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Is it okay to tag my clients' business names on LinkedIn?

by j77
11 replies
I have a full-time solo freelance copywriting business. After 5 years of a pretty high wave, I'm having a slower time the last few months and have plenty of bandwidth currently for new clients and I need to start showcasing my work better instead of just buried in my site.

Most of the companies I help are global brands and I work both as a subcontractor through creative agencies and then also directly with my own clients.

I'm curious what are the best practices when it comes to sharing some of my work examples to my business's LinkedIn feed, which I would then also piggyback and share to my own LinkedIn feed? In other words, let's say I want to share examples of past and recent projects to my feed. I'd obviously like to tag the companies I did the final work for and then possibly the agencies that I also collaborated with. i.e. "We recently helped @MY_CLIENT tell their story on how they're helping @MY_CLIENT'S_CUSTOMER in using their service ..."

This is probably more of an etiquette question but what's the best practice in doing this? If I'm working through an agency, can I tag them and their client? Just the agency? If I'm working directly with a client (not through an agency), can I tag the brand in the post?

If one of my customers is Pepsi (which it's not) and I did a case study for them and how they're partnering with one of their B2B customers. Ideally I'd like to share the work on my LinkedIn business page but I'd like to do so that I also tag the companies in each LinkedIn post for better reach. Do I just post and not ask for permission to do so? I feel like asking permission opens up a whole can of worms and I'll end up with replies like "It's easier if you don't" or "We need to check with our legal, we need to ask the partner, etc." I mean, this goes for anything, how do other creatives go about this? Graphic designers, other writers, etc.

This is something I admittedly should have been doing from time to time, even during my larger wave of business instead of leaving my LinkedIn business page pretty dormant. Worst case scenario, I can always post without tagging the companies but this limits the reach quite dramatically then, so I prefer to be able to tag these companies I've worked with and as I post the examples of work.

Thanks for any input and advice!
#business #clients #linkedin #names #tag
  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
    Whether it's Linkedin or anywhere else, I think the time to establish this is during your dealings with the client. I would certainly be less than pleased if a contractor publically referenced work I or my company paid for without asking prior permission. An agency will probably have guidelines covering this.

    If a client is happy with what you've provided, it shouldn't be too difficult to get them to let you namecheck them in your resume/CV. But I'd run it by them first.
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    • Profile picture of the author j77
      Originally Posted by Frank Donovan View Post

      If a client is happy with what you've provided, it shouldn't be too difficult to get them to let you namecheck them in your resume/CV. But I'd run it by them first.
      I appreciate the thoughts and feedback! Thank you. I'll always use on my CV and even promote most of the work I've done on my freelance company's site and my behance portfolio -- that won't stop unless I'm asked to do so.
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  • Profile picture of the author max5ty
    You can probably tag and nobody will really care...if you can document you did the work and it was used...

    unless, there was an NCA, a CA, a CDA, or something similar. You need to also make sure there wasn't one of these agreements on the part of the agency you worked for with the client.

    Most of this should have been covered in your master agreement as has already been stated.

    Tagging a global company can be confusing though. If you tag Pepsi, who there is really going to know anything you did? They have their own departments and outside agencies.

    If you work through an agency it can be more confusing because different agencies have different rules. Some will let their employees showcase their work on their own website etc....and at others, you're looking for a new job.

    Also, if a company is no longer a client of yours you need to make it clear that it was past work and not lead people to believe they're still a client.

    A few years ago the NRA sued their ex ad agency because the agency was still showcasing the work they had done. NRA lost though because the agency wasn't claiming they were still working with the NRA. I believe it was a case in Texas.

    It can all get confusing, which is why all this should be addressed at the beginning. You should have also gotten testimonials...and should in the future.

    I don't think you would have a problem with tagging as long as you're not violating an agreement. Of course, I'm not an attorney and am not giving legal advice. But, probably the most that would happen is you would be asked not to do it.

    I would definitely recommend you cover this in the beginning from now on though when you deal with clients or work with agencies.
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    • Profile picture of the author DABK
      I would care, anyway.
      I probably would say yes, if asked. But I think it is rude to announce things about me/my companies without my approval.

      And rude is always unprofessional.

      Originally Posted by max5ty View Post

      You can probably tag and nobody will really care...if you can document you did the work and it was used...

      unless, there was an NCA, a CA, a CDA, or something similar.
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      • Profile picture of the author max5ty
        Originally Posted by DABK View Post

        I would care, anyway.
        I probably would say yes, if asked. But I think it is rude to announce things about me/my companies without my approval.

        And rude is always unprofessional.
        It probably just goes to what level of business you're on.

        If you go to any agency site that does work for major companies they always show their work unless there's an agreement.

        If you go to goodby silverstein, all their work for pepsico is listed.

        Why you would care if an agency or freelancer work is shown when they did work for your company
        is beyond me...but each their own.
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  • Profile picture of the author j77
    These are fantastic points so thank you to all of you who replied. Yes, it has been written in some of my agency client agreements about this specifically. Others (in fact, most), it's not mentioned. I'm definitely going to bring this up with every client in the future though as a "Hey by the way, after I write the story or whatever the content is and it's fully approved and you've published it, I typically also share to my LinkedIn and/or my freelance business LinkedIn, which also helps further promote your company and work you're doing."

    Let me go down another two other more specific paths along the same lines:

    1) What are the thoughts about "sharing" a company's own post on the work I did for them? i.e. I write a success story for an IT cloud solution company that's providing services to Pepsi's business. The IT cloud solution company (AKA my client) shares a post on their LinkedIn channel talking about their partnership with a link to the success story I wrote for them. As it's a public post already, I assume simply re-sharing to my own followers and network is ok -- it's just what I say about my involvement (if anything) that becomes the issue and where it's recommended I run it by the client? Thoughts?

    2) LinkedIn now has a new "Featured customers" section at the top of some LinkedIn business pages. Thoughts about adding a company's name and logo there in that spot? It's not a spot to feature the actual work -- just shows customers with their name and logo -- LinkedIn has a visual example of the feature here: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linked...e-page?lang=en
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    You seem to be asking the same question in different ways. In my opinion, you should never use a client you worked for in any way...without their permission.

    It is not unusual for a client who paid you to write content or copy for them - to take credit for the work. While some people who hired you will be fine with being listed as customer of yours....others will not be interested.

    I would never use the name of a client/company or quote their comments or list/link to them in any way without specific permission from the clients.
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    • Profile picture of the author max5ty
      Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

      You seem to be asking the same question in different ways. In my opinion, you should never use a client you worked for in any way...without their permission.

      It is not unusual for a client who paid you to write content or copy for them - to take credit for the work. While some people who hired you will be fine with being listed as customer of yours....others will not be interested.

      I would never use the name of a client/company or quote their comments or list/link to them in any way without specific permission from the clients.
      I can agree with your position and all the other positions that have been stated concerning this.

      Usually, when I answer a question here I do it from the angle of large companies...because that's based on my own experiences.

      I know of no major company that would be upset if you showed what you had done for them...and as a matter of fact, it's expected.

      An agency that wins an award for a creative campaign brings the company they did the campaign for more exposure and also allows the agency to show its best creative work.

      If a customer says they want a creative campaign but then says they want the creators kept secret, they're shooting themselves in the foot.

      What agency is excitedly saying: "ok guys, I want you to come up with a killer ad that knocks everyone's socks off...but we can't tell anyone we did it"...

      who that works at that agency is going to actually come up with their best stuff if they can't ever use it to show their creativity? Creative people want to show their work because:

      A. They're proud of it.
      B. It brings in more work.

      Now, if we take it down to the smaller level...somebody selling an ebook or a course...

      yeah, I can see why the client would want everyone to think they wrote the sales letter or ad.

      So, I think the whole question comes down to what level your business is on.

      I should try in the future to better determine the level of business the poster is at when answering a question.
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  • Profile picture of the author RMRC
    I agree with Max5ty. I don't see that being a problem if you were to tag the clients you completed work for. If you aren't sure going forward with new clients, it would be a good idea to establish this ahead of time when you are beginning a job and at that time if they have any issue with it, then you'll already know once the work is finished which clients you can and can't tag.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    Here is the problem I have with that answer....


    if they have any issue with it...

    They will not HIRE YOU AGAIN.


    Also, if you sold your freelancing work through a freelancer platform it's possible the TOC states that copyright (on articles, for example) transfers to the person who PAID for them. That is not automatic but not uncommon either.



    A smart freelancer will ASK FIRST - communication is the key.
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  • Profile picture of the author j77
    It's been a great discussion and learning here for me so I'm glad I asked to get the different points of view. I appreciated everyone's input here so far.

    Moving forward:

    -- My plan is to always mention this at the point when starting with a new client as an overall.

    -- For past clients more than 2 years back, I'll tread this one carefully so with those I'll plan on sharing my work but not tagging the companies.

    -- For more recent clients within the recent months and up to 2 years ago, I'll go back and run it the client contact for each project, asking for their permission.
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