The key to harnessing the power of LinkedIn? Gain greater visibility. This presentation explore ways that you can optimize certain elements of your LinkedIn presence (both personal and company), so you will increase your visibility and sales funnel for more business.

2. Harnessing the Power of LinkedIn
Jennifer Culbertson | Looking Glass Marketing
October 22, 2013

3. What We’ll Cover Today
 Why LinkedIn?
 Tips for Improving Personal Profile
 Get More Out of Company Pages on LinkedIn
 Using LinkedIn Analytics
Q & A

4. LinkedIn Background
• World’s largest professional networking site
• It is one of the leading go to social media
resources
• More than 85 million members in more than 200
countries

5. LinkedIn Statistics
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40% of users check LinkedIn daily
Average time user spends on LinkedIn – 17 minutes
3 million LinkedIn Company pages
1.2 million products/services showcased on LinkedIn
Company pages
1.5 million LinkedIn groups
1 billion total LinkedIn endorsements
Only 50.5% of users have ‘complete profiles’ as defined by
LinkedIn
90.9% prefer using the Free version

6. B2B Statistics on LinkedIn
• LinkedIn is 227% more
effective for B2B lead
generation than Twitter
and Facebook - (Hubspot)

7. How Can LinkedIn Help You?
• 77% users say LinkedIn helped them research people
and companies
• 69% said that it helped reconnect with past business
associates
• 50% said it was good for building new network
relationships with individuals who may influence
potential customers
Source - LinkedIn

8. Why Should You Care?
• Improve SEO and online presence
(Google typically scores optimized LinkedIn profiles high)
• Provides unique and targeted
networking/relationship-building opportunities
• Enhance your credibility and influence
• Earn trust and recommendations
• Generate more leads and build more business!

9. Tips for Improving Your
Personal Profile

10. Typical Issues with Profiles
 Not displaying your photo
 Headline doesn’t describe
what you do
 Status updates are not
appealing
 Not having at least 3
recommendations
 No effort to make connections
 Not listing 3 websites
 Not claiming your personal
URL
 Summary lacks rich keywords

11. Complete Profile
•
What makes your profile
complete?
– Your industry and location
– An up-to-date current position
(with a description)
– Two past positions
– Your education
– Your skills (minimum of 3)
– A profile photo
– At least 50 connections
•
LinkedIn favors:
– Profiles that are complete
– Networks of connected people
– LinkedIn groups
– Profiles chock-full of the same
keyword(s) - Name, Headline,
Company Name, Job Title and
Skills

12. Professional Photo
• Professional Photo - This will make your profile 7x more
likely to be viewed
– Photo should be formal and professional
– Format - JPG, GIF or PNG file
– File size - 4MB maximum
– Pixel size - 80 x 80 minimum and 500 x 500 maximum

13. Write a Descriptive Headline
3 LinkedIn Headline Tips
1. First think value proposition –
How do you provide value?
2. Think target audience – Whom do
you provide value for and who will
read this?
3. Included keywords – Include
keywords in your headline that you
think people will do searches for

14. Personalize Your URL
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LinkedIn will create a public
profile address for you.
Not really memorable or likely to
get you found on Google.
TIP: Don’t use your company name in your LinkedIn URL. A
better choice is use your full name or Twitter username.

15. Customize Your Websites
TIP: Choose “Other”— regardless of what kind of website it
is. This will allow you to insert your own title and be more
specific.

16. Connect Your Twitter Account
TIP: Go to Settings, add Twitter account.

17. Complete Your Experience/Summary
TIP: Write your summary in the third person. Otherwise,
you’ll be using the letter “I” quite a bit.

18. Add Work Samples
• Add samples to the
Summary, Education, and
Experience sections on
your profile
• Presentations, eBooks,
blog posts,
videos, etc.

19. List Work History
TIPS: List at least 2-3 past positions. If your company
appears in the drop down once you type, click on it to
ensure you get grouped with fellow employees.

20. Add Educational Achievements

21. Make Your Profile Public
TIP: Be visible to ‘Everyone’ in the effort to build your network.

22. Make Connections
• Connections - Connections are twoway relationships of trust between
people who know each other.
• You will want to connect with coworkers, colleagues, classmates and
friends
– Invite contacts you know through email
to connect with you
• They will have to accept your invitation
• Personalize the invitation to someone you
met at a networking event
“It was really great meeting you today, I would
like to add you to my professional network”
•
How many connections?
– Some say 10 times your age
– Average around 300 or so

23. Get Endorsed
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Endorsements - This is where you can
portray your specific skills
Connections will be able to endorse
you for the skills that are relevant
– Endorse someone in your network
for a skill
• This will increase the
likelihood that they will
reciprocate
– Make sure you only endorse
someone for skills that you know
they possess
– You can hide endorsements as well

24. LinkedIn Groups
• Groups provide a social
network for people to share
similar interests
• Groups are a top feature of
what users like in LinkedIn
• Research groups to join
• Look for groups in your
target audience
• Start your own group to host
discussion

25. Leverage LinkedIn Groups
• If you're a member of the same group as
another user, you can bypass the need to be a
first-degree connection in order to message
them.
• Group members are also able to view the
profiles of other members of the same group
without being connected.
• Join more groups to enable more messaging
and profile viewership capabilities.

26. Optimize Company Page

27. Reasons to Have Company Page
•
Exposure and Visibility - Company page gives more exposure and visibility
to your business, products or services.
•
Gain Followers - This will allow your page followers to be able to keep in
track of your company news, status updates and/or announcements.
•
Add products and services - You can also add videos to each of your
product or service listings. This gives you the ability and opportunity to
showcase what you can do and what you have to offer.
•
Recommendations - Company pages also have recommendations just like
your own profile. Satisfied customers can now easily recommend you,
your products and services
•
Lead Generation – Utilize LinkedIn advertising and Sponsored Updates to
reach your target audience. Drive people back to your website – capture
leads via online forms and landing pages

28. Generate Leads
• LinkedIn can help you generate leads!
• According to HubSpot, LinkedIn generates the
highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate than both
Twitter and Facebook
• Get the most out of LinkedIn for lead generation:
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Maximize Company Page
Consistent Status Updates
Utilize LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Ads

29. Get More Out of Company Pages

30. Company Image
• Capture attention with a fantastic cover image

31. Company Description
• Pay Attention to
Specialties section of
your company
description, you will
want to use relevant
keywords for your
company so you’ll be
found in LinkedIn
searches

32. Company Products and Services
– Add images
– Talk about how
users can benefit
from your product
or services
– Make sure your
most important
product/service is
listed first
– Add videos and
offers

33. Collect Recommendations
• Ask for product and service reviews
• Users can leave a recommendation for
anything you feature within the Products &
Services tab of your Company Page
• Generate reviews of your marketing offers too
if you choose to list them in promotions
• BONUS – Use LinkedIn recommendations
you've collected as testimonials on your
website.

34. Add Company Follow and LinkedIn Share
Buttons to Website
• Promote your company's LinkedIn
presence and help grow the reach of
your Company Page by adding the
Company Follow button to your
website.
• Consider adding the LinkedIn share
button to your various content
assets like blog posts, emails, and
landing pages to extend the reach of
your content to LinkedIn users.

35. Company Status Updates
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You can post and share items like
company news, events, promotions,
relevant industry articles, and YouTube
videos
What should I post? LinkedIn members
are interested in:
– 60% are interested in industry
insights
– 53% are interested in company news
– 43% are interested in new products
and services
Time your status updates - LinkedIn’s
busiest hours are morning and mid-day,
Monday through Friday
Post regularly and consistently
Post up to 700 characters!
Best Practices for Status Updates:
http://help.linkedin.com/ci/fattach/get/2
352183/0/filename/Company_Pages_Sta
tus_Updates.pdf

36. Sponsored Updates
• Paid Sponsored Updates allow you to
promote your message to others
outside your company page following
• Target your update by location,
company, job title, skills, group, gender
or age
• Appear in the natural flow of a
member’s newsfeed among other
shared pieces of content and profile
updates.
• Include a call to action to “follow” the
brand behind the update or interact
with the post in the usual ways (“like,”
comment, or share).

37. Use Group Stats for Better Targeting
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Access statistics for any LinkedIn
Group -- even those you're not a
member of!
LinkedIn Group Statistics
– How many members
– Demographics including locations,
seniority, function, and industry
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Use this data to analyze the
makeup of a group before you
decide to join
Identify which LinkedIn Groups
you should target in your LinkedIn
ads
Gather insights about your buyer
personas to help you do better
marketing outside of LinkedIn

38. Email and Poll LinkedIn Groups
• Email to Members in Groups - Did you know if you manage
a LinkedIn Group you can literally email the members of
your group -- up to once per week? This email takes the
form of LinkedIn Announcements, which are messages sent
directly to the email inbox of the members of your LinkedIn
Group.
• Poll Group Members - Go to the group you want to publish
a poll, hit 'Poll', enter your question, and schedule for how
long you'd like your poll to run.
• Use polls to generate blog and content fodder, get
feedback, conduct research, attract new group members,
or get ideas for new marketing offers.

39. Track Company Buzz
• Company Buzz application
allows you to track what
people are saying about
your company and
related topics on Twitter.
• Install the application and
customize your topics to
view tweets, trends, and
top keywords.
• Link:
http://www.linkedin.com/ope
nsocialInstallation/preview?_c
h_panel_id=1&_applicationId=
1000

40. LinkedIn Ads
• Compliment Organic Search with paid LinkedIn Ads
• Typically display format, leveraging well-marked areas
of the page that visitors have been conditioned to
recognize as ad space
• Benefits:
– LinkedIn’s PPC ads let you target specific job titles, job
functions, industries, or company size, to name a few
options -- you know, the people who are more likely to
need what you sell.
– Relatively new and less expensive, the competition is much
lower than Google

41. Use LinkedIn Your Day Feature
• Click on “Your Day” and
you’ll find that it’s much
easier to see who has good
news to share.
• Provides great opportunity
to stay in touch in network
and communicate

42. Using LinkedIn Company Page Analytics

43. Using Company Page Analytics
• Key features of the new Company Page
analytics include:
– Access to see the overall performance, key metrics
and engagement of all updates in one location
– Ability to measure against your competitors and
benchmark data
– Gain demographics on the followers to the Page
– Dive deeper into each specific LinkedIn Updates
and Sponsored Updates

44. Types of Analytics
• Updates
• Reach/Engagement
• Follower
Demographics

45. Final Thoughts
 Update personal profile to 100% complete
 Continue to make Connections
 Actively get endorsements
 Join and be active in Groups
 Update Company page
 Ask for Company recommendations
 Actively post Company Status Updates
 Share and expand reach with Sponsored Updates
 Extend reach with LinkedIn ads
 Monitor progress with Analytics

46. Wrap Up
•
Marketing consulting with expertise working with Microsoft
Dynamics partner organizations.
• Services include:
– Virtual Marketing Director program
– On-demand Marketing Resource Desk via Email
– Marketing Execution and Project Management
– Writing/Content Development (Case Studies, Blogs, Web
Content)
• Questions? Contact me:
• Jennifer Culbertson
jennifer@lookingglassmarketing.com
614-453-5927

47. Wrap Up
• Drawing! Provide your email/business card to me
and enter to win a free month of Marketing
Resource Desk services.
• Complete your evaluation form!

48. THANK YOU
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