When a company is less than a year old, building credibility is both the greatest opportunity and the biggest challenge. Customers, investors, and top candidates are naturally cautious about young firms. They want to see signals of stability, professionalism, and momentum before they commit.
For a global startup with a mostly remote team, these signals are especially important. In an environment where your people are scattered across time zones, your digital presence is often the only proof of legitimacy outsiders will ever see.
This is the story of how Socialplug helped one such company, an ambitious remote-first startup with big goals, transform its reputation on LinkedIn in just four weeks.
The Challenge: A Startup Without Social Proof
The company in question had already achieved significant early wins: they had a product with promise, clients beginning to trickle in, and a global team of skilled professionals.
As one of the company’s founders admitted to us during the first consultation:
“Every time we tried to reach out to potential hires or partners, we could sense hesitation. They would look at our LinkedIn and see… nothing. It made us look like a side project instead of the serious global company we are.”
They came to us with a straightforward question: “Can you help us enhance our LinkedIn reputation so people take us seriously?”
Why LinkedIn Reputation Matters for Young Companies
Before diving into what we did, it’s worth pausing to explain why LinkedIn presence is such a critical factor for reputation.
LinkedIn is the most popular B2B platform in the world. For getting new leads, hiring talented employees, networking with industry professionals, and becoming a thought leader in the industry, this should be your go to platform.
To take full advantage of the platform, your company page should be top notch. A company’s page in LinkedIn is a trust signal.
Top candidates evaluate potential employers by checking how many employees are on the company page, how credible those employees look, and how active the brand is.
Investors and partners do the same. Without these signals, a startup can feel “risky” no matter how strong its actual operations are.
In fact, studies show that 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before applying. For startups, this means that LinkedIn isn’t optional, it’s central to growth.
The Socialplug Solution
We designed a four-week LinkedIn growth program tailored to this company’s specific needs. The approach had five pillars:
- Increasing the number of employees: Add 50 more employees to the company page from different parts of the world, with different skill-sets.
- Strengthen employee profiles: Provide connections, followers, endorsements, and authority signals across key accounts.
- Grow the company page: Increase followers and engagement to project influence and scale.
- Enhance networking potential: Improve visibility and interactions with industry peers.
- Use targeted industry growth: Ensure that new followers and interactions came from relevant regions and industries.
We built a detailed week-by-week rollout to keep progress measurable and momentum steady.
The Transformation Timeline
We delivered our services over the period of four weeks. We spread out the delivery to make sure it is as natural as it gets.
Week 1: Laying the Foundation
We started by auditing the company’s LinkedIn presence. The company page had fewer than 500 followers, and leadership profiles averaged under 200 each.
Endorsements were sparse, and company posts had fewer than 10 engagements apiece. The total number of employees was 12.
Our first step was to boost visibility for the leadership team. Socialplug delivered LinkedIn follower growth for key employee profiles, creating the initial layer of social proof.
We also delivered more than a 1000 LinkedIn connections to each of the top employee accounts.
Endorsements were strategically distributed to highlight expertise in the company’s niche, making employees look skilled and credible.
Lastly, we delivered 30 LinkedIn employees. We made sure that they hold different positions in the company.
By the end of Week 1, the company page had grown to nearly 2,000 followers, and the leadership team’s profiles looked more authoritative.
“It was amazing how different the page felt after just one week,” the HR manager told us. “Suddenly, people were noticing us.”
Week 2: Building Momentum
With the foundation in place, we shifted focus to the company page. Our campaign added thousands of new followers, many from industries and regions relevant to the startup’s market. We delivered the rest 20 Linkedin employees making the page more authoritative.
At the same time, we amplified engagement on their posts including LinkedIn likes, comments, and shares, so that the page began to feel alive and influential.
Employees were encouraged to post thought-leadership content, which we then supported with Socialplug’s engagement services.
This combination gave the impression of a company with a strong culture and active community.
Week 3: Expanding Networking Reach
The third week was about positioning the company as a player in the industry conversation. Socialplug improved visibility for both company and employee posts, making sure they reached relevant audiences.
The LinkedIn comments that we delivered, in particular, were really helpful in improving the engagement.
This had a powerful effect on networking. When leadership reached out to potential partners or recruits, the recipients could now see active, credible profiles and a vibrant company page. Responses improved significantly.
One senior developer who applied that week later told the company:
“When I first saw your job post, I wasn’t sure if you were legit. But after looking at your team on LinkedIn, I realized you’re building something serious. That’s why I applied.”
By the end of Week 3, the company was receiving more inbound applications and outreach messages than ever before.
Week 4: Reputation Reinforced
The Results
What This Means for Startups
This case study illustrates a broader truth: for startups, perception matters as much as reality. A company can have world-class talent, a solid product, and strong revenue, but if outsiders don’t see credibility on LinkedIn, they’ll hesitate.
According to our CEO, David Ryabchikov, "We have seen a surge in recent years, where a lot of young startups rely on Socialplug to move the needle. As competition increases, the need to stand out in a sea of ‘AI-slop-startups’ increases as well. A lot of prominent figures use us, and it's not a surprise"
By strategically enhancing social proof through followers, endorsements, and engagement, Socialplug was able to transform a young company’s reputation in record time. The result was a shift in how the company was perceived across its entire industry.
Conclusion
For startups trying to compete with larger, more established firms, LinkedIn reputation can be the key that unlocks talent acquisition, partnerships, and growth. In this case, a less-than-a-year-old remote-first company went from struggling to attract top candidates to being seen as a serious, global employer, all within four weeks.
Socialplug made that possible. By delivering tailored growth services, we helped them build the kind of LinkedIn presence that attracts opportunities instead of repelling them.
If your company is facing similar challenges, the lesson is clear: you need to . And with the right strategy, that reputation can change faster than you think.
Ready to enhance your company’s LinkedIn presence? Get Started with Socialplug Today!
Frequently Asked Questions
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0 Comments
Great tips! I never realized how much engagement impacts growth more than just posting frequently. I've been focusing only on content, but now I see how interacting with my audience can make a difference. Time to step up my strategy!
Super helpful article! I always thought Facebook Groups were just for discussions and never really considered them as a tool for growing followers. The idea of actively engaging and sharing valuable content in relevant groups makes so much sense. I'll definitely start participating more and see how it impacts my page. Thanks for the great advice!