LinkedIn Is A Team Sport

LinkedIn just turned 20 years old, but despite all the logic in the world of social media, the professional network continues to grow its users by double-digit percentages every year. That's why it's no surprise that more and more companies are not just turning to the platform, but also investing serious resources, time, and money in it, so that their presence is consistent and of the necessary scale.

However, scale on LinkedIn is not achieved only with the work of one department or a large advertising budget. The trust- and relationship-based network is a place for team play and requires the participation of different teams - human resources, marketing, public relations, sales, etc. And in a series of examples of companies that manage to build synergy from the activity of participants with diverse functions, we see the effect of targeted work in this direction.

One of the problematic points, however, is the question

"Who will be responsible for our LinkedIn page?",

which does not have a clear answer. In some companies, control is with HR, in other places - in PR or marketing departments, and others entrust it to employer branding experts, who, unfortunately, continue to be exotic in our latitudes. The truth is that HR experts should know the needs and interests of current and potential employees best, while sales specialists should know those of customers.

However, it is unlikely that anyone could dress up the stories and messages from and about the company as well as the PR and marketing people in the team. So the formula should look easy -

involving all of them in the development of the corporate strategy

for presence on LinkedIn, and then in the creation of regular content.

Let's not fool ourselves, this is not an easy task - everyone thinks their work is a priority and pulls the rug with the publications to themselves. At an early stage, an agreement must be reached and a balance must be found between updates on the company's products/services, open positions, corporate culture, participation in events, etc.

No one should forget that the company's goals come before the individual goals of each department or manager. I myself have been pleased to observe over the past few months a number of examples of good cooperation between HR and PR/marketing teams when we arrange training for company employees.

The clearer the understanding of

the team nature of the sport called LinkedIn presence,

the stronger the emphasis on diversifying content, involving more authors of updates for pages, and creating internal influencers among employees (including with corporate academies in this direction, for which we learn from photos in the professional network).

The battle for talent and B2B customers has clearly shifted to the LinkedIn field in recent years, and no business leader should underestimate this fact. Companies that manage to effectively fill the five circles of the platform - quality content, good example from managers, engaged employees, expanding the audience, and a vision for the future - do so with good collaboration between different teams. And the results are measured in stronger employer and corporate brands.

Therefore, after reading the last sentence of this text, think about whether the page of your company on LinkedIn is managed by a diverse team, and find a way for marketing and HR teams to work together so that 1 + 1 equals 3.

This article was first published on?Forbes Bulgaria.