An introduction to linkedin
- 2. What is social media all about? • Collaboration • Conversation • Interaction • Reputation What is social media not about? • Broadcasting • Selling • Driving traffic • Making money But if you get social media right, all of those can follow...
- 3. Linkedin & social media
- 4. What is Linkedin? • World’s largest online professional network with more than 135 million members in over 200 countries and territories • Two new professionals join Linkedin every second • More than 2 million Linkedin company pages • More than 1 million Linkedin groups • 8m+ members in the UK as of December 6, 2011 • Over 87 million visitors and 7.6 billion page views in Summer 2011* • Ranked as the 34th most visited website worldwide - up from 54th one year ago** • Referrals to publisher sites have increased by more than 75%*** * according to comScore – July-September 2011 ** according to comScore – September 2011 figures *** between June 30, 2011 and September 30, 2011
- 5. How does Linkedin work? Companies Profile Contacts Groups 1st 2nd 3rd
- 6. Why should you be on Linkedin? • Reputation and influence – Linkedin is THE professional (non)social network – This is where all the experts in your field hangout and share knowledge, tips and information – If you contribute relevant comment, information and opinion and provide answers to questions you will increase your influence with your peers – Makes you an integral part of the professional network • How you do this – By building a searchable and verifiable profile showing your experience, qualifications and expertise – Publicly links you with your company, brand and your professional community – Recommend others and get recommended yourself – Good use of the personal feed
- 7. Why should you be on Linkedin? • Professional community – Build and manage a network of professional contacts – Allows you to see what your community finds relevant – Keeps you up to date with what your community is talking about – Find leads, contacts, interviews, sources, candidates, jobs – You can keep track of who is working where • How you do this – Join and contribute to the discussion of relevant groups – Search for experts using profile keywords and
- 8. Why should my brand be on Linkedin? • Promotion - a company/brand page can include – About us – Products and services – Careers/jobs • Groups can create a community around your brand and can also position your brand as an expert in an area • If my brand has a good reputation it reinforces my reputation • If my brand does not have an official page, it may end up with an unofficial one which is less complimentary
- 9. Creating a profile • Go to www.linkedin.com • Register with your name, email address and password
- 10. Linkedin profiles • You need a personal profile to do everything on Linkedin – and it’s automatically created when you register to join • Treat your profile like a CV - consider which parts of your past and current job to list – it doesn’t have to include everything • Connect with colleagues – search by email addresses or look at who is already registered as part of that company • Keep it professional – use a headshot not a social picture, don’t repost chain letters/status or jokes – those are for Facebook • You can have 3 links and 3 Twitter feeds linked to your profile – one of each should be your publication’s website and Twitter account • Don’t feel you have to include too much detail about past jobs – sometimes the company name, job title and dates worked is enough • It doesn’t have to be 100% complete – get the basics in place, then build it up
- 11. A profile page – top view Title is completely editable, can be your job You can choose the type title, your industry etc job role, but industry is defined by the company information This is not actually a very good photo for Linkedin – should be more professional Be careful when uploading a resume – Headline info from past remove contact info jobs – you can have more before posting than one current job at a time Recommendations Number of connections Mix of Redactive and freelance links If you have a personal Twitter you want Engagement stats recruiters to find here’s where to include it
- 12. Profile page – sections Now that Linkedin has added a keywords Recommendations in full section this can be generic “about me” text Past job info Group membership Skills keywords – these Personal info – up to you are now searchable so be how much you complete sure to complete them What I’m open to being Education contacted about
- 13. I’ve got a profile, now what? • Connect with contacts • Join and create groups – Contribute to discussions – Create and vote on polls – Search and post job opportunities • Follow companies that are of interest
- 14. Connecting with contacts • You can find contacts by: – Email address – Searching for individuals by name – Via company pages – Looking at your contacts’ network – Linkedin suggestions
- 15. Join or create groups • Join the conversation • Linkedin groups are effectively forums with some extra functionality • Group membership can be closed or open • A discussion is started and other group members comment on it to reply or debate the issue at hand • Group members can “like” a discussion • Polls can be created, voted in and commented upon • Jobs can be posted • And that’s it...
- 16. Linkedin groups - membership • A group is a specialist community • People choose to join, so you know they have an interest in the topic • Anyone can start a discussion – all you have to be is a member • But there’s a fine line between providing relevant information and straight selling – you have to offer more than just a link to your product • Group membership lists are searchable – good way to see who else is interested • Discussions are a good indication of topics of interest to the industry • But DON’T spam – group members are likely readers and we don’t want to alienate them
- 17. Linkedin groups - ownership • A group is a community for your readers • Use links to relevant content to start discussions and polls • Invite friendly contacts and contributors to join the group • Reply to or like other people’s discussions or polls • Use the group jobs tab to manually post links to top jobs on your jobs site • Promote popular group discussions in other media – as a link from your website, newsletter or Twitter feed • Use the groups statistics to track your audience • Write group rules that encourage conversation about the magazine but discourage spam/commercial posts. – Have a 3 strike clause in the group rules so you can expel spammers • Send an announcement email to group members once a week to promote content, upcoming events etc
- 18. A Linkedin group Member info Search the group Group administration section – approve users, change settings etc Group title and logo Group Rules Where to start a discussion Managers choice – a promoted discussions Most recently started or commented on discussions – 20 to a Latest updates – page discussions, comments, li kes, new members etc Discussion reactions - comments and likes Group statistics – who is in your group, where are they based, age, gender and job level info from profile information
- 19. Setting up a Linkedin group – practicalities • Choose one team member to be group owner • Decide whether membership numbers or quality of content is more important to you – first is an open group, second is a closed group – If you decide to have a closed group the group owner to monitor the Requests to join page so new members don’t have to wait too long • Customise settings – Owners can set it so they receive an email for any new discussions started so they can remove any that are spam or overly commercial. Owners can also choose if they want to restrict who can create polls, discussions or jobs • Post one new discussion a day with links to your site - get different people to post the discussions so it looks more like a conversation • Encourage staff to comment on and/or Like each other’s discussions • Set up a bit.ly link or redirectlink (mysite.com/linkedin) as an easy link for use in print – don’t print the official group link as it looks horrible • Put the time in – don’t expect overnight success
- 20. Follow companies that are of interest • You can choose to follow any brand via their company page – About us – Activity – including new hires, job roles and promotions – Products and services – Opportunities
- 21. Linkedin company page Services tab – there can also be tabs for career opportunities Company name and logo About us information Stats Contacts who work at the company
- 22. Advertising on Linkedin • Every few months group owners are offered a certain amount of free advertising space on Linkedin • If you want to use this, you need to have something ready to go, because the free periods tend to be brief • Linkedin adverts include: – Headline (up to 25 characters of text) – Description (up to 75 characters of text) – From: (your name or any company) – Image: (50x50 pixel image) – URL (website people visit once they click on your ad) • Ads can be targeted to job title, company size, location etc • Liked Google Adwords it’s PPC and you can set a budget • Once the free period is over, payment kicks in automatically so you need to watch it carefully
- 23. Linkedin on your mobile • Linkedin currently has mobile applications for – iPhone – Blackberry – Android – Palm • 11% of people access Linkedin via their mobile device
- 24. Dos and Don’ts • DO add all relevant past employment information to your profile • DON’T add insane levels of detail about an irrelevant job from 10 years ago • DO like other people’s discussions and comments • DON’T insult or abuse anyone – remember everything is public • DO use your personal status to promote interesting content • DON’T overpost – this isn’t Twitter and people don’t want to be inundated • DON’T set-up other social media accounts to autopost to your feed • DO join other groups, vote on polls, engage in discussions • DON’T be a spammer - quality over quantity
- 25. Dos and Don’ts • DO ask for recommendations from past colleagues • DON’T be upset if no one responds, sometimes people don’t • DO add colleagues, professional contacts, clients etc to your connections • DON’T add your entire address book – be selective, professional only • DO send connection requests to people you met at a conference or networking event • DON’T start by adding people you don’t know as connections (this comes later, when you have a completed profile) • DON’T upload a CV with contact information or references names on it – it could be a danger to your privacy
- 26. Any questions?
Editor's Notes
- #5: Linked in is growing - fastMore stats from http://press.linkedin.com/about14m students & recent graduatesAs of September 30, 2011 (the end of the third quarter), LinkedIn counts executives from all 2011 Fortune 500 companies as members; its corporate hiring solutions are used by 75 of the Fortune 100 companies.There were nearly two billion people searches on LinkedIn in 2010. Based on third quarter 2011 metrics, LinkedIn members are on pace to do more than four billion searches on the LinkedIn platform in 2011.What can you do on Linkedin?Create and maintain a professional profileCreate a professional network of contactsCreate a discussion groupCreate a company pageFind a jobShare updates and links on your feedSet-up or vote on a pollPromote jobs Advertise
- #6: ANIMATION: X shows click pointsA profile X connects to contacts.Your contacts are connected to their X contacts and so on X X These 3 levels of contacts are what Linkedin calls your Network, with 1st, 2nd and 3rd level contactsAs with 6 degrees of separation, the number of 3rd level contacts that you have can reach into the tens of thousands...In addition you can join X groups, which have X members.And your profile allows you to show the experience you have working for different X companiesYou can request to connect with anyone – say a member of a group. X If your connection is accepted X that group member then becomes a 1st level contact.If you connect to a 2nd level contact, X that contact’s connections, which were formerly you’re 3rd level contacts become your 2nd level contacts X – expanding your network further.
- #9: Best practiceDell – used product and services page to highlight offers. People can then Recommend products or share them via their personal feed. IBM – use available apps to customise information – stock prices, videos, lots of reasons to visit the pageIncisive – are using the products and services tab to show off their magazine brands – we should be doing the same
- #12: Talk about feed and shared info
- #15: Searches your address book – Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail etc
- #17: Membership and ownershipDangers of spamming
- #18: Group ownership