3 Steps to managing your corporate reputation on LinkedIn

A recent study from the Reputation Institute found that companies with enhanced corporate brand strength have a higher reputation. And that matters at a time when we’ve seen a 20% drop in consumer belief that brands appear genuine about what they say and stand for.

The good news is that you can follow these three steps to actively manage your corporate reputation on LinkedIn.

1. Identify your audiences

LinkedIn is where, by far, the largest number of professionals gather to stay connected and informed, advance their careers, and work smarter. More than 660 million are on LinkedIn. These are the decision makers, influencers, and leaders of today and tomorrow—the people you want to target, all in one place. We make it easy for you to identify and reach your audiences by offering:

Rich Demographic Data: Job Function, Seniority, Company Name, Geo, Industry

Interest-based Targeting: Group Membership, Skills, Field of Study

Persona Targeting: Opinion Leaders, Policy Makers, Institutional Investors

Your Own Audience Data: Account Lists, External Data Integrations, Website Retargeting, Demographics

2. Leverage LinkedIn’s trusted environment

At LinkedIn, we are committed to providing a safe, trusted, and professional environment where members can connect with each other, engage with relevant content, and grow their careers. Increased transparency to both brands and members is critical to creating this trusted environment. One way we satisfy that is through settings that allow members to understand and control their ad experience on LinkedIn. Your brand can be confident knowing your content will be easy to view in a brand-safe environment.

3. Optimize based on performance

Use our analytics to test and refine your corporate reputation content strategy. Focus on:

Understanding the impact on brand awareness and sentiment. Quantify Impressions and share of voice; and measure boosts in unaided and aided awareness, brand perception, sentiment, or other customizable facets

Owning the conversation. Find whitespace opportunities vs. your peers, and track ownership of key topics and conversations that matter to your audiences.

Benchmarking against your peers. Measure your content influence on the LinkedIn platform with your key audiences and see how you stack up against the competition over time.

Here’s how one company managed – and improved – its corporate reputation on LinkedIn.

A multinational oil and gas company leveraged LinkedIn Sponsored Content to pivot out of a downward press cycle. The goal was to improve brand perception among young executives and opinion leaders by sharing part of its purpose – clean energy – with the people that matter. The results:  A 22% increase in perception that the company was making progress in clean energy, and a 30% lift in the brand’s NPS.

Apply these best practices and you’re well on your way to establishing and maintaining a trusted corporate reputation that will set your brand apart.