Strategic LinkedIn Marketing

These pages also give admins the ability to share organic and sponsored updates. Much like Company pages, creating a LinkedIn Showcase page is easy:. If you have a particular product or service that deserves its own page think: Company and Showcase pages are essentially the foundation for advertising on LinkedIn. LinkedIn stresses cost-effectiveness through its self-service ad platform. Not unlike Facebook Ads, LinkedIn allows marketers to drill down and reach only specific users versus casting the widest net possible. Additionally, LinkedIn provides advertisers a wealth of options to reach their target audience.

Granted your account and Company pages are set up, below is a snapshot of what you can do. PPC ads on LinkedIn are perhaps the easiest to get started with. Self-service display ads give you the ability to include an image or video, as well as ad copy. The dimensions of your accompanying image should be a square with a maximum size of 50 by 50 pixels.

Generally speaking, companies use images of people, their product or company logo. Your ad headline has 25 characters to make an impression on your audience, so you obviously need to make each word pack a punch. Additionally, posing a question to your audience to pique their curiosity is always a solid idea. The beauty of LinkedIn ads is two-fold. Such placement naturally leads to more engagement. Sponsored content represents prime real estate for marketers, especially those who understand the principles of content marketing. Paying to show off your latest article or update is a brilliant tactic for companies that run frequent case studies or have some awesome slice of knowledge think: Furthermore, the platform notes the power of sponsored content in their downloadable datasheet , citing the following stats:.

These display ads boast the same targeting features as the self-serve ads. There are four different display ad formats available for marketers. All of these dimensions are courtesy of LinkedIn itself.

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This is the display ad that appears above the fold on the righthand side of pages. The Medium Rectangle ad appears on the home, profile, company, and group pages. This landscape style image appears at the bottom of certain feeds, making it one of the last things users see before leaving the site. These display ads give marketers a lot more freedom to be creative than the self-serve ads. This minute video aimed at making Joseph Kony , an International Criminal Court fugitive, famous worldwide in order to have support for his arrest by December —the time when the campaign ends.

In early , Nike introduced its Make It Count social media campaign. The campaign kickoff began YouTubers Casey Neistat and Max Joseph launching a YouTube video, where they traveled 34, miles to visit 16 cities in 13 countries. They promoted the makeitcount hashtag, which millions of consumers shared via Twitter and Instagram by uploading photos and sending tweets. One of the main purposes of employing social media in marketing is as a communications tool that makes the companies accessible to those interested in their product and makes them visible to those who have no knowledge of their products.

It's the only form of marketing that can finger consumers at each and every stage of the consumer decision journey. Of the top 10 factors that correlate with a strong Google organic search, seven are social media dependent. This means that if brands are less or non-active on social media, they tend to show up less on Google searches. Instagram has an interaction rate of 1. This has changed the ways that companies approach to interact with customers, as a substantial percentage of consumer interactions are now being carried out over online platforms with much higher visibility.

Customers can now post reviews of products and services, rate customer service, and ask questions or voice concerns directly to companies through social media platforms. Handling these interactions in a satisfactory manner can result in an increase of consumer trust. To both this aim and to fix the public's perception of a company, 3 steps are taken in order to address consumer concerns, identifying the extent of the social chatter, engaging the influencers to help, and developing a proportional response.

Twitter allows companies to promote their products in short messages known as tweets limited to characters which appear on followers' Home timelines. Facebook pages are far more detailed than Twitter accounts.

They allow a product to provide videos, photos, and longer descriptions, and testimonials as other followers can comment on the product pages for others to see. Facebook can link back to the product's Twitter page as well as send out event reminders. LinkedIn , a professional business-related networking site, allows companies to create professional profiles for themselves as well as their business to network and meet others.

The Complete Guide to LinkedIn Ads

Additionally, companies have voiced a preference for the amount of information that can be gleaned from a LinkedIn profile, versus a limited email. WhatsApp joined Facebook in , but continues to operate as a separate app with a laser focus on building a messaging service that works fast and reliably anywhere in the world. WhatsApp started as an alternative to SMS. Whatsapp now supports sending and receiving a variety of media including text, photos, videos, documents, and location, as well as voice calls. Whatsapp messages and calls are secured with end-to-end encryption, meaning that no third party including WhatsApp can read or listen to them.

Whatsapp has a customer base of 1 billion people in over countries. Whatsapp is also used to send a series of bulk messages to their targeted customers using broadcast option. Companies started using this to a large extent because it is a cost effective promotional option and quick to spread a message.

Still, Whatsapp doesn't allow businesses to place ads in their app. Yelp consists of a comprehensive online index of business profiles. Businesses are searchable by location, similar to Yellow Pages. The website is operational in seven different countries, including the United States and Canada. Business account holders are allowed to create, share, and edit business profiles. They may post information such as the business location, contact information, pictures, and service information. The website further allows individuals to write, post reviews about businesses, and rate them on a five-point scale.

Messaging and talk features are further made available for general members of the website, serving to guide thoughts and opinions. In May , Instagram had over million users. The user engagement rate of Instagram was 15 times higher than of Facebook and 25 times higher than that of Twitter. Many brands are now heavily using this mobile app to boost their marketing strategy. Instagram can be used to gain the necessary momentum needed to capture the attention of the market segment that has an interest in the product offering or services.

Moreover, it can be accessed by the Internet as well. Thus, the marketers see it as a potential platform to expand their brands exposure to the public, especially the younger target group. On top of this, marketers do not only use social media for traditional Internet advertising, but they also encourage users to create attention for a certain brand. This generally creates an opportunity for greater brand exposure.

Many big names have already jumped on board: Fashion blogger Danielle Bernstein, who goes by weworewhat on Instagram, collaborated with Harper's Bazaar to do a piece on how brands are using Instagram to market their products, and how bloggers make money from it. Bernstein, who currently has one and a half million followers on Instagram, and whose "outfit of the day" photos on Snapchat get tens of thousands of screenshots, explained that for a lot of her sponsored posts, she must feature the brand in a certain number of posts, and often cannot wear a competitor's product in the same picture.

Founder of Instagram Kevin Systrom even went to Paris Fashion week, going to couture shows and meeting with designers to learn more about how style bloggers, editors, and designers are currently dominating much of the content on his application. Instagram has proven itself a powerful platform for marketers to reach their customers and prospects through sharing pictures and brief messages. The company can present a more personal picture of their brand, and by doing so the company conveys a better and true picture of itself.

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The idea of Instagram pictures lies on on-the-go, a sense that the event is happening right now, and that adds another layer to the personal and accurate picture of the company. In fact, Thomas Rankin, co-founder and CEO of the program Dash Hudson, stated that when he approves a blogger's Instagram post before it is posted on the behalf of a brand his company represents, his only negative feedback is if it looks too posed.

We're trying to create a moment. Snapchat is a popular messaging and picture exchanging application that was created in by three students at Stanford University named Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown. The application was first developed to allow users to message back and forth and to also send photographs that are only available from 1—10 seconds until they are no longer available.

The app was an instant hit with social media members and today there are up to million people using snapchat every single day. YouTube is another popular avenue; advertisements are done in a way to suit the target audience. The type of language used in the commercials and the ideas used to promote the product reflect the audience's style and taste.

Also, the ads on this platform are usually in sync with the content of the video requested, this is another advantage YouTube brings for advertisers. Certain ads are presented with certain videos since the content is relevant. Promotional opportunities such as sponsoring a video is also possible on YouTube, "for example, a user who searches for a YouTube video on dog training may be presented with a sponsored video from a dog toy company in results along with other videos.

Companies can pay YouTube for a special "channel" which promotes the companies products or services. Websites such as Delicious , Digg , Slashdot , Diigo , Stumbleupon , and Reddit are popular social bookmarking sites used in social media promotion. Each of these sites is dedicated to the collection, curation , and organization of links to other websites that users deem to be of good quality.

This process is " crowdsourced ", allowing amateur social media network members to sort and prioritize links by relevance and general category. Due to the large user bases of these websites, any link from one of them to another, the smaller website may in a flash crowd , a sudden surge of interest in the target website. In addition to user-generated promotion, these sites also offer advertisements within individual user communities and categories.

Platforms like LinkedIn create an environment for companies and clients to connect online. Blogs can be updated frequently and are promotional techniques for keeping customers , and also for acquiring followers and subscribers who can then be directed to social network pages. Online communities can enable a business to reach the clients of other businesses using the platform. To allow firms to measure their standing in the corporate world, sites enable employees to place evaluations of their companies.

There are also specific corporate standards that apply when interacting online. Blogging website Tumblr first launched ad products on May 29, These posts can be one or more of the following: For the users to differentiate the promoted posts to the regular users' posts, the promoted posts have a dollar symbol on the corner. On May 6, , Tumblr announced customization and theming on mobile apps for brands to advertise. Social media marketing involves the use of social networks , consumer's online brand-related activities COBRA and electronic word of mouth eWOM [81] [82] to successfully advertise online.

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Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter provide advertisers with information about the likes and dislikes of their consumers. A good service would result in a positive review which gets the hotel free advertising via social media. However, a poor service will result in a negative consumer review which can potentially harm the company's reputation.

These small groups rotate around social networking accounts that are run by influential people opinion leaders or "thought leaders" who have followers of groups. The types of groups followers are called: Marketers target influential people on social media who are recognised as being opinion leaders and opinion-formers to send messages to their target audiences and amplify the impact of their message. A social media post by an opinion leader can have a much greater impact via the forwarding of the post or "liking" of the post than a social media post by a regular user.

They can review products and services for their followings, which can be positive or negative towards the brand. OL's and OF's are people who have a social status and because of their personality, beliefs, values etc. The platform of social media is another channel or site that business' and brands must seek to influence the content of. In contrast with pre-Internet marketing, such as TV ads and newspaper ads, in which the marketer controlled all aspects of the ad, with social media, users are free to post comments right below an online ad or an online post by a company about its product.

Social media marketing - Wikipedia

Companies are increasing using their social media strategy as part of their traditional marketing effort using magazines, newspapers, radio advertisements, television advertisements. Since in the s, media consumers are often using multiple platforms at the same time e. Heath wrote about the extent of attention businesses should give to their social media sites. It is about finding a balance between frequently posting but not over posting. There is a lot more attention to be paid towards social media sites because people need updates to gain brand recognition.

Therefore, a lot more content is need and this can often be unplanned content. There is two general ways of doing so. The first is where each sector approves the plan one after another, editor, brand, followed by the legal team Brito, Sectors may differ depending on the size and philosophy of the business. The second is where each sector is given 24 hours or such designated time to sign off or disapprove. If no action is given within the hour period the original plan is implemented. Planned content is often noticeable to customers and is un-original or lacks excitement but is also a safer option to avoid unnecessary backlash from the public.

Although the second route can be significantly shorter it also holds more risk particularly in the legal department. Unplanned content is an 'in the moment' idea, "a spontaneous, tactical reaction.

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The content could be trending and not have the time to take the planned content route. If a company sends out a Tweet or Facebook message too hurriedly, the company may unintentionally use insensitive language or messaging that could alienate some consumers. The main difference between planned and unplanned is the time to approve the content.

Unplanned content must still be approved by marketing managers, but in a much more rapid manner e. Sectors may miss errors because of being hurried. When using unplanned content Brito says, "be prepared to be reactive and respond to issues when they arise. The plan involves breaking down the issue into topics and classifying the issue into groups. Colour coding the potential risk "identify and flag potential risks" also helps to organise an issue.

The problem can then be handled by the correct team and dissolved more effectively rather than any person at hand trying to solve the situation. Traditional advertising techniques include print and television advertising. The Internet has already overtaken television as the largest advertising market. Social networking sites don't always have ads. In exchange, products have entire pages and are able to interact with users. Television commercials often end with a spokesperson asking viewers to check out the product website for more information.

While briefly popular, print ads included QR codes on them. These QR codes can be scanned by cell phones and computers , sending viewers to the product website. Advertising is beginning to move viewers from the traditional outlets to the electronic ones. While traditional media, like newspapers and television advertising, are largely overshadowed by the rise of social media marketing, there is still a place for traditional marketing.

For example, with newspapers, readership over the years has shown a decline. However, readership with newspapers is still fiercely loyal to print-only media. The Internet and social networking leaks are one of the issues facing traditional advertising. Video and print ads are often leaked to the world via the Internet earlier than they are scheduled to premiere. Social networking sites allow those leaks to go viral , and be seen by many users more quickly.

The time difference is also a problem facing traditional advertisers. When social events occur and are broadcast on television, there is often a time delay between airings on the east coast and west coast of the United States. Social networking sites have become a hub of comment and interaction concerning the event.

This allows individuals watching the event on the west coast time-delayed to know the outcome before it airs. The Grammy Awards highlighted this problem. Viewers on the west coast learned who won different awards based on comments made on social networking sites by individuals watching live on the east coast. All the advertisement and promotion put into the event was lost because viewers didn't have a reason to watch.

Social media marketing provides organizations with a way to connect with their customers. However, organizations must protect their information as well as closely watch comments and concerns on the social media they use. An example of a social media mishap includes designer Kenneth Cole 's Twitter mishap in When Kenneth Cole tweeted, "Millions are in uproar in Cairo. Rumor has they heard our new spring collection is now available online at [Kenneth Cole's website]". In during Hurricane Sandy, Gap sent out a tweet to its followers telling them to stay safe but encouraged them to shop online and offered free shipping.

The tweet was deemed insensitive, and Gap eventually took it down and apologized. Examples include a YouTube video of a Domino's Pizza employee violating health code standards, which went viral on the Internet and later resulted in felony charges against two employees. In , Max Factor, MAC and other beauty brands were forced to rush to disassociate themselves from Kuwaiti beauty blogger and Instagram 'influencer' Sondos Alqattan after she criticised government moves to improve conditions for domestic workers. The code of ethics that is affiliated with traditional marketing can also be applied to social media.

However, with social media being so personal and international, there is another list of complications and challenges that come along with being ethical online. With the invention of social media, the marketer no longer has to focus solely on the basic demographics and psychographics given from television and magazines, but now they can see what consumers like to hear from advertisers, how they engage online, and what their needs and wants are. Social networking websites are becoming wise to these practices, however, and are effectively weeding out and banning offenders.

In addition, social media platforms have become extremely aware of their users and collect information about their viewers to connect with them in various ways. Social-networking website Facebook Inc. Some people may react negatively because they believe it is an invasion of privacy. On the other hand, some individuals may enjoy this feature because their social network recognizes their interests and sends them particular advertisements pertaining to those interests.

Consumers like to network with people who have interests and desires that are similar to their own. Managers invest in social media to foster relationships and interact with customers. Since social media marketing first came to be, strategists and markets have been getting smarter and more careful with the way they go about collecting information and distributing advertisements. With the presence of data collecting companies, there is no longer a need to target specific audiences.

This can be seen as a large ethical gray area. For many users, this is a breach of privacy, but there are no laws that prevent these companies from using the information provided on their websites. Companies like Equifax, Inc. Facebook later revealed that they purchased the information in order to create a more efficient advertising service.