“If you want to bring a fundamental change in people's belief and behavior...you need to create a community around them, where those new beliefs can be practiced and expressed and nurtured.

“– Malcolm Gladwell, “The Tipping Point”

LinkedIn Best PracticesHow to become a social sales professional

AP041

How Partners Maximize LinkedIn

Session Objectives

DevelopCompany Pages

Leverage LinkedIn Groups

Upgrade to Premium Accounts

Endorsement EtiquettesValue of LinkedIn

Effective Personal Pages

@katlen

The Value Prop

Who am I as a person Ways of sharing life

experiences and belonging to a tribe

Friends based activities

Social Professional

Broadcast

Who I am as a professional

Highlighting my experiences and career aspirations

Professional activities

This is what I am thinking

My voice to the world Without any context

other than what I choose

The Big Three Network Dynamics

@katlen

Platform Connections Killer App

Social Utility Friends, Family & Colleagues

Status, Social Gaming &

Photo Sharing

PublicCommunications

Fans &Followers

Real-timeMicro-blogging

ProfessionalNetwork

Colleagues & Business Contacts

Professional Identity, Connections &

Insights

The Context

@katlen

751MillionMembers2 members per second

2.9+MillionCxOs

11+MillionOwners and VPs6+

MillionDirectors

22+MillionDecision Makers

25m+ members in Asia and the Pacific as of January 29, 2012

16m+ members in India as of August 1, 2012

3m+ members in Australia as of March 12, 2012

4m+ members in Southeast Asia as of January 29, 2012

1m+ members in Indonesia as of February 21, 2012

1m+ members in the Philippines as of March 12, 2012@katlen

Reputation Relevance Relationships

The Era of the “Social Sales Professional”

@katlen

Transform Your Career and Business

IdentityConnect, find and be foundLinkedIn Profile, Address Book, Search

InsightsBe great at what you doHomepage, LinkedIn Today, Groups

Work wherever our members workEverywhereMobile, APIs, Plug-InsDesktop

Rolodex, Resume, Business Card

Newspapers, Trade Magazines, Events

@katlen

Reach Influential, Affluent Professionals

+3Mmembers in AU

1 Nielson Market Intelligence, May 2012

Quality Audience Marketing ImpactBusiness Context

74Mimpressions per month1

“There are not a lot of other vehicles to reach a business audience on the scale that we can with LinkedIn.”– Larry Nelson, Director of Digital Strategy, Hewlett-Packard

+280Kdaily unique browsers1

@katlen

Reach Influential, Affluent ProfessionalsQuality Audience Marketing ImpactBusiness Context

Profession Seniority Education Industry Company Size Geography Group Membership

HHI $100K*+

HHI $150K*+

Target By76%have a household income over $100k

51%have a household income over $150k

*LinkedIn, Australia Audience 360 Survey, December 2011

@katlen

*Nielsen Market Intelligence May 2012

Name Ave daily UBs UBs PIs ASD

LinkedIn 280,500 4,029,213 74,368,952 5:48SMH - Business 134,607 1,723,550 15,555,865 5:40The Age - Business 92,308 1,110,782 10,060,362 4:54news.com.au - Business 76,239 1,149,450 4,321,340 2:33Yahoo!7 Finance 42,924 741,419 4,622,322 2:06The Australia - Business 30,572 555,602 3,699,653 8:07Australian Financial Review 24,180 408,536 3,137,568 3:34Business Spectator 22,546 326,950 2,474,944 4:20Herald Sun - Business 13,728 287,468 659,023 2:14

LinkedIn Audience A Comparison to Australia’s Top Business Sites

@katlen

Align Message with Business Opportunity

LinkedIn, Australia Audience 360 Survey, December 2011

3 out of 4 Members use LinkedIn for everything business, from keeping up on trends to reading business news

Members are 2x more confident in the information found on LinkedIn than any other social site

60% agree that LinkedIn helps develop relationshipsand grow new business

Business ContextQuality Audience Marketing Impact

@katlen

Extend Marketing ImpactMarketing ImpactQuality Audience Business Context

Product portfolio engages on all levels

38% lift in likelihood to apply for a credit card in the next 12 months

Financial Services Customer

Authentic data powers reporting

89% more leads generated on LinkedIn than on a leading ad network at a third the cost per leadProfessional Organization Customer

Network effect extends marketing

2,000product recommendations in two weeks generating 500,000 viral updates about products & services Technology Customer

@katlen

Build Your Professional Profile

Your Reputation Starts Here

@katlen

And Is Fueled By This

@katlen

First Impressions Are Everything

Associations

Summary

Experience

Skills

Recommendations

@katlen

Tips: Enhance Your Personal Brand

Keep It Current

Leverage Your Network

Professional Photo

Be Creative & Natural

Maximize Keywords

What’s Your Elevator Pitch

@katlen

Utilize Endorsements

Get Recommended If you’ve added value to others, they will reciprocate

@katlen

Tips: Seeking Recommendations

Request with Soft Approach

Return the Favor

Ask for Specifics

Suggest Key Points

@katlen

Leverage LinkedIn Groups

How Newsgator Utilizes Groups

@katlen

Industry Connectedness 1stDegree CXO Connections

Network Expansion, Insights & Leads

@katlen

LinkedIn Partner MessagesYour message, hand-delivered to your specific prospects.

37.54% Open Rate

21.33% CTR

56.81% CTR on Open

@katlen

Tips: How to Best Utilize Groups

Customer Support

Facilitate Networking

Promote Events

FAQs

Be a Thought LeaderEngage and Be Authentic

@katlen

Maximize Company Pages

• Company Info• LinkedIn Activity• Employee Listing

AvePoint

@katlen

People follow companies on social platforms for different reasons

Most follow for incentives, rewards, or discounts.4

Follow for news, insights, and product information.5

4eMarketer (Lab42 study, August 2011)5 LinkedIn Follower Analysis, January 2012 @katlen

Reach receptive, professional audiences on LinkedIn

Reach the most influential, affluent, and educated audiences at scale

Quality Audience

Professional Context

6LinkedIn Global Follower Report, March 2012 @katlen

A model for success

Leverage Company Presence

1

Attract Followers

2

Engage Followers

3

Amplify thru Network

4

Analyze and Refine

5

@katlen

Use statistics to analyse & refine campaigns

@katlen

Early leaders are driving results

Customers who engage with companies over social media are more loyal-and-spend 20-40% more-with those companies than other customers.3

3Bain & Company, “Putting Social Media to Work”, 2011 @katlen

Tips: Building Effective Company Pages

Monitor and Focus

Build Followers

Employee Participation

Consistently Update

@katlen

Exploit Premium Accounts

Power of Premium

@katlen

Tips: Exploit Premium Accounts

Measure Effectiveness

Test Drive

Identify Goals

@katlen

Utilize Self-Serve Ads

Pay-per-click Advertising Reach over 100 million

professionals on LinkedIn Highly-targeted

advertising allows you to reach an exact audience

Self-service online management interface

Ads are shown throughout the LinkedIn site

Pay per click (CPC) Real-time auction-based

ad system Formerly called LinkedIn

DirectAds

Ads appear on prominent pages on LinkedIn

@katlen

Tips: Utilizing LinkedIn Ads

Create 3 Ad Variations

Limit to Core Audience

Use ‘Pay per Click’ Bid Type

Be Specific

Rotate with ‘Optimize Click Through Rate’

@katlen

Case Study

• Business Page• LinkedIn Ads• Sales Leads• Groups

How Innovative-e Utilizes LinkedIn

@katlen

Questions?

Kat Tillman@katlen

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Visit aka.ms/connect

To score this session

Appendix

Creating LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn Ads Case Study:uTest generates 50% of its paid leadsWho They Are• Crowd-sourced software testing company with more than 20,000 testers• Helps companies test their web, mobile and desktop apps• Privately held company with 30 employees• Based near Boston, Massachusetts

Why LinkedIn• Most effective way to target and reach a professional, sophisticated audience• People are in a "work" state of mind, not casually surfing the web• Easy to re-use online ads from other systems

“LinkedIn is our most cost-effective inbound marketing channel. It is increasingly critical to our business”

-Matt Johnston, VP of Marketing at uTest

Results• Nearly 20% of total inbound leads from LinkedIn• 50% of paid inbound leads come from LinkedIn• On par with paid search on a cost-per-lead basis• Hundreds of qualified leads each month

Step 1: Create an ad through an online interface50x50 Pixel Image Headline & Description

Visible URLLinkedIn Member or

Any CompanyCreate and test up to 15 ad variations per campaignDepending on placement, some ads will appear without the image on one single or two linesGet reports on clicks to your ad as well as clicks to your LinkedIn member or Company page

Step 2: Select your target audienceGeography

Job Function

Industry

Newish!

Companies by nameCompany size

Newish!

Job TitleJob Function

SeniorityLinkedIn GroupsNewish!

Age

Gender

New from 2011: 3 Targeting Options

Newish!

Newish!

Target by Company NameShow your ads to members of named companies and organization

Target by Job TitleNarrow your audience to people of certain job titles.

Newish!Target by LinkedIn GroupsChoose from thousands of interest-based and profession-based groups.

Step 3: Set budget and bids Pay per click (CPC) or per impression (CPM) Get bid recommendations based on your targets Set a daily budget (for example, $50/day) Run continuously or until a specific date Stop your ads at any time

Campaign Minimums: $10/day daily budget, $2 minimum CPC bidAfter you select your target audience, LinkedIn Ads will show you a ‘Suggested Bid Range’

Example Target Audience Number of Members Example Bid

Corporate Executives at Large Enterprises 711,974 $2.81 per click

Owners of Small and Medium Size Businesses 497,129 $2.71 per click

All LinkedIn Members in the U.S. Over 43 million $2.62 per click

Step 4: Track results and optimize

View reports showing your clicks, impressions, and costs Compare click-thru-rates of your ad variations

Online campaign management and reporting interface

LinkedIn Ads - FAQs•Q: Companies in what industries are most successful with LinkedIn Ads?•A: Companies in the following industries are seeing success: Software, Internet, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Higher Education, Recruiting, Business Services, Pharmaceuticals, and Event Management.

•Q: Will LinkedIn Ads campaigns compete with managed display ad campaigns that I run at the same time?•A: No, certain inventory is allocated to LinkedIn Ads campaigns and these campaigns compete against each other based on bid and ad quality

•Q: What are the payment options?•A: LinkedIn Ads requires a credit card for billing. At this time, we only provide monthly invoicing to advertisers who meet a certain spending threshold: $3,000 spend per month for 2 consecutive months.

•Q: What types of ad units are available?•A: Small text ads. You have the option to include an image. Some placements will display the image along with the text.

•Q: Are the ad placements allocated to LinkedIn Ads remnant inventory?•A: No, certain placements on highly-visible pages are allocated to LinkedIn Ads advertisers and advertisers compete in a real-time auction for those spots.

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