience and cuts through the noise, is authenticity.?

Here’s how we leveraged it.??

First, our recruitment platform was 18 months in the making. Practically every person on the office floor — and across offices — was involved in the project, united with a single purpose: to deliver a product that truly reimagines hiring.??

This shared sense of purpose had laid the foundation for the campaign, so that by the time November swung around, we were all Reimagination Specialists.?

Second, allowing employees to actively participate in marketing the platform they diligently worked on for a year and a half allowed for genuine engagement and sparked meaningful conversations online.?

Why Employee-led Marketing???

Beyond the authenticity factor, there are three other reasons why we decided to take the organic route with our employee-led campaign. ?

Brand Alignment: With the launch of our new recruitment platform, we made a bold promise to ‘Reimagine Hiring’ for recruiters. So, getting foundit’s employees to sign up as ‘Reimagination Specialists’ further amplified the premise of the larger campaign.?

Reaching the Right Audience: Engaging employees as in-house influencers and leveraging their professional connections seemed the perfect way to get the word out to the right audience — the network of recruiters and HR professionals?

Choice of Platform: Choosing LinkedIn as the campaign’s main platform made sense. We wanted a platform that is regularly used to convey professional, work-related updates and that’s why we went with LinkedIn — the professional network.?

Execution: Engaging the Team

Executing the campaign was simpler than you might think. foundit’s offices across India were already buzzing in the lead-up to the big launch.??

On the morning of the campaign, the marketing team held a company-wide call (orchestrated with the help of the respective department heads) where they quickly (and briefly) explained the intention of the campaign, and then held a live session where we encouraged employees to change their designations to?‘Reimagination Specialist’.?

And just like that, the campaign was live!??

While we went about our day, it was a different story online. Within the organisation, the campaign spread like a Mexican Wave, with people engaging freely with each other’s posts and increasing the reach of the campaign further.?

It was satisfying to see different departments and groups come together in the comments. It must also have been amusing for people to answer the curious questions from friends and family: “Is this a promotion? What does it mean exactly?”?

But a few days on, the organic campaign we launched exceeded our expectations.?

Outcomes: Beyond the Numbers?

As I mentioned at the start, the outcome of the campaign was immediate. We achieved 550k+ impressions for all our posts on a channel that is widely used by our target audience. The best part was that we achieved all this with zero marketing spend.?

Beyond the numbers, there was an undeniable boost to employee morale. It put us in the right mindset for the big launch we had planned — so crucial when you are looking to cover the final stretch. Ultimately, the campaign helped with our product’s successful debut.?

For other teams, the campaign also served to focus their conversations on the aspects we wanted to highlight the most. Namely, that this wasn’t a routine update or run-of-the-mill product, but one with the promise to reimagine hiring.?