LinkedIn Introduces Thought Leaders Ads for Companies to Sponsor Posts from In-House Thought Leaders and Employees
LinkedIn has recently announced several new product updates, including the introduction of Thought Leader Ads. This new ad format allows companies to sponsor posts from thought leaders and creators within their organizations, with their permission.
To amplify posts from employees, companies must ensure that the employees are verified members who have listed the company as their current and active job on their LinkedIn profile. Additionally, employees must have a public profile, and their employer must match the company page associated with the ad account.
When employers send a request to amplify posts, employees will receive an email asking them to approve or reject the permission, along with the terms and conditions and the proposed start and end dates for the campaign.
With more people becoming creators in the same space as their 9-to-5 jobs, Thought Leader Ads allow companies to tap into the influential voices on their payroll to engage audiences in a more authentic and human way. According to brands that have been beta testing Thought Leader Ads, these ads generate a 1.7x higher click-through rate (CTR) and 1.6 higher engagement rate compared to other single-image ads.
While this may be easy for companies with official employee advocacy programs to execute, other companies may experience some friction in leveraging this approach. There is a gray area regarding what expectations should be for employees who also have a social media presence. Should companies compensate employees for this access, as they would typically do when working with creators outside their organization, or should they expect this to be part of their day-to-day work?
At launch, Thought Leader Ads are available to managed advertisers but are expected to be rolled out globally later this year.
