Professional Documents
Culture Documents
8:00 a.m.
approach, a sophisticated approach
The idea of being a sophisticated if you will, to social media marketing
marketer comes from the current on the world’s largest professional
state of the golden age of social network.
media marketing and how it is Most LinkedIn members look for inspiration
early in the day with peak consumption
at 8:00 a.m.
Marketing and Advertising
Financial Services
2
A Note to the
Sophisticated Marketer
This type of marketer is grounded in
timeless, Mad Men-era tactics and
combines them with new, modern
technology. What worked during the
golden age of marketing still works
today, but marketers need to adapt.
Social media is their playground,
content is their fuel, and platforms like
LinkedIn are the new black.
3
Why should I be
Reading this Guide?
The goal of this guide is to provide the absolute best, most
up-to-date, definitive guide for marketers to successfully use
LinkedIn as part of their integrated approach to marketing.
4
PART 1:
There were 184 million unique visitors worldwide to LinkedIn in Q3 of 2013 The world’s largest professional network
1 of every 3 professionals on the planet is on LinkedIn
Plus, all these professionals are highly Our members’ investment is born out 259,000,000+
receptive to relationship building. of their professional mindset. The
238
They demonstrate this in what they professional mindset is aspirational. 225
do while on the network. Time on In other words, members are thinking 200
187
LinkedIn isn’t simply spent. Time on about how to achieve their ambitions 175
150 161
LinkedIn is invested in professional and further their careers. As a result,
131
development. And it’s reflected in the our members are highly receptive to 115
growing number of visits to and time advertising, content, and experiences
spent on LinkedIn. that can help make them more
knowledgeable and, ultimately,
more successful.
Q3’11 Q4’11 Q1’12 Q2’12 Q3’12 Q4’12 Q1’13 Q2’13 Q3’13 Q4’13
others
85%
corporate websites. 81%
73%
As a growing number of professionals professional decision-making. All
55%
spend more time reading news it takes is a sophisticated marketer
and keeping in touch with their who seizes the opportunity to
network through LinkedIn, you have engage them. LINKEDIN CONSIDERED MOST EFFECTIVE FOR B2B LEAD GEN
an unprecedented opportunity to Among top performing organizations, % of B2B Marketers who rated the Social
build and cultivate relationships with What do we mean by a sophisticated Media Site on effectiveness in generating leads
professionals the world over. And marketer? The idea of being a
these relationships can translate sophisticated marketer comes from 93%
into revenues. Since 2010, the the transition of social media 84%
number of B2B and B2C marketers marketing from pure theory to
generating sales via LinkedIn has effective use. But marketers can’t 71%
grown consistently. U.S.-based just “do” social. Now they need 56%
agencies rate LinkedIn as the most to produce results and actionable
important social media platform for insights in order to prove the value of LINKEDIN CONTINUES TO B2C MARKETERS ARE RAPIDLY
new business. their efforts. Fortunately we no longer CONSISTENTLY GENERATE SALES DISCOVERING LINKEDIN
are forced to take a spray-and-pray FOR B2B MARKETERS Percentage of companies who
In fact, 50% of our members report approach to getting our message Percentage of companies who acquired acquired a B2C customer through
they are more likely to buy from heard in the noisy world of social. a B2B customer through that channel that channel
a company they engage with on The technology is in place that allows
LinkedIn. And a whopping 80 percent us to adopt a much more refined— 1.5x 2.0x
65%
of LinkedIn members want to connect sophisticated—approach, if you will, 61% 51%
with companies—because those to social media marketing, using the 45% 39%
connections provide them world’s largest professional network. 26%
opportunities to enhance their
2010 2011 2013 2010 2011 2013
1
Source: B2B Content Marketing report, Holger Schulze, 2013 Sources: 2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends/ North America, Content Marketing Institute/ Marketing Profs.
2
Source: Dazeinfo Webbiquity, Aug 27,2013. “Content Marketing gets Social”, Unisphere research, 2013.
6
HubSpot, State of inbound Marketing 2010,2011,2012.
PART 2:
That’s because your campaigns will Plus, you can extend the quality
resonate more if they’re targeted traffic of LinkedIn professionals to
to professionals with our targeted your own branded sites. Embedding
advertising products. Your content calls-to-action in your creative
will have greater impact and sharing on LinkedIn ensures the flow of
when it’s published in a professional influential, affluent and educated
context. And your effort will extend professionals to your own
through the social sharing that online properties.
happens naturally on LinkedIn.
SolutionsSolution
Branding
Branding
Lead Generation
Lead Generation
LinkedIn Display and Text Ads
Sponsored InMail
Company Page
Showcase Pages
Follow Company Ads
Company Updates
Sponsored Updates
SlideShare
Content Ads
Custom API Solutions
LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Partners
Optimizing
This infographic highlights all the
opportunities for getting the most
from your profile.
Your Profile
Every day we see millions of professionals find others and get found
through LinkedIn search.
Whether someone is searching for such as SlideShare presentaions, videos,
people, jobs, companies or groups, and infographics to your profile is a
we provide the most relevant results fantastic way to showcase visual assets
based on your professional identity, your to profile visitors.
network, and how the people in your
network engage with LinkedIn. Plus, one How Your Company Can Benefit from
of the first steps many members take an Optimized Profile
when receiving content from a company It goes without saying that your company
or another member is click through to and all of its employees should optimize
the personal profile or Company Page their LinkedIn profiles. After all, an
to learn about the sender. That’s why optimized profile can boost the visibility
it’s critical for you and your company to of your company and its content in the
maintain complete and optimized profiles. search results—both on and off the
network. That’s because search engines
How You Can Benefit from an like Google scour pages and URLs for
Optimized Profile keywords, and LinkedIn profiles offer
As a marketer, you can use LinkedIn many opportunities to embed keywords,
for networking and to further your such as within the LinkedIn URL, other
profession. After all, these days very URLs you list within your profile, job
few people end up working for a single titles and descriptions, and content links
company their entire career. So whether you include. So if your company and its
you’re actively seeking a new position or employees have optimized their profiles,
maximizing the job you are already in, it’s you could very well gain an advantage
wise to make sure your profile is set up when prospective customers are
for maximum exposure and engagement. searching for companies, products and
In addition, adding rich media content services like yours.
•1
st level connections with 3. Using all fields and options
profiles that are 100% complete available to you—like joining
(or close to it) and have the 50 LinkedIn groups—boosts
most in-common connections/ your ranking.
shared groups, ranked in 4. Use a variety of keywords and
descending order terms in describing what you do
• 1st level connections with the and offer to show up in a variety
fewest in-common connections/ of search results.
shared groups, ranked 5. View LinkedIn search trends to see
in descending order by how many times you’ve shown up
profile completeness in search results and how many
• 2nd level connections ranked people have viewed your profile
in descending order by over the past three months—and
profile completeness then adjust your profile as needed.
13
PART 3:
625,000
In addition to joining in rich what the people in your network are
conversations, you will see which reading and reacting to, helping you
Influencers and topics are driving the unearth new ideas. Want to broaden
most interest—perhaps sparking an your horizons? Take advantage of
idea of your own for a post or content discovery modules within LinkedIn to LinkedIn FOLLOWERS
asset. Plus the ability for LinkedIn help you find more relevant content Bill Gates is an Influencer with over
members to like and share Influencer based on the people you’re following 625,000 followers. One of his posts
content lets you quickly find out and the posts you’re reading. garnered over 1,600,000 views, more
than 10,000 thumbs up, and over
4,000 comments.
11,000
LinkedIn FOLLOWERS
Joe Pulizzi, a speaker, entrepreneur,
author, and founder of Content
Marketing Institute with over 11,000
LinkedIn followers. One of his posts
pulled in nearly 38,000 views and over
140 comments. It’s easy to be part of
such a rich discussion!
30,000
VIEWS
49% of Influencer 22% are entry-level
followers are director- professionals
level and above
Jumpstart your
Organize your daily reads Influencers and top sources such as
Lists in the Pulse app allow you to The Wall Street Journal, Ad Week,
organize your channels into topics Mashable, and more: the Marketing
of your choice, such as Technology,
Sports, Favorites, or Must Reads.
Any Channels or Influencer content
Strategies channel https://www.
LinkedIn.com/channels/marketing_
strategies
Pulse experience
that you follow on LinkedIn.com will
automatically sync with the Pulse Share with your network When you download the new Pulse app on iOS or Android,
app, and you can also add any We’ve made it even easier for you to you will be prompted to sign in using your LinkedIn profile.
blog or news feed via the robust share news and insights from your Once you’ve done this, we will automatically bring in the
search functionality on Pulse. As a Pulse app. With the new, enhanced
channels, Influencers and LinkedIn content you follow
result, you gain instant access to social features—easily accessible
the most relevant and personalized within every piece of content at the into your Pulse experience. Additionally, Pulse will offer
news content that maps to your top of the screen—you can see what personalized content recommendations that are customized
professional interests. other professionals are talking about to your LinkedIn preferences and professional interests.
and instantly like, comment or share
And here’s a suggestion for a an article with your professional
Channel to follow right away for fresh network on LinkedIn.
insights on marketing from LinkedIn
8:00 a.m.
Content Marketing
ADVERTISERS AGENCIES
Consistent posting: Create an editorial calendar of updates within your company, 4 New Tweets
and highlight relevant third-party material. Then share it with company followers.
Building a cadence around the 4-1-1 rule will continually add value for your followers.
Sources: Tippingpoint Labs. www.tippingpointlabs.com
1 Retweet
1 Self-serving
Tweet
However, I’m biased for many reasons. Atop the list: SlideShare—
and its integration with LinkedIn—accounts for a massive chunk of
my website’s traffic, has a lot to do with the authority I’ve gained in
content marketing and copywriting for the web, and is helping bring
me all kinds of opportunities including new business, partnerships,
and speaking engagements.
1. Keep your presentations short 7. Integrate your presentations into More than 15 million pieces of content uploaded to SlideShare
and sweet: Between 10–30 slides multiple channels: SlideShare easily (December 5, 2013)
is optimal embeds into landing pages and
2. Be visual: Shoot for an average of blogs and renders beautifully
19 images in your 10–30 slides in Twitter
Through LinkedIn Branded Real customers, real benefits There are more Groups on LinkedIn than nonprofit organizations
Communities, you can create your Philips runs two communities in the United States.
own exclusively branded forum: a dedicated to thought leadership in
targeted environment that establishes health and lighting. The communities
your company’s expertise and builds have contributed to a significant
100,000
a lively community endorsing rise in Philips’ net promoter scores.
your brand. As the sponsor of the Moreover, the company’s health
Community, you’ll leverage exclusive community counts tens of thousands
ad positions to share company, of members and thousands of active
brand and product messages; drive discussions, making it a role model for
engagement with weekly emails thought leadership on a large scale. LinkedIn Members
join new Groups
to Community members; and use
community management tools to stay
everyday
involved in the conversation. Plus, you
can exclusively promote your content
and messages in the right-hand rail
with units that support rich media Engaging with fellow professionals on the issues they care about, and pooling
and video. their thinking to solve business problems. Starting a Community provides a
uniquely interactive platform for showcasing your thinking, driving collaboration,
All Branded Communities encourage inviting feedback and engaging key stakeholders.
members to spread your content
across their LinkedIn networks,
sharing links to comments and
discussions and promoting organic
growth. Plus, you can use Join Group
Ads to boost membership further, Similarly, Microsoft’s Cloud
with content feeds to give potential Computing community has attracted
Community members a taste of the more than 9,000 senior managers
discussions taking place—and prompt in relevant industries such as IT,
them to join (see the Advertising engineering and consultancy.
section for more on Join Group Ads).
You can find communities to join in the Groups Directory or view suggestions
of groups you may like. Here’s how to create a new community focused on
a particular topic or industry.
We believe in the power of content GLOBAL MARKETERS ARE USING CONTENT MARKETING TO ACHIEVE THEIR
marketing. That’s why we’re continually GOALS, BUT DON’T FEEL THEY’RE BEING EFFECTIVE AS THEY COULD BE.
developing new resources that help using content marketing
you achieve even more from your
feel they’re being effective
content marketing strategies and
initiatives. And we are certain you’re
Australian 96% 38%
going to get tons of value from these
two new resources: US 93% 41%
UK 88% 48%
• Content Marketing Score
• Trending Content
Sources: Content Marketing in the UK: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Content Marketing
Institute/DMA UK, Content Marketing in Australia: 2013 Trends – Content Marketing Institute/The
Association for data-driven marketing & advertising (ADMA), 2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends—
North America: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs
Content Marketing Score
Quantify Your Content Marketing
Efforts On LinkedIn
As a sophisticated marketer, you know Like the most effective content
you need to prove the impact of your marketers, we bet you reach your
content marketing initiatives. Ideally audience in multiple ways across
you want to: LinkedIn, including via Groups,
•U
nderstand the content and topics company updates, employee posts,
that resonate with your audience sponsored updates, and influencer
posts. The Content Marketing Score
•M
easure the effectiveness of your
from LinkedIn ties all of this outreach
content-based campaigns
together so you get an integrated view
•B
enchmark the success of of how your efforts are paying off.
your program
• See how you stack up against
your competition
• Rank your brand with
a comprehensive score
A Dynamic Duo
Score as a barometer that helps but we know insights are useless
your company, product and brand unless you act upon them. And the
understand the impact of its content Content Marketing Score makes
marketing efforts on LinkedIn. By that possible by providing specific
attributing a score to your content, recommendations on defining and
While Trending Content gives you insight into the hottest
the Content Marketing Score adjusting your content strategy to topics across LinkedIn, the Content Marketing Score is
quantifies the influence of your achieve the best results possible. specific to your company, product and brand.
company, product and brand These may include suggestions to
on LinkedIn.
experiment with new ways to increase
your follower base such as Sponsored
The Content Marketing Score Updates, encourage your employees
provides this insight by: to publish more posts, or focus on
your content relevance.
• Highlighting the audience(s)
consuming your content In a nutshell, the Content Marketing
on LinkedIn Score from LinkedIn:
• Quantifying your company’s
content presence and • Analyzes who engages
engagement on LinkedIn with your content
• Compares you to your peers Your Overall Content Marketing Score
In other words, it tells you if members By Target Audience and Topic
within your target audience are • Suggests how to improve
engaging with your content. And your score WHO: Audience = Decision Makers WHAT: Topic = Leadership
1,400
CMS Score
800
Microsoft
performing across the different areas your LinkedIn account executive 600
Dell
of LinkedIn – whether by Groups, or account manager. 400
Cap Gemini
250 Oracle
updates, or posts. 200 Citi
Amex
0
CLIENT Accenture
Best in class Weaker content Salesforce
influence influence
40
Next-Level Marketers face a challenge in knowing exactly who's
Content
consuming their content and whether it's reaching their
desired audiences. For more engagement, reach and virality
the content that attracts and engages topics across all those sources:
them. But how do you know just LinkedIn Groups, news posts, thought
which topics will catch – and keep leadership posts and discussions,
– their attention? And how do you and company pages. You’ll see which
know which members will be most topics matter, and which members are 1 Employee 2 Management 3 Sourcing 4 Self-Esteem 5 Social Media
Engagement Marketing
interested in your content? sharing the most content on any given
Whether you’re new to content subject. You’ll even be able to pinpoint
marketing or looking to drive even which topics are going viral.
more engagement with your existing
content, Trending Content from How do we deliver this invaluable 10 Retirement 9 Job 8 Future 7 Business 6 Foreclosures
Search Trends Development
LinkedIn can help you focus on data? We evaluate influencer articles, Source: LinkedIn Internal Data
the topics that matter. network updates and sponsored
Who Shares the Most
updates to understand what content *Audiences sharing the top 15 most shared articles on LinkedIn, Dec. 2013–Jan. 2014
On a daily basis, LinkedIn members members are sharing. Using a complex TOPTop
TRENDING
TrendingTOPICS
Topics
actively engage with content from algorithm built by our data science (January 2014) 2014)
(January Small Business Owners
• Display Ads
• Sponsored InMail
44
PART 7:
Using Sponsored InMail, you can Sponsored InMail is ideal for: Ensure standout: just one message is sent every 60 days
reach high-value, targeted prospects
on LinkedIn with attention-grabbing • Boosting conversion through
messages that speak directly to targeted product and Prompt members to take action via a customizable response button
their interests. You can designate service promotions
recipients by geography, job role, • Supporting display ad campaigns Encourage ongoing dialogue with optional social widgets
group membership, company size and by emphasizing key messages and
other criteria. calls to action
Quote
These notifications are prominently
displayed on the LinkedIn homepage Our 60-day exclusivity rule prevents
and in members’ inboxes for high other companies from messaging your
“Your first connection with someone you don’t know should
visibility that cuts through the clutter. target audience and ensures 100%
In addition, you can amplify your share of voice. And the flexible format simply be to get a positive response. Don’t look to do anything
message by including social media makes it simple to integrate content more. The simplest way to get a response, a valuable one at
widgets that empower your audience and messaging from across your that, is to ask for their expertise. Even LinkedIn understands how
to easily spread your message to like- LinkedIn ecosystem, such as from your valuable that request is that they’ve made “Expertise Request”
minded professionals. Company Page. Accurate targeting
a drop-down option when sending an InMail message.”
ensures you reach the members that
matter most, from across our network
of over 259 million professionals. avid Spark (@dspark), Founder of the brand journalism firm,
D
Spark Media Solutions. Blogger at Spark Minute and podcaster
at the Tear Down Show.
best when it comes to social 2. Michael Brenner 6. Brian Clark 11. Matt Heinz
media marketing. Senior Director, Global Marketing Founder and CEO of Copyblogger President at Heinz Marketing Inc
at SAP, President and Co-Founder Blog: copyblogger.com/blog/ Blog: heinzmarketing.com
of Business2Community Twitter: @copyblogger Twitter: @HeinzMarketing
Blog: b2bmarketinginsider.com LinkedIn: pub/brian-clark/8/606/b5a Linkedin: in/mattheinz
Twitter: @BrennerMichael
LinkedIn: in/michaelbrenner 7. Heidi Cohen 12. Doug Karr
Columnist Chief Marketing Officer at
3. Michael Brito Blog: heidicohen.com/tag/blog/ CircuPress, Author
Group Director Media and Twitter: @heidicohen Blog: marketingtechblog.com/
Engagement at WCG, Linkedin: in/heidicohen author/douglaskarr/
a W2O Company Twitter: @douglaskarr
Blog: britopian.com 8. Steven Farnsworth Linkedin: in/douglaskarr
Twitter: @Britopian Chief Digital Strategist at Jolt
LinkedIn: in/michaelbrito Digital Marketing, Author, Speaker 13. Jason Keath
Blog: stevefarnsworth.wordpress.com CEO of Social Fresh
4. Jeff Bullas Twitter: @steveology Blog: socialfresh.com
Consultant, Speaker, Blogger Linkedin: in/stevefarnsworth Twitter: @jasonkeath
Blog: jeffbullas.com LinkedIn: in/jasonkeath
Twitter: @jeffbullas 9. Barry Feldman
LinkedIn: in/jeffbullas Owner at Feldman Creative, Speaker
Blog: feldmancreative.com/blog
Financial Services Twitter: @FeldmanCreative
Linkedin: in/feldmancreative
54
25 Social Media Experts
You Need to Know
14. Nichole Kelly 18. Jason Miller 22. Neal Schaffer
CEO at Social Media Explorer, Sr. Manager, Content Marketing, Author, Speaker
SME Digital LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Linkedin: in/nealschaffer
Author, Speaker Blog: rocknrollcocktail.com/ Blog: maximizeyoursocial.com/
Blog: socialmediaexplorer.com Twitter: @JasonMillerCA Twitter: @NealSchaffer
Twitter: @Nichole_Kelly Linkedin: in/jsnmiller Linkedin: in/nealschaffer
Linkedin: in/nicholekelly
19. Lee Odden 23. Koka Sexton
15. Dave Kerpen CEO at TopRank Online Marketing Global Sr. Marketing Manager
CEO Likeable Local Author, Speaker at LinkedIn
Author, Speaker Blog: toprankblog.com Blog: kokasexton.com/word/
Blog: davekerpen.com/blog Twitter: @leeodden Twitter: @kokasexton
Twitter: @DaveKerpen Linkedin: in/leeodden Linkedin: in/kokasexton
Linkedin: in/davekerpen
20. Joe Pulizzi 24. Mike Stelzner
16. Stephanie Sammons Founder at Content Marketing Founder of Social Media
Founder of Wired Advisor™ Institute Examiner, Author
Speaker Author, Speaker Blog: socialmediaexaminer.com
Blog: blog.wiredadvisor.com Linkedin: in/joepulizzi Twitter: @Mike_Stelzner
Twitter: @StephSammons Twitter: @JoePulizzi LinkedIn: in/stelzner
Linkedin: in/stephaniesammons Blog: contentmarketinginstitute.com
25. Todd Wheatland
17. David Meerman Scott 21. Viveka Von Rosen VP of Marketing at Kelly Services
Marketing Strategist, LinkedIn Expert, Author Author, Speaker
Speaker, Author Blog: linkedintobusiness.com/ Blog: slide-guidebook.com/
Blog: webinknow.com Twitter: @LinkedInExpert Twitter: @ToddWheatland
Twitter: @dmscott LinkedIn: in/linkedinexpert Linkedin: in/wheatland
LinkedIn: in/davidmeermanscott
Financial Services
55
About Us Relationships Matter