Long before the deal is finalized, embargoes are lifted, and the press release hits the wires, communications teams need to plan for — and internally message — what a merger means on LinkedIn.

With more than 1 billion users across 200 countries and nearly 65 million decision-makers, LinkedIn cannot be ignored. But the No. 1 platform for B2B lead generation isn’t always as business friendly as one may think. Case in point: merging LinkedIn company pages.

While M&A activity is common in business, there is no clear process for combining two (or more) company pages and keeping all of their associated followers and employees. Worse, the options that are available can conflict with agreed-upon merger messaging.

Knowing in advance what is and isn’t possible will spare you any last minute surprises and help you set appropriate expectations internally. Done correctly, LinkedIn should be one of your most powerful tools for messaging a merger to clients, competitors, peers, prospects and employees, all in one place.

Use LinkedIn to Build Trust, Not Break It

Much like the countless other logistical, operational, and internal and external communications tasks associated with combining companies, there is no single step-by-step process to merge company pages on LinkedIn.

At least LinkedIn gives it to us straight: “It’s not possible to migrate followers from the Page of an acquired organization to the acquiring organization’s Page.” It is possible to merge duplicate pages, provided those pages genuinely do represent the same entity. But LinkedIn is quick to point out that this does not apply in the case of M&A.

In the platform’s telling, it’s about trust. Users, both followers and employees, choose to engage with a particular company’s page for a reason. Moving their allegiance to another organization without their buy-in is a violation of that trust—a social media version of bait-and-switch.

While it will take time to engage followers and inspire them to manually make the move to a new page, it’s also an opportunity to preserve, and maybe even deepen, their trust.

So, what options do organizations have to manage their LinkedIn M&As?

Acquired & Affiliated: What You Can Do to Combine LinkedIn Company Pages

While LinkedIn doesn’t have a system to manage a true merger, it does make some accommodations for acquisitions.

For companies directly acquiring and subsuming another brand, this is fairly straightforward. Once the acquisition goes through, message LinkedIn support and request that the acquired page be listed as an acquisition. This adds a banner at the top of the LinkedIn page to direct visitors to the parent company. It also connects the two pages as affiliated via a widget in the page sidebar.

Acquiring a LinkedIn page won’t transfer followers, content or employees. But administrators can request:

• Open job listings transfer to the new page.
• That the employee count of acquired pages be reflected in the total number of employees on the parent company’s page.

The acquisition won’t deactivate the page. People searching for it on Google or LinkedIn will still be able to find and follow the acquired page, though the banner will hopefully dissuade them from doing so.

How to Merge LinkedIn Company Pages When Acquisition Isn’t an Option

When this is not an option—say, in a merger of equals, where one company cannot be perceived as acquiring the other—the options are more limited. In these instances, LinkedIn recommends:

• Creating a new page for the new entity and building a new audience from scratch.
• Submitting a request to affiliate any prior company pages with the new entity. This will connect the pages via the affiliate sidebar widget but won’t do anything to redirect new visitors or mark the old pages as defunct.

Where possible, we advise our clients to avoid this approach. Building an audience around a company page on LinkedIn is slow, extensive and expensive work, and starting from zero is a tough value proposition to sell to senior leadership. Rather than benefiting from the combination of two audiences, you lose followers on both sides of the transaction.

Instead, consider rebranding an existing page. If the name of one merger partner remains substantively similar, it may be possible to rebrand that page to represent the new entity. That will allow you to keep at least one set of followers and employees before affiliating or acquiring the pages of any additional merger partners.

Marketing the Merger: Inspire Followers and Employees to Join Your Journey

Regardless of the path companies choose, marketers and communicators must encourage people to engage with the new entity. As soon as there is a page to follow, put it to work.

Build brand equity by:

• Providing merger updates that tag the new page and feature an explicit call-to-action message to follow it for future updates.
• Updating all company page descriptions to let each audience know where the account is moving and direct them accordingly.
• Posting regular moving announcements to keep the news top of mind for connections.
• Post-merger, sharing a series of posts solely to remind followers to switch to the new page for continued updates. The frequency and duration of these posts should reflect the quantity and value of followers on the now-defunct page.
• Sending direct messages announcing the merger and/or invites to follow the new page to particularly high-value followers. Both will require a personal page already connected with the target follower to do the outreach and must follow LinkedIn limits on the number of direct messages and invites that can be sent during certain time periods. 

Once the merger is complete, any merging pages should be updated to point people to the new brand page, regardless of whether they’re getting the acquisition banner. The cover image, tagline and about section can all be used to direct followers to the new company page.

While people can still follow these pages, all content should clarify that new updates won’t be forthcoming.

Tapping Your Best Brand Advocates: Engage Employee Ambassadors

Employee content receives about eight times more engagement than brand channel content. Encouraging your workforce to spread the news can drive real impact, so building an employee advocacy and engagement program should be part of a broader M&A communications plan.

Done right, updating LinkedIn won’t just be another technical step in the merger process, but something employees are excited to share with their networks. Components can include:

• Dedicated LinkedIn training. A merger is a great opportunity for employees to grow their networks and learn new skills specific to LinkedIn.
• Comprehensive instructions on how to update personal pages. If employees are intimidated by LinkedIn, offering detailed information on what profile sections to update and how to tag their new employer will be welcome.
• Bespoke headers. Leverage branding materials to create new LinkedIn headers for employees to use.
• A library of assets. As with a product launch or traditional campaign, companies want to share key messages and updates about the transition. Make it easy for employees to join the chorus by providing a slate of content to post that they can tailor for themselves.
• An incentive program. Stoke employee excitement and show the company values employee advocacy by rewarding great posts — whether that’s by picking a post of the week or simply having key leaders periodically comment on employee content.
• Executive thought leadership platforms. A merger or acquisition provides the perfect timing for senior leaders to grow their authority on LinkedIn.

Effective M&A communication strategies make the most of LinkedIn’s wide reach and potential to build brand equity. By proactively including it as a pillar in your communications plan—equal to press releases and internal announcements—you’ll set yourself up for success and returns on the world’s most trafficked business platform.