LinkedIn: An Evolving Platform for Big Brands

LINKEDIN: AN EVOLVING PLATFORM FOR BIG BRANDS

SEPTEMBER 2013

©2013 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved | 1


INTRODUCTION

LINKEDIN USER SNAPSHOT

LINKEDIN COMPANY PAGES

DEVELOPING AN EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE FOR BRANDS

OTHER LINKEDIN OPPORTUNITIES

BUILDING AN ACTIVATION PLAN AND MEASUREMENT FRAMEWORK

CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS

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01. INTRODUCTION


Over the last several years, LinkedIn has evolved beyond its use

as a recruitment tool, which centered only around job postings and

social networking.

For brands to break through in this channel, they must think

about LinkedIn as a unique, editorial-driven marketing channel,

leveraging its full Company Page functionality, its suite of

publishing tools and its APIs for maximum effect.

In this document, we discuss how to do all three.

INTRODUCTION


RELEVANT

BRANDS MUST BE:

LINKEDIN REQUIRES A DIFFERENT APPROACH

Brands require a different approach and content model for their narratives on LinkedIn.

VALUE-DRIVEN Brands must focus on adding value, not promoting themselves.

HUMAN Who your brand is is as important as what it does.

CONNECTED Brands must embrace followers as peers, and not fans.

INSPIRED Content and conversations should be aspirational in nature.


LEVERAGE PAID, OWNED AND EARNED CHANNELS TO DRIVE CHANNEL GROWTH

API integration withinweb propertiesCompany Pagepromotion on dot-comHouse content withinweb properties

LinkedIn TodayExecutive articlesInternal PR

On-site adsOff-site retargeting

BRANDSGO HERE

OWNED

PAID

EARNED


02. LINKEDIN USER SNAPSHOT


LINKEDIN IS A GLOBAL NETWORK OF PROFESSIONALS…

225M+Registered membersas of May 2013

200+Countries andterritories

64%Of LinkedIn membersare outside of the US


…AND IS COMPRISED OF A SMART, AFFLUENT AUDIENCE

41%HHI of $100k+

32%Higher than Facebook

52%of LinkedIn monthly visitors have

a college or graduate degree

18%Higher than Facebook


LINKEDIN IS MORE THAN JUST JOBS

Groups/Company Pages

SlideShareIntegration

LinkedInToday

LinkedInInfluencers


LINKEDIN USERS ALSO HAVE A VERY DIFFERENT MINDSET

1 – The Mindset Divide research study, LinkedIn and TNS, September 2012

SPEND TIME Personal Networks

Info on friends

Info on personal interests

Entertainment updates

INVEST TIME Professional Networks

Career content

Updates on brands

Current affairs

TOP THREE TYPES OF CONTENT EXPECTED1

Vs.

Vs.

Vs.

in professional networks26% HIGHER


03. LINKEDIN COMPANY PAGES


INTRODUCTION TO LINKEDIN COMPANY PAGES

LinkedIn announced the launch of company profile pages in 2008; they have

since evolved to today’s more robust Company Pages offering. As of June

2013, there are more than three million LinkedIn Company Pages, with 500K

+ created in the last year.

According to a recent HubSpot study, LinkedIn generated the highest

visitor-to-lead conversion rate, with 2.74% of site visitors converting into

leads, compared to Facebook and Twitter, with respective conversion rates

of 0.69% and 0.77%. As a Company Page is the primary owned touchpoint

in the LinkedIn ecosystem, it is important to utilize its full range of

functionality.

WITH 500K+ CREATED IN THE LAST YEAR.

THERE ARE MORE THAN THREE MILLION LINKEDIN COMPANY PAGES

A LinkedIn Company Page provides the following:

1.  A hub for thought leadership and other company-related editorial content (e.g. blog posts, white papers).

2.  An additional platform for customer and follower engagement.

3.  A dedicated space for job postings and additional careers- and recruitment-related information.

4.  An overview of a company’s products and services.


COMPANY PAGE BEST PRACTICES: HOME TAB (ADOBE)

Frequent status updates

Custom header image,consistent with other creative

Promo area for “Products” tab


COMPANY PAGE BEST PRACTICES: HOME TAB, CONTINUED (ADOBE)

Fully completed “About” section


COMPANY PAGE BEST PRACTICES: CAREERS TAB (ADOBE)

Banner image customized for Careers Tab

Key jobs (and people) showcased;link to Adobe Jobs search in LinkedIn

Job Search functionality

Unique content above the fold


COMPANY PAGE BEST PRACTICES: PRODUCTS AND SERVICES TAB (ADOBE)


COMPANY PAGE BEST PRACTICES: INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTS (ADOBE)


SOME LINKEDIN COMPANY PAGE BEST PRACTICES

Fill out your company overview page completely, using

relevant keywords as needed.

Spice up your company page with splashy banner visuals,

switching out the creative as needed for new product

releases, events, conferences and other newsworthy items.

Provide specific calls to action as necessary.

List your company’s main products and services, and

encourage your customers to “recommend” them.

Post regular company status updates. Link to timely,

relevant news and announcements when appropriate.

Engage brand page followers by posting questions and

other conversation topics.

Augment your brand page presence through original

editorial content and other thought leadership for

LinkedIn Today.


04. DEVELOPING AN EDITORIAL EXPERIENCE FOR BRANDS


BACKGROUND

LINKEDIN’S NEW APPROACH AS PUBLISHER

Over the last few years, LinkedIn has shifted its approach to favor brands that have a robust editorial presence, process and publishing model:

•  March 2011: LinkedIn rolls out “LinkedIn Today,” an aggregated news experience, to live on user homepages.

•  October 2012: LinkedIn announces its Influencers program, a platform for business thought leaders to create original content for the platform. It also announces the ability for users to “follow” other users’ updates without connecting to them directly.

•  April 2013: LinkedIn acquires Pulse, a mobile news aggregator app with hundreds of content partnerships.

•  Today: There are 1.3 million publishers on LinkedIn. Editorial content is featured at the top of the LinkedIn mobile app (pictured)


LINKEDIN TODAY IS:

LINKEDIN TODAY

1.  An aggregator of the top articles shared by a user’s LinkedIn network, Company Pages and topic channels they follow.

2.  The publishing platform for original content posted by LinkedIn Influencers.

3.  Driven by InShare (sharing) buttons that are placed on publisher sites, as well as in feeds.


THREE MAIN INGREDIENTS FOR EDITORIAL SUCCESS ON LINKEDIN

2. DEFINED ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

3. ROBUST EDITORIAL APPROACH AND CALENDAR

1. COMPETITIVE AUDIT


LINKEDIN AUDIT OVERVIEW

We recommend that brands conduct a competitive audit, creating a Distribution Map of other Company Pages in their industries. Look at:

•  Status updates + follower response (engagement through likes, comments and shares)

•  Content in the Careers and Products & Services tabs

•  Overall page creative and messaging

Also determine if these companies’ Pages are:

•  Utility-driven: Posts mostly comprised of Product announcements, job postings

•  Brand-driven: Posts comprised of company innovation, career positioning (e.g. “Life at Adobe”), thought leadership

From here, brands should be able to create their competitive Distribution Map to assess how they stack up against their competition on LinkedIn,

and help determine the platform’s role in their digital communications ecosystem.


SAMPLE LINKEDIN DISTRIBUTION MAP


CREATING A LINKEDIN EDITORIAL MODEL WILL DEFINE RESPONSIBILITIES

Once an editorial calendar has been developed, roles and ongoing responsibilities must be identified and assigned, with processes being developed. (A RAM or RACI matrix might help with this.)

The goals:

•  Identify content owners (e.g. PR/Comms, Marketing, HR)

•  Identify stakeholders for buy-in (e.g. Legal, Executive Sponsor)

•  Identify additional resources required (e.g. Community Management, Technology)


EXAMPLE: EDITORIAL MODEL + TEAM RESPONSIBILITIES MAP

COMPANY TEAM LEADS EXECUTIVE SPONSOR

EDITOR

MEASUREMENT AND OPTIMIZATION

CONTENT LEAD

LEGA

L

COMMUNITY MANAGER HR

(Product, Design, Maketing, PR, Brand, HR) Program oversight

COMPANY TEAMS+ PARTNERS TECH SUPPORT

Creates / manages publishing calendar and editorial plan

Coordinates with internal and external contributors to secure content and determine quarterly content plan

Works with measurement team to tweak editorial approach, if needed

Secures and remixes existing assets

Curates external content

Publishes content

Monitors and responds to conversation

Gathers additional story ideas from community

Manages and updates jobpostings (titles, descriptions)


LINKEDIN SAMPLE EDITORIAL CALENDAR: YEAR ONE

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 ED

ITOR

IAL

YEAR ONE BUILD-UP THE BASICS OUR PEOPLE INNOVATIONS THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

Story Focus “What we do” “Who we are” “Where we are going” “What we can do together”

Narrative Key products Company overview Company values

Partnerships Key company talent Thought leadership

Hero innovations Behind the scenes

What we’re working on

LinkedIn-customized company thought leadership (e.g.

Influencers)

Content Source EXISTING / REMIXED EXISTING / REMIXED CURATION

EXISTING / REMIXED CURATION

Potential Content sources

Company News and Announcements Press releases

Third-party sources

Company News and Announcements Press releases

Third-party sources

Additional sources, plus new platform-specific content

LinkedIn Influencer contributions

Hero Thought Leadership (IG)

1-2x / Month 2-3x / Month 3-4 / Month 4-5x / Month

Product Stories 4x / Month 4x / Month 2x / Month 2x / Month Announcements 2x / Month 2x / Month 2x / Month 2x / Month

CARE

ER

Recruitment Campaigns

TBD

TBD TBD TBD

Employee Profiles 1x / Month

1x / Month

2x / Month

2x / Month

Job Postings 1x / Week 1x / Week

1x / Week

2x / Week

CONV

O Monitoring & Response Daily Daily Daily Daily


05. OTHER LINKEDIN OPPORTUNITIES


LEVERAGING THE LINKEDIN API

In order to fully take advantage of the LinkedIn platforms, brands must look beyond their Company Pages and to their own websites for integration opportunities.

LinkedIn features a robust API around the following areas:

•  People / User Profiles: Brands can leverage LinkedIn’s API around user registration for its company websites (e.g. jobs portals).

•  Social Sharing: LinkedIn’s share API allows for users to share a brand’s web content from directly in their feeds.

•  Jobs: LinkedIn’s Jobs APIs allow users to save, search and apply for jobs (pictured) from company websites.

•  Other APIs: LinkedIn offers additional APIs around Group discussions, Company Page updates and other communication.


ADVERTISING ON LINKEDIN

In addition to its standard ads, LinkedIn boasts a variety of premium ad offerings that

drive awareness, engagement and leads, including:

•  Branded Communities: Brands can partner with LinkedIn to launch Managed Groups

(pictured), which host branded editorial-based conversations around topics of interest.

•  Sponsored Content: Brands can promote their Company Page status updates through

Sponsored Content, which appear in users’ feeds.

•  Targeting Capabilities: With standardized profile data on its 225 million members and

partnerships with Experian, Polk and others, LinkedIn offers professional and consumer

targeting capabilities.

•  Additional Segmentation: LinkedIn can target users based on who they are, as well as

what they interact with on and off the site to create vertical and/or intender segments.

•  Retargeting Capabilities: LinkedIn ad units can target users that have visited brand

websites in the past.


COMPANY PAGE UPDATE TYPES

According to LinkedIn, the types of Company Page update types with the highest follower engagement are:

1.  Exclusive “behind the scenes” content and interviews

2.  Career-related posts, including job opportunities

3.  Tips and best practices

4.  Company and industry facts and quotes


EDITORIAL APPROACH AND CONTENT FILTER ARE KEY

•  Content Development and Ownership: Which stakeholders create and “own” the content that will eventually get published on a LinkedIn Company Page? Will it work as is, or will it need to be reworked?

•  Brand Values: Does the content align with and display a company's unique brand values and positioning?

•  Short-Term vs. Long-Term Content: Does the topic address a subject that’s of long-term interest to the company and its followers (e.g. sustainability, retirement planning), or is more timely and short term (e.g. new product release, conference announcement)?

•  Audience interest: Based on the company’s goals and audience, is there interest in this topic? (Will be determined over time with engagement level, LinkedIn Insights.)

When evaluating content (original and curated) for a LinkedIn Company Page, consider the following:

Once topics are defined, brands can start to plan their editorial calendars.


06. BUILDING AN ACTIVATION PLAN AND MEASUREMENT FRAMEWORK


INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ACTIVATION

A successful LinkedIn Company Page activation requires both internal and external activation. This includes the following activities:

INTERNAL EXTERNALLinkedIn personal pages for key company thought leaders

Internal employee “follower” campaigns

Recruit internal champions to contribute to company page

Cross-promote through other owned properties (e.g. website,social channels, email)

Leverage existing influencer relationships / campaigns

Follower acquisition campaigns (paid)

Activation campaigns (leverage LinkedIn API)

Recruitment (career) campaigns


DEVELOPING KPIS

In order to prove the success of any marketing program, especially new channel activations, measurement must be an integral part.

After roles, responsibilities and an activation approach have been defined, measurable KPIs must be proposed, as well as a reporting schedule.

The KPIs will be tied to a company’s overall channel strategy, as well as individual goals and objectives.


SAMPLE KPIS

House elevated conversations designed to lead the industry

Highlight company talent, ideas and innovations

Treat followers as peers

Reinforce pride of association and evoke a desire to be part of company culture

Promote thought leadershipSpark debateInitiate conversations

Create brand associationsFollow our stories

Users actively shape the story

Attract top talent to the brandImprove employee satisfaction / pride of association among current employees

Profile of followers Share of followers at more senior level (e.g. VP, CEO) Number of posts impressions Clickthroughs to content Number of comments Content Marketing Index score

Total number of followers Repeat engagements Number of likes Number of shares

Number and share of followers from the client’s industry Engagement rate (% of engaged visitors)

Numbers of new applications Number of company employee followers

STRATEGY

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GOAL KPIs


07. CONCLUSION AND NEXT STEPS


CONCLUSION AND ACTION ITEMS

LinkedIn presents a vast, yet mostly untapped opportunity for brands to break through with high-value, professional content. However, to be competitive in the LinkedIn space, brands must do the following:

"   Recognize that LinkedIn users have a different mindset from other social networkers.

"   Conduct a competitive audit of Company Pages in their verticals to identify the opportunity.

"   Provide all required content for their Company Pages.

"   Develop a full editorial model, identifying key responsibilities and stakeholders.

"   Look beyond their own Company Pages to other owned, earned and paid LinkedIn opportunities.

"   Based on a brand’s goals and activities, develop a measurement framework to attribute success and identify weaknesses.

CRITICAL MASS

About Critical Mass, an Omnicom digital marketing agency, helps the world's leading companies use digital media to create extraordinary experiences—experiences that bring together creative thinking, smart ideas and emerging technologies to drive our clients’ businesses. Consistently recognized as a leading interactive agency, Critical Mass operates globally from offices in Calgary, Toronto, Chicago, New York, Nashville, Los Angeles, London, Amsterdam and Costa Rica. CriticalMass.com

Follow LinkedIn.com/company/critical-mass Twitter.com/CriticalMass Facebook.com/CriticalMass.Agency YouTube.com/CriticalMassAgency Slideshare.net/CM1234

Social Media Team David Jones, VP Social Media @DoctorJones Alison Fraker, Sr. Social Planner @AlisonFraker Daniel B. Honigman, Sr. Social Planner @DanielHonigman Kyle Bottoms, Social Planner @KyleBottoms Lindsay Renwick, Social Planner @LindsayRenwick Nikki Lloyd, Community Manager @Nikki_Lloyd



FURTHER READING

http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5011

http://blog.linkedin.com/2012/10/02/follow-people/

http://blog.linkedin.com/2013/04/04/start-a-conversation-by-mentioning-your-connections-on-linkedin/

http://press.linkedin.com/about

http://developer.linkedin.com/apis

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/linkedin-pivoting-one-marketing-deals-content-based-ads-149120

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30030/LinkedIn-277-More-Effective-for-Lead-Generation-Than-Facebook-Twitter-New-Data.aspx

©2013 Critical Mass, Inc. All Rights Reserved |

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LinkedIn: An Evolving Platform for Big Brands

Technology

Transcript of LinkedIn: An Evolving Platform for Big Brands