Building a LinkedIn profile for yourself and your business that drives engagement

May 13, 2015Marie Wiese

Today’s agenda

1. Why LinkedIn is a useful business tool for your business

2. 10 Steps to an All-Star personal LinkedIn profile 3. How to build and leverage a LinkedIn company page 4. How LinkedIn fits into your overall content

marketing plan

You are what you post!

• LinkedIn• Twitter• Google+• SlideShare• About.me

Confession Time

I hate social media.– It frustrates me– It makes me uncomfortable– It wastes time

I am no different than most business owners.

Is social media a useful business tool or a waste of time?

• Canada ranks in the top 3 countries around the world in online engagement

• We also lead in social networking engagement• 40% of Canada embraced Facebook or Twitter at the

end of 2010• 50% of Canada embraced Facebook, Twitter and

LinkedIn by the end of 2012

Useful tool?

• 20 million people in the country expected to access social networks at least monthly this year

• 7 in 10 internet users, or 56.7% of the total population, will use social networks this year

• By 2018 those penetration rates will rise slightly to 70.6% and 59.9%, respectively

Canada vs US

• Penetration rates put Canada right in line with the US, where 55.9% of the population will use social networks this year

• The vast majority of social network users in Canada are on Facebook. That translates to just over half the population using the social network monthly

Twitter

• Growth for the Twitter audience in Canada is still in the double digits—though 2015 will be the last year of it

• One third of social network users in Canada will use Twitter this year. This represents a quarter of Canada’s total population, or 8.5 million people

• Twitter is more popular in Canada than in the US, where just 16.4% of the population, or 20.4% of internet users use Twitter

LinkedIn

• 313M+ Members worldwide • 2 new members per second• 66% of members are outside of US• 39 million students and recent college graduates on

LinkedIn - fastest-growing demographic

Observations about social media…

• It has exponential reach• It has become part of daily lives• It makes us think about our message/content• It makes us think about keywords• It blurs the line between company and individual

Adjusting our thinking…

1. Individual versus company 2. Company versus customer – People don’t buy from companies; they buy from people

3. Product versus problems– Customers are not targets; they are people who are

interested in solving their own problem

Common misunderstanding

1. Social media can not be the main KPI for content marketing

2. Social clouds our judgment of good and bad content3. Just because it takes 5 minutes to open a Twitter

account does not mean we are good at it4. We misunderstand the phrase “interaction”: a “like”, a

“tweet” or a “share” is an action, not an interaction5. If it’s not part of the your sales process then it’s noise6. It needs to lead to a physical and measurable

response

The difference between social content and sales content

Article #1: Myths about marketing automation you need to know

Article #2: Hubspot vs Infusionsoft: Which is the best marketing automation software

Which performed better?

#2 Performed better!

• An observation allows people to passively consume content

• A comparison is getting the brain to actively engage in choices

• #2 pushes you into the buying process

Best practices

• Produce customer-centric content first, then decide where it needs to be shared

• Social is great for SEO and testing content• Don’t let social media hinder what needs to be said• Produce content your sales team needs today and

resist the urge to be “liked” – “Likes” don’t pay the bills

Your personal LinkedIn profile

http://www.linkedin.com/in/nealschaffer rather than http://www.linkedin.com/pub/neal-schaffer/4a/z89/145/

10 Steps to an All-Star LinkedIn Profile

1. Get serious about your photo

2. Professional names only

3. Professional headline branding is critical

4. Optimize your location

5. Align to your industry

6. Customize your profile URL

7. Think about keywords

8. Build credible recommendations

9. Build your online network from real relationships

10. Manage your endorsements

3 questions to ask before hitting refresh on your profile1. What makes me great?• Brands are built around superlatives• For example: Apple is the most innovative

2. What makes me unique?• Your expertise in a niche area• Personality characteristic

3. What makes me compelling?• Who needs to know you? Who is making decisions about

you? Who can benefit from your services? • Personal branding is not about being famous. It’s about

being selectively famous

6 ways to strengthen your personal LinkedIn presence

1. Build your personal brand - Build your social network, search for people to add that will benefit your network

2. Explore people you may know - Review the suggested connections and add people you may not have thought to connect with yet

3. Post status updates - Make yourself visible to your connections by providing interesting/relevant content

Continued…

4. Join groups - Become an active member by participating in discussions and posting relevant content5. Use pulse news - To stay in the know and provide opportunity to easily share articles with your network6. Engage with content - Build and maintain relationships with your connections by engaging in conversations (liking, sharing and commenting)

Your company LinkedIn page

Building your LinkedIn business presence

1. Showcase your brand and tell your story 2. Share rich, relevant content through status updates 3. Engage with followers - leverage robust targeting

capabilities 4. Measure your results through the built-in

engagement analytics dashboard 5. Be searchable by LinkedIn members (make sure you

optimize your page content)6. Ensure your employees follow your company page

and share updates with their network

LinkedIn as part of your digital strategy

• General brand awareness• Virtual relationship building and nurturing• Value added content• Drive website traffic• Tell your story • Thought Leadership/Industry Influencer

LinkedIn as part of your corporate strategy

• Recruitment• Partnerships• Retention

Example of a great company page

Questions?

Get this presentation…

SlideShareslideshare.net/marketingcopilot

Email usinfo@marketingcopilot.com

Follow us@mcopilot

Next Sessions

• May 20 – Making Email Marketing effective in the lead nurturing process

• Presented by Claudette de le Cruz• https://ca.linkedin.com/in/cdelacruswilson

• May 27 – Understand Google Analytics to make better content decisions in your web presence

• Presented by Marie Wiese• https://ca.linkedin.in/marketingcopilot

About us

Since 2003, Marketing CoPilot has been providing small and medium-sized businesses with digital marketing strategies that produce measurable business results. Marketing CoPilot integrates deep technical and creative capabilities with a proven methodology to help organizations turn their websites into powerful lead generation and lead nurturing tools.

100% of the companies that implement the Marketing CoPilot Content Marketing Program have reduced the cost of lead acquisition and increased revenue.

Marketing CoPilot Inc is a registered trademark in Canada. Copy right @2014. Not to be reproduced or reused without full attribution. Marketing CoPilot Inc. | 32 Prince William Drive | Markham, ON | L3R 7V5 | 416.218.2009