LinkedIn is a popular professional networking platform used by millions of people around the world. On LinkedIn, you can create a personal profile to showcase your background, skills, and accomplishments. You can also connect with other professionals in your industry. Many people use LinkedIn to network, find jobs, recruit talent, and build their brand. But can you have an admin or manager for your LinkedIn account?
What is a LinkedIn Admin?
A LinkedIn admin, also known as a LinkedIn manager, is someone who has access to your LinkedIn account to help manage it on your behalf. As a LinkedIn user, you can grant admin access to another LinkedIn user, giving them permission to perform certain actions in your account. A LinkedIn admin can help with tasks like:
- Updating your profile
- Posting content and status updates
- Connecting with other members
- Managing your contacts and connections
- Responding to messages and notifications
- Monitoring analytics and engagement
- Coordinating campaigns and promotions
Having a LinkedIn admin allows you to outsource some of the management, maintenance, and promotion of your LinkedIn presence. This can save you time and help ensure your profile stays updated while you focus on other priorities.
Adding a LinkedIn Admin
Yes, LinkedIn does allow you to have an admin or manager for your account. Here are the steps to add one:
- Go to your LinkedIn settings
- Under “Account”, select “Assign account manager”
- Enter the name, email address or LinkedIn profile URL of the person you want to make an admin
- Choose the level of access you want to grant them:
- Consultant: Can only view your analytics and give advice
- Manager: Can post, manage content and connections
- Admin: Has full access to your account
- Click “Send” to send them an invite to be your LinkedIn admin
- They will receive a notification and need to accept the request
- Once accepted, they will have access to manage your LinkedIn account!
You can assign up to 50 LinkedIn admins. You can remove their access any time. As the main account holder, you will always have full control and can override anything an admin does.
Who Should Be a LinkedIn Admin?
Here are some people who may make good LinkedIn admins for your account:
- Social media manager
- Marketing assistant or specialist
- Executive assistant
- PR or communications coordinator
- Office manager
- Personal assistant
- Technology assistant
- Social media agency or freelancer
In most cases, a LinkedIn admin will be an employee, assistant, or contractor who helps manage your overall online presence and social media. For larger companies and executives, having a dedicated admin for LinkedIn frees them up to focus on higher-level responsibilities.
LinkedIn Admin Best Practices
To get the most out of having a LinkedIn admin, here are some best practices:
- Choose someone you trust. They will have access to sensitive business contacts and account activity, so ensure it’s someone trustworthy.
- Have clear expectations. Set expectations about their duties, posting frequency, response times, and reporting.
- Align on voice and tone. Make sure they engage in a way that’s consistent with your brand voice.
- Agree on boundaries. Be clear about what they can and can’t post or message on your behalf.
- Coordinate with other channels. Your LinkedIn activity should coordinate with your other social media and marketing.
- Monitor their work. Periodically review what your admin is posting and how they engage with your network.
- Provide feedback. Give your LinkedIn manager regular feedback so they can refine their approach.
- Review analytics together. Analyze LinkedIn Insights as a team to inform your strategy.
By selecting the right person for the role and setting clear expectations, your LinkedIn admin can greatly enhance your presence and free up your time for higher priorities.
Pros of Having a LinkedIn Admin
There are many potential benefits to having someone manage your LinkedIn account, such as:
- Saves you time. You avoid spending hours each week posting and networking.
- Brings in expertise. A dedicated admin may have more specialized social media marketing skills.
- Increases posting frequency. More regular activity keeps your profile engaging and active.
- Provides consistency. A single admin can align LinkedIn messaging with your other channels.
- Allows for faster responses. Important notifications and messages can be handled more quickly.
- Gives you analytics insights. An admin can monitor performance and suggest improvements.
- Frees you up for high-level tasks. Executives can focus less on implementation and more on strategy.
For many professionals, the time savings and increased engagement from having a LinkedIn manager outweigh the loss of direct control over your account. It also shows you have a serious marketing strategy.
Cons of Having a LinkedIn Admin
However, there are also some potential downsides, including:
- Loss of control. You are not directly posting or engaging with your network.
- Need to coordinate. It takes some effort to align with your admin on voice, messaging, and tactics.
- Risk of mistakes. You could have an admin make a post or send a message that doesn’t reflect your brand appropriately.
- Access to sensitive data. You need to trust them with confidential business contacts and account analytics.
- Admin turnover. If your LinkedIn manager leaves, you’ll have to train someone new.
- Cost. Hiring someone to manage your LinkedIn can be an added expense, especially if outsourcing.
These risks can be mitigated through clear expectations, training, and monitoring. But ultimately there is some loss of control whenever you delegate tasks to an admin.
LinkedIn’s Policy on Admins
LinkedIn officially allows account managers and admins in their User Agreement. Some key parts of their policy include:
- You retain full ownership and control of your account.
- You take responsibility for the actions admins make on your behalf.
- Admin access can be removed at any time.
- Admins must adhere to all LinkedIn rules, policies, and standards.
- LinkedIn reserves the right to remove any inappropriate or misleading content.
As long as proper precautions are taken, having a LinkedIn admin does not violate any network terms or policies. Millions of users employ account managers to enhance their LinkedIn presence.
LinkedIn Admin Tools
LinkedIn offers tools to make it easier to coordinate with your account admin:
- Activity Dashboard – View all your admin’s posts, messages, and network changes.
- Post Approvals – Require admins to get your approval before publishing posts.
- Instant Messaging – Communicate directly with admins within LinkedIn.
- Alert Settings – Get notified when admins take key actions.
- Insights – Provide admins access to your LinkedIn analytics.
Using these features, you can easily monitor your admin’s contributions and provide timely feedback. The more transparency between you and your admin, the more effective they can be in managing your account.
LinkedIn Posting Services
If you don’t have someone in-house who can serve as your LinkedIn admin, you can hire a LinkedIn posting service. Some top options include:
Service | Key Features |
---|---|
HootSuite | Post scheduling, Analytics, Comment moderation |
Sprout Social | Image creation, Hashtag suggestions, Reporting |
Agora Pulse | Influencer discovery, Smart inbox, Auto audience building |
Sendible | Real-time monitoring, Collaboration tools, Campaign strategy |
Social Pilot | Dayparting, Post templates, Custom analytics |
These social media management platforms let you hand off LinkedIn content creation while still being able to oversee and collaborate with the team servicing your account.
Should You Hire a LinkedIn Admin?
Here are some signs it may be time to hand your LinkedIn presence over to an admin:
- You don’t have time to manage LinkedIn consistently.
- You aren’t getting much traction organically on LinkedIn.
- You want to implement an advanced content strategy.
- Your LinkedIn network and messaging is becoming unmanageable.
- You want deeper insights from your LinkedIn analytics.
- You need to free up time to focus on high-level business leadership.
Carefully choosing a qualified LinkedIn manager and setting clear expectations is key to success. But for many professionals, the benefits of deeper LinkedIn engagement and freeing up their schedule make it worthwhile.
Conclusion
Having a LinkedIn admin or manager is an effective way to enhance your LinkedIn presence, especially for executives and public figures. By delegating posting, messaging, relationship management, and analytics to a trusted admin, you can save time while increasing engagement.
To implement successfully, choose an admin with strong marketing skills and communicate transparency around voice, branding, boundaries, and objectives. Leverage LinkedIn’s tools to monitor their activity. With the right admin, you can gain visibility while focusing your energy on high-value responsibilities.