B2B Linkedin Project

XYZ Company
LinkedIn Recommendation
June 10, 2011

Erin M. Wiles Chattanooga, TN 37415 T (901) 871-0147 erin@erinwiles.com www.ErinWIles.com

LinkedIn Overview
1

What is LinkedIn?
1

LinkedIn Stats and Metrics
1

Why should XYZ Company use LinkedIn?
2

XYZ Employee Profiles
3

A “Complete” LinkedIn Profile
3

Profile Enhancements
4

SEO for LinkedIn
4

Begin Connecting with Your Peers
5

Updating Your Profile Status
6

Get Recommended
6

LinkedIn Employee Profile Checklist
7

XYZ Company LinkedIn Profile
8

What the LinkedIn company profile could include
8

Company Profile Basics
9

Audience Segmentation
9

LinkedIn Company Profile Checklist
10

Other LinkedIn Considerations
11

XYZ Company LinkedIn Recommendation

LinkedIn Overview

What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a social network that was launched in 2003 and as of March 2011 has over 100 million
professional users worldwide. This social network is traditionally used for professional networking
and regular communication with business contacts or prospects.

This service has functions that allow a professional to not only find new connections and interact
virtually with existing connections, but also post or find out about potential jobs, ask and answer
questions though a group of industry peers, search peers who share related interests, and identify
influencers at local and national organizations.

LinkedIn takes traditional person-to-person networking and enhances it to maximize and fully
leverage your new or existing professional relationships.

LinkedIn Stats and Metrics
• 50% of all accounts are owned by the decision makers in the company

• There are 45+ million accounts in US followed by India with 8+ million accounts

• 2 billion people searches were performed on LinkedIn in 2010

• LinkedIn has grown in such popularity that one new member account is created per
second

• LinkedIn is most commonly used for generating leads, job search, and recruitment.

Sources:
LinkedIn by the Numbers, http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6147/LinkedIn-by-the-Numbers-
Infographic.aspx and How LinkedIn Is Taking Care of Business, http://mashable.com/2011/03/24/linkedin-
overview-infographic/


Why should XYZ Company use LinkedIn?

Besides being able to expand the company’s presence on the web, LinkedIn could be beneﬁcial
for other reasons.

1. Updates can be sent regularly to XYZ Company users via email on the status of their
connections, thus giving them reason to reach out to that connection again and again.

2. More and more email browsers (including Outlook and Gmail) are incorporating social media
display features in their applications. This allows people receiving email correspondences to
also see what social networks are associated with that business email address. It not only lets
receivers connect with you immediately through their inbox, it also helps add a “face” to the
sender of the email.

Please note: There is a risk that XYZ Company employees will be contacted by recruiters
on LinkedIn concerning external positions. This is something that should be planned for
or expected by upper management.


XYZ Employee Profiles

Creating a LinkedIn profile requires no upfront cost and minimum effort on the part of the user.
Employees who have and use a LinkedIn account have the opportunity to learn more about their
existing or new business relationships. It can also immensely help a sales representative make a
connection with a person that may have no previous relationship with them or give them talking
points before any cold calls are made.

To maximize the effectiveness of a profile, a strategy should be defined and used by employees as
a guide in creating their “complete” LinkedIn profile.

A “Complete” LinkedIn Profile
It is my recommendation and LinkedIn’s that a user have a “complete” profile. To be “complete” by
LinkedIn standards, a user will need to:
• Add a photo
• List their current title
• List their previous places of work or previous titles at XYZ Company
• List their schools attended
• Get recommendations from peers

The more complete your profile is, the more likely people will be able to find you or make the
decision to connect with you.

A profile picture is an extremely important part
of an account because it not only allows the
connection to recognize you, it immediately
establishes there is a live person behind the
account. The picture should be very business
like and professional.


Profile Enhancements
A LinkedIn profile can have additional enhancements incorporated into the layout. These could
include additional links to related websites, blogs, twitter feeds, and other LinkedIn applications.
While these profile enhancements are great additions, they are not required to have a successful
LinkedIn presence.

At the very least, all XYZ Company sales employees should have a “complete” profile and
keep it as professional as possible. Avoid posting any personal information or updates.
Personal sharing is better suited for other social networking sites. LinkedIn is considered a
professional and business environment.

SEO for LinkedIn
One big benefit of your LinkedIn profile is that it can be optimized for search engines and help
ensure your LinkedIn profile is visible when someone does a search for your name on Google or
any of the other search engines. The three places that SEO are really applied in your profile include
the URL that you select for your profile, the summary section that detail your specialties, and the
anchor text in your website links.

1. XYZ Company Employees should make sure that their profile or personal URL is as close to
their actual name as possible to what is available on LinkedIn, not an alias or nickname.

2. XYZ Company employees should use this summary section to list business related keywords
as well as keywords associated with the brands they specialize in (Round Widget
management, Square Peg sales, Logistic management, Compliant specialist, etc.) as well as
any additional keywords that have to do with their current position requirements.


3. XYZ Company employees have the option to add links to related websites on their profile.
They can use this section to post links to all the XYZ Company websites related to their brand
and also capitalize on keywords (i.e. “Marketing” is a keyword listed below). When adding a
website you input the actual URL into LinkedIn, but have the option to anchor certain keywords
to the link.

XYZ Company employees should in their profiles list at least one or at max of three of the following
sites with the following anchor text:
• XYZ Company - http://www.xyzcompany.com/
• Round Widget Store - http://www.roundwidgets.com/
• Square Peg Store - http://www.squarepegs.com/

Begin Connecting with Your Peers
Once your profile is setup, start connecting with people you know. These could include family and
friends, but most often with LinkedIn, it includes peers, coworkers, business partners, and clients.

LinkedIn has built in features that help you locate existing contacts using your email service. This
should be the first step in increasing your LinkedIn network of connections.

You may also do searches within LinkedIn for names of your peers or search for companies and
their employees that you would like to connect with.

Once you have made connections with other LinkedIn profiles, LinkedIn will be able to distinguish
what networks you share with another person either through direct connections or connections
that are two or three people deep. If someone would like to connect with you, but may not know
you directly, they have the option to request an “introduction” through the person you are
connected with. This can also work in the reverse and is an excellent prospecting tool.

The goal of LinkedIn is to have as many real life connections as possible. The larger your
LinkedIn network, the larger your reach for prospects or current customers.


Updating Your Profile Status
All LinkedIn profiles allow you to put a status that can remain static or be updated frequently. The
status can be changed manually once logging in to your profile or integrated with services such as
Twitter to automatically be updated when a new post is made. The purpose of the status is to
share with your network what is happening with you professionally. Suggestions for status updates
could include:

• Dates and locations of upcoming events and trade shows
• Announcements of new product lines in your brand
• Conferences you are attending or cities you will be visiting for work
• Links to read industry related articles or websites of interest

XYZ Company employees should take advantage of the status feature to keep their connections
up-to-date with what is happening at the company. If the updates aren’t made on a regular basis,
then a schedule should be put in place to make regular status updates. It is not advised to leave
the update section stagnant.

Get Recommended
LinkedIn profiles have the ability to give and receive recommendations from other LinkedIn
members. Recommendations on LinkedIn have the same basic rules as they do in the real world.
They cannot be forced from another member and the recommendation is only as strong as the
person writing makes it.

XYZ Company employees have the option to ask their connections directly for recommendations.
While this will work in most situations, I have found it more effective to first recommend someone
that you are looking to get recommended by. After your connection has received notice that you
have written a recommendation about them, the user has the ability to approve that
recommendation and post to their profile. LinkedIn then prompts them to “return the favor” and
recommend you back. Most connections will take this friendly gesture and recommend you as
they see fit.

Recommendations are important to profiles because it gives third party insight into your skills as a
professional and a closer look into how you interact with your peers in real life.


LinkedIn Employee Profile
Checklist

Please have all participating XYZ Company employees use the following checklist as a guideline for
setting up their LinkedIn profiles.

Add Profile picture

Add current and previous job descriptions

Add Education

Add links to related XYZ Company websites

Select Profile URL close to your name

Start adding connections to your network

Determine a status update schedule

Recommend key people in your network (ask them to do the same)

Seek out and join industry related groups (participate when applicable)


XYZ Company LinkedIn Profile

In addition to being able to have individual employee profiles, LinkedIn also allows companies to
create company profiles. These company profiles can act as a micro site for the company’s core
products and services, give an outsider a view of what that particular company does or stands for,
and be a place for companies to post new job openings.

What the LinkedIn company profile could include
• The company logo

• Company bio or description

• A list of all employees who are registered on LinkedIn (must be listed in their profile)

• A list of open positions (posted as needed)

• A Products and Services Tab to describe each brand

• A sliding banner of images (three max - 640 x 220) with links to outside pages or websites

• Embeds of existing YouTube videos

• Product recommendations from customers (must be submitted by customers)


Company Profile Basics
If XYZ Company is planning on pushing key employee profiles on LinkedIn, they should also plan
on creating a company profile. At the very least, the company profile should include the company
logo and company description. I would also recommend creating and putting some thought into
the “Products and Services” tab and fully define all the different XYZ Company brands.

Audience Segmentation
One of the more appealing features of the Company profile page is that your can tailor its look
based upon the LinkedIn user who is viewing it. LinkedIn allows you to “create an audience
segment” which could be divided among a particular profile’s job title, seniority, company size,
industry, location, etc.

For XYZ Company, this feature could be especially useful when appealing to the different brands or
industries. For example, someone in the Round Widget industry could see more tailored
messages on the company page that could be completely different from one seen by a profile in
the Square Peg industry.


LinkedIn Company Profile
Checklist

Please use the following checklist as a guideline for setting up the XYZ Company LinkedIn
company profile.

Designate an XYZ Company employee who will mange and take ownership of the company
profile

Add company logo

Add company description

Create a Product and Services tab for the XYZ Company brands (Round Widgets, Square
Pegs, etc.)

Optional:

Add any open positions to “Careers” tab

Create multiple audience segments

Create three 640 x 220 banners to feature the XYZ Company brands and link to their sites

Upload existing XYZ Company videos to YouTube then embed them into the company profile

Request product recommendations from existing XYZ Company customers


Other LinkedIn Considerations

The following are other capabilities or opportunities to be taken advantage of on LinkedIn. Many
were not included in my initial recommendations because they did not fit with the company goals
and may require more attention and resources than the XYZ Company is willing to expend.

Monitor Company page analytics

• Company pages have a built in analytics feature. This will help you gauge how often
visitors are coming to your page. If you notice larger amounts of traffic to company profile
page, then more enhancements should be added to your profile.

Answer LinkedIn Community Questions

• This is for employee profiles. Existing LinkedIn users pose questions to the whole
community having to do with issues they are having in their field. By answering questions
posed by other LinkedIn members, XYZ Company employees can establish themselves as
industry experts. Every time they answer a question it also appears on their profiles for the
other users to view. Questions should only be engaged and answered by an employee if
they will be able to constructively contribute to the person posing the question.

Create an Industry Related Group

• XYZ Company employees are urged to join industry related groups in order to expand their
LinkedIn connections. But what if there is no current group that fits XYZ Company’s niche?
They should start their own group to attract related prospects.

Contribute content to your new group or third party industry related group

• Any group created by XYZ Company or joined by an XYZ Company employee should not
be solely focused on promoting XYZ Company and its products (that is what the company
profile is for). Groups should focus on promoting the industry in general and include
constructive and quality discussions with members.


Create events within your industry related group

• LinkedIn Groups have the ability to create and invite members to a particular event. It
allows for event RSVP and comments to be made by group members. XYZ Company
could use this feature to promote upcoming trade shows and invite prospects to attend.

Set up a LinkedIn DirectAds Campaign to promote your services

• There have been conﬂicting reports on the effectiveness of LinkedIn DirectAds. Many of the
reports suggest that LinkedIn ads tend to come at a higher cost to companies who
advertise with them in comparison to other mediums such as AdWords. However, there
are reports that show the targeting for LinkedIn ads is thorough and could help XYZ
Company reach business prospects who are the decision makers for a company.


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