Econsultancy-Guide-to-LinkedIn-Marketing-Solutions

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Guide to LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

Guide to LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

Econsultancy London

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Published March 2016

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Guide to LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Page 3

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and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Copyright © Econsultancy.com Ltd 2016

Contents

1. Introduction ............................................................... 6

2. What is LinkedIn? ..................................................... 8

3. Why is LinkedIn a Boon in your Marketing Toolkit? .....................................................................10

3.1. LinkedIn from the bottom up: LinkedIn profiles, the basic building block ..................................................................... 11

3.1.1. LinkedIn profile types explained ................................... 12

3.1.2. Some features and functionality explained ................... 16

3.2. The Anatomy of your personal LinkedIn account ............. 19

3.2.1. Your LinkedIn homepage............................................... 19

3.2.2. Your LinkedIn profile page ........................................... 20

3.2.3. The value of completing your personal LinkedIn profile .............................................................................24

3.2.4. Personal profile best practice ......................................... 25

3.2.5. Functionality: see who has viewed your LinkedIn profile ............................................................................. 25

3.3. Using the ‘advanced search’ function ................................. 27

3.3.1. Using the ‘advanced search’ function – tips .................. 27

3.4. Managing your connections tab ........................................ 28

4. Company Pages ........................................................ 30

4.1. Anatomy of a LinkedIn company page .............................. 31

4.2. Company pages tips and best practice .............................. 32

4.3. Company page management and best practice ................ 33

5. LinkedIn Groups ...................................................... 35

5.1. How to set up your own LinkedIn group .......................... 36

5.2. Best practice tips for running a group .............................. 36

6. About Pulse: The LinkedIn Publisher Platform ...... 37

6.1. Pulse integration within the Newsfeed ............................. 39

6.2. LinkedIn Pulse best practice ............................................. 40

6.3. About LinkedIn Elevate – harnessing the power of employees ............................................................................ 41

6.4. LinkedIn Elevate’s functionality ....................................... 42

6.5. Considerations for making Elevate available to staff ....... 42




7. An Overview of LinkedIn Advertising Opportunities ........................................................... 43

7.1. Types of LinkedIn advertising: enterprise solutions ........ 43

7.2. Sponsored updates ............................................................ 46

7.2.1. Company updates, direct sponsored content and sponsored updates ........................................................ 46

7.2.2. The difference between direct sponsored content and sponsored updates ......................................................... 47

7.3. LinkedIn Ads ...................................................................... 48

7.4. Who can be targeted with LinkedIn advertisements and sponsored content? ............................................................ 48

7.4.1. Anatomy of a LinkedIn text advertisement .................. 50

7.5. Lead Accelerator (no longer active) ................................... 51

7.6. Getting started with LinkedIn advertising ........................ 52

7.7. Some LinkedIn Advertising Guidance ...............................53

7.7.1. The good: targeting ........................................................ 53

7.7.2. The good: audience sizing .............................................. 53

7.7.3. The good: self-service tool ............................................. 53

7.8. The not-so-good ................................................................. 54

7.8.1. The not-so-good: the ads ............................................... 54

7.8.2. The not-so-good: managing a large number of campaigns ....................................................................... 55

7.8.3. The not-so-good: cost ..................................................... 55

7.9. Measuring LinkedIn advertising performance ................. 56

7.9.1. A note on using Google Analytics URL builder to track campaigns ....................................................................... 57

7.9.2. A note on LinkedIn average click-through rates ........... 61

7.9.3. LinkedIn Ads API ........................................................... 61

7.9.4. Case study: sponsored updates ...................................... 61

8. LinkedIn as a Content Marketing Platform ............ 63

8.1. Best practice guidelines re content formats ...................... 64

8.2. Maximising content visibility ............................................ 65

9. Case Study: Leveraging the Networked Power of Employees for Content Marketing .......................... 67

9.1. Summary ............................................................................. 67

9.2. Objectives and aims ............................................................ 67

9.3. Implementation, execution and tactics .............................. 67

9.4. Results ................................................................................ 68




10. LinkedIn’s Mobile Apps .......................................... 69

11. Appendix .................................................................. 70

11.1. About the author ................................................................ 70

11.2. Glossary of terms ............................................................... 70

11.3. A note on SlideShare........................................................... 72

11.4. SlideShare advertising ........................................................ 75

11.5. SlideShare best practice ...................................................... 75

11.6. Content marketing resources ............................................ 78




1. Introduction LinkedIn is the unattractive and often ignored sleeping giant of the social networks. At the time of

writing, over half of the world’s 770 million professionals have LinkedIn access and, in the wake

of its consistent subscriber growth, it presents a formidable platform that enables B2B marketers

to develop commercial relationships with potential new customers in a trusted, highly-respected

environment.

From launch over a decade ago in 2003, the organisation has grown exponentially from its

humble roots as a niche social networking site for professionals, to become a veritable content

powerhouse that has corporation executives enthusing over the marketing possibilities inherent

in its demographic data and targeted advertising.1

The purpose of this guide is to help mentor B2B marketers to extract maximum value from

LinkedIn’s comprehensive range of products and features. Econsultancy has specifically designed

this guide to be easily understood, supported by visual examples and case studies so that

recommendations can be readily taken on board by time-poor B2B marketers on the ground.

This document has been designed as a guide to using LinkedIn for marketing purposes, both from

a strategic and functional point of view.

The document begins by explaining the fundamentals of building a compelling LinkedIn profile.

This includes a brief discussion of the pros and cons of the various subscriber accounts. It

concludes with a list of recommendations about how to utilise the various profile features and

how these can be used collectively to generate ‘trust signals’ to position you as a top-ranking

business professional.

As a publishing platform, LinkedIn offers scale and dedicated networks, segmented by industry,

hosting expert blog posts, forums (in the form of LinkedIn Groups) and even a dedicated news

stream that can drive millions of page views (much like the early days of Digg and Reddit). On the

other hand, LinkedIn increasingly facilitates how users stay informed through sharing news,

knowledge and relevant content.

This document will examine how LinkedIn provides a formidable commercial opportunity for

content marketing via the following solutions:

Company pages

Sponsored updates

SlideShare

Groups

Pulse

Finally, LinkedIn’s advertising opportunities will be examined, including:

Onsite display advertising

Network display advertising

Sponsored updates

Sponsored InMails

1 https://econsultancy.com/blog/62337-three-content-marketing-tips-from-linkedin-on-reaching-its-audience

https://econsultancy.com/blog/62337-three-content-marketing-tips-from-linkedin-on-reaching-its-audience





The functionality, use cases and elements for successful execution will be examined for each

solution in turn.

Further opportunities for B2B marketers will be discussed, including setting up your own group,

best practice guidelines around managing your profile and making use of LinkedIn for

professional networking. Each LinkedIn product is underpinned by robust tracking and

measurement tools.

The report will conclude with a brief overview of LinkedIn Elevate, a tool for harnessing the

power of employees to support them in acting as influencers on behalf of the organisation.




2. What is LinkedIn? LinkedIn is the premier global social network for professionals, with more than 400 million

registered members from over 200 countries at the time of writing this report2. That represents

over half of the 770 million professionals on the planet, making it the largest single online group

of influential, affluent and educated individuals.

The United States accounts for the mainstay of subscribers, with 118 million registered members,

followed by India with 31 million and the UK with 19 million members3. However, in Q1 2015,

more than 75% of new members came to LinkedIn from outside the US, with China being the key

engine of new subscriber growth in 2014/15.

The site is available in over 24 languages. The LinkedIn mission4 is to connect the world’s

professionals in order to make them more productive and successful:

“Our mission is to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and

successful. We believe that prioritising the needs of our members is the most effective

and, ultimately, the most profitable means to accomplish our mission and create long-

term value for all stakeholders.

“We design our solutions to empower professionals to achieve greater professional

success, while simultaneously enabling customers to identify and connect with the

world’s best and most relevant talent.”

Before examining how LinkedIn can be utilised as a powerful B2B marketing tool, it is useful to

draw a thumbnail sketch of its business model in order to set the scene. LinkedIn generates

revenues from the following divisions and services:

Talent solutions. Recruiters and corporations pay for the following5:

– Corporate solutions – recruiter, job slots, recruitment media, career pages, talent pipeline

– Job postings

– Recruiter Lite

– Job Seeker

– Pay-per-click job advertisements that can be targeted to other LinkedIn users who match

the job criteria.

– Access to the database of LinkedIn users and CVs

Marketing solutions

– Enterprise solutions – display ads, sponsored InMail, Lead Accelerator (delivers sales

leads via relevant ad and content engagement)

– Sponsored updates

– LinkedIn ads

– Ads API

– Content marketing and distribution – LinkedIn Pulse, SlideShare, company pages, groups,

Elevate

2 http://www.statista.com/statistics/274050/quarterly-numbers-of-linkedin-members/ 3 https://press.linkedin.com/about-linkedin 4 LinkedIn Annual report 2014. Available from: https://investors.linkedin.com/results-and-financials/annual-reports/default.aspx 5 Note: This report has been designed to specifically cover LinkedIn as a sales and marketing tool. A brief overview of LinkedIn’s Recruiter solution is included in the glossary at the back of this document.

http://www.statista.com/statistics/274050/quarterly-numbers-of-linkedin-members/

https://press.linkedin.com/about-linkedin

https://investors.linkedin.com/results-and-financials/annual-reports/default.aspx





Sales solutions: Sales Navigator

Premium subscriptions. LinkedIn users pay for premium subscriptions, which are

available at different levels depending on the functionality required: ‘Business Plus’,

‘Executive’, ‘Professional’.

Some elements of the various subscription services, like InMail, are also on a pay-per-use basis.

LinkedIn is all about business

“LinkedIn, unlike Facebook and Twitter, is all about business. The mindset and intent are naturally more

receptive to solving business problems than the kind of socialising and sharing that happens elsewhere.”

Brian Clarke, founder of Copyblogger6

The B2B marketing process of reaching, nurturing and converting prospects has only become

more problematic as consumers move across different devices, in turn complicating the funnel

and conversion path. LinkedIn addresses this conundrum by offering an end-to-end suite of

advertising products reaching potential clients at the top of the funnel down to the final

conversion. The image below shows how LinkedIn marketing solutions can impact every stage of

the typical sales funnel.

Figure 1: LinkedIn marketing data: How LinkedIn’s own marketing products

impact the sales funnel

Source: LinkedIn Advertising and Marketing Solutions, https://business.linkedin.com/en-uk/marketing-

solutions

More than three million businesses maintain an active presence through LinkedIn Company

Pages, providing a key point of access to a network of over 400 million registered users. Many

professionals, while rushing to register on the platform and perhaps ‘dabbling’ in it, are not

realising its full potential, thus squandering the opportunity to expand their business network.

6 https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/campaigns/pdfs/Linkedin_SophGuide_011614.pdf

https://business.linkedin.com/en-uk/marketing-solutions


https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/campaigns/pdfs/Linkedin_SophGuide_011614.pdf

https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/campaigns/pdfs/Linkedin_SophGuide_011614.pdf




3. Why is LinkedIn a Boon in your

Marketing Toolkit? LinkedIn is often perceived as a social platform primarily benefitting recruiters and candidates.

This perception probably stems from its Talent Solutions product, which contributed a total of

62% of Q2 2015 earnings. However, 18% of LinkedIn revenues came from Premium

Subscriptions, the remaining 20% coming from Marketing Solutions, making up advertising and

sponsored updates.

Figure 2: LinkedIn sources of revenues, Q4 2015

Source: https://press.linkedin.com/about-linkedin

We should also evaluate LinkedIn’s importance in the context of its consistent worldwide growth

since its launch in 2003. The UK’s usage growth for example over the last ten years has been

consistent and is often understated. In 2010 there were just two million UK registered users but,

by March 2012, this had risen to ten million. This registrations figure is predicted to reach 18

million by the end of 2015.





Figure 3: Global registered members, Q1 2016

Source: https://press.linkedin.com/about-linkedin

3.1. LinkedIn from the bottom up: LinkedIn profiles, the

basic building block The fundamental building block of LinkedIn is the personal profile which reads somewhat like a

curriculum vitae or resume where registered members present their professional image by

populating the profile with information such as their education, career history and skills.

Individuals can include other data such as key achievements, awards, publications and

presentations.

From a marketing point of view, and indeed from LinkedIn’s point of view, the USP of its sales,

marketing and recruitment value proposition is that the more information that individuals

publish about themselves, the better the product.

LinkedIn’s advertising product can be used to target people based on key criteria as follows:

1. Location

2. Company name

3. Company category

4. Company size

5. Industry

6. Job title or job category (function or level of seniority)





For example, Figure 4 shows how LinkedIn advertising can be used to target marketing directors

based in Singapore.

Figure 4: LinkedIn advertising audience targeting interface

LinkedIn’s targeting capability can be used for a number of its products, including recruitment,

targeted advertising and email marketing via its InMail product.

3.1.1. LinkedIn profile types explained

LinkedIn offers several levels of Personal Profile. These range from free to professional profiles

which incur monthly or annual fees but offer a number of benefits such as the ability to send

targeted messages (InMails) to other users and the setting up of alerts for saved searches. The

business case for the different types of premium account may depend upon the profile owner’s

business objective or profession.

LinkedIn offers different kinds of premium accounts depending on the type of relationship that a

member might want to develop. Thus, there are premium account types aimed specifically at job

seekers, sales professionals and recruitment professionals. There is also an option for the general

professional who wants to get more out of LinkedIn. The premium account types are detailed in

Table 1.

The basic (free) LinkedIn profile

The basic (free) LinkedIn profile is fairly comprehensive and provides account holders with access

to the following functionality:

1. Building a professional profile.

2. Building a network of connections with no limit to the size of an individual’s personal

network.

On LinkedIn, the basic type of connection is a contact that a user knows personally and who

they trust on a professional level. Once an individual has ‘connected’ to somebody on

LinkedIn, the new connection is considered a first-degree connection.

Users also have an extended network of connections made up of people that their connections

know. Connections can be:




a. First degree – direct connection. You will see a ‘1st’ icon next to their name in search results

and on their profile. You can then contact them by sending a message on LinkedIn.

b. Second degree – people who are connected to your first-degree connections. You’ll see a

‘2nd’ icon next to their name in search results and on their profile. You can send them an

invitation by clicking on ‘connect’ or contact them through an InMail.

c. Third degree – people who are connected to your second-degree connections. You’ll see a

‘3rd’ icon next to their name in search results and on their profile. If their full first and last

names are displayed, invitations can be sent to them by clicking on ‘connect’. If only the

first letter of their last name is displayed, clicking on ‘connect’ isn’t an option but they can

be contacted through an InMail.

d. Fellow LinkedIn groups members – these individuals are considered part of your network

because you’re members of the same group. You’ll see a ‘group’ icon next to their name in

search results and on their profile. You can contact them by sending a message on LinkedIn

or through the group.

e. Out of network – LinkedIn members who fall outside of the categories listed above. You

can only contact them through an InMail or if they have a premium account and have an

open profile7.

3. Ability to send unlimited private messages to first-degree connections.

4. Users may provide and receive an unlimited number of endorsements and recommendations.

5. Users can join and also create up to 50 separate groups.

6. Performing an unlimited number of searches for LinkedIn members in your extended

network.

An overview of paid LinkedIn profiles

LinkedIn offers a few levels of paid accounts, each with a specific level of benefits. LinkedIn has

Premium account options for job seekers, sales and talent professionals, as well as the general

professional who wants to get more out of LinkedIn. A full breakdown of the features included in

premium accounts is included in Table 1.

As a broad overview, the main features of paid accounts include the following functionality:

1. The ability to send a message to any other member within the LinkedIn community, whether

they are a connection or not, through LinkedIn’s InMail tool.

2. Advanced search functionality allows premium users to view profile information of people not

in their networks. For free account types, users will only see a limited amount of information

for the people not in their networks.

3. See who has looked at your profile. While this is available for free accounts, premium account

functionality allows users to get an extended list of who’s viewed their profile over the last 90

days. Basic members only see the last five people who have viewed their profile. In addition,

premium members can organise who has viewed their profile by date, location, company, job

and how they found their profile.

4. Premium members can have an open profile. An open profile allows members to find and get

in touch with other professionals who are open to networking. This means that open profiles

are open to allowing anyone to make contact with the open profile holder and will allow

people not in their network to see their full details.

7 Open profiles are available to premium account holders and allow such holders to make their profile open, meaning that all of their details can be viewed even by LinkedIn members out of the account holders network. In addition, members with open profiles can be contacted by people not in their network via LinkedIn messages. That means that basic account holders do not need to pay for InMails to contact the open profile member.




There are two specific features to open profiles that premium members may value:

a. Open profile takes away that cost for basic members to send messages via InMail who are

not first-degree connections. Otherwise, basic users can only send free messages to their

first-degree connections.

b. Visibility within search results. Usually, when using LinkedIn’s search function, the details

that people can see vary according to the closeness of their connections and also the

membership level of the person searching. If you are not in someone’s network (that means

your first-, second- and third-degree connections) then they won’t be able to see your

name, just your job title and will only be able to see a reduced profile for you.

Even third-degree connections will only see your first name and the first letter of your

surname. However, members with an open profile can allow all of their details to be visible,

no matter what their relationship with the person searching. This may be of benefit to

people who want to make sure that they are easy to find.

5. With the ‘How You Rank’ tool, members can see how they compare to others in their network

in terms of profile views and receive personalised recommendations on how to increase their

visibility.

6. Top keyword suggestions – custom keyword suggestions for subscribers’ profiles to appear

more often in search results.

7. Saved search alerts – alerts allow subscribers to stay up to date on key activities, such as

searches for candidates, leads or other decision makers.

8. InMail messages – premium account holders can send direct messages to anyone on

LinkedIn.




Table 1: LinkedIn premium account types

Premium account type

Account features Cost (as of Sep-2015)

Job Seeker (formerly ‘business’)

1. Three InMail credits per month for contacting recruiters and job posters directly.

2. Feature at the top of recruiters’ applicant lists.

3. See who’s viewed your profile in the last 90 days and how they found you.

4. Applicant insights – see how you compare with other job applicants.

£19.99 pm

Sales Navigator 1. Designed for sales professionals.

2. 15 InMail credits per month.

3. Advanced search.

4. Custom lead building functionality for creating lead lists.

5. Lead recommendations – discover more people at target accounts.

6. Who’s viewed your profile – see who has viewed your profile in the last 90 days and how they found you.

7. Unlimited profile search up to third-degree profiles.

8. Sales insight on accounts and leads.

9. Account pages – get company updates for targeted accounts.

10. TeamLink – find colleagues who can provide introductions to people at target accounts.

£44.99 pm

Recruiter Lite 1. LinkedIn for recruitment professionals.

2. General premium accounts features plus the following:

a. 30 InMail credits per month with accompanying InMail templates.

b. Advanced search, with search filters designed for recruiting.

c. Candidate tracking functionality.

d. Who’s viewed your profile – see who has viewed your profile in the last 90 days and how they found you.

e. Unlimited profile search up to third-degree profiles.

f. Integrated hiring allows users to manage their whole candidate pool via the LinkedIn Recruiter Lite interface.

£64.95 pm

Business Plus 1. 15 InMail messages per month.

2. Advanced search.

3. Who’s viewed your profile – see who has viewed your profile in the last 90 days and how they found you.

£29.99 pm




3.1.2. Some features and functionality explained

Premium Search

In addition, premium subscribers can make use of dynamic tools such as premium search. This

function allows registered LinkedIn members to narrow their results by searching with the same

parameters as LinkedIn Advertising. It also allows premium users access to full profiles before

choosing to contact them. Also, once a search is set up, premium users can get email alerts when

new profiles are created or edited which match the search parameters.

Table 2: Comparison of free and premium search functionality

Basic profile search Premium profile search

Relationship (e.g. first-degree connection)

Location (country and city)

Current company

School

Profile language

Non-profit interests

Relationship (e.g. first-degree connection)

Location (country and city)

Current company

School

Profile language

Non-profit interests

Shared groups

Years of experience

Function

Seniority level

Interested in

Company size

Figure 5: LinkedIn people search interface




Who Viewed Your Profile?

A key feature of LinkedIn is that it allows users to see who has been looking at their profiles.

LinkedIn allows users to see who has viewed their profile if they, in turn, switch on the setting to

allow others to see if they have viewed their profile. However, with a premium account, users can

see who has been looking at their profile without having to give up their own viewing privacy. In

addition, rather than simply seeing who has viewed the profile, users can also get to see which

keywords people searched to get to their profile.

As well as seeing the top keywords that people are using to find your profile, users can see more

about people viewing their profile such as their industry and location.

The following excerpt from the LinkedIn website provides a detailed explanation of the difference

between the free and premium features regarding the ‘who’s viewed your profile’ functionality.

LinkedIn basic and premium features

Free account

If you have your setting adjusted to display your name and headline when viewing profiles, you’ll see up to the

most recent five viewers in the last 90 days, as well as a list of suggestions for increasing your profile views.

Once you have five or more viewers in a 90-day period, you’ll see a graph of viewer trends above the list of

viewers. The graph displays weekly trends for views of your profile over the past 90 days, as well as other viewer

insights such as:

– Where your viewers work and live.

– Where they came from in finding you.

– Their industry and job titles.

Premium account

You’ll see the entire list of viewers from the past 90 days. If you have at least one viewer in the past 90 days,

you’ll also see the viewer trends and insights.

In addition to the free account experience, you’ll be able to click into the weekly data points to drill your viewer

list down to viewers from that week. You can do the same for viewer insights.

With any account, you may see a row of suggested actions you can take to increase your profile views. These

include prompts to follow influencers, join groups, and add skills. It can also include suggestions of people you

may wish to connect to; however, these people didn’t view your profile. If you have a Premium account, you may

need to scroll past this row to see the rest of your viewers.

Note: If people choose the setting to remain anonymous when looking, even if you have a Premium account, you

won’t see the names of viewers who chose to display themselves as anonymous. We respect the privacy of

members who choose not to reveal information about themselves when viewing profiles.

Source: LinkedIn8

8 https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4508/~/who%E2%80%99s-viewed-your-profile---basic-and-premium-features

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4508/~/who%E2%80%99s-viewed-your-profile---basic-and-premium-features

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4508/~/who%E2%80%99s-viewed-your-profile---basic-and-premium-features




InMail

InMail messages are sent directly to another LinkedIn member that you are not connected to.

This means that they are different to the messaging functionality for contacting existing

connections. Thus, users that have a basic (free) account must upgrade to a premium account to

use InMail. Members receive a specific number of InMail credits based on their subscription type.

See Table 1 for details on InMail allocation per account type.

Author’s opinion of LinkedIn premium

In 2014, LinkedIn repositioned its premium account types to serve specific business cases:

1. Get hired: Job Seeker.

2. Find sales opportunities: Sales Navigator.

3. Find and recruit staff: Recruiter Lite.

4. Enhance your professional life: Business Plus.

This was a ground-breaking move as it provided LinkedIn with a platform for repositioning its product to

serve specific functions whereas in the past the organisation just had different levels of ‘business’ accounts.

There is no doubt that the basic LinkedIn account offers much in the way of functionality and may be all that is

required for some individuals. However, in my (the author’s) view, if you have specific business goals,

particularly around any of the business cases that LinkedIn has used to formulate its premium accounts, then it

is worth the investment. I would suggest that the decision to pay for LinkedIn Premium should be a simple one

for job seekers, sales professionals, recruiters and, of course, business development stakeholders.

I myself have a Business Plus account which I find invaluable as a business development tool as it enables me to

elevate my profile among fellow professionals with whom I share mutual connections and/or interests.

Furthermore, I find the InMail feature useful for contacting potential business contacts that I don’t know, even

more useful than emailing. The key thing to remember is that while premium accounts offer extra layers of

functionality, they only deliver real value when account holders make the effort to exploit that

functionality.

My account provides me with the following functionality:

Ability to see full profiles of everyone on LinkedIn, regardless of whether or not they are in my network.

15 InMail messages per month.

Advanced search.

Who’s viewed my profile.

I can save search alerts which allow me to get notified when new profiles fit the criteria that I have specified.




3.2. The Anatomy of your personal LinkedIn account

3.2.1. Your LinkedIn homepage

Having signed into your personal LinkedIn account, your first visible page is the LinkedIn

homepage.

The homepage has been designed to encourage interactivity by displaying analytics and traffic on

your own profile, a data feed displaying news and sponsored content based on your contacts and

followed companies, and some simple suggestions for keeping in touch with existing contacts.

The homepage has been designed to direct users to engage with LinkedIn in some way:

1. The profile analytics at the top displays some highlight analytics such as to how many people

viewed your profile and the number of views on recent updates. It also includes triggers for

users to update their profile as well as the opportunity to drill down into more analytics data.

2. The upper-right corner of the page shows updates for contacts and also suggestions for new

contacts via an animated carousel. This allows users to make new connections directly from

the homepage.

3. The bulk of the homepage is made up of the newsfeed which includes updates from

connections and followed companies as well as targeted sponsored content and

advertisements.

4. On the right, LinkedIn may display advertising and suggest companies to follow.

Figure 6: The anatomy of the LinkedIn home page




3.2.2. Your LinkedIn profile page

Your profile page represents an excellent opportunity for presenting yourself as professional,

credible, approachable and trustworthy. This is the gateway to your professional identity and will

be used by potential business partners, employers and sales targets to evaluate whether or not

they would like to do business with you. Your profile is a snapshot of your professional and

personal brand. Think of it as a digital advertisement which has the sole purpose of selling

you and your accomplishments.

Investing time to craft a compelling profile is the single most important aspect of your LinkedIn

marketing strategy. This report is not designed to go through the process of creating a LinkedIn

profile. The LinkedIn user interface does an excellent job of walking users through this process.

From a best practice point of view, you can optimise your LinkedIn profile by including the

following information:

1. A high-quality avatar photograph.

Displaying a quality photo really matters and represents a key part of your personal brand.

First impressions count. LinkedIn’s own research shows that just having a picture makes your

profile a staggering 14 times more likely to be viewed by others.

Here are some LinkedIn profile photo tips9:

a. Choose a photo that clearly looks like you. That means choosing a photo that is up-to-date

and so isn’t 20 years old or before you grew a beard! A rule of thumb is that the picture

should reflect what you look like on a daily basis (glasses, make-up, hairstyle etc.)

b. LinkedIn recommends that your face should take up 60% of the frame. This means not

including other people in the picture and only including your head and shoulders.

c. Choose a professional expression. This means appearing professional, friendly and

approachable. Potential business contacts need to see you as somebody that they can

imagine having a good conversation with.

d. Be dressed for work.

e. Avoid distracting backgrounds. The background should be simple so your face can be the

focal point of the picture.

2. Customise your LinkedIn URL.

This is useful for adding the URL to your email auto signature and business cards.

3. Populate your LinkedIn headline to showcase your personal brand.

By default, LinkedIn will populate your profile headline with your current job title and

employer. Most people do not change this. Remember, you are defining yourself by your own

personal brand, not your current job title. With that in mind, populate your LinkedIn headline

to showcase your personal brand.

The following are some approaches you might consider when crafting your LinkedIn headline:

a. What you do, how you do it and who you are doing it for e.g. digital marketing consultant

who teaches digital marketing courses using novel examples and hands-on workshops for

various corporate clients. You could also include adding details regarding proof of

experience e.g. ‘Delivered over 1,000 seats of training to date’.

9 5 Tips for Picking the Right LinkedIn Profile Picture. Available from: https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/2014/12/5-tips-for-picking-the-right-linkedin-profile-picture

https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/2014/12/5-tips-for-picking-the-right-linkedin-profile-picture

https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/2014/12/5-tips-for-picking-the-right-linkedin-profile-picture




b. Using profile keywords and explaining your niche area of expertise e.g. ‘Digital Marketing –

Specialising in upskilling marketing teams in all things digital.’

c. If you are looking for work/clients consider asking a question followed by what problems

you can solve. For example: ‘Need to train your team in the latest digital marketing skills?

Digital marketing trainer that has worked with a range of large corporate clients

specialising in upskilling in-house teams.’

4. Provide contact information.

It is up to you whether to make your contact information available. The optimal strategy is of

course to make this information available and indeed provide people with multiple ways of

contacting you based on what is most appropriate for them. That means including an up-to-

date landline/mobile phone number, email address, Twitter handle, Skype username and, if

appropriate, up to two related websites.

Figure 7: Anatomy of an up-to-date profile page

5. Complete your summary to provide an accurate description of yourself.

The summary remains one of the most important sections on your LinkedIn profile page in

the manner of a summary on a curriculum vitae/resume. It is the only area on your profile

where you can define yourself from scratch, kindling the interest of others and encouraging

people to connect with you. Consequently, you need to ensure you project an authentic

description of yourself which truly reflects your professional abilities.

When completing your summary consider the following:

a. Who is your audience and what do they expect to see?

b. Articulate your operating principles and the things that ‘energise’ you. For example, in my

own profile this equates to “digital innovation, new disruptive technologies and training”.

Describe your skills, experience and tasks you think you do better than anyone else. Make

the content easy to read by dividing content into short bullet points.

c. Consider adding points of differentiation or a snippet of your personal interests.

d. Write your summary as if you were taking a moment to introduce yourself to potential

clients. Consider how they would like you to present to them.




Writing your LinkedIn profile summary

“Choosing the right words can be incredibly effective as in demonstrating your talents without arrogance and not

appearing to be self-absorbed. Key questions to ask include: Are you in command of your narrative? Does your

summary do you professional justice?

“A summary is a short version of why you do what you do, in your own words. It is not enough just to let your

experience speak for itself but you need a narrative to ensure that your professional online prospectus is unique,

engaging and well written. Your summary is your chance to not only say what you’re good at, it’s also your

opportunity to differentiate yourself, in a remarkable and memorable way.”

Andy Foote, LinkedIn commentator10

The image below shows a detailed summary page of Ashley Friedlein, Econsultancy’s

Founder, with added SlideShare presentations.

Figure 8: Example of a LinkedIn profile which integrates SlideShare

presentations via the summary section

10 http://www.linkedinsights.com/3-stunningly-good-linkedin-profile-summaries/

http://www.linkedinsights.com/3-stunningly-good-linkedin-profile-summaries/




6. Use SlideShare presentations to support your summary.

Integrating SlideShare presentations into your profile is an often under-utilised tool which

can be useful in establishing professional credibility and trust. SlideShare is a useful tool for

sharing presentations, videos, infographics, personal portfolios and PDF documents. Its

strategic importance as a tool to enhance connections via visual content is demonstrated by

LinkedIn integrating it into a new tab in its navigation menu under ‘interests’ and integrating

it in a primary position to support profile summaries as shown in Figure 11.

7. Use recommendations to endorse your work.

A powerful tactic for validating professional credentials is the addition of recommendations

from business colleagues and clients. This reinforces your personal brand and demonstrates

credibility. When editing your LinkedIn profile, there is an option to request a

recommendation. You can be recommended for any of the positions you have listed on your

profile. LinkedIn will display the relationship of the person providing the recommendation for

the time that the recommendation applies.

Figure 9: Accessing the ‘ask for recommendations tool’ on LinkedIn

8. Add endorsements.

Endorsements are a quick way to provide you and your first-degree connections with the

opportunity to endorse one another for a specific skill. Endorsements have been widely used

but have limited value as people who endorse you may never have worked with you, but from




data collection and marketing perspective, it will enable you to be filtered and found against a

wider portfolio of skills.

9. Edit your background.

LinkedIn allows you to edit your background and add an image which can be very powerful

for branding purposes.

Figure 10: Ashley Friedlein’s background image

3.2.3. The value of completing your personal LinkedIn profile

A key marketing benefit in completing your profile page is to ensure that you will appear in

LinkedIn’s search results as expressed through the profile strength tab displayed in the top right

of your profile page. This is only accessible to the profile owner.

When you have completed an up-to-date profile page, LinkedIn evaluates its completeness by

ranking its profile strength. Achieving an ‘all-star’ profile weighting will dramatically improve the

potential of you being found in LinkedIn’s own search results when anyone searches for your job

function heading.

Figure 11: Profile completeness and its impact on profile strength




Let us explain how an ‘all-star’ status impacts your LinkedIn visibility. If someone searched on my

last name or job headline and my profile page was incomplete i.e. ‘expert’, ‘intermediate’ or

‘beginner’, all of the other ‘all-star’ profiles would rank higher and push me down the LinkedIn

search rankings.

LinkedIn’s search algorithm filters and displays results in this order:

1. Profile completeness (100% only).

2. Connections in common (shared).

3. Connections by degree in descending order.

4. Groups in common (shared).

3.2.4. Personal profile best practice

Profile completeness is a key contributory factor for maximising B2B marketers’ visibility for any

potential clients searching for your profession or service. LinkedIn’s own research has shown that

a fully completed profile will increase your chances of being found 40-fold. In addition, this also

substantially improves your chances of returning in Google organic search rankings, should

somebody search for your name, given that LinkedIn is a highly trusted and authoritative domain.

Below are some profile recommendations for achieving an ‘All-Star’ status:

Update your current work industry and location.

Make sure you select an industry that best suits your current situation from the choices given.

An up-to-date summary with a description.

Craft an up-to-date professional story, in your own style.

Last two career positions.

Include at least your last two previous job roles, including titles.

Your education – populate your key education milestones, including school, university, degree

and qualifications.

Your skills – you need to select a minimum of three skills to get a 100% completed profile.

Include a professional photo.

Build a minimum network of 50 first-degree connections.

Connect with colleagues, business partners, alumni etc. The number of connections that an

individual has can be seen as a trust factor for somebody choosing to interact with you.

3.2.5. Functionality: see who has viewed your LinkedIn profile

This functionality provides excellent business insights into who is looking at your profile, who has

looked at your posts and how you rank in comparison to your first-degree connections.

This may make have ‘fly on the wall’ connotations when you first start using it but it can provide

some useful data and insights for B2B marketers.




Figure 12: LinkedIn profile analytics

Understanding the value of the LinkedIn personal profile – the

foundation stone of LinkedIn

This tool can provide B2B marketers with invaluable insights, including the following:

Quickly and easily recognise the type of people and businesses who are showing interest in

you as a representative of the brand you work for. This might include post-campaign analysis

or better understanding new client activity as a result of your B2B marketing efforts.

Access more ‘granular’ (i.e. segmented) data from views to give you marketing insights into:

– Where your viewers work and live.

– The source of their referral and how they came to find you.

– Their industry and job titles.

– How you currently rank in profile visibility against your contemporaries.

The impact of your Pulse posts on your first-degree network and insights on demographic

profile of your readers. For more on LinkedIn Pulse, see Section 6.

The ‘how you rank’ tool, shown in Figure 12, shows your ranking by profile views compared to

others in your network and can facilitate the following:




– Generation of ideas for changes from the top five performers in your network and inspiring

changes to your own profile.

– Affording a better understanding of content used by the top performers and offering up

inspiration on ways to boost profile views and drive opportunities for advancement.

3.3. Using the ‘advanced search’ function One of the most powerful features of the LinkedIn platform is its dynamic search capability,

‘advanced search’. Part of Premium account paid accounts, it is an invaluable tool in terms of

simplicity, ease of use and the quality of data you can obtain and, of course, store.

Figure 13: LinkedIn advanced people search filtering options

Advanced search is accessible through clicking on the ‘advanced’ button as shown in the image

above.

3.3.1. Using the ‘advanced search’ function – tips

Below are some tips for using advanced search for your B2B marketing:

1. Use precise data searching.

All the data captured from LinkedIn’s 400 million plus subscribers is in a structured format.

This means that you can actually specify query terms for specific fields as shown above. For

example, if you’re searching for individuals working as a ‘senior digital marketer’ within the

insurance sector in the UK, you can do this via the filter options.

2. Advanced search allows for Boolean search.




Boolean-type search is available, meaning that you can combine keywords with operators

such as ‘and’, ‘not’ and ‘or’ to produce more relevant results. For example, a Boolean

search could be ‘Head of Marketing’ AND ‘New York’.

3. Advanced sorting.

Advanced search can sort search results by a number of degrees from you, which is

particularly useful for marketing if you are trying to find people closest to you in your

network.

4. Saving and updating data.

You can use the ‘saved search’ button in advanced search to save up to seven extensive saved

data searches a month as shown below. LinkedIn will allow you to set up an instant email/text

alert to notify you directly when any new subscribers matching your advanced search criteria

have joined the LinkedIn database.

Figure 14: LinkedIn saved searches function

3.4. Managing your connections tab

Add connections.

LinkedIn allows you to seamlessly synchronise your contact data via other sources such as

Hotmail, Gmail or Microsoft Outlook as shown here:

Figure 15: Adding connections




Connect with alumni.

The LinkedIn ‘find alumni’ tool provides you with information about how to connect with

alumni and former colleagues by identifying institutions where you have worked and studied,

and can show potential contacts based on timeline.

http://www.linkedin.com/alumni




4. Company Pages One of the best marketing opportunities on LinkedIn for your business is setting up your own

company page. This service is free and relatively easy to set up. Through a company page you can

market your business to the LinkedIn network, telling your own company’s story and giving

customers and potential customers a forum to learn about your business, employees and

brand(s).

LinkedIn company pages

“The biggest risk of not having a company page, especially for B2B, is a loss of discoverability. LinkedIn is

becoming the de-facto starting point when searching for partners and evaluating solutions.”

Shane Atchison, CEO at Possible11

LinkedIn’s own research has shown that LinkedIn members are 50% more likely to purchase from

a company which they like and engage with.12 Company pages are not just the preserve of larger

company brands, they can be easily resourced by smaller businesses provided there is a consistent

content output in terms of regular posting or newsfeed.

11 https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/campaigns/pdfs/soph-guide-refresh0827-eng-us.pdf 12 https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/s/set-your-company-success-linkedin-company-pages-part-1

https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/campaigns/pdfs/soph-guide-refresh0827-eng-us.pdf

https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/campaigns/pdfs/soph-guide-refresh0827-eng-us.pdf

https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/s/set-your-company-success-linkedin-company-pages-part-1

https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/blog/s/set-your-company-success-linkedin-company-pages-part-1




4.1. Anatomy of a LinkedIn company page The infographic below lays out the key components of a LinkedIn company page.

Figure 16: The anatomy of a company page: Econsultancy

For marketing purposes, a LinkedIn ‘Company Page’ is an opportunity for you to:

Display your brand vision and mission statement/purpose: e.g. Econsultancy’s clear vision in

red: “We’re here to help you achieve digital excellence”.

Engage with new advocates and followers and update them on relevant activities such as

events and digital training.

Drive word of mouth at scale.

Enable followers to join debates regarding relevant industry news.

Use the ‘showcase page’ function to highlight specific products or services to a specific

demographic market.

Segment company services into differing local geo-demographic regions.




4.2. Company pages tips and best practice Below are some best practice tips for creating a successful company page:

1. Complete a detailed company description.

Before you create a company page description, it is important to understand the audience you

are trying to reach. One method of doing so is to run a quick search for subscribers who fit

your customer profile and then investigate their profiles to identify the types of companies

they currently follow by scrolling down on their individual profile pages. This will help you

decide how to position your page. Once you have completed this task create a simple, clear

description of your business proposition which is strong enough to build followers.

Use rich, descriptive language that helps readers understand your vision, purpose and the

value you offer. Optimise to ensure company pages are very SEO-friendly. Google shows

previews of up to 156 characters of your page text, so be sure your description leads with

powerful, keyword-rich sentences. Members can also search for companies by keyword on

LinkedIn, so include words and phrases that describe your business, expertise and industry

focus.

2. Include company images.

Add your hero image – minimum 974 x 330 pixels – and your company logo.

3. Make the page easy to find.

Make sure to take advantage of your existing online properties by linking to your page from

your company website, blog, Twitter and other social platforms. Company pages also rank

highly in Google organic search so adding this information means you will have one more

property appearing in the top search results for your company. The upshot is that it will make

it even easier for professionals to find you.

4. Allocate consistent content resources and company updates.

Once you decide to have a company page, it is important that you resource it properly, which

means posting regular updates to keep your company followers engaged. In terms of

resourcing and frequency of updates, a good starting point is to take a look at your

competitors’ pages and see if they are active and what kind of engagement they get. Then use

this insight to plan a test period for resourcing, for example three months, and test differing

content types, styles and frequency.

5. Use analytics to inform your content plan.

You can use the excellent company page analytics to track engagement on posts, follower

growth, and key metrics and trends. You can then use this invaluable data to optimise, refine

and improve your content plan. Company analytics will provide the following information:

a. Audience data: all company followers.

b. Impressions: the number of times each update is shown to LinkedIn members.

c. Clicks: the number of clicks on the content, the company name or the company logo.

d. Interactions: the number of times people have liked, commented on or shared each

update.

e. Engagement: the number of interactions plus the number of clicks and followers

acquired, divided by the number of impressions.

6. Use sponsored updates to help grow followers.

Depending on your company size and budgets available, a recommendation for growing your

company page followers is using sponsored updates. Sponsored updates allow you to

distribute content, whitepapers or relevant events to more specifically targeted demographic

groups. LinkedIn offers pinpoint-accuracy targeting for reaching specific audiences.




7. Use the ‘showcase pages’ function to segment your company brands.

Showcase pages are extensions of your company page, designed for spotlighting a sub-brand,

business unit or service. It makes sense to create a showcase page when you want to establish

a dedicated page to represent a brand, business unit or specific service. For marketing

purposes, this creates a dedicated sub-product page with its own messages and audience

segments to share with.

4.3. Company page management and best practice It is worth investing the time to manage and design your company page from day one, as your

organisation will appear professional and credible. Before you create a new company page, check

whether a page has already been started by one of your employees, ex-employees or supporters. If

so, you can ‘claim‘ it and save confusion later on, as it is very difficult to get a LinkedIn company

page deleted once it has been set up and employees have ‘linked’ to it. Make sure you also check

for alternative or misspelled versions of your organisation’s name.

Below are some best practice suggestions:

Assign administrators.

Assign administrators for your company page, so that there is always someone who can access

it. Develop a plan for when staff leave so that they can be removed.

Include logos and imagery.

Cover image = 646 x 200 pixels.

The cover image option gives you an opportunity to add an eye-catching and attractive

graphic that visually sums up your organisation’s brand. You could use it to show pictures of

your employees, or to display changing messages supporting campaigns you are running.

Check your employee list and consider providing employees with content so that

they present a consistent view of the company.

Under ‘careers’/’view all employees’, you’ll be able to see a list of everyone on LinkedIn who

has listed your organisation as their current employer.

A note on showcase pages

Adding showcase pages for individual company brands will require more content resourcing if your goal is to develop new segmented audience for each product.13

13 Specific element of a showcase page: https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/44864/ft/eng

http://marketing.linkedin.com/company-pages/

http://marketing.linkedin.com/node/233

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/44864/ft/eng




Figure 17: Example of product showcase pages




5. LinkedIn Groups Setting up a group is a great opportunity for marketing professionals to build thought leadership

in the same industry, make business contacts, share quality content, find answers and establish

yourself in your industry niche. Groups vary in size, ranging from the huge groups of over

100,000 to more specialist groups such as the author’s group below, ‘Future Thinking in Digital

Marketing’.

LinkedIn allows you to join up to 50 groups by using the search feature at the top of your

homepage or viewing suggestions of groups you may like. Your chosen groups are then displayed

as part of your profile page.

Figure 18: An example of a group page

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/global/id/302/ft/eng

https://www.linkedin.com/groupsDirectory?recommendations




5.1. How to set up your own LinkedIn group Once you have considered your group subject you can start a new group by filling out the fields on

the ‘create a group page’ tab in groups under the ‘interest’ section of the top navigation and

populate the following information:

Group name.

Group summary – enter a brief description about your group and its purpose which will

appear in the group’s directory.

Group description – include a full description of this group which will appear on your group

pages.

Consider developing a group logo.

Agree access approval process.

The owner and manager of any group can then assign other members to be managers or

moderators once you have set up a group page.

5.2. Best practice tips for running a group

Running a group can be time-consuming and should be viewed as a long-term project. Here are

some tips:

Keep the group open as opposed to a closed members-only group.

The main difference is the restrictions of members-only group discussions which can only be

seen by other group members. Open group discussion threads can be seen by anyone on the

web and can be shared on other social networking platforms, making them much effective for

marketing and being found.

Post regular content which fits the profile of your group members.

It is important to try to post regular content, a minimum of one post a day to really build

engagement. This is a vital component of an active group to encourage engagement and

participation. Members also benefit. In Q1 2014 LinkedIn introduced a new way to encourage

users to contribute more in LinkedIn groups by launching a ‘top contributor’ icon visible to all

members and to any outsider viewing your profile.

Respond to discussions via the commenting and liking platforms.

This encourages wider discussion and lets members know the kind of discussions and content

you prefer, especially as the group manager.

Invite your first-degree connections to join, require approval for all members

and don’t hesitate to reject members if they do not fit the group’s purpose.

Moderate posted content.

Select the 100% moderation setting in the ‘manager’ tab. The downside is this might create

extra work but the upside is you eradicate any spam at source.

Be the friendly guide if group members need advice and also have a practical and

clear set of group rules to adhere to. Maximise the impact of your welcome message template

and include useful information like the group rules.




6. About Pulse: The LinkedIn Publisher

Platform LinkedIn’s publishing platform, Pulse, allows individuals to write posts which are published in

the Pulse section of the LinkedIn site and the LinkedIn app.

Pulse posts are blog-like which means that other LinkedIn users can like, share and comment on

these posts.

Figure 19: One way is to select ‘Pulse’ from the ‘interests’ dropdown in the main

navigation




Figure 20: LinkedIn Pulse homepage. Users can publish their own posts by

clicking on ‘publish post’ in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Figure 21: Posts can also be seen published directly from the LinkedIn homepage




Figure 22: LinkedIn Pulse Editor

The LinkedIn Pulse editor looks very similar to other publishing platforms. Writers are

encouraged to add a landscape image, a topical and keyword-rich headline and their post.

Writers can add multimedia content such as imagery and videos into posts. Similar to WordPress

posts, writers can also add tags to categorise their content. The features allow you to label posts

with appropriate tags such as ‘multichannel marketing’, ‘IOT’, etc. Note that posts can be

published immediately or saved for publishing later.

6.1. Pulse integration within the Newsfeed How does Pulse integrate into a subscriber’s newsfeed? Pulse content is ranked, ordered and

delivered based on a subscriber’s own newsfeed preferences, tailored to your professional

interests on the Pulse app and accessible via the main navigation under ‘interests’. LinkedIn

members can choose to ‘follow’ other LinkedIn members who publish regularly. For this reason, it

can be useful to position yourself and publish content based on your area of expertise.




6.2. LinkedIn Pulse best practice The value of Pulse is twofold.

Firstly, it is a great content marketing platform for writing and sharing relevant topical content,

and distributing it either via your own personal network, through posting on relevant groups or

distributing through posted updates.

Figure 23: Published Pulse posts are added to your profile page as shown below

At the time of writing, the author’s Pulse posts have achieved an average of 200 to 300 views, 20

to 30 clicks and between three and five comments per post from first-degree connections.

The second benefit of using Pulse is if content is deemed to be good enough, it can be picked up

and published by LinkedIn to its full network of some 400 million plus users, the impact being

dramatic in terms of engagement.

So how do you write content good enough to be picked up by Pulse and viewed by over 400

million users worldwide?

LinkedIn is vague about how Pulse evaluates a post to distribute beyond your first-degree

connections. It does however provide the following explanation in its help centre14:

“Relevant and high-quality long-form posts will be naturally distributed through

member engagement such as views, likes, comments, and shares. Depending on the

14 Distribution of long-form posts – LinkedIn’s Publishing Platform: https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/47542/ft/eng

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/47542/ft/eng




community’s engagement, some long-form posts may have better metrics and wider

distribution than others.

“Our goal is to match the right content with the right professional. This ensures that

every member sees customised professional news and insights that inform and inspire

them.”

Published posts will be shared with first-degree connections and followers. This content may be

shared among your connections’ followers and their first-degree connections. In addition, it may

collect likes and comments. In practice, it would appear that if a post reaches a certain threshold

and shares, it may get picked up by the wider LinkedIn Pulse network, making the content

available more widely to LinkedIn users.

While it is very tricky to be picked up by Pulse’s wider network, the activity of publishing quality

content on Pulse may be a worthwhile time investment as this content can be repurposed for your

company page or indeed via relevant LinkedIn Groups. The activity will allow you to measure

which topics work well for you in order to allow you to refine your approach for future posts.

Strategically, Pulse may offer a glimpse of where LinkedIn is headed in the future: providing a

robust, easy to use content marketing platform for members to publish their own content, helping

them strengthen their business connections.

6.3. About LinkedIn Elevate – harnessing the power of

employees A key opportunity for marketers using Pulse is in harnessing the LinkedIn networks of employees

to encourage them to publish content which can be utilised by the company to extend its reach.

To meet this need, LinkedIn has created Elevate. The goal of Elevate is to enable companies to

manage or curate content and deliver it to employees, who are encouraged to share the content

with their own connections and via wider social network channels.

LinkedIn Elevate

“Lots of professionals share content – like articles, blog posts, and presentations – on social and professional

networks to strengthen their professional brands. And lots of companies share content on social and professional

networks to attract talent, and market and sell their products and services. But relatively few companies

recognise that when they empower their employees to be social professionals, they not only change the trajectory

of their employees’ careers, they change the trajectory of their businesses as well.

“For example, when a LinkedIn member shares six pieces of content, on average, they receive six profile views

and make two new connections, which help them strengthen their professional brands. At the same time, the

company they work for receives six job views, three Company Page views, and one Company Page follower,

which helps them better hire, market, and sell. Despite that, our research shows that only 2% of employees share

content their company has shared on LinkedIn. Yet they drive tremendous value. They’re responsible for about

20% of the overall engagement – clicks, likes, comments, and shares – that content receives. That’s not

surprising given employees have 10 times more connections than their company has followers, and people tend

to be considered more authentic than companies.”

Source: LinkedIn blog post15

15 http://blog.linkedin.com/2015/04/13/elevate/

https://business.linkedin.com/elevate

http://blog.linkedin.com/2015/04/13/elevate/




6.4. LinkedIn Elevate’s functionality Elevate works by enabling businesses to distribute relevant content to employees to share with

their networks to help boost engagement and connections for their companies.

LinkedIn has provided its own definition for Elevate:16

“LinkedIn Elevate combines algorithmic recommendations from LinkedIn Pulse and

human curation to line up content, and gauges audience activity to suggest the best

times for employees to share posts for maximum visibility.”

Elevate seems to be aimed at harnessing the wider appeal to a company’s larger pool of

employees, effectively co-opting them into the larger social media marketing effort. For them, one

carrot is that they can use Elevate to track how sharing content leads to more profile views and

other stats.

This product is supported by LinkedIn’s own data which shows that only about 2% of a company’s

employees share their company’s news on LinkedIn. Regardless, collectively those employees will

have ten times the connections on LinkedIn as their company employing them does.

Note: LinkedIn Elevate is only available for use by employees at participating companies.

In addition, the app offers analytics for employees, so they can see how much traction their

shared content received, in the form of likes, comments and re-shares. Companies get to see this

data too, along with job views and company page followers brought in by said content.

6.5. Considerations for making Elevate available to staff While Elevate makes it easy for companies to recommend content for their employees to share,

this does not mean it is useful for every type of organisation. Rolling out Elevate for staff may

require the right corporate culture where staff are effectively bought in. For this reason, it is

recommended that, as with any digital marketing opportunity, this needs to be tested carefully.

Remember that staff should be sharing content because they want to, not because they have been

told to.

There is no doubt though that if Elevate is implemented appropriately and with buy-in from all

staff, it could be a useful tool both for making people aware of your business but also for hiring

purposes.

LinkedIn says that when a member shares six pieces of content, on average, they receive six

profile views and make two new connections, while the company they work for receives six job

views, three Company Page views, and one Company Page follower.17 For this reason, Elevate may

be a very useful tool for exposing the company to new audiences at the very least.

16 http://thenextweb.com/apps/2015/04/13/linkedins-launching-a-tool-for-companies-to-prod-employees-to-share-content/#gref 17 http://www.itechsum.com/thenextweb/item/164658-linkedin-s-launching-a-tool-for-companies-to-prod-employees-to-share-content

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/09/30/linkedin-leans-pulse-refreshed-reading-experience-desktop-mobile/

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2015/04/13/linkedins-launching-a-tool-for-companies-to-prod-employees-to-share-content/#gref

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2015/04/13/linkedins-launching-a-tool-for-companies-to-prod-employees-to-share-content/#gref

http://www.itechsum.com/thenextweb/item/164658-linkedin-s-launching-a-tool-for-companies-to-prod-employees-to-share-content

http://www.itechsum.com/thenextweb/item/164658-linkedin-s-launching-a-tool-for-companies-to-prod-employees-to-share-content




7. An Overview of LinkedIn Advertising

Opportunities LinkedIn is a useful tool for businesses and individuals to advertise to the LinkedIn member base.

LinkedIn advertising is quite unique from SEM or display buying. Individuals use LinkedIn to

better their careers, find a new job, network and connect with business contacts. As such,

advertising on LinkedIn seeks to reach out to people in that headspace which means that it

represents a useful tool for B2B advertising.

While LinkedIn doesn’t necessarily position content at the moment that an individual is seeking

that content, as is the case with search engine marketing, from a B2B point of view it offers value

as it is a social network specifically for professionals and so delivers business-focused content.

So, should you be looking to deliver a message to a business audience, it’s got everything you

need: the right network with the right context, and from an advertising point of view, less

competition than other platforms for your targets’ attention.

Advertisers typically do not make the same use of LinkedIn as an advertising medium on the

same scale as they make use of channels such as Google and Facebook.

7.1. Types of LinkedIn advertising: enterprise solutions LinkedIn targeting capabilities enable marketers to reach potential customers according to

attributes such as industry, function, seniority and company size. LinkedIn Marketing Solutions

include:

1. Onsite display ads

Advertisers can use the same targeting engine used for LinkedIn ads to serve ads in a variety of

sizes and formats, including rich media, to the 400+ million plus members on the LinkedIn

network. Additional LinkedIn-specific formats are also available, including ads to encourage

members to join groups and follow companies.

a. ‘Follow company’ ads. As the name suggests, this kind of ad’s main objective is to

encourage people to ‘follow’ the company on LinkedIn.

b. Spotlight ads. Spotlight ads are designed to help people find a job by associating their

profile picture with a company logo. These ads are effective because they show a member’s

image in the ad under the headline, ‘Picture yourself at [company name]’ and their new job

title under their name. This lets them visualise themselves in this position at your

company.18

c. ‘Join group’ ads. As the name suggests, these ads are designed to encourage people to

join LinkedIn groups.

18 http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243440

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243440




Figure 24: Example of a ‘follow company’ ad

2. Network display ads

LinkedIn also now offers off-network advertising19 which enables advertisers to extend their

advertising reach across LinkedIn’s network of business publisher sites.

3. Sponsored InMails

Sponsored InMail gives advertisers the ability to send a long-form message to any LinkedIn

user through its InMail messaging function.

19 https://investors.linkedin.com/results-and-financials/annual-reports/default.aspx





Figure 25: Example of a sponsored InMail branded by Econsultancy in

association with Adobe

The information in the following table has been sourced from LinkedIn’s marketing material20

and represents a comparison between onsite display ads and network display ads. As the names

suggest, onsite display ads will only appear on LinkedIn whereas network display ads will appear

on LinkedIn, LinkedIn properties like SlideShare and its wider publishing network.

Table 3: Onsite display ads and network display ads comparison

Onsite displays ads Network display ads

Targeting options

Location

Company (size, industry, name)

Job (title and seniority)

Other options include targeting based on:

schools, groups, gender, age

Custom segments

Location

Company (size, industry, name)

Job (title, seniority)

Supported ad units

300x250, 160x600

Native ads in 300x250 size

3300x250, 160x600, 728x90, 300x600, 336x280

Inventory LinkedIn LinkedIn

SlideShare

LinkedIn publisher network

Ad exchanges

Campaign analytics

Impressions

Clicks by audience

Site analytics by audience

Actions by audience

Visitor index and trends

Impressions

Clicks

Actions

New visitor and funnel impact

Site analytics by audience

Actions by audience

Visitor index and trends

20 https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/regional/en-uk/Site%20Assets/PDFs/productsheets/Display%20Advertising_UK%20.pdf

https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/regional/en-uk/Site%20Assets/PDFs/productsheets/Display%20Advertising_UK%20.pdf

https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/regional/en-uk/Site%20Assets/PDFs/productsheets/Display%20Advertising_UK%20.pdf




It is worth pointing out that onsite display ads and network display ads do not need to be treated

as mutually exclusive. They can both be used effectively for top-of-the-funnel marketing.

7.2. Sponsored updates

Sponsored updates are content-rich promoted updates that enable advertisers to share and

amplify content marketing messages to a targeted audience. Sponsored updates appear in the

desktop, tablet and mobile streams of targeted members’ LinkedIn newsfeeds.21

Sponsored updates are useful to get the company’s message directly onto a user’s home feed. This

offering is comparable to sponsored content on Facebook and so is a useful tool for amplifying

useful content.

Like LinkedIn advertising, sponsored updates are targeted which means that content can be

targeted at the right audience. This means that messaging can be tailored depending on the target

audience e.g. senior sales analysts, sales managers, chief information officers etc.

Sponsored updates are useful for:

Targeting useful content to the appropriate target audience (via desktop and mobile).

Attracting new followers to the company page (and boosting engagement).

Test messaging to ascertain what kind of messaging attracts the most activity.

Figure 26: LinkedIn sponsored content sample

7.2.1. Company updates, direct sponsored content and sponsored

updates

Let’s begin with company updates. A company update is simply a message posted on the LinkedIn

company page by a company page administrator. These are unpaid and so are not targeted. The

updates will appear on the company page and in the newsfeeds of LinkedIn users who follow the

company.

Direct sponsored content and sponsored updates are different from company updates as these are

targeted and must be paid for.

21 http://investors.linkedin.com/annuals.cfm

http://investors.linkedin.com/annuals.cfm




7.2.2. The difference between direct sponsored content and

sponsored updates

Sponsored updates

Sponsored updates are like an extension of a company page update except that they are

sponsored to extend reach.

Sponsored updates allow advertisers to distribute company updates to targeted LinkedIn

members outside of their company page visitors and followers.

Sponsored updates will appear in the feed of targeted LinkedIn members as well as on the

company page.

Sponsored updates are managed via LinkedIn Campaign Manager on either a cost per

thousand impressions (CPM) or cost per click (CPC) model.

Direct sponsored content

Direct sponsored content is like a sponsored update except that it does not appear on the

company page. The content looks like a normal sponsored update in the newsfeed except that

only people targeted by the campaign will be able to see it.

Direct sponsored content allows advertisers to create their own content to sponsor on behalf

of the company, without changing the tone of their company page and without first posting a

company update. According to LinkedIn, direct sponsored content “allows your company to

personalise, test, and improve your company’s messages to improve the performance of

your content for a targeted audience without cluttering the company page”.22

Direct sponsored content updates are managed via LinkedIn Campaign Manager on either a

cost per thousand impressions (CPM) or cost per click (CPC) model.

Direct sponsored content updates do not necessarily have to be created by administrators of

the company page. They do however require permission from the company page

administrator.23

Direct sponsored content has a character limit of 160 and doesn’t currently support rich

media such as images, presentations or documents.

22 https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/50999/~/difference-between-direct-sponsored-content-and-sponsored-updates 23 https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/50244

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/50999/~/difference-between-direct-sponsored-content-and-sponsored-updates

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/50999/~/difference-between-direct-sponsored-content-and-sponsored-updates

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/50244




7.3. LinkedIn Ads LinkedIn Ads is a self-service platform that enables advertisers to create their own text-based ads

and targets them to LinkedIn members. Like sponsored content, ads can be targeted to people

based on their profile information.

7.4. Who can be targeted with LinkedIn advertisements

and sponsored content? LinkedIn ads are highly targeted. Targeting options within LinkedIn are robust and well-suited to

the professional audience on LinkedIn. Targeting options focus on professional affiliations, rather

than personal attributes/interests/likes in comparison to Facebook.

Ads can be targeted based on the following criteria: 1. Geographic location: United States, United Kingdom, Ireland etc.

2. Industry: banking, insurance etc.

3. Company name/industry/size

4. Job title: Sales Manager, Sales Director, Sales Analyst, Chief Information Officer etc.

5. Job seniority

6. Job function

7. Listed skills: sales management, data analysis, data mapping etc.

8. Member schools

9. Fields of study

10. Degree

11. Groups: ‘Business Intelligence Group’, ‘Sales and Marketing Analysts’, ‘Marketing and Sales

Analysts’ etc.

12. Gender

13. Age: 18 – 24, 25 – 34, 35 – 54, 55+

These targeting options can be blended in order to create tightly focused campaigns which zero in

on your target audience.

Note that LinkedIn targeting operates under the inclusion method. This means that for every

layer of targeting (location, job title etc.) that is added to the campaign, the target audience will

get narrower (and thus more focused).




Figure 27: Overview of LinkedIn Campaign Manager




Figure 28: LinkedIn attributes decreasing audience size

7.4.1. Anatomy of a LinkedIn text advertisement

LinkedIn ads are different to those run through AdWords because they include a photo and are

not search-based. That means that while ads are highly targeted, they don’t relate to content that

the LinkedIn user may be searching for at that particular moment. For this reason, LinkedIn ads

have an average click-through rate of .025%. These ads appear in a number of places, such as the

side and footer of the LinkedIn homepage.

Figure 29: LinkedIn ad, right-hand side of newsfeed, tall format

Figure 30: Anatomy of a LinkedIn ad, long-form format

1. Headline. 25 characters. This is an incredibly limited number of characters to grab

somebody’s attention and so needs to be short and snappy. One tactic is to use headlines that

are catered to each target segment. For example, ‘Attention sales managers’ etc.




2. Ad copy. 75 characters to provide a brief description of what is being offered. Ideally, the 75

characters should also include a call to action. Figure 31 uses the description: ‘Migrate

MapPoint data to eSpatial’s cloud based mapping solution today’. This is descriptive and

contains a call to action.

3. Destination URL. A landing page for each campaign is recommended. Landing pages

should ideally be tailored to the ad that the LinkedIn member has clicked. For tips on creating

successful landing pages, see Econsultancy’s blog post on ‘12 essential PPC landing page

success factors’: https://econsultancy.com/blog/62415-12-essential-ppc-landing-page-

success-factors/.

4. Image. Unlike Google AdWords, LinkedIn ads contain small pictures. That means there is

the option to upload an image which LinkedIn will automatically resize to fit the 50 x 50 pixel

thumbnail square. Ads with images get up to 20% more clicks. There are typically three types

of images advertisers on LinkedIn default to: images of people, their product or their logo.

7.5. Lead Accelerator (no longer active) Once your other acquisition channels higher up the funnel had done their jobs, LinkedIn Lead

Accelerator was meant to enable you to nurture your prospects, design campaigns and maximise

your chance of achieving lead conversions, pipeline contribution and customer acquisition.

Figure 31: Measuring the impact of your programmes at every stage of the

purchase process

LinkedIn Lead Accelerator

“When I ran marketing at a mobile start-up, 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.”24

Joe Chernov, former VP of Marketing at Kinvey, now VP of Content at HubSpot

Note that Lead Accelerator was deactivated in early 2016. Industry reports indicate that LinkedIn

is pushing Lead Accelerator’s functionalities into sponsored updates.

24 http://www.slideshare.net/linkedineurope/sophisticated-marketers-guide-uk

https://econsultancy.com/blog/62415-12-essential-ppc-landing-page-success-factors/

https://econsultancy.com/blog/62415-12-essential-ppc-landing-page-success-factors/

http://www.slideshare.net/linkedineurope/sophisticated-marketers-guide-uk




7.6. Getting started with LinkedIn advertising

LinkedIn ads can be managed via Campaign Manager25. Campaign Manager can be used for:

Text ads.

Sponsored updates.

Campaign Manager will let users set up advertising accounts as well as create and manage

campaigns. This includes entering conditions such as campaign start and end dates as well as

managing ad spend. Anybody with a LinkedIn profile can get started with LinkedIn advertising

via the Campaign Manager: https://www.linkedin.com/ad/start.

Figure 32: LinkedIn Campaign Manager can be accessed via the ‘business

services’ option in the LinkedIn navigation menu

Within the LinkedIn Campaign Manager interface, the process of creating campaigns is intuitive

as LinkedIn effectively guides users through each stage of the process.

Figure 33: LinkedIn Campaign Manager Interface. Start a campaign by clicking

on ‘create campaign’

25 https://www.linkedin.com/ad/start

https://www.linkedin.com/ad/start

https://www.linkedin.com/ad/start




7.7. Some LinkedIn Advertising Guidance

7.7.1. The good: targeting

LinkedIn has the most accurate targeting of any ad platform. Google has wider reach and

Facebook has more categories, but for pure targeting, LinkedIn is the ‘crème de la crème’. This is

because LinkedIn users input the targeting data themselves; if they work in a bank, they put in

their profile that they work in a bank. LinkedIn members are likely to be truthful when

completing their profiles due to social pressures, particularly as they will be connecting with

people that know them. And targeting is not limited to broad categories.

As mentioned in Section 7.4, you can target very specific attributes. So if your target is, say,

employees of major banks in European countries, you can configure your ad to be delivered to

that audience and be reasonably confident that they will be the ones who see and click your ad.

7.7.2. The good: audience sizing

When you’re building your ad – before you have even paid anything – you can see exactly how big

the ad audience is going to be (if it has over 1,000 people).

For example:

1. How many people work in software in the USA? (1,158,055)

2. How many employees does Bank of America have globally? (151,556)

3. How many work in HR in Asia? (813,867)

Figure 34: LinkedIn audience sizing via the Campaign Manager

Tip: Due to the increasing numbers of LinkedIn accounts being created, LinkedIn can be a useful

tool for estimating the size of certain markets. This can be done by looking at a particular

audience segment within the Campaign Manager.

7.7.3. The good: self-service tool

LinkedIn does not have the most sophisticated ad interface. Both Google and Facebook have more

functionality, but it does the job.

You can add multiple people/administrators to an account. These can collaborate on ads and

easily create multiple versions of an ad in one campaign.




LinkedIn also provides a dashboard to keep an eye on ad performance and a button to turn both

ads and campaigns on and off.

Figure 35: LinkedIn campaign dashboard

7.8. The not-so-good

Now the challenges – and how to tackle them.

7.8.1. The not-so-good: the ads

The first gripe for those who start using the platform is the ad size. You are strictly limited to a

25character headline, 75 characters in the body, and a 50 x 50 pixel image. With a bit of work,

though, it can be possible to deliver an effective ad within those constraints.

1. Identify your audience.

Although you are reaching your intended audience with your targeting, the reader doesn’t

know that so you need to let them know that what you’re saying is for them – it’s best to do

that in the heading.

2. Tell them what you do.

You only have room for one value proposition, so spell it out. Remember that B2B audiences

have very different priorities than B2C.

3. Make an offer.

Make sure that ad copy is perfectly clear so that people who see the ad will know exactly what

to expect should they click the ad. That way each click will show real intent.

4. (Optional) Tell them exactly what to do next.

If there is available space, provide instructions of what to do next. Use ‘no brainer’ language

like ‘click here’.

5. Use a face for the image.

You only have 50 x 50 pixels, so it can be difficult to use imagery with lots of colours. A

common recommendation is to use images of faces as research suggests that it is more

difficult to ignore faces than other types of imagery. In Econsultancy’s experience, non-face

ads do not perform as well as ads with images of a face. The best advice, as ever, is to run your

own experiments.

6. Test ad variations.

Within your campaign, create at least three ad variations, varying the ad text, call-to-action

phrases and images. By creating multiple ads, you can discover which ads perform best. You

can create up to 15 different ads within a campaign.




7.8.2. The not-so-good: managing a large number of campaigns

The self-service tool appears to have been designed for the small-scale advertiser. It handles your

every need until you reach about 50 campaigns.

This means that you don’t necessarily get to see all campaigns on one screen which makes a quick

overview difficult.

However, here are several third-party LinkedIn ad management tools available, such as AdStage.

7.8.3. The not-so-good: cost

One of the key issues that marketers have with LinkedIn is its high minimum CPC (US$2) and

daily minimum per campaign (US$10).

For large brands this may not be an issue, but some SME marketers may be used to running small

and manageable campaigns via AdWords where they are strategically competing for long tail

keywords which may cost a fraction of the minimum LinkedIn CPC of $2.

For those in the branding world, that may not seem high, but many SME marketers are used to

running dozens of campaigns a day to test different strategies. These prices make that quite

difficult.

This can be overcome. Although you cannot change the minimum spend you can run your ads

with a $2 CPM. Then, a click-through greater than 0.1% will start bringing down the cost below

$2 per click.

Also, you can stop/start the ads manually for when your audience is likely to be on so that you’re

not spending money when your targets aren’t awake.26

Figure 36: Anatomy of a LinkedIn text ad

26 https://econsultancy.com/blog/65040-linkedin-ads-what-i-learned-from-spending-a-year-and-100k-on-the-platform-2/

https://econsultancy.com/blog/65040-linkedin-ads-what-i-learned-from-spending-a-year-and-100k-on-the-platform-2/

https://econsultancy.com/blog/65040-linkedin-ads-what-i-learned-from-spending-a-year-and-100k-on-the-platform-2/




Figure 37: Minimum CPC on LinkedIn ads is $2

The daily minimum campaign above is set at US $30. Once your ad campaign is set up it will take

24 hours to be moderated and approved by LinkedIn.

LinkedIn provides detailed additional information to set up an advertising campaign:

https://business.linkedin.com/en-uk/marketing-solutions.

A note on cost per click (CPC) versus cost per impression (CPM) pricing

CPC and CPM are the bid types available for LinkedIn advertising campaigns. Advertisers can

choose either type. For both payment types, LinkedIn shows a suggested bid range which is

calculated with current competing bids by other advertisers targeting the same audience.

According to LinkedIn27, because you’re competing with other advertisers for clicks or

impressions, there’s no set cost for ads. In general, the higher you bid, the more competitive your

campaign is in the auction and the more likely you are to receive clicks or impressions and clicks.

7.9. Measuring LinkedIn advertising performance As with any marketing strategy, it is important to define your advertising goals and set your

expectations before launching your campaign. A clear goal will guide you as you create your ads,

target the right audience and choose the best destination landing page.

To access more detailed knowledge on measurement and analytics, refer to Econsultancy’s

Measurement and Analytics Report28.

Two scenarios for tracking your ad performance are described below:

27 https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1392/~/defining-cost-per-click-(cpc)-and-cost-per-impressions-(cpm) 28 https://econsultancy.com/reports/measurement-and-analytics-report/


https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1392/~/defining-cost-per-click-(cpc)-and-cost-per-impressions-(cpm)

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1392/~/defining-cost-per-click-(cpc)-and-cost-per-impressions-(cpm)

https://econsultancy.com/reports/measurement-and-analytics-report/




1. If your goal is simply to generate clicks to your website at a certain cost per click (CPC), use

the ‘my ad campaigns’ tab and ‘reporting’ tab in LinkedIn ads to track your progress.

You can track the number of clicks you’ve received and their cost against the total budget

spent.

2. If your ultimate goal is to generate leads, enquiries or sales that result from the clicks that you

receive, you may need to track users’ actions on your website and attribute those actions to

your ads on LinkedIn. It can therefore be useful to integrate your LinkedIn campaigns with

Google Analytics data.

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to set this up in Google Analytics:

1. Tag your URLs.

You will need to use the Google Analytics URL builder29 to tag your URLs with tracking

parameters.

2. Use your tagged URL.

Take the URL the Google Analytics tool provides and insert it in your LinkedIn ad as the

destination URL.

3. Create goals in Google Analytics.

If you don’t have it set up already, you will need to create goals in Google Analytics for the

conversions you want to track.

4. Create a custom report.

Once this is done, you should set up a custom report in Google Analytics with the dimension

‘source/medium’ and the metric ‘goal 1 completions’ (or whichever goal number belongs to

the conversion goal you are tracking in Google Analytics).

The LinkedIn Ads site has some useful content on measurement and optimisation:

http://partner.linkedin.com/ads/info/Ads_bestpractices_track_en_US.html.

7.9.1. A note on using Google Analytics URL builder to track

campaigns30

We’re pretty big on measurement at Econsultancy and we use analytics to identify key topics,

improve content and demonstrate our effectiveness.

To this end, we’re big users of Google Analytics, supplemented by paid tools from Moz and others.

We use a bunch of custom reports, segments, dashboards31 and Google URL builder for

measurement.

What is campaign tracking?

Campaign tracking allows you to add tracking code to a URL so that visits coming through said

link can be tracked.

Campaign tracking can be applied in a number of ways to track referrals from a particular social

source, an email campaign, online ads and more.

29 https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867 30 https://econsultancy.com/blog/65229-how-to-use-google-analytics-url-builder-to-track-campaigns/ 31 https://econsultancy.com/blog/63372-10-useful-custom-google-analytics-reports-and-dashboards-for-publishers

http://partner.linkedin.com/ads/info/Ads_bestpractices_track_en_US.html

https://econsultancy.com/blog/63372-10-useful-custom-google-analytics-reports-and-dashboards-for-publishers

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867

https://econsultancy.com/blog/65229-how-to-use-google-analytics-url-builder-to-track-campaigns/




All that’s required is to add the tracking code to the URL and learn how to measure it when the

time comes. This is where the URL builder comes in.

The Google URL builder

Figure 38: Making use of Google URL Builder

1. Enter the link you want to track.

2. Add the parameters you want to track. There are five fields, but three of them are compulsory.

These are:

a. Campaign source. In this case LinkedIn, but this could be an email or a Facebook post

for example.

b. Medium. Again, in this case it is LinkedIn but this could be email, PPC and so on.

c. Campaign name. This is the text that will show up in Google Analytics, so choose

something that will be easily identifiable, distinct from other campaigns and not too long.

3. Submit the form and grab the code.

4. This will generate the URL with the tracking code appended. Then just copy and paste into

the ad, email, tweet or blog link of your choice.




5. Shorten the URL. As you can see, the URL with tracking is quite cumbersome, so it may be

easier to use a shortening tool such as bitly.




How to view campaigns in Google Analytics

The next step, after you’ve given your campaign time to generate some traffic, is to view the

results in Google Analytics.

To do this, log on to Google Analytics, open the acquisition menu on the left and select

campaigns:

You should then see your selected campaign name on the list, if you have had any clicks.

In this case, there are two different codes, one which sends people to the festival site’s homepage,

another to the speaker line-up. This way Econsultancy could tell which one works best in terms of

traffic and conversions.




In this case, these screenshots were taken in the early stages of the campaign, so Econsultancy

only had a handful of clicks. With more time and data, Econsultancy was able to learn a lot more

about how the campaign performed on key criteria.

Most importantly, Econsultancy could see whether campaigns were converting. Metrics on

bounce rates and session duration also provided an idea of whether the campaign was sending the

right kind of traffic.

7.9.2. A note on LinkedIn average click-through rates

Click-through rates are generally much lower when compared to clicks in Google AdWords. If you

are achieving 0.05% click-through you are doing well. This can partly be attributed to intent of

viewers who are not interacting with LinkedIn with the same purchasing intent compared to a

searcher on Google. We recommend a period of testing performance and refinement to fully

optimise click performance.

7.9.3. LinkedIn Ads API

LinkedIn’s Ads API programme enables social ad partners to build solutions for solutions for

creating, managing and optimising LinkedIn ads and sponsored updates campaigns at scale.

LinkedIn Ads API is beyond the scope of this report.

For further details about becoming a LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Partner, visit

https://developer.linkedin.com/partner-programs/marketing.

7.9.4. Case study: sponsored updates

LinkedIn makes a number of case studies available on its site. One of these relates to Japanese

ICT Company Fujitsu32. The case outlines how Fujitsu, one of the best-known companies in Japan, wanted to broaden

awareness of its range of services globally by connecting with key IT decision makers in key

markets. LinkedIn provides a useful platform for this.

According to the case study, Fujitsu’s objectives were:

To target and engage IT decision makers in Finland and the UK.

To deliver relevant content to these people across multiple screens.

To raise awareness of Fujitsu’s services.

32 https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/site/pdf/cs/linkedin-fujitsu-casestudy-july14.pdf

https://developer.linkedin.com/partner-programs/marketing

https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/site/pdf/cs/linkedin-fujitsu-casestudy-july14.pdf

https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/site/pdf/cs/linkedin-fujitsu-casestudy-july14.pdf




Fujitsu developed an integrated campaign for each market by making use of content ads and

sponsored updates. LinkedIn’s precision targeting was used to deliver ads and updates to senior

IT decision makers in each market: Finland and the UK. This involved regularly updating Fujitsu

company pages for each market with longer-form content than ads to demonstrate expertise. One

of the benefits of LinkedIn marketing solutions is that ads and updates can be monitored and

optimised in real time. This allowed Fujitsu to continually improve its campaign strategy.

The sponsored updates campaign generated in excess of 7,500 clicks across both countries. A

network effect of sharing content across LinkedIn drove relevant additional reach, with over

44,100 viral impressions in Finland alone.

Fujitsu case study

“The opportunity to interact with this audience was a fantastic, added benefit for the campaign. In addition to

driving traffic and building awareness, it enabled us to generate our own insight to guide the content strategy

going forward. We’re continuing to use LinkedIn to engage with our audience globally, based on these positive

results.”

Andrew Richardson, Brand Strategy Manager, Fujitsu




8. LinkedIn as a Content Marketing

Platform Content marketing is a very important, and potentially effective, element of your LinkedIn

marketing strategy and thus worthy of attention. For many B2B marketers, building and

distributing content is a challenging and time-consuming process.

Social media is an effective way of pushing out older, evergreen content on a regular basis.

This requires a clear strategy rather than straightforward promotional broadcasting. To get the

most out of your content, planning, tracking, monitoring and evolving your LinkedIn content

strategy should be viewed as an iterative process. For a list of content marketing resources

available from Econsultancy, see the Appendix.

In recent years there has been a radical shift in perception among senior marketers when it comes

to social media as a distribution channel. The effectiveness of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter has

been proven time and time again.

The right content must be married to the right channel. Therefore, research needs to be

conducted into the users of a specific channel and their expectations. Of the social networks used,

LinkedIn is driving most traffic and leads to B2B websites, but companies must be subtle when

engaging. For example, if somebody from a company engages in a group discussion, they should

be careful to participate fully and provide comprehensive and constructive answers rather than

going straight into overt sales mode.

LinkedIn has traditionally been a very text-heavy social network for professionals, but has evolved

into a visual platform for showcasing your own or your company’s work.

Recent integrations, including SlideShare33 and Pulse34, and the launch of the LinkedIn

Professional Portfolio35 now enables users to upload images, videos, presentations and

documents.

Developing and showcasing content is only one part of the puzzle. Getting content distributed in

front of the right people is critical for delivering meaningful results. Refer to Section 7 for

targeting options for advertising and content distribution.

LinkedIn conducted research in 2014 on 2,701 members who actively share and consume content.

The report36 aimed to better understand the triggers behind content consumption.

The report found that:

1. On average, LinkedIn subscribers spend about one workday (eight hours per week)

consuming professionally-relevant content as a way to educate themselves on their industry

news and trends.

2. Content must be mobile-friendly. An average of 43% of unique visiting LinkedIn members

came through mobile.

3. Content creators must deliver on the following needs of content consumers:

a. Enhance industry knowledge, keeping up to date with relevant industry news.

33 http://www.slideshare.net/?ss 34 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ 35 https://www.linkedin.com/portfolio 36 https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/campaigns/pdfs/2014-prof-content-report-en-us-v2.pdf

http://www.slideshare.net/?ss

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/

https://www.linkedin.com/portfolio

https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/campaigns/pdfs/2014-prof-content-report-en-us-v2.pdf

https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/campaigns/pdfs/2014-prof-content-report-en-us-v2.pdf




b. Strengthen business networks and spark conversations.

c. Boost professional reputation.

8.1. Best practice guidelines re content formats There are several methods of sharing content on LinkedIn:

1. Status updates (personal and company updates) – Free.

When status updates are shared, they are broadcast to network connections. They can also be

shared publicly allowing connections to share your update.

Share links to relevant articles, websites or videos. Note that it is important to avoid being

considered as somebody that shares spam. While Twitter is famous for people posting several

times per hour, it may be best to limit LinkedIn updates to one or two per day. Also, stick to

interesting and relevant content that your network may find relevant rather than repeating

the same content.

Share multimedia content. LinkedIn allows users to attach documents and photos to updates.

Considering the audience on LinkedIn is a professional one, contacts may value government

white papers, best practice guides, case studies etc. Use caution when sharing material that

may be perceived as being ‘hard sell’.

Discuss events or share insights from talks/conferences you have attended. This can

encourage discussion and may position you as an expert in the particular area. Use sound

judgement when sharing your views on certain events and topics. A classic rule of thumb is to

avoid religion and politics.

Figure 39: Sharing a status update

2. Pulse content platform – Free.

This is a useful platform for more long-form publishing. Use this for publishing expert

opinion and insights based on your area of expertise. Checklists are particularly popular.

Benefits include that the majority of your connections can reasonably be expected to be like-

minded professionals so it can be straightforward to choose topics that will resonate.

Because this content has blog-like functionality, allowing comments, likes and sharing, it can

be useful for generating insightful discussions. In addition, because connections will be

notified when you publish a post, it can represent a good way to demonstrate thought

leadership in your area of expertise.

Finally, this content is shareable, meaning that it can expose you and your business to a wider

audience and opportunities. When using this kind of publishing, users should consider the

following guidelines:




– Consider marketing fundamentals when preparing and publishing content. Be clear about

the purpose of the content, whom it is intended to reach and what form that content should

take i.e. blog post, presentation, video, multimedia etc.

– Business might consider brainstorming topics and developing a content calendar for

sharing this material.

– Always use a compelling cover image to attract attention for this kind of content.

3. Sponsored updates – Paid. See Section 7.2.

4. Advertising – Paid. See Section 7.3.

5. SlideShare – Free.

SlideShare presentations can be shared via your LinkedIn profile. Including SlideShare

presentations on your LinkedIn profile or company page can be a great marketing play. This

enables you to showcase your projects, ideas, research and helps you build your reputation as

a thought leader in your profession.

8.2. Maximising content visibility Maximising content distribution and enabling your content to be seen by the right target market

is an important component of marketing success on LinkedIn.

Here are some guidelines to help maximise content visibility:

1. Host the content on your personal profile.

SlideShare and Pulse enable you to showcase your content on your own profile to make sure it

is seen by your first-degree connections.

2. Share content via relevant LinkedIn groups.

Conversations in a relevant group can be a great opportunity for content marketing and

distribution. Providing helpful and informative thought-leading advice and prompting group

discussions can build excellent trust with new advocates.

3. Use advertising to distribute your content.

To maximise distribution you can use a small paid advertising budget. This can really work at

generating company followers and getting engagement to a relevant event like attending a

webinar or conference.

4. Study content engagement stats.

To maximise content distribution you need to monitor the engagement stats on your LinkedIn

analytics feature that all company page administrators can access. Logged-in administrators

can find the analytics by clicking on the dropdown menu from the blue tab. LinkedIn

performance data now provide marketers with insights on which content is most effective for

distribution.

Your content marketing efforts here should focus on determining which types of offers work

best to generate business leads. Performance data includes:

a. Snapshot: Page performance analytics. Track the total followers, new follower

metrics, impression metrics and engagement metrics of your LinkedIn company page.

b. Company update engagement: Post-performance metrics and comparison. View a

granular, side-by-side comparison of post metrics that are not available through native

LinkedIn analytics.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/slideshare-how-to-market-your-business/

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/slideshare-how-to-market-your-business/




c. Targeted status updates: When composing an update, you will have the option to target

based on geography, company size, job function, seniority and industry.37

5. Make use of video.

Online video humanises you and your brand. When done well, a video can trigger powerful

emotions which lead to increased engagement and trust. Video is an excellent medium for

building trusted connections via LinkedIn. Embed videos directly from YouTube to maximise

distribution. This is supported by LinkedIn’s own research which shows that videos hosted

through YouTube usually result in a 75% higher share rate.38

Figure 40: Enriching the Econsultancy company page with video

6. Make use of imagery.

LinkedIn research has shown that company updates with imagery have an average 98%

higher comment rate than those without.39

37 https://econsultancy.com/blog/62337-three-content-marketing-tips-from-linkedin-on-reaching-its-audience 38 https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/site/subsites/content-marketing/img/V2/e3_Infographic_Draft_11_1200.pdf 39 Ibid.



https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/site/subsites/content-marketing/img/V2/e3_Infographic_Draft_11_1200.pdf

https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/site/subsites/content-marketing/img/V2/e3_Infographic_Draft_11_1200.pdf




9. Case Study: Leveraging the Networked

Power of Employees for Content

Marketing Recruitment firm Hays became a top-five UK brand on LinkedIn and amassed 317m first-level

connections, via the launch of a global content creation programme which showcased the

expertise and knowledge of its front-line consultants.

9.1. Summary Hays’ LinkedIn campaign focused on targeting passive candidates, as well as potential and

existing clients, with industry-specific, specialist content created by its global team of consultants.

In little more than a year, the recruitment specialist took its LinkedIn following to over 70,000,

80% of which was organic growth. Hays became the 23rd most followed company in the world on

LinkedIn, and one of the UK’s top five influential brands on the business social networking site.

9.2. Objectives and aims LinkedIn is a highly effective online platform for recruiters to reach active job seekers. A more

challenging and valuable source of candidates though are ‘passive’ job seekers, who are not

actively looking for something new.

Hays spotted an opportunity to pioneer a ground-breaking move for its industry by moving

beyond simple job postings to use LinkedIn to powerfully engage with passive candidates, as well

as potential and existing clients. The company was keen to stay more connected with clients on an

ongoing basis.

Hays’ profound, expert knowledge of the workplace meant it had ready access to a wealth of

valuable information, trends and industry insights. The company was keen to turn this disparate

material into useful industry content, providing a platform for its consultants to readily share

their expertise within the business communities in which they operate. It was crucial to Hays that

its consultants were perceived as genuine experts in their industries, and not just recruitment

specialists.

The project was not backed by a hefty advertising budget.

9.3. Implementation, execution and tactics A key part of the approach was to involve colleagues throughout the company, including Hays’

5,000 or more consultants across 33 countries, marketing teams, training managers, senior

management and board members.

Consultants on the front line were invited to create content plans and Hays implemented simple

processes to keep up the momentum with ongoing stories and insights.

Content ranged from topical sector-specific articles to local salary guides, market insights and

influencer posts. All content linked to a relevant landing page with clear calls to action, and was

additionally published on Hays’ corporate blog or a local country website.

In preparation for the launch of the project, 365 days of training were completed in eight weeks

globally, involving six trainers travelling to multiple countries.




Hays focused on four LinkedIn channels for distribution, including:

Its own LinkedIn company page with 700,000+ followers.

CEO influencer posts.

The newly launched LinkedIn Publisher platform.

220+ LinkedIn groups.

9.4. Results Over 15 months, Hays increased its company page followers from 398,000 to over 700,000, with

80% of the follower growth achieved being organic (versus through paid advertising).

Hays ranks as the 23rd most followed company in the world on LinkedIn, ahead of a number of

global brands including Coca-Cola, HSBC and McKinsey.

Through its follower base and consultant connections, Hays now has over 317m first-level

connections with individuals across the LinkedIn network.

LinkedIn analysis indicates Hays’ followers are:

78% more likely to respond to an InMail sent through LinkedIn.

Three times more likely to apply to its jobs featured on LinkedIn.

Ten times more likely to share its content to their connections.

Additionally, Hays has secured a LinkedIn Talent Brand Index40 score of 60% (versus an average

of 14%).

In June 2014, LinkedIn named Hays as one of the UK’s top five influential brands on its network,

along with Unilever, BP, Ernst & Young and The Financial Times.

For further information:

The Viewpoint: http://social.hays.com

Get mobile: http://social.hays.com/home/get-mobile/

Hays’ LinkedIn Company Page: http://www.linkedin.com/company/hays/

Source: Econsultancy Case Study Database

40 https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/products/talent-brand-index

http://social.hays.com/

http://social.hays.com/home/get-mobile/

http://www.linkedin.com/company/hays/

https://econsultancy.com/case-studies/hays-targets-passive-job-seekers-and-new-clients-with-a-global-content-marketing-programme-on-linkedin

https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/products/talent-brand-index




10. LinkedIn’s Mobile Apps Using LinkedIn mobile apps can make a marketer work ‘smarter’ by allowing you to control

interactions and activity on the move.

LinkedIn has invested heavily in mobile, pursuing a multi-app strategy by splitting its core

desktop service into a range of specialised apps.

The ‘flagship’ LinkedIn app accessible on all mobile browsers allows users to browse through their

contacts and professional connections, view their profile and employment history and offer

recommendations and endorsements. It is efficient and very easy to use as a general LinkedIn app

experience.

In addition, LinkedIn now offers another several apps with specific use cases41:

LinkedIn Job Search

LinkedIn Lookup

Lynda.com

LinkedIn SlideShare

LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Pulse

LinkedIn Recruiter (premium)

LinkedIn Sales Navigator (premium)

LinkedIn Elevate (premium)

LinkedIn’s mobile app plan is driven by a recognition that the most successful apps are the ones that are product-specific, simple to use and fulfil a specific purpose.

41 https://mobile.linkedin.com/

https://mobile.linkedin.com/




11. Appendix

11.1. About the author David Reilly is a founder and former Board Director of Barracuda Digital (2006 to 2013) and now

a Digital Consultant.

His passion is exploring future technology trends, delivering training workshops and writing

about topics such as digital acquisition, content marketing, B2B marketing, strategy and what it

means to thrive in the digital world.

David runs the ‘Future Thinking in Digital Marketing Meetup Group’ exploring the likely impact

of future technology disruptions: http://www.meetup.com/Future-Thinking-in-Digital-

Marketing-Meetup/events/224284118/.

11.2. Glossary of terms Advanced search: LinkedIn’s sophisticated and advanced tool for searching and connecting

with fellow professionals.

API and developer programme: The ability to gain access and approval to create custom

company branded experiences.

Connection: On LinkedIn, people in an individual’s network are called connections. A user’s

network is made up of first-degree, second-degree and third-degree connections as well as fellow

members of your LinkedIn groups. Connections can be classified as follows:

First degree – People you’re directly connected to because you’ve accepted their invitation

to connect, or they’ve accepted your invitation.

Second degree – People who are connected to your first-degree connections.

Third degree – People who are connected to your second-degree connections.

If their full first and last names are displayed, invitations can be sent to them by clicking on

Connect.

If only the first letter of their last name is displayed, clicking on Connect isn’t an option but

they can be contacted through an InMail.

Fellow members of your LinkedIn Groups – These people are considered part of your

network because you’re members of the same group. You’ll see a Group icon next to their

name in search results and on their profile. You can contact them by sending a message on

LinkedIn or through the group.

Out of network – LinkedIn members who fall outside the categories listed above. You can

contact them through an InMail.42

Content marketing: The ability to use LinkedIn’s platform to distribute relevant content and

increase your professional engagement.

Company pages: The free option to set up your own company page on LinkedIn.

CPC: CPC indicates the measurement of the cost on a per click basis for buying advertising.

CPM: CPM model refers to advertising bought on the basis of impression or view.

42 Your network and degrees of connection: https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/110

http://www.meetup.com/Future-Thinking-in-Digital-Marketing-Meetup/events/224284118/

http://www.meetup.com/Future-Thinking-in-Digital-Marketing-Meetup/events/224284118/

https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/110




Display advertising: LinkedIn standard display advertising which enables homepage adverts

targeted to relevant customers at the right time.

Elevate: A mobile application launched in April 2015 enabling companies to empower their

students to share content.

Groups: LinkedIn groups provide a place for professionals in the same industry or with similar

interests to share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts, and establish

themselves as industry experts.

Insight tag: http://help.lms.linkedin.com/hc/en-us/articles/203993478-Adding-the-LinkedIn-

Insight-Tag-to-your-website

Invitation limit: LinkedIn initially allows all users to send up to 5,000 invitations. This limit is

an automatic method to prevent accidental abuse and protect both senders and recipients. The

limit is in place only to prevent abuse, not to block invitations sent by careful inviters. LinkedIn

encourages all users to connect to their trusted professional contacts and to others who welcome

connections with new contacts. Users who limit their invitations to these two groups have high

invitation acceptance rates and LinkedIn will usually raise the limit for such inviters.

Lead Accelerator (no longer available): The lead generation and nurturing product

launched in April 2015 which connects companies to the right professionals with the right

content as they make their way through the purchase decision process.

Mobile apps: LinkedIn’s range of product specific mobile apps.

Network display: The option to deliver adverts across LinkedIn’s network of 2,500 of other

business-focused websites which form part of its network.

Marketing sales funnel: The typical lead nurturing process of B2B customers as they continue

to a final purchase.

OpenLink: Open profile messages, a premium account feature, are free InMail messages that

can be sent to any LinkedIn member with ‘open profile’ turned on, even if they are outside of your

network. Anyone on LinkedIn can send an open profile message to these premium members

without an introduction or paying for an InMail. All LinkedIn members can see the full profiles of

members with open profiles. In order to be an open profile member, you must have a premium

account.

Premium accounts: The differing levels of LinkedIn’s monthly and annual subscriptions

models.

Pulse: LinkedIn Pulse, evolved from the purchase and integration of the acquisition of Pulse

App, refers to LinkedIn’s self-publishing platform.

Recruiter: LinkedIn Recruiter is a tool which allows recruiters to aggregate, track, contact and

nurture talent leads.

Sales Navigator: Sales Navigator is a tool for salespeople which allows them to identify and

qualify targets using LinkedIn’s premium search facility and extended profile access.

SlideShare: SlideShare is a tool enabling users to upload visual files to their profile pages or

privately, including images, PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote documents or OpenDocument

presentations.

Social networks: This refers to online communities that are used by large groups of people to

share information and content to develop social and professional contacts.

http://help.lms.linkedin.com/hc/en-us/articles/203993478-Adding-the-LinkedIn-Insight-Tag-to-your-website

http://help.lms.linkedin.com/hc/en-us/articles/203993478-Adding-the-LinkedIn-Insight-Tag-to-your-website

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPoint

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keynote_(presentation_software)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument




Sponsored InMail: The ability to send highly targeted sponsored messages directly to target

customers right to their LinkedIn inboxes.

Sponsored updates: The opportunity to target the right customers at the right time at a cost

per click with tailored adverts delivered in the member’s homepage feed.

Spotlight ads: This is a fully customisable native ad unit, 65 x 65, that leverages the member

profile image, but can link to the advertiser’s landing page.

Targeted self-serve ads: This refers to targeting options when advertising on LinkedIn and

ensures your ads appear to a relevant audience. This includes targeting by company name,

industry, company size, job title, job function, job seniority, member skills, member schools,

degrees, fields of study, member groups, member gender and member age.

Text link ads: Text-based advertisements that are hyperlinked to take a visitor to another URL.

Timeline: The stream of updates on your own personal profile or page.

Tracking code: When you place advertisements online, you can append the destination URL

with a tracking code which registers the origin of the traffic within your analytics platform. This

can assist in attributing conversions to the source, and therefore helping attribute ROI to ad

spend.

URL: The address of a web page. All web pages have an address which can be used to access it

over the internet.

Visitor: A visitor can create many visits on page as recorded in tracking but a visit may only be

created by a single visitor.

Visitor: A user’s web browser registers within analytics platforms as a visitor. As that web

browser interacts with a website, it generates visitor page views. This is measured by the website

placing a cookie in the visitor’s browser, and recognising the cookie when that visitor returns,

allowing it to recognise the visitor as a returner.

11.3. A note on SlideShare Founded in 2006, SlideShare is a sharing platform for hosting business documents and

presentations. Users can upload files privately or publicly in the following file formats:

PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote or OpenDocument presentations. Slide decks can then be viewed on

the site itself, on hand-held devices or embedded on third-party sites. As such, the site is

considered to be similar to YouTube, except it hosts slideshows instead of videos. In fact, although

the website is primarily a slide hosting service, it also supports documents, PDFs, videos and

webinars.

According to LinkedIn’s 2014 annual report, SlideShare hosts more than 17 million presentations

and videos, demonstrating strong progress toward LinkedIn’s goal of making it the largest

repository of professional knowledge on the internet.43 In Q4 2014 alone, the site had 70 million

unique, visits making it one of the most heavily trafficked sites for professional content.

Good content can be viewed, liked and shared, allowing the collective ratings to act as marketing

collateral for brands and their content. Presentations are one of the main ways in which

professionals can capture and demonstrate their knowledge and expertise, which in turn helps

shape their professional identity.

43 LinkedIn Annual Report 2014. Available from: https://investors.linkedin.com/results-and-financials/annual-reports/default.aspx

http://www.slideshare.net/






SlideShare

“In a recent conference, I was asked my opinion on what the biggest opportunity in B2B content marketing is.

Without hesitation, I answered ‘SlideShare’.”

Michael Brenner, Vice President of Marketing and Content Strategy at SAP44

In addition, presentations enable professionals to discover new connections through content and

gain the insights they need to be successful in their careers.

Users viewing a slideshow can see information such as:

1. Profile view of the account that has uploaded the presentation.

2. Number of profile followers.

3. Number of uploaded presentations.

4. Number of presentation views.

5. Date presentation uploaded.

6. Number of presentation shares.

7. Comments, likes etc.

Figure 41: SlideShare.net homepage with LinkedIn branding

The platform also acts as a social discovery platform for users to find relevant content via topics,

most popular and search functionality. Users can also follow people/companies, like, share and

save presentations. In addition, SlideShare offers functionality for users to create clipboards of

44 http://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/slideshare-is-the-biggest-opportunity-in-b2b-content-marketing/

http://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/slideshare-is-the-biggest-opportunity-in-b2b-content-marketing/

http://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/slideshare-is-the-biggest-opportunity-in-b2b-content-marketing/




the content that they like. Like other social platforms, users can log in and see most recent

presentations as well as trending presentations.

Figure 42: Econsultancy SlideShare presentation – reusable content marketing

collateral

SlideShare has a large enterprise following because companies can create a long tail for content

that they create. For example, companies like Econsultancy can compile an inventory and curate

content on branded company pages. Econsultancy makes use of SlideShare by curating

presentations delivered by their employees at various events around the world. Other brands can

make use of SlideShare to curate nostalgic marketing materials such as advertisements and

imagery.




11.4. SlideShare advertising SlideShare used to have its own advertising platform, known as SlideShare Content Ads, which

allowed users to extend the reach of their presentations beyond their SlideShare channel and

allow LinkedIn members to see, like and share presentations during their LinkedIn experience.

This was repositioned in 2014 as a lead generation tool.45 Companies can use presentations,

infographics and videos to serve as marketing assets for connecting with potential customers.

SlideShare’s Lead Generation tool allows marketers to identify and engage with consumers of

their content with a view to converting viewership into prospects. The tool includes the following

features:

Integration with LinkedIn Autofill so viewers can fill out lead forms on SlideShare with their

LinkedIn profile information.

Lead collection via mobile and embed traffic.

Lead form customisation.

Marketing automation integration (Marketo and HubSpot). In fact, companies such as

Marketo and HubSpot, which are well-known for their strategic approach to content

marketing, are using the tool for their own business goals.46

11.5. SlideShare best practice SlideShare can be a useful tool for top-of-the-funnel marketing and lead generation. The

following are some approaches that marketers may consider if using SlideShare as a content

marketing tool:

1. Optimise SlideShare assets.

Because LinkedIn has positioned itself as a publishing platform, LinkedIn and SlideShare

assets perform well on the Google search engine results page. The following are some tips for

optimising content assets via SlideShare:

a. Include a link to your website via your SlideShare profile.

b. SlideShare provides a field to describe your company. Include important keywords at the

beginning of the description, separated by an asterisk (*) or similar symbol.

c. Include SEO keywords in the company description.

d. To increase your digital footprint, link to other social properties. For example, should

somebody search for the name of your company, it can be useful to control the SERP by

allowing Google to list your corporate domain followed by social properties.

e. When uploading presentations to SlideShare, make sure the presentation title and

description include relevant keywords. In addition, make sure the tags section has been

completed with all relevant keywords. This is important for SEO but also for initial

discovery should somebody reach this material via search.

45 https://www.slideshare.net/lead-generation 46 https://blog.slideshare.net/2015/07/21/new-slideshare-lead-generation-tool-launches-with-improved-reach-and-conversion/

https://www.slideshare.net/lead-generation

https://blog.slideshare.net/2015/07/21/new-slideshare-lead-generation-tool-launches-with-improved-reach-and-conversion/

https://blog.slideshare.net/2015/07/21/new-slideshare-lead-generation-tool-launches-with-improved-reach-and-conversion/




Figure 43: Econsultancy SlideShare profile

2. Case studies and thought leadership

Case studies and examples of thought leadership can be useful material for a potential buyer’s

research and discovery phase. Because of LinkedIn’s position as the world’s largest

professional networking site as well as its commitment to becoming a publishing platform,

material hosted here is well positioned to be picked up by Google on its search engine results

pages (SERP).

As such, content can be useful for attracting high viewer rates but may not deliver high lead

form conversions. That doesn’t mean that content marketing via LinkedIn/SlideShare should

be disregarded as those that do convert are typically well-qualified leads.

3. Educational content

This kind of material can include brochures, presentations, workbooks and manuals. This

material is more likely to be consumed by potential clients who are already interested in your

product and service. For this reason, it is reasonable to expect lower traffic but higher lead

form conversions.

4. Cover slides

Remember that like landing pages, cover slides will need to capture a viewer’s attention in

three seconds. A key recommendation therefore is to prepare cover slides that are impactful

and include key sound bites that will enable the viewer to decide whether to continue viewing

or not.

5. Lead forms

Lead forms should be short and only include necessary fields. LinkedIn offers an autofill

button to allow viewers to complete the form with their own details. LinkedIn’s own lead

forms request:

a. First name

b. Last name




c. Company

d. Email

e. Phone number

f. Country

Figure 44: LinkedIn lead form

6. A note on lead form placement

The lead form can be overlaid on a slide. Consider that the placement of this form can impact

upon conversions. LinkedIn provides the following guidance for lead form placement:

a. Attaching a lead form when the viewer reaches the last slide or has downloaded a

SlideShare may capture fewer, but higher quality leads as it indicates the viewer’s interest

in the content.

b. Attaching a lead form in the middle of the SlideShare can attract higher leads because

many users may not click through to the end of a SlideShare, particularly as some viewers

may get the material that they need and drop off before reaching the end of the deck.

c. It is therefore important to A/B test lead form placement in order to optimise the number

of leads.47

47 https://www.slideshare.net/lead-generation

https://www.slideshare.net/lead-generation




7. Share and embed SlideShares on relevant properties

Reach of SlideShare materials can be expanded by embedding in blog posts, websites,

LinkedIn posts and sponsored content. In addition, reach your audience by sharing links to

the material via social media.

11.6. Content marketing resources

Implementing Content Strategy: Digital Best Practice https://econsultancy.com/reports/implementing-content-strategy-digital-best-practice/

The Implementing Content Strategy: Digital Best Practice report provides a framework for

evaluating your current content strategy and content planning processes, helping you make the

most of your content in the future.

Written by experienced consultant Dr Mike Baxter, who has led consultant teams on numerous

Econsultancy content strategy projects, the report aims to identify best practice approaches and

techniques around digital content strategy. The report also includes case studies illustrating how

various brands are shaping their content strategies.

The framework for developing a content strategy outlined in the report is split into five key steps:

Step 1: Producing a content inventory.

Step 2: Conducting a content audit.

Step 3: Extending the content audit.

Step 4: Finding inspiring precedents.

Step 5: Producing the content strategy.

Digital Content Strategy Best Practice Guide https://econsultancy.com/reports/digital-content-strategy-best-practice-guide/

The Digital Content Strategy Best Practice Guide is based on a series of in-depth interviews with a

range of senior digital and non-digital marketers, content leads, heads of UX and content

strategists.

Written by experienced blogger, writer and consultant Neil Perkin, the report aims to identify best

practice approaches, techniques, challenges and opportunities around digital content strategy.

The research was designed to examine the common issues, themes and challenges associated with

digital content strategies. The methodology involved two main phases:

Phase 1: desk research to identify relevant issues, examples and models.

Phase 2: a series of in-depth interviews with a range of senior digital and non-digital

marketers, content leads, heads of UX, and content strategists. Interviewees for the research

covered sectors as diverse as public sector, NGO, FMCG, financial services and media.

How To Go Viral https://econsultancy.com/reports/how-to-go-viral/

We’re spending much more time and resources creating content, but a lot of it is getting little

engagement. This engagement problem is often related to digital distribution.

We’re dangerously tempted to focus on the content, only to think that its life is over once we’ve

pressed ‘publish’. This is only half of the content strategy process, and as marketers we need to be

thinking about what happens once we’ve pressed the button.

https://econsultancy.com/reports/implementing-content-strategy-digital-best-practice/

https://econsultancy.com/reports/digital-content-strategy-best-practice-guide/

https://econsultancy.com/reports/how-to-go-viral/




Content distribution is a key component of content strategy planning models. Once

we make the content live (the point of production marked by the dotted line), it is ready to be

distributed – content production and distribution are intertwined.

Through reading this report, marketers should be able to better understand how to effectively

plan distribution as part of their content marketing efforts, and what they need to do after they

press ‘publish’.

Key areas covered in the report:

1. Frameworks for creating shareable content: a review of what distributable content –

that is content that is readily shared and distributed – actually looks like.

2. How publishers get traffic: the techniques that publishers use to maximise their content

distribution.

3. Theories of distribution networks: creating content that has the ingredients of share-

ability is rarely enough – we also need to consider where it may be placed to gain greater

traction and who will be sharing it.

4. Finding online influencers: how can we go about finding the most influential people

within our sector, conversing with them and getting them to share our content?

5. Content distribution in practice: using a semi-hypothetical example based on our own

experiences, the report looks at how we may want to distribute our content through a number

of channels within social media and search.

6. Advanced content distribution: new platforms and techniques of distribution away from

natural distribution in social and search.

The key point of this report is that if you’re producing content, then you need to distribute it, so it

should be useful to anyone who has a functioning content marketing operation.

The sections are varied and will suit differing levels of content producers and marketers. Section

2 and Section 3 are most relevant for content producers, while Sections 4-7 will be most useful for

marketers who specifically want to know more about how to distribute content.

70+ epic content marketing best practice tips, stats, blog posts and

more https://econsultancy.com/blog/63014-70-epic-content-marketing-best-practice-tips-stats-blog-

posts-and-more

We’ve already rounded up lots of our case studies, articles and reports on social media and

ecommerce, now it’s time to do the same for content marketing. The blog post includes

70 or so of Econsultancy’s articles on content marketing best practice, interviews with the experts,

lots of stats and our reports on the topic.

https://econsultancy.com/blog/63014-70-epic-content-marketing-best-practice-tips-stats-blog-posts-and-more

https://econsultancy.com/blog/63014-70-epic-content-marketing-best-practice-tips-stats-blog-posts-and-more

https://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/62558-70-epic-social-media-case-studies-stats-blog-posts-and-more

Econsultancy-Guide-to-LinkedIn-Marketing-Solutions

Documents