Why banks in Singapore should not let HR run their LinkedIn company pages

As a marketer I shudder when I see a valuable communications channel like a LinkedIn company page being misused by non-marketing people such as Human Resources (HR). What a missed opportunity to engage, inspire, and market your company.

Would you let your HR team create your corporate website? Of course not. So why are they allowed to be anywhere near your LinkedIn company page where they can do untold amounts of damage to your brand by not engaging and not communicating in a brand-enhancing way?

The difference is that there are 300 million people on LinkedIn who 24/7 can see your LinkedIn company page and create an impression about your company and your brand. In your wildest dreams you couldn’t reach that many people in a lifetime with your company website. So why are HR effectively almost by default sometimes being put in charge of your LinkedIn marketing strategy?

Singaporean banks in particular came off very badly in this context clearly having their LinkedIn company pages mismanaged by HR instead of marketing teams.

There’s at least five reasons why HR teams should not write, engage, or try and market their company through the LinkedIn company page:

1) Would you let your marketing team do your HR? No, of course not. So why do you let your HR teams run a-mock with your brand on LinkedIn through the company page?

They simply aren’t qualified to do it. Take a look at some sample pages from Singpaore: CIMB, OCBC, Maybank, DBS, all massive Asian banks whose LinkedIn pages are clearly run by their HR teams and it shows.

2) Putting lists of links to “jobs” without actually saying what those jobs are or explaining anything at all about the company is just a waste of time. That’s negative brand marketing on LinkedIn, not positively engaged content marketing.

How are people supposed to know anything about these jobs if you don’t try and tell people about them? Why should they click on links that just say “jobs”?

Even worse if you look at the OCBC example, these jobs were posted 3 and 4 months ago! So even if you wanted to apply, the chances are that they have now been filled.

Maybank just appear to be desperate with their communication of “walk in” interviews. This does tend imply that they’ll take anyone. Maybank communicate this without communicating anything about the bank and the brand and why it might be a great place to work there.

3) Creating pages with no pictures, no links, no content, no updates, and only jobs is not clever marketing -- it's lazy marketing. In tight and very competitive labour markets such as Singapore where all the major banks compete for the best professionals, these banks do themselves no good by failing to engage and failing to market themselves on LinkedIn, a place where all their potential employees are.

Global banking brands like HSBC and Citi amongst others do a great job on their main pages of engaging with relevant content to the target audience. This means not just ramming jobs or products down people’s throats but actually talking about industry matters, trends, and information. This is the way to engage on LinkedIn and on B2B social media in general.

LinkedIn themselves say that there is a 4:1:1 engagement strategy needed. That is for every one hard selling post there should be one soft selling post and four engaging posts that are un-related to the brand but relevant to the target audience e.g. about industry trends, case studies, best and worst practice, interviews, etc.

That’s the way a brand gets views (LinkedIn’s most reliable measurement), likes, shares, and engagement. Think about that next time you just post job after job after job.

4) Your LinkedIn company page is also not your local community bulletin board as banks like DBS appear to think they are. What does a local event that your chairman/CEO visited for some PR stunt say about your brand to your customers, clients, partners, and potential employees globally?

Even worse if you’re using your LinkedIn company page to market local events that 90% of the people viewing can’t visit. You won’t see Citi or HSBC doing that, so why do banks like DBS do it? What does this say to people in other countries and even in other parts of the same country about how you’re spending your money and your priorities?

This is especially true when you don’t even bother to market your SME services to SME’s on that same platform which is frequented by busy SME’s who just want to find out more about what you offer, why they should bank with you, and what’s going on in the industry.

When all your global competitors are creating effective B2B content marketing strategies and marketing their products, services and keeping clients up to date with new products and services on LinkedIn and you’re glorifying a village fete, what does that say about your brand? That’s when you know that HR are in charge of your LinkedIn company page.

The exception to the rule in Singapore is the Standard Chartered page where they have really created a great content marketing strategy for their LinkedIn company page and are actively using it to engage with partners, clients, and employees across Asia Pacific which they are strongest.

5) The best examples of LinkedIn company pages are where they have clearly been run by corporate communications or ideally marketing teams who have brand awareness and know about B2B social media marketing and content marketing. Check out Citibank, Morgan Stanley, American Express, Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs which are all great examples of content-driven, brand-focused LinkedIn company pages.

Citibank in particular really understand the holistic way of marketing and engaging on LinkedIn. Not only do they have one of the select few official LinkedIn influencers, Frank Eliason, but they have replicated their off-line female only Connect: Professional Women’s Network to a very vibrant and active group page. This is full of great content, great brand advocacy, and engaging discussions. Citi also have very active company pages too.

HSBC and Deutsche Bank both have very engaging LinkedIn company pages. In Australia NAB, ANZ, and Commonwealth all do a great job with their LinkedIn pages. The difference between all of these pages and those of most Singaporean banks is a complete lack of job notices and local community announcements.

Even the big banks aren’t immune from a poor content marketing though. HSBC Private Bank has 25,000 followers and yet no content, no updates. What a wasted opportunity to engage.

The same applies to many others too, their offshoot service pages seem devoid of any content engagement as if they don’t matter or there was no resource to manage those ones. If that’s the case, then don’t create it or get rid of it. There’s nothing worse than an empty company page with no content and no updates.

The criticism of them all is that none of them have the new Showcase Pages that LinkedIn have introduced and therefore all missing a trick. Only two of them have SME company sites and only one of them (AMEX Open Forum) is actually using it to engage with content. ANZ have created one but haven’t bothered to engage with updates or content.

Many of the banks have separate company pages for areas such as Wealth Management, Investment Management, and Commercial Banking should be added as Showcase Pages to provide a better all round brand and product experience from one place. Holistically from the main company page.

The criticism here of HR taking over company pages related to banks is only an illustration. I could apply exactly the same criticism of any industry. You just have to look at retail, leisure, F&B, fashion, entertainment, and many, many more industries to see exactly the same kind of misuse of the LinkedIn company page. No content, no engagement, nothing of value, and just job posts.

If all you see is jobs, jobs, and more jobs, you can bet that HR manage that company page and not marketing. There is of course a halfway house where marketing manage the page and post the jobs in-between compelling content. This way both marketing and HR come up winners.

The more attractive the company looks through a content engagement strategy, the more likely people are to look at the company, engage, and apply for all those jobs. But that would be common sense, wouldn’t it?