The Business of Marketing on LinkedIn
Disclaimer Social Media Marketing changes daily and many factors will be important in determining your actual results and no guarantees are made that you will achieve results similar to ours or anybody else’s, in fact no guarantees are made that you will achieve any results from our ideas and techniques in our material.
What is LinkedIn? LinkedIn is a social network for connecting professionals, students, company executives, companies and businesses. The network is used for finding prospective employment opportunities, building professional networks, creating joint ventures, finding leads, business opportunities, conducting research and recruiting staff. LinkedIn can be compared to a traditional networking event where people exchange cards, contact information and network with each other for jobs or collaboration. Professional or company information is shown on a concise and professional interface. Resumes, work experience, education, skills and accomplishments can be shown to a massive audience across the world.
Features of LinkedIn Individuals and companies communicate by posting or commenting to the public or selected connections on the homepage. Communication is also made by interacting with others in groups or by directly contacting professionals and companies by InMail or via chat. LinkedIn users can share photos, images and videos with connections and followers. LinkedIn has many features that are like other social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook. The user can make status updates, add connections or followers, join groups and share information between various features of the network. For example, sharing a post to multiple groups and connections.
Features of LinkedIn (Cont) Connections and followers can also be categorised by tagging. A user can share information, apply for jobs, connect with colleagues, connect with influential professionals, make partnerships, join groups around topics of interest, collaborate, recruit staff and even write blog posts and articles.
LinkedIn Content Content should not be strictly marketing or promotional material to prevent it from being muted or ignored by connections and followers. Information should be professional, fun and informative. It should also reflect the professional’s or company’s values. Users should engage with others by commenting or posting advice, giving inspiration, advising LinkedIn users of job opportunities, partnerships, networks and events.
LinkedIn Content (Cont) Business events, business photos, asking for help and making invitations to a group are also ways to connect with others. Social media marketing material such as white papers, research, news, trends, advertising, promotions, sales leads and anything people find entertaining or useful are also ways to make an initial engagement.
Making Connections LinkedIn users connect with other professionals, businesses, companies and organizations by using the search bar at the top of the LinkedIn interface. LinkedIn users can also import contacts from other social media networks and email. 1. Go to ‘My Network’. LinkedIn will make suggestions based on the user’s current email address. 2. Go to the right side of the screen. Find followers and 3. LinkedIn also allows the user connections from Gmail, to invite email contacts using Yahoo, Outlook and AOL. a CSV file such as excel or notepad.
Making Connections (Cont) Click ‘Find connections’ on the ‘Build your network’ tab to find more connections. Clicking ‘My Network’ on the top of the screen and then clicking ‘Connect’ under the ‘People you may know’ section is another way of adding connections. The user can also find ‘Groups’ on the top right side of the interface by clicking on ‘Work’. Find connections by joining a group and clicking and connecting with ‘Members’. The moderator must give permission to join the group.
Making Connections (Cont) Entering keywords into a search bar such as ‘Accounting’ will reveal all keyword searches about Accounting for LinkedIn ‘Jobs’, ‘People’, ‘Posts’, ‘Companies’ ‘Groups’ and ‘Schools’. These results all reveal possible followers and connections. Refine the search by applying various filters e.g. Filter accounting results to a target location. Search for influential professionals in 'Companies', 'Schools' or ‘Groups’ by finding them in the search bar and then joining or following some of the recommendations to target individuals within these categories.
Posting to Connections There are many links and buttons that should be considered when composing a post including; • the ‘image’ button to the bottom left of the post for uploading images from files. • the ‘connections’ button second from the bottom right for choosing who to send the post to such as the public. The ‘connections’ button also allows users to share information with LinkedIn and Twitter users. The final option under the ‘connections’ button is to send the post to selected connections on the network. • the ‘post’ square on the bottom right side for sending the post.
Posting to Groups It is also possible to post information to a group or multiple groups.
Received posts are usually found on the home page and include the following features; A like button used for demonstrating good quality content in the bottom left corner of a post. A comment button for sharing information with other connections and followers about a post.
A share button on the bottom right of the post for sending the post to other connections. An ellipsis shown in the comments section for reporting abuse.
Why is LinkedIn Popular? LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with more than 313 million members from over 200 countries and territories. The network is so popular that two members join every second. There are over 39 million students and recent college graduates on LinkedIn. College graduates are the fastest growing demographic on the network. Fortune 500 companies are featured heavily on the network.
LinkedIn Marketing LinkedIn is an ideal website for conducting market research of employment and industry trends.
Sponsored, text and InMail advertising allows the user to target audiences to receive a high rate of engagement, click throughs and conversions. It is a great resource for social media marketers looking to get away from other saturated forms of advertising.
Tracking and engaging with connections, competitors or influencers is made easier because the likes, shares, posts and comments of connections are shown on the home page.
Creating Your Profile It is recommended that anyone interested in promoting their company or professional expertise should have both a LinkedIn profile and company page. Go to LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com where a signup screen will be displayed. Enter your first and last name and create password. Follow the prompts to complete your profile setup.
Create Your Profile (Cont) The user also selects a professional photo and cover image. Customize the profile by adding some basic information such as education, position and other information to the basic profile introduction.
‘Add a new profile section’ is on the right side of the home screen and can be used to add new information to a profile such as work experience, volunteering, education, skills and accomplishments.
Create Your Profile (Cont) The profile is now created and contacts can be imported from Outlook, AOL, and other email providers. LinkedIn can also import followers from a CSV file spreadsheet and database such as Microsoft Excel or notepad.
Create Your Business Profile Anyone looking to promote their products and services should also create a LinkedIn company page to be used with a personal profile. You can go to https://business.linkedin.com/marketing -solutions/company-pages or go to: • ‘Work’ on the LinkedIn profile page and • clicking on ‘Create a Company Page’. • Follow similar steps you did when you created your personal profile.
Create Your Business Profile (Cont) Making casual engagements with colleagues and professionals from a LinkedIn personal profile is one of the easiest ways to engage with other users. A user can link a follower or connection from a personal profile to a company page by engaging casually and providing more information about a product or service. A company page can also be used to link connections to a personal profile when getting to know business contacts better. Creating a profile with a company page is a great way to invite more connections to groups quickly because both can be used for group invitations.
Strategy & Research 1. Strategy and research. • Create a budget and list of costs for scheduling, creating content, profile creation, advertising and analytics. • The strategy should have consistent branding across all websites and social media. It should include an SEO strategy for the profile and company page.
• The strategy should include ways of finding followers and connections such as creating and joining groups.
Strategy & Research (Cont) 2. How many times and when should a user make LinkedIn posts? • Research has shown that the busiest times for sharing content is morning and midday, Monday through Friday. Posting content during business hours has the largest reach. Social media management platforms like Buffer and Hootsuite will usually suggest the best times for posting.
• Around 20 posts a month is recommended. However, LinkedIn’s best in class marketers post 3-4 updates per day which could result in up to 80 posts a month.
Strategy & Research (Cont) 3. Where to find LinkedIn content? • Websites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit and Pinterest include images, articles, videos and stories that can be used on LinkedIn.
Strategy & Research (Cont) 4. What should posts contain? • Include a banner image on a post. The ideal dimensions are 698 x 400 pixels. Use Canva or PicMonkey to create a stunning image.
• Look at some influencer posts to emulate successful posts. • Include author bio at the bottom of a post so that the audience can quickly check credentials. • Create an eye catching title that explains the post with bold text.
Strategy & Research (Cont) 5. Who to post content to? • Sharing the post with the public is perfectly acceptable for some content. However, posting content to tagged categories of friends, family and colleagues or certain business categories is more appropriate for targeting. • Targeting will result in better feedback from people, less muting of posts and better ROI (return of investment) for advertisement campaigns.
Strategy & Research (Cont) 6. Find followers or connections • Competitors and influencers are potential followers and connections that can be tagged to a list. For example, a business selling online hosting can find a competitor and follow their audience to find potential leads.
• Add connections by joining a group. It is also another way of finding a target audience and understanding user preferences.
Strategy & Research (Cont) 7. How to promote and engage • LinkedIn offers many opportunities for engagement, promotions and finding leads. • Solve problems or ask advice to engage with potential followers or connections. • Send one announcement every seven days to group members with links and images used for promoting websites. • An auto message is sent to new members of a group. A lead magnet with a link to a website or LinkedIn landing page is a great way to increase click throughs and conversions.
Strategy & Research (Cont) 8. Use soft and direct methods for contacting connections and followers • Posts that do not look like promotions but casual conversation have more potential of drawing an audience. For example, talking to a professional casually about the lack of promotion opportunities or pay can create engagement. Once this has been established, refer them to a company page or group about working online or selfemployment. • Helping solve a problem or asking for advice is one way to engage with a connection. For example, contacting an SEO expert about a marketing issue through a company page may solve a problem and result in direct engagement with the user.
Strategy & Research (Cont) • General conversation about humour, places visited and upcoming industry events are also great ice breakers.
• If both followers are engaged in conversation, it may be better to request private communication by email or LinkedIn InMail. Private communication is a great way to build an email list that can be used for website promotions and uploading imports to other social media websites.
Strategy & Research (Cont) 9. Create more shares, mentions and likes • A strong call to action (CTA) created in LinkedIn campaign ads may increase the likelihood of content being reposted to others. For example, ‘share this post with other selfemployed marketers’. More click throughs and conversions may also result.
• Sharing interesting content in groups will result in more shares with people outside that group.
Strategy & Research (Cont) • Hashtags are an easy way to track user preferences. The categorising of posts under a hashtag means that there is an increased possibility of it being shared by those wanting information about a hashtag topic. It is easy to include too many hashtags and it is recommended that no more than three per post are included. • Share with other platforms such as Twitter as soon as an article is published.
• Share on company pages and your personal page. Ask the user to link to both profiles depending on the user’s preferences.
Strategy & Research (Cont) 10. Add LinkedIn buttons to a website. • Adding a range of LinkedIn buttons to a website means that anyone can find interesting content on a website that can be posted to LinkedIn. The range of LinkedIn buttons includes the following; • The ‘like button’ demonstrates approval of content. • The ‘follow company button’ for sending a reader to follow a LinkedIn company page.
• The ‘Member profile button’ and ‘company profile button’ for linking to a LinkedIn profile and company profile.
LinkedIn Campaigns LinkedIn users can create targeted campaigns to improve the flow of traffic to a LinkedIn page and website and only pay for clicks or impressions; Sponsored content – this is published in LinkedIn feeds and is 1200 X 627 pixels. It includes images and a maximum of 1000 characters. Text ads – are shown everywhere except the newsfeed. They can also be shown on the mast head between main navigation and body. The title should be 25 characters long with a description of 75 characters. The optimal image is 50 X 50 pixels. This size receives up to 20% more traffic.
LinkedIn Campaigns (Cont) Sponsored InMail – personalised messages for desktops and mobiles that drive conversions and reach larger audiences. Sponsored InMail appears in normal emails and allows a space for promotional content. Dynamic ads – use LinkedIn member information to personalize ads to the individual. They appear on the right side of a user’s feed and are available in two versions; 1. Company ads to increase the number of followers on a company page. 2. Spotlight ads utilize a fully customizable format that leverages the member's profile image and includes custom CTAs, a logo/image and a link to the advertiser's landing page. They are usually 100 X 100 pixels.
LinkedIn Campaigns (Cont) LinkedIn display ads – these are ads that appear on the right side of a LinkedIn user feed on desktops. They are especially good for raising brand awareness, establishing a LinkedIn presence and driving leads. They are usually 300 X 250 pixels.
Create a LinkedIn Campaign 1. Go to the LinkedIn profile and select the ‘Work’ icon, then click on the ‘Advertise’ icon. The user will be taken to “LinkedIn Marketing Solutions”.
2. Click on ‘Create ad’ and then ‘Create campaign’. 3. Choose the type of campaign such as sponsored content, text ads or sponsored InMail.
4. In this example we will create sponsored content, hit ‘select’. 5. Type in a name. Hit ‘Next’. 6. Enter a campaign name for personal usage. The user will then be asked if they want to send clicks through to a website or collect leads using LinkedIn lead gen forms.
Create a LinkedIn Campaign (Cont) 7. The user will then be asked to ‘Create sponsored content’ including a landing page URL and introductory text. It must be under 150 characters to display correctly across all devices.
8. The user will then need to target an audience. There are two options including retargeting website visitors or targeting a list of accounts or contacts. Both are optional. 9. Target the audience by location, company, job title, function or seniority, member schools, fields of study, degrees, member skills, groups, gender or age, years of experience, company followers and connections.
Create a LinkedIn Campaign (Cont) 10.The LinkedIn audience network is then offered to the user. It is used for reaching specific audiences of influential and affluent professionals from other business focused websites outside of LinkedIn. The user can also select categories from LinkedIn that can be excluded. 11.The user can also upload a block list of websites where the user does not want ads to appear. A .CSV or .TXT format can be uploaded. 12.The user also has an option of using audience expansion. This free feature broadens the reach of your campaign by showing it to audiences with similar attributes to your target audience, so you get the most out of your advertising.
Create a LinkedIn Campaign (Cont) 13.The next page asks how the user would like to optimize the campaign including awareness, website visits and website conversions. 14.LinkedIn also requests the user to set up conversion tracking for measuring ROI. Just click on the ‘insight tags’. The conversion tracking is great for improving the business impact of advertising. See who is converting to leads based on the professional’s seniority, profile and company size. 15.The user is then asked about a bid type: • Cost per click (CPC) • Cost per impression (CPM)
Create a LinkedIn Campaign (Cont) 16.The user then selects a daily budget. The ideal budget will depend on the conversion rate of the ads and requires a strategy to complete it effectively. Once a daily budget is reached, ads will stop showing for that day. There may be a small period after a budget is reached for up to 20% beyond a daily budget. 17.The user can then click ‘next’ and be taken to the ‘Review your campaign details’ where credit card details will need to be entered to continue. Once the details have been entered, it is then possible to click ‘review order’ before finally implementing it.
Create a LinkedIn Campaign (Cont) A text campaign can be made for a personal profile or company page. The user selects a campaign, selects a URL for a destination, headline and summary. The user also selects the ad campaigns structure e.g. square, tall, horizontal and long. A target audience is selected with a bid type, bid and daily budget.
Create a LinkedIn Campaign (Cont) A LinkedIn Mail campaign requires the user to make a subject, message and custom footer. Include a landing page URL and upload a banner image. It also requires a target audience, bid and budget.
Costs and Bidding The user must decide on the correct budget for bidding on a campaign per day or an average cost per month. Cheaper bidding is related to effective targeting of an audience. A good bid will also result in a higher amount of traffic, more relevant ads for a target audience and conversions. A lower bid is likely to receive fewer clicks and conversions because LinkedIn shows the ad to less users.
Costs and Bidding (Cont) The CPC usually starts from $5 to $8. It costs more than some other social media such as Twitter and Facebook. There are two costs per click strategies for gaining clicks and generating traffic to a website. Cost per click (CPC). This is the price you pay when a member clicks on an ad. The user can specify the maximum amount willing to pay for each click. Cost per impression (CPM) allows the user to pay a maximum bid each time an ad is shown for each 1000 times on LinkedIn, no matter how many clicks received.
Split Testing Split testing provides a better understanding of customers likes, interests and preferences. It compares multiple versions of an ad to see which one performs the best. Once this is known it is possible to cancel the other ads that are not performing well. There are various methods for split testing but the simplest form involves a test of one element against another to see which one results in better performance. Test for calls to action, content, headlines, best times to post, images, videos and placement of ads. For example, If the user wants to see if the ad campaign runs better for accountants rather than a financial counsellor run two different ad campaigns that are the same except for the job title.
Measuring Success Measuring the success of an ad campaign depends on the most important metrics for each campaign. The metrics will be different for a LinkedIn profile or LinkedIn company page. LinkedIn Analytics provides all the information required for measuring the results of the LinkedIn page and ad campaigns such as followers, shares, clicks, and impressions. This information can be used for understanding customer’s preferences for a brand. LinkedIn’s visitor demographics shows a breakdown of people viewing the company page. It is possible to see the seniority, industry, company size and audience’s professional background. Such information makes it easier to know the audience’s preferences.
Useful Third-Party Websites
Summary LinkedIn is a leading professional network with highly focused professional targeting to find new career paths, networks and partnerships. The user can show their professional expertise, join groups, research, advertise and recruit on the network.
LinkedIn offers numerous opportunities to advertise with text ads and sponsored content & InMail. The ability to create targeted content for professionals with similar interests to a personal or company page is one advantage of using the LinkedIn network. Building an audience of business to business contacts and professionals will remain a significant benefit of using LinkedIn.
The Business of Marketing on LinkedIn
Disclaimer Social Media Marketing changes daily and many factors will be important in determining your actual results and no guarantees are made that you will achieve results similar to ours or anybody else’s, in fact no guarantees are made that you will achieve any results from our ideas and techniques in our material.