Are You Linked(In) or Are You Linked(Out)?

Editor's Notes

• #2: Thank you for joining us today! Our webinar will begin at 10 a.m. central. Good morning everyone, and welcome to today’s webinar. My name is Jenna Gallagher, and I will be presenting today’s content. Before we get started, I’d like to cover a few administrative details. If you experience any technical problems on the call, please contact ReadyTalk customer service at (800) 843-9166. The presentation will take approximately 20 minutes – depending on the number of questions. The lines on today’s call have been muted to avoid any background noise, but you can use the chat function in the lower left side of your screen to chat in your questions throughout the webinar, and we will answer them at the end. We will be recording today’s webinar and sharing the link with you via email, in case you’d like to review it again or share it with others in your office. Now, I’m going to set up the webinar recording and then we’ll get started. Welcome to today’s webinar – AreYou LinkedIn or Are you LinkedOut?
• #3: First, let me tell you a bit about Albers Communications Group….   We are a full-service PR and digital marketing agency, and we strongly believe that those two strategies go hand-in-hand and work best when used as part of an integrated communications strategy.   We represent clients in all 50 states and Canada. Our team of PR and social media specialists helps our clients achieve exposure nationally and locally in their operating markets throughout the country. We have specialized expertise helping companies become leaders in their markets and their industries.
• #4: As I said at the start of the webinar, my name is Jenna Gallagher, and I’m a Content Specialist at Albers. My job is to develop engaging social content for the clients who contract with us to manage their social media presence. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or follow me on Twitter at GG Jenna.
• #5: Here’s a look at the topics we’re going to cover today. First, i will share a brief overview of LinkedIn and its history. Next, I will give you an idea of how LinkedIn fits into the crowded social space. I will then talk about why LinkedIn is important for individuals and how it can be most effectively used by both individuals and businesses. I will talk about the type of content that is appropriate for LinkedIn as well as the type of content you want to avoid. And lastly, I will answer any questions that have been chatted in throughout the presentation before closing our session. With that, let’s get started.
• #6: LinkedIn was launched in May 2003 as a professional social networking site, and aside from growing tremendously over the past 12 years, not much has changed. LinkedIn has stayed true to its roots by remaining the go-to space for professionals who want to network in the social space. Membership grows by approximately two new members every second, and the United States boasts the largest percentage of overall users — about 30%, or nearly 100 million people, followed by India, with less than 10% of total users.
• #7: LinkedIn is no “new kid on the block,” so they don’t have to compete with some of the newer social sites for their identity. LinkedIn remains one of the “big 3” alongside Facebook and Twitter. It’s a strategy we often recommend for our clients to either be involved with individually or as a business because it can be a powerful PR tool — designed to showcase your expertise and keep your name and brand top of mind.
• #8: As I mentioned, we often recommend LinkedIn for our clients because the payoff can be huge. Professionals can use LinkedIn to network with key contacts or prospective clients, make a name for themselves as an expert in their field, or humblebrag about their company’s achievements in the interest of boosting brand identity. LinkedIn is also a powerful tool for individuals who are looking for work. The job search function allows you to choose location, salary, keywords and more that are relevant to the field you want to work in. The profile feature for individuals is very robust with space for your resume, a summary of skills, areas of expertise, endorsements from colleagues and peers, and education experience. Occasional prompts remind you to update your skills as you advance in your career, and the graph on the side of your profile indicates how far along you are toward optimal profile completeness.
• #9: LinkedIn also has powerful applications for a business or brand. You can create a page for your company, in addition to your individual page, and share content between the two. LinkedIn can help your company establish a professional reputation — which is especially critical if you’re a new business — carve out a niche in your industry if it’s crowded, build awareness of your brand generate interest in your products or services, and share your particular area of expertise with a professional audience.  
• #10: Don’t be overwhelmed by the idea of adding another social network to your overall strategy. LinkedIn doesn’t require quite as much attention as Facebook and definitely not as much hands-on care as Twitter, but it is an essential part of establishing your company’s expertise in its field. We generally recommend posting at least three times per week on both your individual and personal pages. However, this is just a guideline — if you have sharp, relevant content to share more frequently, go for it. Just be aware of audience saturation, which you should be able to gauge by the amount of engagement your content receives.
• #11: LinkedIn definitely isn’t Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, so it takes more targeted consideration to determine who you should be connected with. It is important that you DO connect with coworkers, both past and present, your clients, peers with whom you have a professional relationship, and even a few people you don’t directly know — for examples, connections of trusted business contacts who you’d like to further engage with. And absolute DON’T of LinkedIn and pet peeve among most users? Receiving an invitation to connect from someone you don’t know and with whom you don’t have a trusted mutual connection. Many LinkedIn users try to build their connections by connecting with people they don’t know just to reach the 500+ contact mark. Again, most LinkedIn users see through this strategy and find it off-putting.
• #12: Because LinkedIn is such a defined social network and has a strictly professional identity, you also have to give careful consideration to the type of content you post. Definite DOs are blogs you write or that your coworkers write, commentary on what’s happening in your industry (from your expert point-of-view), and trusted third-party articles, to name a few. On the other hand, you definitely should avoid posting personal content to your LinkedIn page — personal photos or updates about your family are don’ts, as are polarizing political opinions or information that doesn’t come from a trusted news or industry source.
• #13: I will now break for questions and discussion. While you’re chatting in any final questions, I’d like to let you know that there will be a brief survey at the end of this webinar. If you could take a moment to share your feedback with us, it will help us develop content in the future that fits your needs. Thank you in advance for participating. [Answer questions]
• #14: If there are no further questions, then that will conclude today’s webinar. Thank you again for joining us, and don’t forget to give us your feedback via the brief survey that I will put on-screen (close out of webinar and put survey on-screen). Enjoy the rest of your day.