PART 1: Why does my business need Linkedin? The Sophisticated From brand building, to lead generation, to content awareness marketing and advertising, Linkedin can help you Guide to build your business. Marketer’s LinkedIn is so much more than a place transforming into the enlightening to find a job or an online resume. era. No longer can marketers just consideration It’s quickly becoming the go-to do social, they need results and content publishing platform for the actionable insights in order to prove professional mindset. the value of their efforts. And no As more professionals are spending longer are we forced to take a spray more and more time looking for new and pray method to get our message action content and keeping in touch with heard in the noisy world of social. their networks, it brings with it an The technology is in place that allows opportunity for marketers. us to take a much more refined 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. 8:00 a.m. 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

Information Technology and Services

Financial Services

PART 1: Why does my business need LinkedIn? 1 Table of Contents

A NOTE TO THE WHY SHOULD PART 1: WHY DOES PART 2: LAYING SOPHISTICATED I BE READING MY BUSINESS NEED THE FOUNDATION: MARKETER THIS GUIDE? LINKEDIN? TAP INTO POWERFUL MARKETING LinkedIn is so much more than a place transforming into the enlightening SOLUTIONS to find a job or an online resume. era. No longer can marketers just It’s quickly becoming the3 go-to do social, they need 4results and 5–6 7–11 content publishing platform for the actionable insights in order to prove PART 3: OPTIMIZING PART 4: EXPAND PART 5: EASILY professional mindset. the value of their efforts. And no YOUR PROFILE YOUR NETWORK KEEP YOUR FINGER As more professionals are spending longer are we forced to take a spray OF INFLUENCERS ON THE PULSE more and more time looking for new and pray method to get our message content and keeping in touch with heard in the noisy world of social. their networks, it brings with it an The technology is in place that allows opportunity for marketers. us12–14 to take a much more refined 15–18 19–21 approach, a sophisticated approach The idea of being a sophisticatedPART 6: PUBLISH if you will, to social mediaPART 7: marketing EXPAND PART 8: UNLOCK 25 SOCIAL MEDIA WITH A PURPOSE: YOUR TARGETED THE POWER OF EXPERTS YOU NEED marketer comes from theCONTENT current on the world’s largestREACH: professional LINKEDIN’S PARTNER TO KNOW state of the golden ageMARKETING of social network. ADVERTISING PROGRAMS media marketing and howON LINKEDIN it is ON LINKEDIN

22–42 43– 49 50–53 54-55

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.

This guide was written with you in mind, the sophisticated marketer. 2012 was the year of social. 2013 Everything you need to know about was the year of content. And 2014 is marketing on LinkedIn, written both the year where they come together. strategically, and instructionally. Social media no longer lives in a It’s your one-stop shop to the vast silo but instead is a vital component opportunities that await—increase for the success of many marketing awareness, influence perception, campaigns. With content fueling your generate leads, and ultimately drive social marketing, we have arrived at revenue with LinkedIn. the age of truly integrated marketing strategy, and it’s being led by a new Let’s get started, shall we? breed of sophisticated marketers. Jason Miller The sophisticated marketer is someone who takes marketing Senior Content Marketing Manager, techniques, both old and new, and LinkedIn Marketing Solutions executes them in an overall integrated marketing strategy.

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.

This guide is a labor of love for us a nice-to-have. It’s a necessary here at LinkedIn. We created it to part of a successful integrated be a one-stop shop for everything marketing approach for a marketer needs to know about driving awareness, leads, getting the most value out of LinkedIn and ultimately revenue. for themselves and their company. It’s not just an instruction manual, but a We call this the guide for strategic guide with lots of input from sophisticated marketers because we top thought leaders and LinkedIn feel it’s time to take social media marketing experts combined with the marketing to the next level, moving expertise of the LinkedIn Marketing beyond theory to enlightened Solutions team. practice. It’s time to get real results with your social marketing, and this is And it’s all about how to truly tap the guide that will help you. into the potential and power of social media marketing. That’s because social media marketing is no longer

4 PART 1: Why does my business Work is no longer a 9–5 activity LinkedIn members are on our platform at all hours and days throughout the week. But depending on need LinkedIn? where they are and what they’re doing, they may be accessing the platform from their desktops, tablets, These days in the business world, relationships matter more than or mobile devices. In fact, we see desktop usage ever. That’s because people tune out irrelevant or promotional spike during the day, tablet usage spike in the messages. But they do want to engage with companies that focus morning and evening, and mobile devices being on sharing useful and relevant information and content. And the used at all hours. companies that inform and engage aren’t just selling—they’re building relationships.

LinkedIn members comprise the world’s largest professional community— and they work in every size company. Consider that:

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

Content now garners 6x more engagement than jobs properties 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 LinkedIn is invested in professional and further their careers. As a result, 150 161 131 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

Source: LinkedIn Press Release PART 1: Why does my business need LinkedIn? 5 PART 1: LinkedIn is a platform enabling sophisticated marketers to forge LinkedIn By the Numbers: relationships with these professionals. It’s no wonder LinkedIn LINKEDIN IS THE #1 CHANNEL TO LINKEDIN DRIVES MORE TRAFFIC has quickly become the go-to content publishing platform for DISTRIBUTE CONTENT TO B2B BLOGS & SITES marketers. In fact, a survey of LinkedIn members found that LinkedIn % of B2B marketers who use various 90% of the social traffic was driven by is considered the most effective social network for delivering B2B social media sites to distribute content the big three networks, with half of it 1 2 coming from LinkedIn content . And research conducted by Investis IQ found that 91%

LinkedIn is the number-one social network for driving traffic to 85% others 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: Laying the Foundation: Tap into Powerful Marketing Solutions

LinkedIn offers a tremendous opportunity for marketers like you, whether you are focused on building your brand or generating leads. Our solutions allow you to target your messages and interactions to the right audience, publish content that connects with that audience, In fact... Accurate targeting, based on authentic data, is the and extend engagement both on and off the network. foundation of the LinkedIn platform. LinkedIn’s targeting is highly accurate because it draws from actual profile data provided by and continually updated by our members. You can also target the 1st degree connections of specific members. And you can use their behavior on LinkedIn—like what Groups they join, and how much they share and comment— TARGET PUBLISH EXTEND Target with accuracy to Publish relevant content in Extend through social sharing to inform targeting. Marketers can use our targeting reach a high quality audience a professional context and drive quality traffic data to tailor their messages and content. and data to your sites

PART 2: Laying the Foundation: Tap into Powerful Marketing Solutions 7 PART 2: As the world’s largest professional network, LinkedIn is a powerful publishing platform. We help marketers directly engage LinkedIn “As far as I’m concerned, other social networks can have the cats members with content and experiences that are professionally and the memes and the OMGs. LinkedIn is about content and relevant. Think of it as “publishing with a purpose.” connection.Quote As a professional marketer, that’s what I care about most, and LinkedIn delivers every day. If you’re not keeping up with the industry using LinkedIn Pulse, you’re missing the By using LinkedIn to build You can also use LinkedIn’s API to relationships with the world’s create custom branded experiences heartbeat of what’s going on in digital.” professionals, you can achieve a that allow members to engage using full range of marketing objectives: their LinkedIn login. This simplifies Jay Baer, Social Media & Content Marketing Strategist, the need for them to enter additional • GENERATING AWARENESS New York Times Best Selling Author, Keynote Speaker, data. Even more importantly, by using Social Pros Podcast • INCREASING CONSIDERATION the API to access LinkedIn’s rich data, AND PREFERENCE you can tailor the user experience based on profile data and encourage • DRIVING TRAFFIC AND LEADS virality by triggering your app to • BUILDING COMMUNITY publish updates about a user’s activity • CREATING ADVOCACY on site.

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.

PART 2: Laying the Foundation: Tap into Powerful Marketing Solutions 8 PART 2: Perform branding and lead generation in tandem for ultimate effectiveness.

Some marketers approach branding and credible authority on a chosen . and lead generation as standalone category, topic or issue. With that activities. But when it comes to foundation in place, prospects are “LinkedIn is the only platform that the majority of B2B striking the right marketing mix, more open to responding to your ads, marketers consider to be effective.” it’s critical to balance branding with content and offers when you lead generation. That’s because are trying to generate leads. Content Marketing Institute 2014 Content Marketing strong branding paves the way for Research Report successful lead generation. After all, In fact, the most successful marketers brand awareness is all about making take steps to ensure their branding prospective customers familiar with and lead generation strategies and knowledgeable of your brand. are working in lockstep. LinkedIn The goal is that they associate your Marketing Solutions can help you brand with certain characteristics address both branding and lead and qualities and recognize—and generation in an integrated, trust—your brand. Ideally, you want effective way. your brand to be seen as a trusted

SolutionsSolution BrandingBranding LeadLead Generation 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

PART 2: Laying the Foundation: Tap into Powerful Marketing Solutions 9 PART 2: Now that you understand the power of marketing on LinkedIn, let us highlight five strategic marketing opportunities. We’ll explore these in greater detail in Part 6 and 7:

1. COMPANY PAGES: 3. SPONSORED UPDATES: 5. INMAIL: The best relationships are rooted in While organic company updates Through InMail, you can reach anyone great conversations—and your tool are a terrific way to connect with on LinkedIn without an introduction for starting those conversations is the your existing company followers, or contact information. You get Company Update on your Company Sponsored Updates allow you to professional, credible outreach— Page. It’s no wonder Company Pages extend your reach by delivering with your LinkedIn profile attached. have evolved from a nice-to-have to updates into the feeds of members a need-to-have. Through a Company beyond those already following Page, you can market your business to your company. the LinkedIn community, telling your company’s story and giving customers 4. DISPLAY ADVERTISING: and prospects a place to learn about Sophisticated marketers understand your business, your employees, and that they must combine push and INTEGRATION OF DISPLAY ADS WITH your brand. pull marketing to reach their target SOCIAL MEDIA IS STARTING TO PICK UP audience. For push marketing on 2. COMPANY UPDATES: LinkedIn, you can display ads on What resonates most with followers various LinkedIn pages, including and drives engagement? When you profile pages, home pages, inbox, 28% 44% 28% communicate with them in a relevant search results pages, and groups and personal way. And through pages. With LinkedIn Premium Display Company Updates, sent from your Advertising, you can take advantage Integrating Planning to No Company Page, you can do that of an uncluttered, premium Now Integrate Integration by tailoring your company status environment to reach a high-quality update to your followers’ professional professional audience seeking interests. Specifically, you can deliver insights and information. Or you can highly targeted content into the feed drive new customers to your business of LinkedIn members, increasing their with our easy-to-use, self-serve CPC engagement with and loyalty to LinkedIn Ads platform that allows you your brand. to get your message in front of your audience in just minutes.

Sources: Responses, Cross-Channel Marketing Report, 2012

PART 2: Laying the Foundation: Tap into Powerful Marketing Solutions 10 PART 2: Ask the Expert: Brian Clark

LI: What’s your best advice for writing then a call to action that takes the a compelling company page update? relationship to the next level. For those who have been doing content BC: Tell a story. And more marketing from their own sites for importantly, relate that story back years, LinkedIn becomes an essential to your ideal prospect’s problems or outpost for that content, mixed with desires. Even if the story focuses on in-person engagement. the founding, evolution, or growth of your company, make sure people LI: Where do you see LinkedIn in understand that all of those great 5 years? things happened because of the value you provide your audience, BC: LinkedIn appears to be all in on Founder and CEO of customers, and clients. becoming a true media company. I’ve Copyblogger Media heard some grumblings from early LI: How can a business best LinkedIn fans that the company and LI: Do you regulary check your Pulse take advantage of LinkedIn for site are losing the singular focus it feed? If so, how do you use it? lead generation? started with, but I see it differently. A business education hub of the sort BC: I’ve just started following the BC: LinkedIn, unlike Facebook and LinkedIn is building can only increase Marketing Strategies category on Twitter, is all about business. The the value of the ecosystem. Pulse, and it’s a treasure-trove of mindset and intent are naturally content all in one place. This has more receptive to solving business LI: What’s something that’s not in your become a great resource not only problems than the kind of socializing LinkedIn profile? for staying up to date on the latest and sharing that happens elsewhere. ideas from others, but also fuels our BC: I’ve made no mention of the own content sharing on other That said, you still have to lead with fact that I used to practice law in my social networks. value to generate qualified leads. LinkedIn profile. Some people may LinkedIn’s focus on content marketing still hold that against me. ;-) has primed the audience to expect information and insight first, and

PART 2: Laying the Foundation: Tap into Powerful Marketing Solutions 11 PART 3: This infographic highlights all the opportunities for getting the most Optimizing 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.

PART 3: Optimizing your Profile 12 PART 3: Here are five things you need to know about LinkedIn Search, as summarized by Stacy Donovan Zapar, the Most Connected Woman on LinkedIn: Reap the Rewards of Networking

1. When people search LinkedIn, 2. Keywords in your name, headline, Did you know… the size of your LinkedIn network and the results are sorted by relevance, company name, job title and skills participation in LinkedIn Groups can significantly increase which takes into account rank higher in the search results your visibility on the LinkedIn network? the following: than keywords in other sections.

• 1st 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. • 3rd level connections ranked in descending order by profile completeness • Shared group members (outside of your network), ranked in descending order by profile completeness • Everyone else (those outside your network), ranked in descending order by profile completeness

13 PART 3: Ask the Expert: Shane Atchison

LI: What types of clients should be LI: How are your clients’ marketing to date—something they rarely do on leveraging LinkedIn more than they objectives different on LinkedIn other networks. Authenticity means currently are? compared to other social networks? that they are who they say they are. How does that impact your clients’ You can’t put a fake job title up on SA: I think that clients with investments content strategy? LinkedIn. And the standardization of in content are missing a massive user generated data makes it easier to opportunity to leverage their LinkedIn SA: Most social networks only serve analyze and integrate the platform into presence. They could use LinkedIn opportunities at the top of the funnel your content strategy. in combination with their owned and provide limited ways to engage. properties to precisely target, share, You can tailor the LinkedIn platform LI: How are marketers getting it wrong and then realize return on their content to each client’s marketing objectives with LinkedIn? investments. But for this, they need a and use it as part of a larger content CEO of POSSIBLE comprehensive strategy that integrates strategy. The platform makes it easier SA: They think of it simply as a hiring, the LinkedIn platform, their content, for brands to serve audiences with prospecting, or one-dimensional LI: What factors are most important and their CRM efforts. content tailored to the individual— advertising platform. It’s actually a to you when considering advertising both in terms of depth and timing. versatile content platform with precise channels for your clients? LI: What is the risk of a client not having This makes content smarter and data that can be integrated into a a company presence on LinkedIn? relevant at scale. As a result, it can variety of programs on and off the SA: Our top ones include audience drive engagement lifecycles rather site. For example, B2C brands often concentration and relevance, SA: The biggest risk, especially for B2B, than one-off opportunities. miss the opportunity LinkedIn provides segmentation and targeting is a loss of discoverability. LinkedIn to enhance or expand distribution functionality, and the ability to extend is becoming the de facto starting LI: How do you compare the audience networks or channel partner or amplify channel content across point when searching for partners targeting capability of LinkedIn with communication plans. They also miss other owned and earned properties. and evaluating solutions. A thoughtful other social networks? the opportunity to build programs We also leverage our social listening LinkedIn presence is not only a great around LinkedIn that leverage content and marketing sciences technologies opportunity to increase your visibility SA: There are three major ways LinkedIn to drive engagement lifecycles and to identify opportunities for the brand as an individual. Corporations can also data is better for targeting: Recency, stimulate organic community building. within each channel and with use it to turn both their workforce and authenticity, and standardization of The platform’s capabilities in this area each audience. followers into brand ambassadors. data. Recency means that people tend are unmatched and underutilized. to keep their LinkedIn in profiles up

PART 3: Optimizing your Profile 14 PART 4: Expand your Network of Influencers

In late 2012, we made it possible The Influencer program numbers for any LinkedIn member to follow more than 300 Influencers (as an exclusive group of Influencers on of October 2013), and we add “It thrills me to see LinkedIn gaining ground as an LinkedIn. From C-level executives inspiring thought leaders to the interesting place to hang out. I’ve long held that LinkedIn and entrepreneurs to world leaders program frequently. And you can is the dark horse of the social media platforms—or, at and philanthropists, these Influencers directly engage with any of these least, it’s the workhorse of the bunch. contribute unique business insights Influencers, either by “Liking” a post and spark thought-provoking or jumping into a conversation about discussions on a range of issues. a post. Moreover, through threaded If Twitter is where you go to meet people you don’t Displayed via Pulse, the Influencers comments, you can reply to a post by know and Facebook is where you go to talk with program is a source of truly original an Influencer to start conversations people you already know, then LinkedIn is where all of content. But more importantly, it’s and debates with others who are meant to inspire, inform and make reading that post. You can mention you can meet up to get stuff done together.” you a better marketer. other people to draw them into a discussion, and get notified when your Ann Handley, Author of Content Rules, Chief Content comment has received a response. Officer at Marketing Profs

PART 4: Expand your Network of Influencers 15 PART 4: You can follow an Influencer without being connected to them. Consider these examples:

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 625,000 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!

The Numbers Speak for Themselves: The average Influencer post garners nearly

30,000 VIEWS 49% of Influencer 22% are entry-level followers are director- professionals level and above

PART 4: Expand your Network of Influencers 16 PART 4: Ask the Expert: Viveka Von Rosen

LinkedIn Influencers and Pulse: First Facebook page or Twitter-stream, Group Content of all, LinkedIn truly understands the I can often find something relevant For (soft) market research, consider importance of good content. Right on Pulse—quickly and easily. So LinkedIn Groups. Groups are full of now it’s the only social media site Pulse gets more of my attention like-minded targeted audiences. Ask to have its own blogging platform than any other RSS feed or news questions. Ask for help. Occasionally fueled by the world’s thought leaders aggregator I use. share an article you like. I love the (LinkedIn Influencers.) These people, content and interaction on some of most of them household names LinkedIn Update Mentions: As long my Groups and I know I can always (best-selling authors, Fortune 500 as you are connected to a person, go there to get quick answers to my CEO’s, Heads of State) create content or follow a company, you can share questions and find out the latest and specifically for LinkedIn. You can their content and mention them in greatest in the sales world. It just follow not only these Influencers, an update. takes some time to find these good LinkedIn Expert & Author: but also channels of content (thanks groups. I recommend asking your LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day, to the Pulse interface that LinkedIn I wish I had the time to check on my network what groups they like and International Keynote Speaker, purchased last year.) In fact, LinkedIn homepage every hour and read all the why. (For instance, I am a raving fan Forbes Top 20 Most Influential recently updated the Pulse app to updates from every one of my 29K+ of Jill Konrath’s Group: Fresh Sales interact more freely through the connections, but I don’t. (OK—and to Strategies because it always offers LI: What type of content best LinkedIn interface, so that your be honest, I really wouldn’t want to!) fabulous ingestible content). connects with audiences on LinkedIn? Pulse App on your iPad or iPhone Chances are, you don’t either. So I rely Is there a specific type of content you will actually monitor what you do on on LinkedIn Status Update mentions LI: How do you make sure personal prefer to consume on LinkedIn? LinkedIn and make suggestions for and LinkedIn’s new(ish) Notifications time spent on LinkedIn is productive? you. You can also very easily share this tab to see what people are saying How does this differ from other VR: That’s kind of an apples or content through Pulse. about me, what content of mine they social networks? oranges type question when it are sharing and their comments on my comes to LinkedIn. I’m a fruit I think Pulse is a great place to find updates. So while I don’t listen to VR: LinkedIn is probably less likely salad gal myself! relevant business content to share ALL updates, I listen to the ones than some of the other social sites not only on LinkedIn, but other social that involve me in some way. to suck you into the rabbit hole of sites as well. When a client needs a singing cats and surfing dog videos. good business article to post to their But messages, updates, Groups and

PART 4: Expand your Network of Influencers 17 PART 4: Ask the Expert: Viveka Von Rosen

Pulse, can certainly suck you in. It’s it is unlikely. LinkedIn is about creating click on the ‘share on LinkedIn’ link and is a completely under-utilized tool usually all good stuff and relevant to relationships with people. Once you you can easily share that page. from Groups to Company Pages and your business which means you might have established a connection and are beyond. But I guess that’s why I have even spend more time there since it’s moving from the “know” each other to Not all websites are LinkedIn-centric. a job! If you have questions about how “allowed.” I recommend scheduling the “like and trust” each other level of so if you find a website, blog post or it can help with prospecting, lead gen, your LinkedIn (and other “social”) time engagement—only then do you have a article that doesn’t have the LinkedIn relationship building and top of mind to make sure you have a start and good chance of sharing your products share button, you can still share it by awareness, please feel free to reach stop time. I also suggest you create and services with someone likely to clicking on the “Share on LinkedIn” out to me! http://www.LinkedIn.com/ a checklist that covers everything purchase them. But these relationships button. You can post the page as an in/LinkedInexpert you need to do on LinkedIn (monthly, take effort and nurturing. Establishing update or as a tweet. You can post it weekly and daily). that sense of “like and trust” might to your Groups, by clicking the Group seem like a lot of work, but the payoff option and typing in the name of the LI: How are marketers getting it wrong can be monumental. Getting people LinkedIn Groups you wish to share the with LinkedIn? to buy from you on LinkedIn means a post with. You can even send it to time investment, but to me it is well an individual. VR: Basically marketers do these three worth it. things wrong: This is a very quick and easy way to Tools: post helpful, useful, and interesting • Selling too much LinkedIn has so many cool little content with your network. These • Not making use of the tools tools. My favorite is their “Sharing updates will show up on your Bookmarklet”. To find the Sharing connection’s homepage as well as • Not realizing its potential Bookmarklet, you just come down in your profile under “activity.” Selling: to the “Tools” link and then on the I always tell people you will never right hand side click on the tab that Potential: sell your—um—stuff on LinkedIn. says “Sharing Bookmarklet.” Drag Hopefully some of the things I have The likelihood of someone seeing an the Bookmarklet button up to your mentioned will open a few eyes to update you have posted on how you browser bar. Then no matter what web the potential of LinkedIn. There is sell the best gadget and then buying page you’re on, all you have to do is just so much you can do with it. It

PART 4: Expand your Network of Influencers 18 PART 5: Easily discover new Easily Keep your Finger professional content on the Pulse We’ve not only improved the overall search functionality with faster auto-complete suggestions, but we’ve also With all the news websites, blogs, and newsletters out there, staying made it easier for you to find “What’s New” across in-the-know can be time consuming. timely world events and what’s trending among professionals like you worldwide. In fact, like most marketers, you our partnerships with more than probably find it’s increasingly difficult 750 publishers, such as Harvard to figure out what matters most when Business Review, TechCrunch, reading news across multiple sources. and Fast Company. Millions of professionals invest their time on LinkedIn, staying on top of Pulse makes it possible to access industry news through Pulse, the news tailored news based on your interests. app and content brand for LinkedIn. Specifically, you as a marketer can easily leverage all the great business Pulse offers a more relevant news knowledge flowing through LinkedIn experience with content tailored to in the form of news, Influencer your professional interests throughout posts, industry updates, discussions, LinkedIn. It’s the main vehicle for our comments and more. And because social news experience across web you can customize content based on and mobile. And it’s a key way for your preferences, you can zero in on marketers to stay current on all the what matters most to you. Think of latest insights and trends. Pulse as your daily “newspaper”— one that let’s you stay up to speed Access more relevant content whether you’re on your desktop, With the LinkedIn Pulse app, you can mobile phone (Android or iOS), access full articles and rich graphics or tablet! from a wealth of resources, through

PART 5: Easily Keep your Finger on the Pulse 19 PART 5: 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 Jumpstart your of your choice, such as Technology, Strategies channel https://www. Sports, Favorites, or Must Reads. LinkedIn.com/channels/marketing_ Any Channels or Influencer content 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

Delivering Smart Recommendations

We display stories based on a proprietary algorithm that weighs your interests and the stories trending among professionals worldwide.

PART 5: Easily Keep your Finger on the Pulse 20 PART 5: Ask the Expert: Lee Odden

LI: What’s your best advice for writing LI: How can a business take advantage 3. Curate useful news as status a compelling company page update? of LinkedIn as part of a content updates and on the Company Page marketing strategy? 4. Use LinkedIn as a follow up LO: This might seem like a cart and after meeting people online and horse situation, but it’s important LO: Content participation on any social especially at offline events where to have an audience. Updating a network or web platform should be business cards are exchanged company page to 2 followers vs. 200 informed by a company’s business just isn’t the same. As with any other and content marketing strategies. Beyond that, LinkedIn’s social network publishing platform, think of who your Are customers there and what are platform provides many opportunities network is and what they’re interested they doing? What are they interested to engage with prospects, support in. What do they expect? Giving in? What opportunities are there for individual and brand thought people what they want in the form of the brand to be valuable to those leadership and connect with other CEO @TopRank Online Marketing, useful content, tips and information prospective customers? groups like industry media and Author: Optimize, Public Speaker: about changes at your company is a prospective employees. Whether it’s Integrated Search, Social, great way to attract more followers For most companies that sell into targeted advertising or curating a mix & Content Marketing and better engage those that you the business market, participating on of industry and company news on the already have. LinkedIn should be a no-brainer. The brand page, companies that want to LI: Do you regulary check your Pulse specific way LinkedIn is used depends attract and engage other businesses feed? If so, how do you use it? From a writing standpoint, write on the company, industry and product need to be on LinkedIn. snappy, compelling titles. Check mix. It also depends on what kinds LO: I check LinkedIn daily including ubersuggest.org for popular keywords of opportunities there are to be the Pulse feed. I follow a number of and consider using specific phrases “the best answer” on LinkedIn for the the thought leaders and also look in the title and description, but only things customers are interested in. for the news stories my network is if they make sense and add value to engaging with. The feed offers content the message. You can attract more At a minimum: that I can interact with through liking, followers to your company LinkedIn 1. Ensure executive LinkedIn profiles commenting, sharing on LinkedIn or page through search on LinkedIn as are filled out and optimized curating to our broader community. well as organic search. 2. Make sure the Company Page is robust.

PART 5: Easily Keep your Finger on the Pulse 21 PART 6: Mobilize your Employees to Publish with a Purpose: Amplify your Message Content Marketing Best-in-class companies encourage their own employees to share content on LinkedIn with their networks, on LinkedIn significantly increasing content reach. This is especially powerful for companies whose sales reps are connected Earlier we underscored the importance promote content and build to the right decision makers. of delivering relevant content in order relationships. Company Pages are to build relationships with your targets. where you can catch the eye of LinkedIn provides the following prospective customers by featuring solutions for delivering relevant thought leadership content or content to our members: anything else that would be relevant • Company Pages, Showcase to your target audience, including Pages,Follow Company Ads links to your latest and greatest and Company Updates white papers, eBooks, case studies, LINKEDIN: A KEY PLATFORM FOR B2B CONTENT DELIVERY and how-to content. By delivering How effective are these Social Networks in delivering B2B • Sponsored Updates useful and engaging content, you’ll Content (% of respondents) • SlideShare foster engagement and help your message spread faster. In fact, our • Content Ads research shows that Company Updates • LinkedIn Groups containing links can have up to 45% • Content Marketing Score higher follower engagement than updates without links. • Trending Content

Company Pages, Showcase Pages, And remember–integration with Follow Company Ads and Company common Social Media Management % 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Updates: Be Found and Connect vendors including Adobe, Hootsuite™, Effective Ineffective I don’t use it with Those that Matter Most Percolate, Salesforce, Shoutlet, Spredfast and Sprinklr make it easier More than 3 million companies for you to manage your Page and leverage their Company Page to Company Updates. Source: “Customer Engagement: The Role of Content in the IT Purchase Process & Connecting Content Marketing to Sales Follow Up.” IDG Enterprise, Sep’2013. N=1,138 range of industries worldwide were surveyed in Spring 2013.

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 22 PART 6: Showcase Pages: Reach and Build a Relationship with 5 steps to engaging followers on LinkedIn Specific Audiences 1. Establish your presence Like many companies, yours likely In other words, you can create a considers many parts of its business to distinct platform for each aspect be important. And to give each its due of your business that has its own 2. Attract followers attention, you likely have more than message to share with its own target one “voice.” With Showcase Pages, audience. It’s a unique way to directly you can build a presence and present engage the right people in the right 3. Engage followers a unique voice for every important context. And just as with Company part of your business. By creating Pages, your administrators will be able 4. Amplify through the network dedicated pages for your more to monitor performance through prominent brands, businesses, and dedicated analytic tools within the initiatives using Showcase Pages, you Showcase Page experience. 5. Analyze and refine can extend your LinkedIn presence.

“When I ran marketing at a mobile startup, we routinely compared the impact of each channel at each funnel stage. We plotted channels along two dimensions: volume of names and cost per lead. LinkedIn topped all other lead sources—across both dimensions and at every stage of the funnel. When it came to content distribution and lead generation, LinkedIn quickly became the first dollar budgeted each quarter.”

Joe Chernov – Former VP of Marketing at Kinvey, now VP of Content at Hubspot

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 23 PART 6: Attract More Followers Did You Know Fun Fact:

The more the merrier on the social • Cultivate a larger following There are more than 1.5 million unique publishers actively using the LinkedIn merry-go-round. Here are some with a multi-channel approach. Share button on their sites to send content into the LinkedIn platform simple, effective strategies for Encourage your teammates to add (Q1 2013 earnings) attracting more followers with your a link to your company page in company updates: their email signatures. If needed, • Engage your colleagues. ask your designer for help creating Employees are 70% more likely a customized banner or button. to engage with your company • Add a Follow button to your “Content Marketing is the planning, creation, promotion, updates, so don’t forget to website. Your web team can pull ask them to do it! Initiate code for a Follow button from and measurement of content to a target audience with communication and make it easy developer.linkedin.com to add the goal of satisfying customers and affecting a business for them to respond. to your blog or website. This lets outcome. LinkedIn offers an incredibly useful platform LinkedIn members follow your for research, ideation and the amplification of content company with a single click. to specific interest groups from your target customers

to the Influencers that inspire them to take action. LinkedIn is essential for achieving content marketing results.”

Lee Odden, CEO @TopRank Online Marketing, Author: Optimize, Public Speaker: Integrated Search, Social, and Content Marketing 8:00 a.m. Most LinkedIn members look for inspiration early in the day with peak consumption at 8:00 a.m.

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 24 PART 6: Follow Company Ads: Encourage Members to Follow You

Want to encourage members to follow HP has found incredible value by your Company Page or your Showcase taking advantage of the unmatched Page? Use Follow Company Ads to targeting available via LinkedIn Follow deliver personalized messages on the Company Ads. In addition to allowing homepages of your target audience, HP to target the people it wants to establishing the relevance of your engage–senior-level decision-makers business to these members and in various industries—Follow Ads building your Follower audience. Once empowered the company to increase members choose to follow you, their followers by 300,000 in a two-month new status will be shared with their full period. Moreover, HP was the first network: a powerful social means of company on LinkedIn to hit building your audience further. 1,000,000 followers.

Accelerate relationships with your key audiences • Maximize success by being easily discoverable • Ensure follower quality through advanced targeting

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 25 PART 6: Company Updates: Engage Your Followers LinkedIn By the Numbers:

LinkedIn Company Updates are a 4. Keep your audience’s attention EXECUTIVES RATE LINKEDIN HIGH ON VALUE THEY GAIN powerful way to reach and engage by producing content consistently, FROM THEIR SOCIAL MARKETING INITIATIVES professionals with relevant content responding to timely events, % rating value as either “extremely valuable” or “valuable” across multiple devices. They are sent engaging members through from your Company Page and deliver comments, and continually Branded Blog 64% targeted content into our members’ refining your content strategy. LinkedIn 60% feeds, increasing their engagement 5. Extend your targeted reach beyond with your brand. But are your updates your Company Page followers Twitter 59% optimized? Keep the following best by using Sponsored Updates to Facebook 58% practices in mind when creating and promote your best content. posting your company page updates YouTube 50% to dramatically increase engagement LinkedIn Groups 48% and overall reach. 1. Optimize introductions and 1 IN EVERY 3 INTERNET USER VISITS A BRAND’S SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE headlines by thinking like a Paid Social Media advertising objectives journalist, adding your point of view, asking thoughtful questions Primarily branding related, 45% e.g. raising awareness, to involve your audience, and 31% including a clear call to action. influencing brand opinions

2. Stand out in the feed by including Primarily direct-response 16% a compelling image or some type of related e.g. driving product 15% rich media. trails or site visits 3. Attract an audience by aligning your A mix of both—more than 25% content to members’ needs and half is branding interests by making it “snackable” 29% and valuable. A mix of both—more than 14% half is direct-response 25%

ADVERTISERS AGENCIES

Sources: “Content Marketing gets Social,” Unisphere research, 2013, N= 217 Nielsen, Paid Social Media Advertising Report, 2013. N = 500 U.S. digital marketing and media professionals

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 26 PART 6: Follow the 4-1-1 Rule

The 4-1-1 Rule was coined by and whitepaper downloads, create a Tippingpoint Labs and Joe Pulizzi of cadence of helpful insights relevant “Sell something, get a customer for a day. Help someone, get a the Content Marketing Institute. While to your audience. Mix in a bit of it was originally created with Twitter industry thought leader content; news customer for life.” in mind, it can successfully be applied and trends are a great way to build to your company’s content marketing relationships with prospects while Jay Baer – digital marketing strategist, speaker, author, and strategy using LinkedIn. keeping current customers in the know. president of Convince & Convert

The rule states: You’ll authentically engage in “For every one self-serving tweet, you conversations, build awareness, and should retweet one relevant tweet and interact with LinkedIn members most importantly share four pieces of without giving the impression that relevant content written by others.” you’re a self-centered know-it-all. It’s all part of moving to the new marketing It’s basically saying to share the love. mindset of “always be helping” instead Instead of constantly bombarding of the outdated “always be selling.” your followers with demos, webinars,

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

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 27 PART 6: Sponsored Updates: Content Marketing in the Professional Feed

Our members are already engaging • Build relationships with the world’s with high-quality content from professionals. Publish your content news sites, thought leaders, their with Sponsored Updates to create connections, and brands. With value and establish trust that Sponsored Updates, you can join sparks ongoing conversations and the conversation and appear along deeper customer relationships. with that content. You can publish Sponsored Updates with rich media Targeting options and ensure relevance with robust Sponsored Updates allow you to targeting functionality. And that reach a targeted audience beyond means you can reach the right your Company Page followers. You people at the right time with your can define your audience using Think of Targeted and Sponsored best articles, images, infographics, criteria such as location, company PDFs, presentations, and videos. Plus, size, industry, job function, and Updates as being native advertising Sponsored Updates are the only way seniority. Remember, there’s always to reach LinkedIn’s mobile users at a tradeoff between targeting and Sponsored updates are native to the browsing experience, scale, since they appear in the feed on audience size. If you target too incorporated directly into the member’s feed so as not desktop, tablet, and smartphone. specifically, your update may reach to interrupt the stream of content. a very small audience. Sponsored Updates are a powerful tool to: Performance tracking • Raise awareness and shape You can promote updates in 20 perception. Send Sponsored languages across the 200 countries Updates to your target audience and territories where we have to rapidly increase awareness members. And within a minute or two and shape the perception of your of publishing your update, you’ll see brand, products, and services. impression and engagement metrics. And reporting on your post will be Bislr, a provider of marketing automation solutions, used • Drive quality leads. Generate updated in near real time. That means Sponsored Updates to generate high-quality leads with a high quality leads by sharing insights you can track how well your posts that professionals seek. Watch hit the mark and fine-tune your conversion rate and at a lower cost. Plus, it generated additional that content spread via the peer strategy instantly. brand awareness as a benefit of organic sharing. sharing that occurs naturally on

LinkedIn. Read Case Study

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 28 PART 6: How Sponsored Updates work

Getting a LinkedIn Company Page Sponsored Updates are purchased is the first step to using Sponsored through a second-price auction. Updates. All Sponsored Updates Here’s how it works. Each time there must first be created as organic is an opportunity for a Sponsored Company Updates. Update to be shown, LinkedIn runs an auction to determine which Similar to an ad unit, a Sponsored update to show. For any given Update is sent to a member when auction, there can be many bids they visit LinkedIn. Sponsored from competing advertisers looking Updates are clearly distinguished to reach that member. That means from organic content to make sure our when you sponsor an update, your Adobe used Sponsored Updates as part of its campaign to raise members can differentiate between campaign enters an auction to awareness of the company as an innovator in digital marketing. organic and paid content. Currently, determine whether it’s shown to your As a result of the brand exposure in the LinkedIn feed, research they are labeled as “Sponsored.” target audience. Sponsored Update Links in Sponsored Updates can drive inventory is non-guaranteed, but you confirmed that U.S. marketing executives were 50% more likely to traffic wherever you’d like, including may adjust your bid and content to agree that Adobe can “shape the future of digital marketing.” your content portals, relevant news perform better in the auction. or articles, YouTube or SlideShare Learn More channels, whitepapers, and event registration forms.

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 29 Ask the Expert: Chris D’Alessandro

a brand for them.’ Question number actually getting the person you’re makes it harder for them to buy. one is always, ‘can we build the brand targeting, and my personal version They can simply put an ad on the on this platform?’ of why I prefer LinkedIn over other page instead of engaging the creative social networks is because I know agency and building a plan that will LI: What types of clients should be who I’m getting. I trust LinkedIn data be better in the long run. leveraging LinkedIn more than they not because other social networks currently are? are lying about their data, but rather because consumers are more apt to CD: Any organization that needs to elaborate on other social networks. do a better job of getting the brand in front of affluent people or just the LI: How are marketers getting it right professional people. LinkedIn wrong with LinkedIn? Executive Director, Digital, is a great platform for targeting this Nissan United type of audience. The other type of CD: They are seeing it as an client that needs to be on LinkedIn is advertising platform and they LI: What factors are most important any organization that needs to recruit are not leveraging it as a content to you when considering advertising top talent. platform. Advertisers are trying to channels for your clients? drive lower funnel activities instead LI: How do you compare the audience of participating in the conversation. CD: It all depends on the goals of the targeting capability of LinkedIn with I see LinkedIn as a way to continue campaign or what we are trying to other social networks? the dialogue in a way that naturally accomplish. My focus is on a global promotes the value proposition of the campaign that transcends the US and CD: The biggest thing that’s come to brand and I think many brands are still Europe so a lot of what we are doing our attention is we can trust the using it as an ad platform because is branding. We look at platforms as results from LinkedIn. People are most media buying agencies follow ‘how can we best utilize our money to less apt to elaborate on LinkedIn than the path of least resistance and buy get in front of as many people as we they are on other social networks. what is easy. Getting the creative and can to convince them the Nissan is a Sometimes you don’t know if you’re content development teams involved

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 30 PART 6: SlideShare: Tap into Visual Tendencies How to Use LinkedIn to Amplify SlideShare Content

We are all visual thinkers. In fact, Through SlideShare, you can: 1. Send Company Updates – SlideShare content displays directly within the 75% of the sensory neurons in our • Share presentations, videos, LinkedIn feed brains process visual information. infographics and other documents Visual content can help set you apart with your LinkedIn network from text-heavy competition, and 2. Sponsor your best content to extend its reach SlideShare is the perfect channel for • Upload portfolios, conference your visual content. talks, PDFs, marketing/sales presentations and more 3. Use SlideShare Content Ads to pull SlideShare content into 300x250 ad SlideShare is not just a repository for • Embed videos in presentations placements on LinkedIn your slide presentations. It’s a social and add audio to make a webinar channel where you can establish your brand as a thought leader With more than 60 million visitors and authority around topics a month and 3 billion slide views and keywords. a month (that’s 1,140 slides per second), SlideShare is the world’s largest professional content-sharing “It’s almost not fair to ask for my take on SlideShare. I consider it one of community. And that’s something you the top three “plays” in my own content marketing efforts. I contribute can’t afford to overlook. to the SlideShare blog. I recommend it to everyone of my clients and am hired often to write and design the presentations.

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.

If you’re not using SlideSlide to distribute your content, you’re missing out on, what, 60 million eyeball opportunities a month? And if you are, you know exactly how the service can align with your marketing goals.”

Barry Feldman, Feldman Creative

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 31 PART 6: Here are nine tips to help ensure content domination on SlideShare: SlideShare Did You Know Fun Fact:

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 3. Get to the point: Aim for an 8. Repurpose your presentations: average of 24 words per slide Slice and dice them into blog posts, infographics, webinars 4. Be the authority on your topic: and videos Choose a topic and own it 9. Make SlideShare part of every 5. Focus on design and tell a story: campaign: Add a SlideShare Design your deck to pull the reader checkbox to your campaign from one slide to the next checklist 6. Rev up the SEO for each presentation: Include keyword- If you don’t have a SlideShare “In a recent conference, I was asked my opinion on what is rich titles, descriptions and tags in account, sign up from LinkedIn to the biggest opportunity in B2B Content Marketing? Without order to give your presentations share your presentations worldwide a fighting chance in the world of and drive more views and traffic. hesitation, I answered “SlideShare.” search engines as well as inside the SlideShare search results Michael Brenner, Vice President of Marketing and Content Strategy at SAP, Speaker, Blogger and Social Business Marketing Leader Have I got a story for you!

A good story captivates an audience. Think about your favorite book, TV show or movie—the plot and way it is told hooks you in. Now what if every presentation you sat through—or gave—was that spell-binding?

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 32 PART 6: Content Ads: Enhance the Member Experience without Standard Content Ad Interrupting It On LinkedIn, our members are actively Our content ad unit delivers up to consuming and sharing information five different items of content via and insights. And you have an different tabs, including blog posts, opportunity to share content with case studies, white papers and video. LinkedIn’s professional audience Because the ads are RSS enabled, they using Content Ads. update automatically whenever live content featured in them changes. Content Ads use images and video content that stand out above the fold Content ads are extremely simple on our uncluttered, clean LinkedIn to create: you supply us with assets page design. Use them to position and content and we’ll create your ad, your company as a thought leader including a preview for you to sign and engage your audience with off, within ten working days. You’ll be white papers, videos, brochures and able to leverage the depth of LinkedIn other high-value content—without member profiles for accurate targeting interrupting the user flow and by of your ad, and you’ll get access enhancing their member experience. to detailed analytics showing how members interact with each Standard content ad enlarged content tab.

For ad specifications, visit http://adspecs.liasset.com/category.php?category=Content+Ads.

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 33 PART 6: SlideShare Content Ads: Enable Seamless Engagement SlideShare Content Ad

SlideShare Content Ads are the latest Your audience can interact with the addition to LinkedIn’s expanding presentations in these ads just as they Content Ads portfolio. Through the would on SlideShare itself, scrolling SlideShare Content Ad format, you can: forwards and back, and choosing • Extend reach and discoverability of whether to expand the presentation your SlideShare content or view it within the ad unit. Plus, you can embed a lead capture form in your • Drive engagement by offering presentation, which LinkedIn members user value can fill in and submit directly from the • Demonstrate thought leadership presentation. Importantly, they can and industry expertise do without interrupting their LinkedIn session. With SlideShare Content Ads, we combine SlideShare’s rich, Moreover, by combining detailed professionally relevant content with LinkedIn Analytics with SlideShare’s LinkedIn Marketing Solutions’ unique content viewing metrics and lead- targeting capabilities. SlideShare generation forms, we provide a Content Ads give your content the uniquely in-depth view of engagement reach it deserves, delivering in-depth with your content marketing. presentations through a 300 x 250 ad unit that enables broad, “SlideShare makes it easy to take what you’ve already got to a flexible distribution. much wider audience. And—in stark contrast to most business’ experiences with social media today—it delivers measurement based on real business activity, like leads.”

Todd Wheatland, Author of The Marketer’s Guide to SlideShare

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 34 PART 6: LinkedIn APIs: Deepen Engagement, Share Content Network-wide

Leverage LinkedIn’s professional Here are just a few ways you can take audience and platform across your advantage of our APIs: other digital channels with a range • Invite members to sign up to of full-fledged APIs and plug-ins that your site using their LinkedIn help deepen engagement with your login credentials audience and share content across our network. You can use LinkedIn’s APIs • Leverage select areas of the to create custom branded experiences LinkedIn identity to deliver that allow members to sign in using relevant content their LinkedIn login. This eliminates • Plug LinkedIn feeds into your site the need for them to enter additional • Invite your users to share updates data. Even more importantly, by using across the LinkedIn platform the API to access LinkedIn’s rich data, you can tailor the member experience To add a LinkedIn plugin to your site based on profile data. You can also or app, visit developer.LinkedIn.com Statoil Taps into LinkedIn encourage your experience to go viral to generate the required code and by triggering it to publish updates add it to the source code of your about a user’s activities. site or app. The LinkedIn Certified API to Create a Content Hub Developer Program (CDP) makes it Statoil wanted to shift its image from a big-oil company to a We offer developers powerful easy to engage developers certified forward-thinking energy organization. Using a LinkedIn API, options to leverage our content and to work with LinkedIn data, who are it created a content hub called Energy Realities that helped it connections while keeping users trained and supported by LinkedIn. We on our site. also offer options for working with a reach the right audience and amplify its content and broader range of developers as well. social actions.

Read Case Study

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 35 PART 6: LinkedIn Groups: Join the Conversation

Companies often talk about ‘joining Plan to participate the conversation’ and ‘establishing You can join up to 50 groups but thought leadership.’ By participating in let’s face it—you and your colleagues discussions taking place in established may not have the time to invest in LinkedIn Groups, you can join the cultivating conversations, connections, conversation. And by creating your and relationships at that volume. Once company’s own LinkedIn Branded you pinpoint the groups that will prove Communities, you can start the the best investment of your time, it’s conversation. Either way, you’re critical to put in the time to participate. establishing thought leadership for Weigh in on active discussions, your company. and point fellow group members to additional information of value, Participate in Group Discussions whether that’s content published by As a sophisticated marketer, you know your company or another organization. LinkedIn Groups for Business that true and meaningful engagement The key is to position yourself as a with prospects and customers is trusted and helpful peer rather than as HubSpot’s Inbound Marketer’s LinkedIn Group is another stellar sparked and maintained through a marketer focused on reeling in the example of how a marketer can best utilize a group within LinkedIn. interactions. The trick is finding the next customer. right forum for this engagement, HubSpot now has more than 50,000 followers for its Company and LinkedIn Groups is a terrific way Page, and more than 96,000 members for the Inbound Marketers to become part of a community group—significant audiences for its messages about best comprising your target audience. practices for inbound marketing.

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 36 PART 6: LinkedIn Branded Communities Did you know?

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 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 100,000 brand and product messages; drive discussions, making it a role model for engagement with weekly emails thought leadership on a large scale. to Community members; and use LinkedIn Members community management tools to stay join new Groups involved in the conversation. Plus, you can exclusively promote your content everyday 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.

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 37 PART 6: Get aligned for community success

Remember: marketing creates the the competition gets there. Plus, content but needs to work hand listening to and participating in online in hand with sales to ensure they conversations will provide your sales know the story and can carry the team with keen insight into what conversation when participating in most concerns your prospects. They LinkedIn community discussions. can then offer relevant information— Your sales reps should be engaging such as a link to an eBook, white prospects and customers in online paper, webinar or other content— venues. After all, they need to interact that establishes your company as a with prospective customers wherever valuable and trusted resource. they are spending time—and before

Invest in Building a Community You can drive increased membership of your community using Join Group Ads.

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 38 PART 6: Two New Power Resources for Your Content Marketing Toolbox Closing the Content Marketing Gap

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 content marketing strategies and feel they’re being effective initiatives. And we are certain you’re going to get tons of value from these Australian 96% 38% 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, • Understand the content and topics company updates, employee posts, that resonate with your audience sponsored updates, and influencer posts. The Content Marketing Score • Measure the effectiveness of your from LinkedIn ties all of this outreach content-based campaigns together so you get an integrated view • Benchmark 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

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 39 PART 6: Benchmark Your Content Performance Turn Insights Into Content Gold Think of the Content Marketing All that information is valuable, 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 A Dynamic Duo 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 your score WHO: Audience = Decision Makers WHAT: Topic = Leadership engaging with your content. And 1,400 it can show you how you stack up 1,200 7 of 10 against your competitors. You can To receive your custom Content 1,000 Peers: even see a breakdown of how you’re Marketing Score, please contact 800 Blackrock performing across the different areas your LinkedIn account executive Microsoft 600 Dell CMS Score Cap Gemini of LinkedIn – whether by Groups, or account manager. 400 250 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 consuming their content and whether it's reaching their desired audiences. For more engagement, reach and virality Content marketers need to tune their content strategies to the types of PART 6: content trending for their target audiences. Your Target Audience is on LinkedIn Trending Content THE TOPICS THAT MATTER

Be Trendy (With Your Content) Align Your Content Calendar With TheWHAT’S Topics TRENDING That Matter Your target audience is on LinkedIn. Your Audience What’s*Top trendingTrending topics on LinkedIn, Dec, 2013 - Jan. 2014 Now it’s just a matter of delivering With LinkedIn, you can see trending *Top trending topics on LinkedIn, Dec. 2013–Jan. 2014 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 interested in your content? sharing the most content on any given Engagement Marketing 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 10 Retirement 9 Job 8 Future 7 Business 6 Foreclosures content, Trending Content from How do we deliver this invaluable 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 TOPT TRENDINGop Trending TOPICS Topics actively engage with content from algorithm built by our data science (January(January 2014) 2014) Small Business Owners four primary sources of inspiration, team, we put each piece of content insights, and information on into one or more of over 17,000 topic leadership our network: categories. We then layer on member Young Upwardly Mobile Women profile attributes to understand who is entrepreneurshipFinancial Advisors Venture Capitalists • News from publishers sharing the content. Retirement Entrepreneurs • Peers on LinkedIn groups online advertising With all that insight, you can fine- Career • Thought leaders Changers tune your strategy to align with the Mass Af uents

• Brands latest trends. That means you can mobile devices Chief Executive Ofcers increase the likelihood of your own content going viral, and reach and healthcare engage more LinkedIn members. To receive your custom Trending Content analysis, please contact your LinkedIn Source: LinkedIn Internal Data account executive or account manager.

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 41 Ask the Expert: Lisa Weinstein

consumer behaviors on a platform like media, marketers get hung up on a lot of time in the space looking at LinkedIn and then, as the consumer is chasing the social networks’ specific trends of topics and keywords which engaged, he or she creates new data metrics and at the end of the day, are another indicator of things being to help you optimize that experience. what has to matter is that a marketer’s shared. We partner with companies It starts with behavior which is investments are moving the needle like Visible Measures on the video informed by data, which we use against the core macro objective. side. It can be different with video, to inform content. LinkedIn has proven effective for and they have years worth of data clients leveraging it across the on the types of video content that LI: How are your clients’ marketing spectrum of objectives ranging from will most likely drive certain earned objectives different on LinkedIn brand lift and consideration, to ROI responses. We also share that part compared to other social networks? and direct response. LinkedIn works to plan how our video content can How does that impact your clients’ against key measures whether they drive greater shares because we President, Global Digital, content strategy? are top or bottom of the funnel. think it’s a strategic question. It’s vital Data and Analytics at Starcom to our strategy to think about the MediaVest Group LW: I would argue that the objectives LI: How would you advise a marketer intersection of paid, owned, of a platform like LinkedIn should looking to create more “shareable” and earned. LI: What factors are most important not be different from other social content? Are there specific strategies to you when considering advertising networks and that all networks should or tools you recommend? channels for your clients? adder up to the overall marketing objectives of clients. As you drill down LW: We believe sharing is an indicator LW: One of the things we say is that into the use case for LinkedIn, there of valuable consumer behavior. it’s about behavior, not channels. are absolutely some more tactical We’ve spent a lot of time on tools From our perspective, when you start and specific initiatives it could be provided by a company like ShareThis, with consumer behavior you usually leveraged for. But if you’re talking which provide powerful indicators of start with data. We really believe about marketing objectives broadly, the types of content that are most that data helps to create experiences I’d like to think that everything we do sharable. We’ve built a planning tool and we use the phrase ‘created by and all these things we create ladders that allows our planners to buy ads data’ and ‘creating its own data.’ up to bigger objectives like sales, top against content that is more likely to You can use data to understand of funnel, etc. Too often in social be shared. We’ve actually spent

PART 6: Publish with a Purpose: Content Marketing on LinkedIn 42 PART 7: Expand your Targeted Reach: Advertising on LinkedIn

By combining mass reach with LinkedIn Display Ads accurate targeting, LinkedIn Through LinkedIn Display Ads, you advertising solutions allow you to: can reach a professional audience in a context where they actively seek • Engage your target from among advice and recommendations from the most affluent, influential, brands and companies. All LinkedIn and educated audience on Display Ad formats leverage the social media unique depth of our member profile • Increase awareness, credibility information, offering targeting by and impact through the power of sector, job function, seniority, location social proof and more: a targeted approach that drives engagement, relevance • Drive traffic and leads to your site and response.

Here are the LinkedIn advertising solutions at your disposal to help you achieve those results:

• Display Ads • Sponsored InMail

PART 7: Expand your targeted reach: Advertising on LinkedIn 43 PART 7: LinkedIn Premium Display Advertising for Awareness and Consideration at Scale With LinkedIn Premium Display Ads, Asia. It then targeted those members With LinkedIn Display Ads, you you can target the exact audience with Display Ads and Sponsored Polls. you want in a premium uncluttered LinkedIn’s accurate targeting resulted reach the right audience at the right environment. That makes it easier to in 1,324 poll responses from business use existing ad creative to drive brand travelers and a total of 97 product time on the most accountable medium awareness and consideration at scale recommendations. According to the among LinkedIn’s audience. international airline’s Vice President Depending on the type you choose, display ads can appear on Marketing Americas, the campaign a home page, profile pages, group pages, company pages, on Display ads give you a fantastic share was successful in spreading brand members’ inbox and messages pages, or at the bottom of a of voice. That’s because, unlike other awareness and connecting page to catch the eye of members before they navigate away. digital publishers, LinkedIn only with customers. serves two visual ads on a page at any one time. Combine this with our powerful targeting capabilities and it’s a no-brainer.

Here’s an example of how Cathay Pacific realized these benefits. The renowned airline wanted to increase brand awareness within its target market, so it identified LinkedIn “From a marketing standpoint, the targeting is unprecedented. members who belong to LinkedIn groups related to business travel in For marketing campaigns, LinkedIn can identify who to send it to and when to send it but with precision we have never seen before. The success stories are still building, but we will see more B2B marketers drive success via LinkedIn over the next couple years.”

Craig Rosenberg, The Funnelholic www.funnelholic.com

44 PART 7: Ask the Expert: Neal Schaffer

there is other great content to be seeking out information that can help • Promote your LinkedIn Company found in Network Updates as well as them do their jobs better. The best Page, build up a follower base, relevant Groups. It all comes down approach that I would recommend and engage with them. to content that is both relevant and for marketers to connect with their • Utilize the potential that LinkedIn timely—but deep as well. target audience would look like a Ads has to help precisely connect combination of the following: you with your target audience. LI: How do you make sure personal time spent on LinkedIn is productive? • Establish robust profiles that make How does this differ from other them discoverable in LinkedIn social networks? profile search. • Share relevant content NS: I spend my personal time on consistently from their personal Author, Maximize Your Social, LinkedIn 2 ways: 1) Keeping up-to- profile. Trilingual Social Media Strategy & date and engaging with my network, • Reach out and connect with those Social Business Coach, Consultant, and 2) Business intelligence looking from their target audience that Trainer & Speaker for information on people, companies, they know but have yet to connect or news in my industry. I limit my time with. LI: What type of content best and remain clear on my objectives. connects with audiences on LinkedIn? • Proactively utilize their LinkedIn Is there a specific type of content you LI: What recommendations do you network for introductions to key prefer to consume on LinkedIn? have for marketers looking to connect people in their target audience, with target audiences on LinkedIn? using LinkedIn Inmails when an NS: The content that best connects introduction is not possible. with audiences on LinkedIn is NS: LinkedIn, like any other social • Engage in relevant groups. undoubtedly the type that makes us network, is about people that are • Create a group to represent do our job better as well as invest using social media for communication your company. in our professional brand. Without a with others as well as information doubt the recently added Influencer gathering. Professionals are not content is of the highest quality, but looking to be sold to, but they are

PART 7: Expand your targeted reach: Advertising on LinkedIn 45 PART 7: LinkedIn Ads for Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Performance

LinkedIn Ads is a self-service on characteristics like job title, job advertising solution that allows function, industry, geography, you to place text ads on prominent company size, company name, pages across LinkedIn to reach LinkedIn Group, and more. You can LinkedIn’s professional audience. Your also control your advertising costs text-based ad includes a headline, by setting a budget as low as $10 per description, and can even feature day and can choose to pay on a a 50x50 image. You specify which cost-per-click or impression basis— LinkedIn members view your ads by all without any contracts selecting a target audience based or commitments.

HubSpot generates quality leads with accurate targeting using LinkedIn Ads

HubSpot creates marketing software their businesses, or networking that helps businesses grow web traffic, with other professionals.” HubSpot generate inbound leads, and convert also needed to accurately target its leads into paying customers. The campaigns beyond simply just location, challenge for HubSpot was finding keywords, and interests, drilling down advertising venues with the right mix of into specific professional attributes of “With LinkedIn Ads, we’ve been able to generate marketing professionals who respond its potential customers—a capability well to HubSpot’s offers of free that other social networks do a clickthrough rate that is 60% higher than our marketing materials. not provide. average across other social networks—and at the same time, the quality of leads coming HubSpot first experimented with ad Using LinkedIn Ads, HubSpot has been through LinkedIn is greater than through other campaigns on social networks other able to achieve clickthrough rates social media channels.” than LinkedIn, but the campaigns did ranging from 0.1% to 0.3% not yield satisfactory results. “There’s with an average CPC of about $3, a lot of distraction on other social “which is actually a fraction of the Dan Slagen, Head of Paid Marketing, HubSpot networks,” Dan Slagen, the company’s cost of paid search advertising,” head of paid marketing, says. “People Slagen explains. are there for reasons besides improving

PART 7: Expand your targeted reach: Advertising on LinkedIn 46 PART 7: Sponsored InMail: Deliver Directly to Members’ Inboxes Send a personalized message directly to a member’s inbox

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

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 “YourQuote 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 ensures you reach the members that a drop-down option when sending an InMail message.” matter most, from across our network of over 259 million professionals. David Spark (@dspark), Founder of the brand journalism firm, Spark Media Solutions. Blogger at Spark Minute and podcaster at the Tear Down Show. Apple used personalized, targeted emails to raise awareness of the iPad 2 as a business tool, increasing consideration and sales.

Sponsored InMail leverages the credibility of the LinkedIn platform so that, unlike conventional email campaigns, they are more likely to be opened, read and acted on.

PART 7: Expand your targeted reach: Advertising on LinkedIn 47 PART 7: CEB reaches executives in transition with LinkedIn Sponsored InMails

CEB (www.executiveboard.com), the The title of CEB’s InMail specifically leading member-based advisory addressed executive challenges: company, markets its research “How will you ensure long-term “Using LinkedIn’s targeting to reach executives at the moment in human resources, information success in your new role?” The InMail when the CEB pitch would be most relevant is the key to this technology, and corporate innovation went on to congratulate the LinkedIn campaign’s success.” to a rarified group of highly senior member on his or her professional executives. It was challenging to shift, invited them to try out CEB’s Rory Channer, Managing Director of Marketing for CEB convince highly influential executives Leadership Transition Service, and to take the time to check out some offered a free white paper on the of the compelling thought-leadership hallmarks of successful leadership materials that CEB offers. transitions.

Rory Channer, Managing Director The InMail campaign generated open of Marketing for CEB, and his rates that were four times the rate marketing colleagues knew that a of CEB’s typical online marketing defining moment for connecting with campaigns, and twice the typical an executive about CEB services is clickthrough rate. during a period of transition. Using LinkedIn targeting capabilities, they chose to focus on executives in human resources and sales that had been promoted or added significant new responsibilities.

PART 7: Expand your targeted reach: Advertising on LinkedIn 48 Ask the Expert: Nate Stricker

LI: How do you compare the audience the obvious ones. It’s not just an to get across versus the passions that targeting capability of LinkedIn with environment for the Wells Fargos ignite the interest of the consumer. other social networks? and the Bank of Americas and the University of Phoenixes of the world, The second part is having compelling NS: With LinkedIn, with content but has huge value for the GEs and content that leverages things like sight, generation, there’s an opportunity the Geicos and the Chryslers, etc. I sound and motion that uses the with native content to be a bit more think that’s a story that can be better listening platform to find topics that surgical with the data you have, and flavored in the marketplace. have a currency to them, and then the kind of content you deliver— finally making it easy to share so the holy grail of the audience and LI: How would you advise a marketer a user can choose to share in the content equation together. I think looking to create more “shareable” whichever platform they are most that’s definitely an area where there is content? Are there specific strategies comfortable with. Client Director, Strategy opportunity because no one network or specific tools that you would is especially nailing it right now. recommend? LI: What types of clients should be leveraging LinkedIn more than they LI: How are marketers getting it NS: From a tool standpoint, a really currently are? wrong with LinkedIn? good social listening service can cover a wide swath of sources. It can NS: Because of the association of the NS: There’s still some education also provide access to other media, content on LinkedIn, as well as with required. LinkedIn is viewed as, even search trends and search behaviors the audience that goes to the site, before being thought of as a media so you have a rich tapestry to draw any category where a client is aiming opportunity for advertisers, as a from in terms of what is relevant for to make headway from a leadership marketer’s in-house PR firm—the PR consumers, particularly your target perspective. If you’re looking to make mechanism, if you will. I think the first audience. Good listening is the first a leadership statement and/or be step is recognizing that it has quite step. You’re not going to create seen curating a point of view with a bit to offer from an advertising shareable content if what you’re content, there is a lot of upside to perspective. The second thing is building is not relevant and intriguing the LinkedIn proposition. that there are a lot of categories that to consumers. Sometimes it’s a could benefit from LinkedIn beyond balance of what the advertiser wants

PART 7: Expand your targeted reach: Advertising on LinkedIn 49 PART 8: Unlock the Power of LinkedIn’s Partner Programs

LinkedIn’s Partner Programs are designed to work with companies that share our goal of serving our members’ needs. From entertaining “Partnering with LinkedIn has enabled us to deliver robust promotions to targeted multi-channel messages, LinkedIn’s platform audience demographics, content analytics, and publishing can significantly increase your consumer engagement beyond capabilities to today’s biggest brands across every industry. LinkedIn.com. The three partner programs of greatest interest to Brands are using this context and capability to deliver great marketers are: experiences that make professionals more productive and successful, and as a result, are building valuable and • Certified Developer Program LinkedIn Certified Developer Program lasting relationships. ” (CDP) (CDP): This program allows marketers • Social Media Management like you to grow engagement with Jim Rudden, CMO Spredfast Inc. program your brand through custom marketing campaigns and solutions that leverage • Ads API the LinkedIn platform. The program is intended to help you develop custom applications, micro-sites, marketing promotions, social monitoring tools or any other execution that uses LinkedIn’s APIs.

PART 8: Unlock the Power of LinkedIn’s Partner Programs 50 PART 8: Collaborate with Certified Developer Partners Social Media Management program: Ads API Program Best-in-Class Partners As certified partners, they receive This program enables you to manage The Ads API program allows The CDP charter partners were attention and communications from your company’s engagement on marketers to run and manage self- selected and certified based on their LinkedIn to help them effectively use LinkedIn, including the administration serve LinkedIn Ads campaigns ability to deliver unique value to LinkedIn’s platform products to build of Company Pages, Showcase Pages effectively at scale. marketers using our APIs and platform custom marketing programs. and Groups, using the platforms of products. They also have a proven our SMM partners. track record of delighting customers with successful application launches. API Partners This includes exclusive access to LinkedIn technical specialists, enabling them to deliver innovative ads API Partners and impactful marketing solutions in the following categories: • Custom applications • Social media promotions • Social media management • Social media analytics

PART 8: Unlock the Power of LinkedIn’s Partner Programs 51 PART 8: Ask the Expert: Kristina Jaramillo

decision makers (my prospects), key Here are some other forms of content KJ: You create a LinkedIn strategy that professionals that influence business that have worked well for me and for includes identifying your goals, (lead marketing decisions, and potential my Get LinkedIn Help clients: generation, brand awareness, thought referral sources/white label partners. leadership, strengthening strategic Radio show interviews—I host a B2B alliances, community building, getting LI: What type of content best connects marketing radio show at http://www. more VAR, etc.) defining your target with audiences on LinkedIn? Is there a b2bmarketingradioshow.com where audience, locating the Groups your specific type of content you prefer to guest experts, including LinkedIn’s targeted audiences belong to and consume on LinkedIn? senior content marketing manager identifying the type of content that Jason Miller, share their insights. your audience will relate to. Within KJ: The best type of content that your strategy, you have to also map I found is case studies and real life SlideShare presentations and videos out the actions needed to take on LinkedIn Marketing Expert, examples—this demonstrates your which support your case study and LinkedIn (webinars, webcasts, white GetLinkedInHelp.com relevance. Most business leaders and result-based LinkedIn profile. Some papers, email marketing). B2B marketers’ LinkedIn profiles do of our clients most read discussions LI: How are your marketing objectives not have case studies. They talk about were based on their SlideShare LI: How are marketers getting it wrong different on LinkedIn compared to their skills and expertise but there is no presentation content. with LinkedIn? other social networks? content for their targeted prospects to see why they should connect. Blog posts and articles that change the KJ: Marketers are getting it wrong KJ: I do not do anything on Facebook Within the different LinkedIn Groups, way people think and act—I personally with LinkedIn in a number of as my complete focus is on CEOs, you should also create discussions on love content that is meant to start a ways including: They’re basically C-level marketing and sales executives real life case studies. This gives B2B debate. The goal is to change how completing brand maintenance and small business owners in B2B organizations a chance to showcase people present themselves on LinkedIn activities instead of a tool for lead organizations. Twitter, I use as a tool to their expertise and at the same time and how they market on LinkedIn. generation. They may do some broadcast my different messages. educate prospects on the challenges updates and some commenting on companies are having and the steps LI: How do you make sure personal discussions but there is no strategy I use LinkedIn to directly connect with they need to take to overcome time spent on LinkedIn is productive? behind their efforts. They are and build relationships with key the challenge. How does this differ from other just connecting with anyone social networks? and everyone.

PART 8: Unlock the Power of LinkedIn’s Partner Programs 52 PART 8: Ask the Expert: Kristina Jaramillo

B2B marketers (especially technology Group. I also created a number companies) are creating content for of discussions inside the different prospects in the later buying cycles. LinkedIn Groups to make my article They are creating tutorials and go viral. product demos and trying to create conversations on it. LI: What’s something that’s not in your LinkedIn profile? They’re also failing to integrate the rest of their content marketing KJ: You won’t find a resume on my activities with LinkedIn marketing. LinkedIn profile. For example, you Content Marketing Institute’s latest won’t find me putting Founder of study shows that B2B organizations Get LinkedIn Help as my previous are using at least 13 different content position and a listing of my past marketing tactics. Now, how many positions. What you’ll find are positions of those tactics did they integrate that speak to different audiences with into their social media and LinkedIn different needs. marketing efforts. Let me show you what I mean by integration. Each section of my LinkedIn profile I built a relationship with a key is meant to establish a relationship Forbes.com column editor through with you, build credibility, show why LinkedIn. She approached me to you need to connect with me—and write an article. Within a couple days most importantly get you into my the article had several thousand hits sales funnel. Too many B2B marketing and over 200 tweets. Everyone that and sales professionals have copy tweeted (that was a targeted prospect that would speak to HR and or potential referral source for me) I recruiting executives. thanked and invited them to connect on LinkedIn and to join my LinkedIn

PART 8: Unlock the Power of LinkedIn’s Partner Programs 53 25 Social Media Experts You Need to Know Stay in the know with tips 1. Jay Baer 5. Brian Carter 10.  Ann Handley and advice from the leading Speaker, Author, Consultant VP of Marketing at Infinigraph, Head of Content at Marketing Blogs: jaybaer.com, Author, Speaker Profs, Author social media experts. Here’s convinceandconvert.com Blog: briancarteryeah.com/blog/ Blog: marketingprofs.com a list of some of our favorites Twitter: @jaybaer Twitter: @briancarter Twitter: @annhandley representing the best of the LinkedIn: in/jasonbaer LinkedIn: in/briancarterms LinkedIn: /in/annhandley 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

LinkedIn members number more With LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, than 259 million professionals. That’s brands build relationships with the over one-third of the 600 million world’s professionals by using accurate professionals on the planet. targeting to deliver relevant content This represents the largest group and communications. anywhere of influential, affluent and educated people. As today’s connected professionals seek out ideas and insights from the Professional Publishing Platform people and brands they trust, Our evolution into a professional marketers use LinkedIn to target publishing platform drives increased advertising and publish relevant engagement on LinkedIn. Compared content in a professional context. with other professional publishers, Brands extend reach through the content on LinkedIn works differently. social sharing that occurs naturally The rich data on our platform means on LinkedIn, as well as by extending we can deliver the most relevant LinkedIn data to their sites and content to our members. brand experiences through APIs.

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