LinkedIn Guidance & Best Practices
A lot happens on LinkedIn. People post updates, professionals seek new jobs, companies share news, and LinkedIn members of all kinds connect, chat, and build relationships. Bayer LinkedIn pages provide a unique way to stand out from the noise by demonstrating thought leadership & innovation, providing a window into Bayer's culture, people, current business activities and development.
Below, you will find some important guidance and best practices to help LinkedIn members discover and connect with Bayer and learn about our brand, products, services, people and more.
One company, one brand, one mission
We are all one Bayer—regardless of country, division, team, or channel. No matter where our audiences find us, it is imperative to the success of our brand that we communicate a holistic vision, fostering understanding of Bayer as a global leader in health and nutrition.
Bayer Brand Positioning brings it all together to ensure consistency and clear representation of Bayer brand and includes key aspects to develop strategy based on Bayer brand model and narrative.
The LinkedIn algorithm rewards meaningful interactions and knowledge-sharing. To make the most of this algorithmic evolution, focus on creating content that adds value, fosters genuine connections, and aligns with your audience's interests and skills. Here are five ways to optimize posts in 2024:
- Write your LinkedIn posts for our target audience, then optimize them for the algorithm. Not the other way around.
- Invest time in understanding your target audience’s demographics, interests, and behaviors on LinkedIn.
- Tailor content to meet the specific needs and preferences of your audience and engage through comments and messages to foster relationships and build community.
- Frequency: post 2-4 times per week. Consistency is more important than frequency.
- Interaction: the higher the engagement, the higher the chance of a wider reach on your LinkedIn Network.
- Engage with your posts for a min of 15 min after posting (the golden hour).
- Encourage comments, tag connections, ask questions to provoke a response, create posts on unique topics.
- Right Format: Text hooks, post formatting, and calls to action have a significant impact on engagement. Choose the format that works best for your goal.
- Videos, rich text, articles, relevant image posts work for variety of goals.
- Mix: blend different post formats for a balanced and optimal content strategy.
Our platform strategy is tailored to accommodate the algorithm, but we need to keep in mind that most of our organic content will not be prioritized to our desired audiences automatically. A paid strategy is necessary to ensure our content is seen by the right audience and their networks. See the paid strategy section to read more.
Covers & Profile Photos
- Profile images on all social Bayer Communications channels should be the Bayer logo. Any changes should be driven by the Channels & Amplification Team and discussed in Newsroom.
- Social cover photos should follow brand guidelines and feature exceptional imagery, highlight diversity and be globally or regionally appropriate (based on channel). Link to headers on Identity Net
- Cover photos can be changed up to once per quarter but should not exceed that unless there is a compelling business reason.
- Alterations involving logo need approval by the Corporate Brand Management.
- When naming business partners on the channel, use the "|" or "pipe" to separate Bayer from the business partner name. For example: Bayer | Pharmaceuticals
Feed Asset Branding & About Section
- Add the Bayer Cross logo to any assets promoting large business announcements (Report releases, Company and Leadership milestones, etc.) and announcements that will likely be widely "shared".
- Ensure page “About” section is up-to-date and consistent with the current Bayer messaging strategy. Because this messaging may change, refer to Corporate Brand Management for the most up-to-date messaging.
Best Practices
To build great relationships with your online community, it’s important to create content that they will not only see but will also engage with. It is always a good idea to keep testing approaches and content to continue to learn about your audience and what makes them click.
- Knowledge and advice: LinkedIn has confirmed that posts that share “knowledge and insights” are now a priority for the LinkedIn algorithm. It is not focused on viral posts, but instead ensuring that the right people are seeing the right content for them. Posts are going to do better if they’re serving the reader in some way and appeal to desired audience.
- Shifting to storytelling: While the platform remains highly catered toward professional networking, personal anecdotes and storytelling content has become some of the highest-performing content on the platform, providing opportunities to elevate leader and employee voices.
- Video experience: Aligning with the rise of short-form video content format across social media platforms, LinkedIn is testing a dedicated short-form video experience (UGC), which could impact content strategies. Favoring authentic over corporate feel and templated approach.
Key Elements
Only create new branded hashtags when there is a clear need to start and track a conversation. The Intent must be long-term use.
One existing branded hashtag is approved for usage on LinkedIn and other platforms. It has a strong link to our company, brand purpose and reputation: #TeamBayer.
If you have any further questions about this or any other section of Bayer Identity Net, please contact: