Mike Weir

Vertical Director – Technology Industry

LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

mweir@linkedin.com

Nurturing the IT

Committee Is marketing helping or hurting?

Too often, we are the bad party guest

talking about ourselves NON-STOP

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This lack of value is killing our client

& prospect relationships

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Today, we have platforms and data

to help us understand the IT

Committee and engage them

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TRUST + CREDIBILITY

M U S T B E

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Buying decisions are made by a broader group than IT

95% of the IT Committee use social networks for business

More likely to engage with vendors on LinkedIn than other networks

Understanding the IT Committee on Social

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We surveyed over 2,300 IT Committee members globally

How do you earn TRUST with the IT Committee?

* LOCAL LANGUAGE / LinkedIn Survey and Internal Data: Q2 2014

Germany, N=203

France*, N=202

The Netherlands, N=204

Canada, N=152 US, N=404

UK, N=204

BRAZIL*, N=155

Australia, N=104

India, N=202

Hong Kong, N=155

Singapore, N=104

MIDDLE EAST

Saudi Arabia, N=155

UAE, N=154

N. AMERICA EMEA

APAC

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The Growing IT Committee Who are they and how do you engage them?

The Power of Education without Bias If you’re talking about yourself, you’re doing it wrong

The Expertise You Don’t Know You Have The definition of an expert is broader than you think

Nurture, don’t Disrupt Gating content too early and too often is counter-productive

The Growing

IT Committee

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The IT Committee

10+ million members who influence IT decisions across departments and seniorities

Growing 1.25x faster than general

member growth

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IT decision making goes beyond the senior IT department

78%

of the IT Committee works

outside of IT

30% 61%

are individual contributors or managers

control part or all of the IT Budget

In which department do you work?

In which of the following stages of IT decision-making are you currently involved?

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They’re hungry for IT news and information on social

How frequently do you visit each of the following sources to get IT related news and information?

Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Category 4

Visit Google+ Visit Facebook Visit Twitter Visit LinkedIn

41% 44% 32% 75%

83% use social media for IT News and

Information each month

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% content from each source very or extremely trustworthy

They trust content on LinkedIn more than any other source

How frequently do you visit each of the following sources to get IT related news and information?

How trustworthy do you feel the content you see from each of the below sources is?

50% 48%

34% 33%

24% 20%

15%

9%

LinkedIn Online Trade/Industry Sites

Google+ Online NewsSites

DiscussionForums

Blogs Twitter Facebook

Visitation │ High Medium Low

The Power of Education

without Bias

of the IT Committee require education to sustain or make a change to their

IT ecosystem

78%

15 How significant is the role education plays in the following types of decisions undertaken by your organization?

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More likely to consider an IT vendor who educates me through

each stage of the decision process

67% Educating throughout the purchase funnel makes generating leads more effective

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Education with broad-themed, non branded

content is preferred

52%

53%

59% Most interested in non-branded /

non-sales focused content

More favorable toward an IT Vendor who publishes content

about my industry and topics of interest

More likely to consider an IT vendor who publishes content

about my industry and topics of interest

Start with content about general industry topics, prioritized

for your audience

Author or promote expert content on the direction and

use of your industry’s products

Promote branded user reviews and case studies to drive

consideration and selection of your company

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3

2

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Three types of education

The Expertise You Don’t

Know You Have

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Influence on tech purchases (by purchase stage and content source)

Experts Rule the Day. But, the Definition of Expert has Evolved

Thinking of a recent or upcoming company-wide technology purchase, how influential is the SOURCE of the information you consume at each stage of the purchase cycle?

56% 53% 53%

63% 62%

49%

45% 44%

59%

47%

33%

29% 30%

34% 37%

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EXPERT CONTENT INFLUENCE USER / PEER REVIEW INFLUENCE BRANDED CONTENT INFLUENCE

Not necessarily on title or connections

Expertise is based on references from others and

demonstrated knowledge

6%

10%

11%

14%

22%

37%

52%

55%

72% References from coworkers and other professionals in their field

Published author or presenter in their field

Has a (on average) 8.5 years of experience

Manages a team

Has a Master's Degree or higher

Is a vice president or more senior

Has 500 or more connections on LinkedIn

Third Party scores (Klout, Kred, PeerIndex, etc.)

Other (Please specify)

21 When you think of a technology subject matter expert (SME), what is the first thing that comes to mind?

Below you see some additional qualities a subject matter expert may have. Please select all the attributes below that are required to be a technology SME.

% Who Believe Each Statement Defines an Expert

The IT Committee is positively impacted

by the actions of your employees

25%

Are more favorable toward a

vendor whose employees

participate in LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups

24%

Are more favorable toward a

vendor whose employees

share content on LinkedIn

Employees

23%

Are more likely to consider

if vendors have experts

publishing on LinkedIn

Experts

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Utilize the expertise in

your organization to

earn trust

On the world’s largest professional publishing platform

Nurture, don’t Disrupt

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The IT Committee is anxious about gated content

40% 15%

fear SPAM or sales calls leave the site completely

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you try to download an article or access a product page and are forced to enter your contact information?

of the IT Committee provides fake information when they complete a

lead capture form

59%

26 A Lead Capture for is a technique used by companies to collect contact information, usually when someone downloads a piece of information the company has published or a webinar they

have held. Is the information you provide on Lead Capture forms truthful?

How many of you

have had Mickey

Mouse download

your content?

61% In market

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Those in market for IT

solutions are more likely to

provide fake information

At least sometimes provide fake info

41% Not in market

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IT Committee Members actively looking for an enterprise IT Solution (in-market)

Gating content too early or too often decreases consideration

How likely are you to consider an IT vendor whose first piece of content you see requires you to provide your contact information?

41% 81%

are less likely to consider a vendor who

gates the FIRST piece of content are less likely to consider a vendor who

gates ALL content

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Nurturing leads through content is vital because most are

not ready to talk to sales

When researching a specific major enterprise IT / security solution, how many pieces of content related to that solution do you typically need to consume before you are ready to be

contacted by a sales representative?

of content before they are ready to talk to a sales rep.

5 pieces

The average IT Committee member needs to

consume

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Lead gen and branding don’t need to be separate

TRADITIONAL

LEAD GENERATION

SOCIAL

RELATIONSHIPS

VALUABLE

CONTENT

SWEET SPOT

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Publish and promote your content in places on LinkedIn

where the IT Committee is engaging the most

1LinkedIn Internal Data – 4/1/2014 through 4/30/2014

The Feed starts the conversation

2x as active on desktop in the feed than members1

Groups for expert articles & content

2x as active in groups than members1

Ensure content is mobile friendly

25% more active on mobile than members1

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What does the IT Committee want to hear about from experts?

Base: IT Committee n=181, circle size shows relative % ranked BIGGEST impact

Which of these topics do you see having the biggest impact for your organization and which you would share with your network?

Discussions on how technologyis changing the way we work

Cloud-based applications

Data Management

Cloud Storage

Network Security

“First Look” at new products or solutions

Enterprise Social Networking

Industry Event Promotion andRegistration

% Would Share with Network

% R

anked T

op 4

Topic

s

0% 50% 100%

100%

50%

IT Topics and Intent to Share

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Marketer Implications

Earn trust with broad-based content that goes beyond your brand’s self-interests

Incorporate an “always on” content strategy with a variety of content – gated and un-gated

Leverage your employees and company specialists as experts

Utilize LinkedIn’s Content Marketing Score to optimize and measure your content

Prepare for the future of LinkedIn

Thank you!