Company putting pressure on me to post on linked in

[hursty900]

I don't want to.. I use linked in but mainly lurk, I find it cringey.. but my company are insistent I post promotional content for them on the platform as 'part of my role' and to 'show company loyalty' I've said I don't feel comfortable doing so but wondered if this could formally be held against me?

Does your contract have anything about social media promotion? Presumably they're asking you to use your personal account as opposed to your work one?

Nope and yes..

Urgh. I've just been told to do the same. I hate LinkedIn.

I am not a social media person at all but I do this. I think it's reasonable to do it in work time and as long as they aren't expecting you to put lots of personal or irrelevant stuff on your page. It's a professional platform and (as much as I wish it wasn't) it's a really important business tool these days.

They cannot insist that you use a personal social media account for something like this, they can only ask.

It's full of totally cringy completely non business like posts these days.

Check out your company’s social media guidelines, it’s your own personal about not their corporate one and whilst employee advocacy is nice to have and encouraged, it’s not generally compulsory.

My company use LinkedIn a lot to post interesting content and so on, it's one of the ways we promote our business. We have someone who is in charge of SM and comms for this.
Nobody is under any pressure to comment, share or post our own stuff - but we are free to do so. It is preferred if we post our own content, that we follow a particular format, use our own photos and the 2 company hashtags (alongside our own if we want). I have no issue with that, and am happy to share what we're doing on my own page.

If i were being pressured to do that (as i was in a previous place) i just wouldn't. And if i thought it was going to become A Big Issue I'd be looking around for a new job

I hate LinkedIn but I do need to use it (recruitment) so I set up a separate account for my role, whilst my personal account is private and I’m very selective about who I connect with. I told my manager that I preferred it and the benefit for the business is that someone else can use the account if I were to change role or be absent etc

@kirinm yes, and that's why I don't want to be part of it. Epitomises all the business bullshit I can't bare...
it's just got my back up that they're assuming I don't want to do it cos I'm a tech dinosaur rather than the fact it would be utterly unauthentic of me to post trite crap in order to tow the company line..

Glad you've been clear about what it is

@NotAnotherBathBomb - what do you mean? Answer to the pp's first question was no, and answer to the second was yes.. is that not clear?

I use LinkedIn a lot, not because I'm asked to, but because it is a good way to attract new business, promote our work and self promote too. I also have a premium account so I can reach out to prospective new business and get my posts noticed better. I use it strictly for business related posts, however, I get really pissed off with the "I got married today", "new job - mummy", type posts.

Yes, they can provided it is in OP's contract or their social media policy (assuming the policy is contractual). However, if there is no such policy and nothing on OP's contract, or if any provisions are vague and non-specific, they can't enforce it.

This.

We use it a lot but we post interesting topical content and then ask our colleagues to repost if they think it will be of interest to their business contacts.

Fairly standard stuff, but no one is forced to do it.

I'm a marketing director. We do encourage people by sharing the posts internally but I'd never specifically call out anyone who doesn't and would never push. If you work in sales I'd say it's unusual not to want to post but other job roles I get it

The marketing team are probably under pressure to increase engagement

My company ask people to do this and give guidelines, but it’s completely optional - no-one is forced.

I don’t think it can be true that people can have this written into contract? Your LinkedIn profile is not company property. I’d imagine only third party ‘influencers’ would have contractual social posting agreements.

We were asked to put fake glassdoor reviews on to Balance out the bad ones.

I complied but got a friend to post a fake bad one making it clear that people were being told to post misleading positive reviews. Rebel that I am.

Why do you think it can't be true? Your employer can't completely control your use of social media, but they can regulate it to some extent by, for example, prohibiting you from posting anything that might damage the employer's reputation. A requirement to post promotional content is more likely to crop up in sales & marketing positions, but a company can include the requirement wherever they think it appropriate. Unless someone takes a case to court, there is no way of knowing if such a requirement would be upheld by the courts. Employees should therefore assume it will be.

No it wasn’t 😂 you didn’t quote or mention the people or posts you were replying to

@NotAnotherBathBomb oh I'm sorry, I was replying to the one message above - there were no other messages above & I forgot to quote etc. wrists duly slapped 🤓