LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, wanted to shift the perception that it wasn't a community where everyone felt like they belonged.
This was especially true for younger members. According to Bloomberg: “Most young people treat LinkedIn as a ‘purely transactional job hunting tool’ to be used sparingly… maintaining a profile is a ‘necessary evil’.” But for gen-z, who will make up about 27% of the global workforce by 2025, they arguably needed this support from a community like LinkedIn the most. On top of facing a global pandemic, many were new to the workforce and weren’t sure how to navigate their career, find a job, build a network or learn new skills.
To reach and support them, we needed to meet them where they were: TikTok. And with the rise of #corporatetiktok (with 2.8B views), we saw our way into connecting with them in a more human and relevant way.
For year one, our mission was to establish our authentic voice on the platform, plus focus on our core objectives: engagement and positive sentiment, while continually landing on the ‘for you page’.
In the UK, we began by mapping out how to best connect with our audience on TikTok. How do we show up authentically as LinkedIn, but also fit in with what people would want to see from us?
First, we identified what mattered most to them in both life and work. We then looked at how LinkedIn could genuinely add value. This helped us prioritize our content pillars and themes. From our research, we knew our audience was unsure how to grow their career, however, they were still eager to learn so they could land a job they love and move up. Beyond themselves, they also cared about maintaining their relationships with peers and managers, while maintaining a healthy work/life balance. We also discovered how much they cared about
diversity, equity and inclusion at work – everything from cultural inclusion to neurodiversity.
Since LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network, this gave us authority on the world of work. However, knowing we needed to warm up our perception, we wanted to feature real people – a more human, modern reflection of what being a professional means today. To do this, our plan was to tap into our professional community and collaborate with real creators who were also active on TikTok to leverage their knowledge and experiences.
During the creative phase, we discovered just how much creators really were at the heart of TikTok. A popular trend that highlighted that was: Hype Houses. Popular creators move into one home to supercharge their content. These creator collectives exist purely for TikTok content creation, allowing them to stay focused, brainstorm content ideas and film content efficiently together.
We decided to give this our own LinkedIn twist: creating the world’s first Hype Office. Bringing together top UK TikTok influencers for LinkedIn, we knew this would help us connect with new audiences (reach), build credibility early and tap into relevant trends quickly. To make sure the influencers resonate with our audience, we developed a criteria aligned to our content themes and objectives.
Introducing: #TheTeammates. A creator collective from LinkedIn, here to help you work your work stuff out.
Our cohort of creators we called #TheTeammates included: Max Klymenko (2.8M followers), Benji Kusi (201.7M followers), Yassmin Abdel-Magied (69.6K followers), Henry Nelson-Case (59.3K followers), and more. Working with a collective of creators gave us flexibility and agility to react to popular trends. And with diverse backgrounds and experience, each creator brought a unique perspective on everything from those daily relatable moments to navigating your career. With them, we were able to naturally weave ourselves into the #corporatetiktok and #LearnOnTikTok spaces.
After building a solid foundation and gaining initial credibility on the platform, we grew the team. This included the likes of industry favourite: Rob Mayhew (138.6K followers) and LinkedIn colleagues, to begin humanizing the brand even further. As always, we focused on great community-led content and community engagement.
For year one, our mission was to establish our authentic voice on the platform, plus focus on our core objectives: engagement and positive sentiment. We saw a +348% increase of followers in 2022, while also reaching over 42M people. Importantly, we saw over 408K engagements and hundreds of positive comments, like “LinkedIn not only helping us land the job, now they out here helping us keep it” or “This comment made my day”.
With our on-going TikTok platform, we are able to say, ‘We get it. And we get you.’.
LinkedIn was able to show a younger audience a more approachable and relatable side. With creators and experts, we were able to more accurately reflect the modern world of work, tap into TikTok trends and local culture/news, all while highlighting the value that LinkedIn’s community can provide.
This strategy and execution laid the foundation for a global approach which saw #TheTeammates from LinkedIn then get localised across 5 countries with relevant creators in every market. Across these markets, we now have more than 40 teammates connecting with and adding value to the lives of younger professionals every day.
