Yes, this is common practice, albeit most companies will rather ask nicely than boss around. To advise you on whether or not you should "obey", we need more details such as company size, country where it's located, industry, etc.

Sorry for the lack of precision. I'm a data scientist for a small company (less than 20 employees) who work mainly for the aeronautic industry, in western europe.

Think of it as a company logo on a t-shirt, wear it to show commitment while you work there. Use it as a rag in the garage when you don't.

Merely insisting is not 'strongly incentivating', and IMO it is an improper demand. The account is your personal property, not theirs.

What do you mean by "incentivising" - they offered some kind of reward in return? What was the reward?

Does "higher than me in the hierarchy" mean your boss or your boss's boss or their boss, etc. or your department head or lead? Someone really high up in the company like a director? Or just someone more senior who you don't in any way report to? It's arguably improper for someone who you don't in any way report to to try to force you to do anything (especially outside of work). They may simply be trying to make their campaign a success without you having any true obligation to do what they ask. But, then again, office politics and knowing who reports to who can be complicated.

@BernhardBarker It was someone more senior who i don't report directly to, but who report directly to the CEO unlike me. I do have the feeling it was a political move for them to be able to report to the boss that "everybody was taking part in this campaign". The implied threat being him to report me as the only "non compliant" employee.

@SteveBennett By "incentivising" i mean strongly advising with an implied threat if i wasnt compliant. I'm not a native english speaker, so i'm sorry if it wasn't the appropriate term.

Sure, this is a normal part of the sewer that is "social media".

Priceless comment by @Kilisi there :)

@Rouages , usually the person picked to do such idiocy is someone who is less valuable at - you know - mathematics and material science, so, they are tasked with some absurd social media project. (In a past era, they would be tasked with "organizing the office party.") Indeed: such persons jump on the details of their comic assignment with a lot of enthusiasm and one can well imagine such a person (ridiculously) privately contacting you to urge you to post-a-message, or, bring-the-tablecloths. My strong advice would be to politely yet firmly ghost such requests.

@Fattie - How do you politely yet firmly ghost something? You either ghost it or not

As a data point, when Google launched Wave they tied 25% (I think) of bonuses to success of Wave

I've definitely had my employers ask me to share company-related links through my personal LinkedIn account before, that's quite common. I've never had them follow up or ask me why I didn't do it, though. Asking us to do it, yes; pressuring us to do it if we decline, no. That seems kinda creepy to me.

@Rouages I think "pressuring" is the word you're looking for.

The last time I saw a company pressure employees to repost content, the employees largely went the "malicious compliance" route. They'd repost it as requested, but with a heading like "Check out this blog post that's so bad, our company is forcing us to promote it!" That was the last time that particular company tried something like that.

"Western Europe" is too vague. For example, lot of behaviours that are widespread in France would be considered very unprofessional elsewhere in Western Europe (at least in the UK in my experience).

In fact the OP seems to be in France - a bit weird to be vague in the comments here while having a country tag in the profile, and a nickname that is a French word describing the avatar.

This is why I don't have a LinkedIn account. This and the incessant email spam they sent my way when I did have one.

I had thought only Chinese companies did that until I read this question. lol