As a Gaggle Manager, you understand the power behind the ability to @ mention other businesses and the value of the network effect created when you use mentions. An @ mention helps generate social awareness and can be used in a number of scenarios like tagging a co-participant in a webinar or podcast, bringing awareness to a company featured in a case study or quote, or even offering a recommendation of a service another business might provide. The uses are endless!
Let’s take a look at how to use the ‘mention’ feature in GaggleAMP.
How Does the Mention Feature Work in GaggleAMP?
First and foremost, the ‘mention’ feature can only be used on LinkedIn at this time and with the following GaggleAMP activity types:
When a mention is used in an activity, the Member will see the name of the mentioned company linked in the activity. You can also @ mention other members of your Gaggle. Both the company mentioned and the Gaggle Members who are @ mentioned will be hyperlinked. That hyperlink will direct to the referenced company’s LinkedIn page or personal profile of the individual tagged.
Once the Member shares the activity, the mention will appear on the Member’s LinkedIn post as a mention with a clickable hyperlink. LinkedIn also notifies the tagged company’s page owners or individuals that are tagged of the mention.
How Do I Include a Business Page or Personal Profile Mention in an Activity?
To use the @ mention feature, you’ll first need to start with a LinkedIn Share Post activity. For help with these activity types, please refer to the following step-by-step tutorial.
Including a Business Page in Your Activity Creation
1. Navigate to the New Activity section of the Gaggle and choose ‘Share Post’ or ‘Question’ under the LinkedIn category. For this demonstration, we’ll be looking at ‘Share Post.’
2. A New Activity prompt will appear and we are going to focus on the ‘Message’ section. Other aspects of this prompt can be found in this support article. The Message section supports up to 3000 characters and it is here that you will @ mention a specific company or business page.
3. Craft the contents of your message. When you reach the point where you want to @ mention the company or business page, look up the company’s LinkedIn URl and copy it. Using the GaggleAMP business page as an example, to tag the company, you will select the ‘@’ symbol and immediately after this, paste the URL. So, it would look like ‘@https://www.linkedin.com/company/gaggleamp. You’ll see it quickly will be shortened into the company business page name you selected (i.e. GaggeAMP). Once you have set the rest of your new activity parameters, choose ‘Send to Gaggle.’
4. Now, when the Member receives the activity, you will see it hyperlinked like you do here.
Note: If the highlighted text is red or the URL does not change to the company’s name, that means a LinkedIn company page has not been found.
Including an Individual in Your Activity Creation
1. Navigate to the New Activity section of the Gaggle and choose ‘Share Post’ or ‘Question’ under the LinkedIn category. For this demonstration, we’ll be looking at ‘Share Post.’
2. A New Activity prompt will appear and we are going to focus on the ‘Message’ section. Other aspects of this prompt can be found in this support article. The Message section supports up to 3000 characters and it is here that you will @ mention a specific company or business page.
3. Craft the contents of your message. When you reach the point where you want to @ mention an individual in your company, look up their company email address—you will need this to generate the @ mention.
The individual @ mention feature relies upon knowing who the person is in GaggleAMP and returning their LinkedIn profile to connect to the mention, so long as their LinkedIn profile is connected to GaggleAMP. You cannot use their LinkedIn URL to hyperlink the name.
Armed with the email address of the person you want to @ mention, write the contents of your message and when you get to the point of tagging their name, use the @ mention symbol followed immediately by their email address. An example would look like: @Mark.Lison@acme.com. Once you have set the rest of your new activity parameters, choose ‘Send to Gaggle.’
4. Now, when the Member receives the activity, you will see it hyperlinked like you do here.
 Note: Due to LinkedIn restrictions prohibiting access to individual LinkedIn data, this feature will only work when you @ mention other Members or Managers of your Gaggle using their business email address, which is most likely what they have used to join the Gaggle. |
Feel free to click on the hyperlinks in the Activities for yourself! Be it the business page tagging or the individual tagging, the activity will remain active and unshared until you or a Member select the ‘Share on LinkedIn’ button.
How Does This Activity Look Once Performed?
Once the Gaggle Member has performed the LinkedIn activity, it will be live on LinkedIn. You’ll see when the post is live, the mentioned company or individual appears in blue and bold, just like any other mention you see on LinkedIn. This will behave just like any other mention and, when clicked, will route the end viewer to the tagged company or individual.
If you are also the admin to your company’s LinkedIn page, this mention will appear in your activity feed. In the case you are tagged in a post by a fellow Gaggle Member, the post will also appear on your activity feed. Selecting ‘Join Conversation’ will take you to the mentioned post so that you can engage with the post.
 Note: Members also have the ability to mention a company when responding to a LinkedIn Question or Re-Share activity. This does not require the Manager to include the mention in the activity, although they may want to instruct Members to include the mention in the activity instructions should they want a page or person to be mentioned. |