LinkedIn: A Powerful Marketing Tool with Media, Partnerships and Clients.
‘LinkedIn is a social network where mostly professionals and businesses connect.’
Overview
When LinkedIn started in 2003 it was a simple Java application with a web server.
Today the company calls itself the world’s largest professional network and is known as a powerhouse network that Microsoft earlier spent $26.2 billion to acquire.
[thrive_testimonial name=”Steve Ihde” company=”Director of Engineering, LinkedIn” image=”https://www.dsim.in/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/steve-ihde.jpg”]“Growing the site has been a journey,” [/thrive_testimonial]
Today hundreds of millions of professionals around the world use LinkedIn to connect with other people and businesses, manage their online identities, highlight personal skills, and find their dream jobs.
Why is LinkedIn important for businesses?
- 3rd most used social platform among business owners
- Gives exposure to potential leads and customers
- Great place to make connections and engage in discussions
- Most effective ways to recruit new talent
- Effective platform for product launches
- Gives your brand increased search visibility
- Most effective social media platform for content distribution
- Potential to reach all your page followers
Do you also know?
- LinkedIn has the highest rate of any social network – 3X higher than Facebook and Twitter.
- 80% of LinkedIn’s revenue comes from brands, corporations and businesses.
- 81% of LinkedIn users belong to LinkedIn Groups.
- 83% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content.
- 81% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn in new product launch.
- 4 million+ companies have Company Pages on LinkedIn.
- 467 million people are on LinkedIn (2 new members join per second)
- Each month, 106 million unique users visit LinkedIn.
How to generate leads with LinkedIn?
Sponsored Content: Reach beyond your follower base and target the right people to raise brand awareness, build relationships, and drive quality leads
Sponsored InMail: Reach your target audience with content valuable to them right in their LinkedIn Inboxes
Dynamic Ads: Grab attention with dynamically generated, personalized display ads.
Display Ads: Run programmatic desktop display campaigns that drive brand awareness and keep you on prospects’ minds.
Text Ads: Drive high-quality leads within the budget and target potential customers with LinkedIn Text Ads
LinkedIn Marketing Examples:
CITI
About
Citi, the global financial services corporation, has long aimed its marketing efforts for women via Women & Co., a service that provides financial content, commentary and community that gets women thinking and talking about personal finance.
Goal
To drive engagement, Citi and LinkedIn focused on ways to encourage lively conversations and interactions among members.
[thrive_testimonial name=”Linda Descano” company=”CFA, Managing Director and Head of Digital Partnerships, Content and Social, North America Marketing, Citi; and President and CEO, Women & Co.” image=”https://www.dsim.in/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Linda-Descano.jpg”] “Women are our most influential audience segment – anything we can do to engage with them online helps strengthen their awareness of our brand,” [/thrive_testimonial]
[thrive_testimonial name=”Vanessa Colella ” company=”Managing Director and Head of North America Marketing, Citi” image=”https://www.dsim.in/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/sp_colella_vanessa.jpg”]“LinkedIn provides the perfect environment for helping us ignite conversations with women – and judging from the phenomenal growth of the group in just a few months, we’re giving them the community experience they’ve been waiting for.”[/thrive_testimonial]
Challenges
- Reach professional women in social media setting
- Encourage conversations about business and financial topics
- Increase brand favorability
Solutions
- Partner with LinkedIn to launch a Managed Group in April 2012
- Seed discussions with content from Women & Co. and other outlets
- Reward group members who contribute the best new discussions and comments with LinkedIn Premium subscriptions
- Use polls to encourage feedback and drive commenting
- Use Sponsored InMails to drive group membership
Why LinkedIn?
- Active and engaged audience of professional women
- Group social tools encourage sharing and discussions
- Expert knowledge of growing online communities
- Ability to connect brands with aspirational, goal- minded professionals
Results
- 43,000 group members in just four months
- Highly engaged and active members: 30–50% returns weekly
- 2 times the engagement of the average LinkedIn group
- 17,800+ discussion comments
Van Heusen: Most Fashionable Professional
About
Van Heusen is India’s No. 1 premium lifestyle brand for men, women and youth. With a rich heritage of 128 years, the brand entered India in 1990. It has had the unique distinction of establishing not only the brand, but also the ready-to-wear category in India.
[thrive_testimonial name=”Vinay Bhopatkar” company=”Brand Head, Van Heusen India” image=”https://www.dsim.in/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/vinay.jpg”]“We have been making the workspace more fashionable. Last season we redefined formals with the launch of X-Lifestyle, a range of formals that lend an edgy, stylish and powerful persona to the whole concept of what one should wear to work. This season we wanted to take the same further and we thought LinkedIn would be a good fit for us to take on this mantle. The brand looks at the digital medium very seriously and we are constantly looking at newer and exciting ways to connect with its consumers. We feel that a platform like LinkedIn has a lot of untapped potential for brands like us. The LinkedIn audience is primarily serious professionals and making professionals fashionable is a serious business for us. We intend to do a number of activities around this space going forward.”[/thrive_testimonial]
Goal
To strengthen Van Heusen’s core offering by connecting with young working professionals on LinkedIn.
Challenges
- To reinforce their brand advantages among young working professionals
- To engage with younger audience
Solutions
- LinkedIn provided a customized solution to connect directly with the right audience
- LinkedIn proposed the ‘Most Fashionable Professional’ microsite
- Banner roadblock based promotion
- CPM banners targeted at suitable professionals
- Text based ads on LinkedIn targeted to professionals based on seniority and other key factors
- Discussion boards with theme-specific corporate conversations
Why LinkedIn?
- Greater alignment with the audience
- Ability to connect with senior professionals
- Reliable and accurate avenue to build brand presence
Results
- 5 million LinkedIn users reached
- 30,000 unique visitors
- 5000 professionals logged in with LinkedIn accounts
- 15,000 profile nominations across India
- 10,700+ shares on LinkedIn
- 18,019 clicks recorded
With the above mentioned impressive info and stats, LinkedIn proves itself as the world’s largest and most impactful professional network on the Internet. And, so we hope that the entire study gives you a new perspective of LinkedIn as a colossal deal when doing business.
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