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About a month ago, HR rockstar Victorio Milian asked me a very straightforward question:

I’m looking to use Linkedin groups as a branding and employee engagement tool and I’m looking for some suggestions. If you have any ideas or best practices that you could share that would be greatly appreciated.

Amazingly, my response was longer than most of my blog posts. I thought I’d share it with you…

Using LinkedIn for Employer Branding

I think there are some general principles for employer branding that apply regardless of the particular social media tool that you’re using.

To me, employer branding is all about letting people know what it’s like to work there. With LinkedIn, you’re probably looking at two different audiences: People who used to work there (alumni) and prospects who have never worked there. They may or may not want slightly different things.

One of my golden rules around this stuff is that the things that make for good real-life convo apply online, too. Don’t just talk about yourself – talk about stuff that the people you’re interacting with care about. Ask lots of questions, and listen.

Things like industry news and location-based news (if you’re not all over the globe) work well. Employee spotlights and interviews are cool, as are how-tos that are relevant to people in your industry.

I’m also a big proponent of sharing UVP insights. So if your organization is known for great training and development, talk about what makes for good T&D programs. But don’t just talk about yourself. Link to other organizations who do it well, too.

Getting alumni, possible future employees, and current employees all in one space talking is a beautiful thing… assuming, of course, that your culture rocks. If it sucks, ignore all of this.

PS: If you haven’t yet, you may also want to check out my work-in-progress, Culture Convo. It’s a step-by-step guide to getting started with employer branding through social media.