Introduction to LinkedIn

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

What is LinkedIn?

Representing the digitalization of professional networking, LinkedIn is a B2B-focused social media platform for building and developing professional connections. LinkedIn's mission is to connect the world's professionals and make them more productive and successful. LinkedIn's members can get access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights that help them to be great at what they do. The most important word in the mission is ‘professional’. It is the key differentiator between it and other social media platforms. LinkedIn supports individuals at all stages of their career.

The LinkedIn platform is also a great place for companies to advertise their brand, as well as their mission and vision.

LinkedIn member profiles represent an individual's professional identity and who they are in the corporate world. LinkedIn enables users to establish their professional profile, build and maintain their professional network, as well as find and reconnect with colleagues and classmates. Also, LinkedIn allows you to connect and engage with other professionals and communicate with people in your industry. It also provides information and news about companies and industry insights. You can tap into the knowledge of your network and uncover new opportunities.

LinkedIn and social media

LinkedIn is a social media platform that can form a valuable part of your overall marketing strategy.

In particular, it can help you achieve your overall marketing goals by:

• Specifically targeting professionals
• Positioning your brand in a B2B or professional context
• Capturing audience attention when they’re investing time online and making business decisions
• Communicating with your audience when they’re in an aspirational mindset, and…
• Combining the power of company LinkedIn activity and LinkedIn activity by individual employees

Indeed, there is a mutual benefit when a company and its employees both use LinkedIn. The company can raise its profile, while individual employees enhance their own reputations. This is particularly important for sales professionals, but it can also be useful for any types of employee.

Example: HubSpot

With more Generation Z and millennial users turning to LinkedIn, HubSpot (a customer relationship management platform) decided to adjust its use of LinkedIn to appeal to this younger demographic. Its LinkedIn posts started to become more casual and humorous. And it focused on short, snappy posts. Although the posts retained LinkedIn’s favored professional approach, they also had a personal touch.

HubSpot gradually introduced this new approach to see if it would gain traction. People began engaging with the posts. In fact, HubSpot’s LinkedIn presence grew by nearly 85% in just six months!

LinkedIn’s value proposition

LinkedIn’s unique value proposition is that it enables companies to reach their precise audience while potential clients and customers are making business decisions.

LinkedIn has over 1 billion members across 200 countries and territories worldwide, and it's growing. It's clear that LinkedIn has a large base of members that marketers can access and communicate with.

Compared to other social networks where users spend time, LinkedIn members invest time when they are on a professional network and enter an aspirational mindset. For marketers, they can communicate to users when they are making business decisions or decisions related to who they are as a professional.

Social media users are active on a global average of 6.7 different platforms. For example, more than 85% of LinkedIn users are also active on Facebook. And more than 60% of LinkedIn users are also active on X (formerly Twitter). However, they use each platform for different reasons. Many people use LinkedIn for B2B networking and for keeping up to date on their industry sectors.  

Value of LinkedIn for marketers

For companies offering products or services to other companies, LinkedIn is a great platform for advertising. It allows marketers to target on a very granular level to reach their precise audience. The user data on LinkedIn is relevant and up to date, and with the ability to understand who the decision makers are in a company, it can be a very powerful asset for marketers.

Being able to target exactly the right person in a company is a great benefit for marketers using LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a hub for business news, updates, and insights. Users are engaging on the platform, reading about their industry, and networking with other professionals, even incorporating their perspective and opinion as well. LinkedIn is a prime location for companies and individuals to position themselves as thought leaders in their industry through the distribution of content, insights, and news.

In short, marketers can market to a very large pool of professionals, focus their efforts on exactly the right audience, and capture them when they are making business decisions. A key benefit for LinkedIn is that it also enables you to practice social selling. Social selling introduces a new era of selling which incorporates social networking.