Making Veterans Brands Come Alive

“On the battlefield, the military pledges to leave no soldier behind. As a nation, let it be our pledge that when they return home, we leave no veteran behind.”

 – Dan Lipinski

Veterans know all about brands. They call them ranks and grades. They wear them on their sleeves. Their entire future rests on how well they deliver the value associated with their brands. Active duty members know they must deliver exceptional value every day of the year. They also know what a colleague’s brand is, even though they may have never met them.

Once, on active duty, I had to travel to meet a counterpart on a very important mission. All I knew was his rank, his job title, and the organization he led. That told me everything I needed to know.

Because he was a full Colonel, he was in the top two percent of the 64,000 officers in the Air Force, promoted faster than thousands of competitors. His job title was Commander of the 89th Military Airlift Wing. That organization flies the President of the United States. He had to be chosen for this job, by name, at the various highest levels in the Pentagon. I also knew I could speak to him about information classified TOP SECRET.

But veterans are like so many civilian job seekers. Many think a brand is a collection of nice-sounding keywords. They have no idea a brand is a collection of capabilities that will make companies a lot of money.

Once you help them build their true brands, your veteran clients must get their pledges of value in front of hiring officials. They’ve already tried that even before they came to you. They invited friends, fellow Service members, acquaintances, and those who just became veterans into their LinkedIn networks. In doing so, they’ve somehow imagined that LinkedIn will take care of all the details. Let’s replace guesswork with solid, proven methods.

Who should be in your clients’ networks?

Reassure your client you aren’t looking for specific names. Rather, veterans should look for communities that need what your client offers. Specifically, you want to target those who might include your clients’ next bosses.

Veterans can get a sense of that by sampling announcements, particularly those that have the reporting arrangement included. So, for example, an airframe and powerplant technician (an aircraft mechanic) might well be supervised by someone with a title of Maintenance Supervisor.

It makes sense, therefore, to have your clients visible where those supervisors “hang out” virtually.

That might well include websites for professional organizations that support a specific job function or career field. LinkedIn special groups fall into the same category. There are literally millions of LinkedIn special groups. Not all are created equal.

Finding the best LinkedIn special groups:

Have your clients open LinkedIn and search for “groups.” Now have them enter the search terms for the groups they are looking for. 

How can your clients find the best groups? Have them apply these filters:

• Bigger is better. They will probably find a few with thousands of members. They need look no further.
• Older is better. Great groups have offered value for many years.
• Moderated is required. Groups that unmoderated soon fall into social chats that offer very little value.

If a group seems useful, your clients should click on the “Request to join” button.

When they get a response from the owner, it’s time for networking in action. Your clients should say they hope to contribute value and so are interested in which issues are most important to the group. What members value tells your clients what to post. That’s why you should recommend your clients join no more than one or two groups. It just takes too much time to be active in more than that number of groups.

Putting your clients’ brand to work for them and their next employer:

Posting is the gateway. Contributing once or twice a week is all that’s needed. Your clients can post to their group and also to LinkedIn in general. (When they sign in, they’ll see the box labeled: “Start a post.”)

Suggest they draft each post as a Word document. They describe what they can provide. When they do, they are proving their value, their brand. (You can help them with the first few posts.)

Posts should offer suggestions to solve problems. The posts should tell readers what’s important, but not how to use the knowledge. That motivates readers to contact your clients.

Once clients have proofed their posts carefully, they can copy and paste them into LinkedIn. Posts must not exceed about 3,000 characters to include spaces and necessary hashtags. 

Clients should search for an appropriate image using their browsers. But you should remind them some images are copyrighted. So they can search for pictures from government agencies as those are in the public domain. To be sure the image has decent resolution, they should only choose “Large” images. About 1024 X 768 will look best. Then they download the image and upload it into their post.

Periodically, your clients should check the status of their posts. All they need do is sign in and click on “Views of your article.” 

From posts to connections:

Soon after your client posts, LinkedIn will show them how many times its be viewed, how many reactions (likes) and comments the post garnered, and the total number of views. LinkedIn will break down that number into where the viewers work, what their job titles are, and where they are located. Veteran clients now have a general idea if their posts are reaching the right market. But the data displayed can do even more.

“Likes” and “Comments” can open doors to networking. Have your clients click on the “Like” icon at the bottom of the post. They will see the names and job titles of those who approved of their post. The names are links to the commenters’ LinkedIn profiles. Your veterans can then send them a message. The same is true of comments. Clicking on the number of comments will show who made the comment and the text they posted.

Your clients should follow up powerfully. Yes, you can help them build templates for the replies, but your clients should add a personal touch. You’ll see an example of a response to a “like” below. It’s from a veteran with experience in logistics.

“Thanks so much for taking time to ‘like’ my post. Without feedback, I can never be sure what I post is useful.

When I saw your LinkedIn profile, I see we share an interest in JIT logistics. I’ve struggled to balance the cost of that system with the benefits it pays in optimizing production lines. I wonder if I could hear your views on that subject. I’ve been so close to it for so long, I may have missed something.

Would there be time for a quick conversation? I observe Central time.”

Let recruiters know:

Recruiters should be part of your veterans’ networks. Remind your clients of these key points:

• There are two general classes of recruiters. Some are members of a company’s HR staff. Others are independent professionals.
• Recruiters, especially independent recruiters, never work for the job seeker. They work for the organization who pays them.

Have your clients follow these steps:

Step 1: Click the Me icon at the top of their LinkedIn homepage. 

Step 2: Click View profile.

Step 3: Add profile section button to the right of their profile photo.

• Click Intro.
• Click Looking for a new job.
• Provide the requested information in the pop-up window that appears.
• They can choose whether all LinkedIn members or only recruiters can see that they are open to job opportunities.
• Click Add to Profile.

Step 4: Click the Edit icon from the Open to job opportunities box (at the top of the profile). Follow the prompts to edit the information they previously provided.

Step 5: Click Save.

Please never tell your veteran client they must “sell themselves.” To the veteran, that smacks of bragging. And that just isn’t done on active duty. In addition, nobody – especially recruiters and hiring officials  ̶  want to be sold to.

But they love to buy! You can just hear the person who hired your client say: “Jane working out pretty well, right? Wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t found her!”

Remind veteran clients that 95 percent of all American’s never served on active duty. Veterans are helping hiring managers when they lay out precisely how they will make their companies a lot of money. 

The benefit for you sets you apart. Everyone thanks veteran for their services. You’ll be one of very few who returns the favor. You’ve served the ones who served you.