INTRO: BUILD TRUST FIRST, THEN MONETIZE...3 THE BASICS OF USING LINKEDIN...4

Transcription

1 PLAYBOOK 6/16/15

2 Contents INTRO: BUILD TRUST FIRST, THEN MONETIZE...3 THE BASICS OF USING LINKEDIN...4 I. OPTIMIZING EMPLOYEE PROFILES...4 II. LINKEDIN GROUPS...5 Joining LinkedIn Groups... 6 Contributing To LinkedIn Groups... 6 Create Your Own LinkedIn Group... 7 III. LINKEDIN PULSE...8 IV. THE FEED...8 Engaging With Content in Your Feed... 9 V. LINKEDIN COMPANY PAGES...9 CONTENT I. HOW TO SHARE RELEVANT CONTENT II. HOW TO CURATE CONTENT TO SHARE ON LINKEDIN III. EXAMPLES OF QUALITY CONTENT TO SHARE HOW TO WRITE LINKEDIN CONNECTION INVITATIONS Example Custom LinkedIn Invitation MEASURING INDIVIDUAL SUCCESS I. KPIS AND DATA POINTS TO KEEP AN EYE ON ADVANCED LINKEDIN FEATURES I. LINKEDIN PUBLISHING PLATFORM Types of Blog Posts to Consider Writing II. LINKEDIN PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTIONS III. PAID ADVERTISING ON LINKEDIN... 20

3 Omni Hotels LinkedIn Playbook Our goal is to provide an overview of the LinkedIn platform which will give you the guidance required to build trust with your online community using actionable tactics relevant to achieving your business objectives. You will learn how to leverage LinkedIn basic and advanced features, best practices in curating and sharing content, and ultimately measure your success and monetize your efforts. Intro: Build trust first, then monetize LinkedIn is the most popular social network for professionals with more than 347 million users. Developing a strong presence on a platform with more than 107 million users in the US alone can be a challenge, and will require an investment of time and resources. It s important to understand that in order to accomplish your personal, professional and business goals using LinkedIn, you must first become a valuable member of its community. Throughout this playbook, you will learn basic practices and advanced techniques used to help build the trust of other members and set the foundation for future growth and monetization opportunities. We will provide the steps to optimize your LinkedIn profile, contribute value to your immediate and extended networks in meaningful ways, monitor for the right moments to engage and track your results. Before engaging and investing, it s beneficial to clearly define the goals and objectives you d like to accomplish. Similar to building a measurement framework for your business, you ll want to institute measures of success, metrics used to track your success and the strategies you ll deploy to carry out your efforts. Once you have a framework in place, you re ready to begin working towards achieving your goals. Let s get started: If you are not already a member of LinkedIn, visit LinkedIn.com, fill in your name, address and password and click Join now to create an account.

4 The basics of using LinkedIn I. Optimizing Employee Profiles LinkedIn measures profile strength from 0-100%. In order to receive maximum strength, you ll need to include the information below. To edit your LinkedIn profile information, navigate to your LinkedIn profile page and curser over Profile at the top left of the page. In the drop-down menu, select Edit Profile. Profile Picture: Strive for professional but not tense. Upload a current, high-resolution professional image that would make viewers confident trusting you with their business. Background Photo: Give your profile a bit more personality by uploading a background photo, keeping in mind the professional nature of the platform and choosing an image accordingly. Headline/Job Title: In addition to writing your job title, include a personal value proposition carefully crafted with active language such as, Guest Services Executive Specializing in Customized Hotel Experiences. Contact Information: List your work address, phone number, Twitter handle (if available) and your personal and/or company website to make yourself accessible. Customized LinkedIn URL: Make your profile easier to search, discover and share by customizing your URL to the following steps: 1) Move your cursor over Profile at the top of your homepage and select Edit Profile 2) Cursor over the URL link under your profile photo. It will be an address like 3) Click the gear icon to the right of the address 4) Click the pencil icon next to the address at the top right of the page 5) Type the last part of your new custom URL in the text box. 6) Click Save Summary: Write a detailed, three-paragraph, profile summary that gives viewers a glimpse into who you are and be sure to include keywords your community/clients might search. The first paragraph reiterates the value proposition from your headline. The second paragraph provides in-depth details about your work: projects you ve worked on, results you ve achieved, companies you ve worked with and so on. In your last paragraph, include a clear call to action that states why a potential customer should get in touch with you. Add Media: Below your Summary, display media that adds color to your experience. This may include presentations, videos, project documentation, images or links. Skills & Endorsements: Add skills that explain your areas of expertise. These may include Customer Service, Hotel Management, or Event Planning. Your community may also endorse your skills, which would be identified in this section of your profile. ProTip: Endorse your LinkedIn connections for their skills by visiting their profile pages and clicking the + next to their listed skills to encourage them to endorse you as well. Be sure to only endorse skills that relate to your practice areas.

5 Experience: List all professional positions and titles you ve held throughout your career. For each position, write a few sentences that summarize your role, responsibilities and achievements. Be sure to include major duties and accomplishments in bullet form to highlight results you ve helped drive and your methodology used. Honors & Awards: Include any work- or industry-related awards you ve won and a short description. Publications: If you are a freelance writer or blogger, list any articles published on third-party websites. Education: Include formal degrees, relevant online classes or any certification programs you ve completed along with brief descriptions, fields of study, activities and societies and dates attended. Groups: Join industry- and customer-relevant groups to show you care about adding value to online communities and participate in group discussions. Recommendations: LinkedIn does not allow you to write your own recommendation but you may request them from your connections. As a rule of thumb, don t ask for a recommendation until you ve worked with someone for an extended period of time. ProTip: Before asking a colleague or client for a recommendation, write one for them first. II. LinkedIn Groups LinkedIn Groups provide a place for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to share content, ask questions and find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts and establish themselves as industry experts. You can find Groups to join using the search function at the top of the LinkedIn homepage or viewing suggestions of groups you may like. You can also create a new Group focused on a particular topic or industry. Actively participating in a Group allows you to network with other professionals within the hospitality industry especially with people not currently connected with you. Groups provide the opportunity to build influence and reputation by contributing to ongoing discussions and adding value by sharing relevant information. From a content marketing perspective, Groups allow you to expand the reach of your content and elicit feedback from peers. Additionally, participating in Groups outside of your industry can allow you to gain important insight into your target audience. For example: you may explore joining Groups with audiences that live in a specific city to better understand what kind of information is considered valuable by the Group s participants. This information can then be considered when planning hotel events, conferences or even décor. With more than two million LinkedIn Groups, joining the right ones and actively participating can be overwhelming. Make it less intimidating with the following tips:

6 Joining LinkedIn Groups Use LinkedIn Search to find relevant Groups to join. Begin by searching for Groups using keywords based on your industry, professional experience, geographic location, interests, education history, hobbies or community organizations. You can also take advantage of Boolean search operators for more intelligent searches. For example: to locate a LinkedIn Group in your geographic location and industry, you may want to search using the Boolean Search Operator AND (i.e. hotel AND New York). Check the Groups You May Be Interested In suggestions from LinkedIn. This is the easiest way to join a Group and the feature can be found at the bottom of your Groups page which is accessed by selecting Groups under the Interests tab on the LinkedIn homepage. The feature can also be accessed here. Contributing To LinkedIn Groups Before diving into LinkedIn Groups and joining or leading the conversation, actively listen to understand the Group, gauge topics of interest and know the surroundings. You can do so by scanning the discussions for content with high levels of engagement. This information can be used to build out ideas for new posts and/or areas of learning for you and your company. Once you have an understanding of the interests and guidelines for the Group, follow the tips below for ways to ensure your contributions provide value and adhere to community norms. Participate in the discussions. Find discussion threads interesting to you and share your expertise. Try to uncover conversations where you can add the most value or insight. Follow up by answering any questions posed or by asking questions of your own in the comments. Share content or post your own questions. LinkedIn Group posts have three parts: 1. Headline: Keep headlines short (under 120 characters) and use them to impart important information or spark interest. 2. Add more details: Explain why the information you re sharing is important. Include any background that will add color to your thoughts. 3. Attach a link: Links can be added by copying and pasting URLs into the headline or add more details sections. Once pasted, a link preview will aggregate, allowing you to remove the URL text from either section. Post content that benefits the Group. Success in LinkedIn Groups is reliant on providing value and helping other members. When composing a post, keep in mind it s not about you it s about them. Connect with other Group members. After you ve contributed to Groups, determine which members you d like to connect with and send them connection invitations. In your connection invitation, cite your shared Group and why you d like to connect. Pay attention to who s driving, engaging and active in your Groups to see if there are opportunities for partnering with influential members to network, co-create content and/or share each other s content.

7 Create Your Own LinkedIn Group Once you re comfortable engaging, leading conversations and networking within several Groups, you may want to start a LinkedIn Group of your own. It s important to note that starting a Group is a commitment that requires ongoing, active attention. Until you re able to build up a vibrant Group, you will likely have to be the one driving conversations and engagement with the members you ve brought together. While building a thriving LinkedIn Group takes time, once established it can provide informative communities with extensive networking opportunities. When you re ready, follow the guidelines below for creating a LinkedIn Group. To create a Group: 1) Move your cursor over the Interests tab at the top of your homepage and select Groups. 2) Click the Create a group button on the right. 3) Fill in the requested information. A red asterisk means it's required. 4) Click the Create button to create your group as an open group or a members-only group. Create a Group for your industry, not your company. Other professionals are more likely to join a Group when its focus provides value to their lives and is not simply for fans of your company. In addition, try to choose a narrow niche and specialty category having a narrowly defined Group attracts the right members. Write a Group description that includes the name of your target market and specialty category. Increase visibility of the Group in search results, by including relevant keywords in its title and description. Create an open Group with auto-join access. When creating your Group, be sure to make it an open Group and select Auto-Join under Access to allow any LinkedIn member to join your Group without requiring approval from a manager. Invite current and past colleagues, customers and key industry experts to join and start discussions. In order to get your Group off the ground, leverage your existing network. The more active your Group becomes, the more enticing it will be for new members to join. If possible, promote your Group via website, newsletter, social media channels and blog. Closely monitor and manage your LinkedIn Group. In order to keep Group discussions audienceappropriate, send personal messages to members who need constructive feedback on their engagement. This may include those who post promotional updates, steer conversations off-topic or who shouldn t be members. Position yourself as the Group leader. Send announcements, add discussions, industry news and post job opportunities. Take advantage of your managerial status by marking discussions as featured to highlight particular content. When marked featured, discussions will be pinned to the top of your thread on the discussion board.

8 III. LinkedIn Pulse LinkedIn offers ios and Android users Pulse, an application that makes it easy to consume news on mobile phones and tablets. It is fully integrated with LinkedIn technology to offer a more relevant news experience with content tailored to one s professional interests both on the Pulse app and on LinkedIn.com. Pulse is the main vehicle for the LinkedIn social news experience across mobile and desktop with added discovery and navigational functionality as well as expanded publisher content. Here are some tips to get you started on LinkedIn Pulse: Sync your Pulse and LinkedIn experience. Download the Pulse app from your app store and sign in using your LinkedIn profile. Once signed in, Pulse will automatically aggregate the channels, influencers and LinkedIn content you already follow. In addition, Pulse offers personalized content recommendations that are customized to your LinkedIn preferences and professional interests. Share with your LinkedIn network. Access and share topics and news to LinkedIn right from your Pulse app by selecting your interest areas, browsing content within those areas and utilizing built-in share functionalities to distribute content across other social platforms. Easily accessible social sharing and engagement features allow for opportunities to instantly like, comment or share an article with your professional peers. Discover new professional content. Find what s new by accessing the search functionality on Pulse to view recommended content, publishers, categories and channels. Discover timely world events, what s trending and create unique lists in the My Lists section around professional topics. View Pulse on your desktop or directly from your LinkedIn feed. Visit to view Pulse from your desktop and filter content by clicking tabs labeled Your News, Top Posts and Discover. Scroll through your LinkedIn feed to view top Pulse content without having to leave your homepage. IV. The Feed The LinkedIn news feed is the homepage of LinkedIn and can be seen, once logged in by visiting The feed displays content from LinkedIn members both inside and outside of your immediate LinkedIn connections. As users create and share content, their posts are placed in the LinkedIn feed for their network to see and engage. The platform uses an algorithm to determine what content is displayed and when. Similar to Facebook, the exact formula used in LinkedIn s algorithm is not public knowledge but it s generally understood that there are four main factors contributing to the algorithm: 1. Affinity: how closely related you are with the individual doing the posting. 2. Engagement: how many first, second and third degree connections have engaged with a particular piece of content. 3. Time Decay: age of a post. As a post gets older, it s more likely that it has been seen or is no longer relevant. 4. Amount of Content: this factor measures the amount of content being shared by your network. The more content being shared, the less room in the feed for posts to be displayed.

9 Engaging With Content in Your Feed While scrolling through your LinkedIn feed, you have multiple options for engaging with members and their status updates. Engaging is an integral component of your influence as it triggers the virality effect of LinkedIn s algorithms and the spread of information across the platform. Engaging also encourages others to engage with your content and updates in the future. The following engagement options can all be done from the comfort of your Feed. Share someone else s status update. By clicking Share under another person s update, you re able to repurpose this content as a status update of your own. It s always a good idea to give someone credit by tagging them in your new post. You can tag another member by s name Smith). Comment on someone else s status update. As you scroll through your feed, comment on updates or articles you find interesting. Add value in order to continue the discussion with other commenters or the original person who posted the update. Like someone s status update. Liking is a very simple interaction that shows engagement within your immediate network. Like status updates that represent your professional opinion well, as your actions are reflected in new pieces of content. Congratulate someone on their new job or position. When a member updates their current position, LinkedIn will notify their connections with an automatic status update. Say congrats or like someone s new job when you feel inclined to do so. Please note: these automatic status updates can be disabled by visiting your Profile Settings. V. LinkedIn Company Pages LinkedIn Company Pages is a way for businesses to raise brand awareness, promote career opportunities and educate potential customers on products and services. Followers of Company Pages are your brand advocates and the key to driving word of mouth recommendations and referrals. The more followers, the easier it becomes to achieve greater reach and engagement. By sharing valuable and rich content via company updates, you re able to strengthen customer relationships and even generate business leads. As a member of a sales team, Company Pages can be a way to leverage LinkedIn activities from the Omni Hotels & Resorts Company Page, key customers, partners, or regional influencers to inform your sales strategy. Here are ways to tap into the wealth of information on LinkedIn Company Pages: Follow and engage with the Omni Company Page. First, you ll need to navigate to Omni s page and click the yellow Follow button in the upper right corner. After following the page, you ll begin to see updates from Omni in your LinkedIn feed. Page managers often share a variety of valuable content, from employee orientation to interesting facts about Omni locations, special offers and travel tips in the form of videos, links and images. Engage and share these posts with your personal networks to extend the reach of company content through a more publicly trusted medium: Omni employees.

10 Follow and engage with key customer Company Pages. Follow and interact with your client s company pages. Comment on page updates and share their news via your personal LinkedIn profile. Use the latest status updates to help inform your sales approach and frame your offerings to fit a customer s business needs. Follow and engage with Company Pages from partners and regional influencers. Similarly to a customer s Company Page, use partner and influential Company Pages to both strengthen business relationships and uncover new networking opportunities. Browse and engage with business partner pages to find key stakeholders to potentially introduce new leads or ways to strengthen each other s offerings. Follow regional influencer pages to discover what drives industry thought-leader conversations and unlock new opportunities to connect with LinkedIn member and ultimately extend your personal network. Follow competitors and significant people on LinkedIn. To keep up with the latest from your competition and better understand what s top-of-mind for their stakeholders, pay attention to the content they share on their Company Page. To receive updates from other people on LinkedIn, visit their profile and click on the dropdown menu next to the Connect button. Then, select view recent activity and click the Follow button. Make sure you don t miss updates from members, who are valuable to your sales strategy, whether they re potential customers, industry thought leaders or executive team members.

11 Content I. How to Share Relevant Content For today s content marketer, only sharing your own content is not sufficient. Potential customers want valuable insights, regardless of the source. Content curation, the strategy of disseminating content from an outside source to your LinkedIn community, is an excellent way to start conversations about your industry as a whole and establish thought leadership. By assessing current industry happenings and providing a unique and helpful opinion, marketers are able to position themselves and their companies as well-rounded entities. When creating and curating content for your status updates, keep the following tips in mind. Personalize your messages to your audience. When sharing content from your personal LinkedIn account, tailor your posts to cater to what the professionals in your network find valuable. Use language specific to your industry and share articles you believe are important to members with whom you are connected. Remember what LinkedIn members are interested in. Focus on sharing relevant and actionable insights about your company and industry. Members expect to see informative, useful updates from their connections and as such, those type of updates receive the highest engagement rates. Encourage your audience to participate. Write status updates with clear calls to action like Tell me, Comment below or Share. Continue the conversation with follow-up questions or answers in the comments section of your updates. Keep it concise. When writing your posts, make them brief and meaningful. Use language adopted from your industry to build credibility and match that of your targeted audiences. Time your status updates. Post your updates during business hours for maximum exposure. The platform s most active hours are morning and midday, Monday Friday. Post frequently. Post as many updates as your content supports. Typically, 20% of your followers are reached with one post. On average, individuals that post 20 times per month reach 60% of their followers with one or more pieces of their content. Test and learn. By continually testing different types of content, targeting and overall strategy, you ll keep conversations fresh and you ll learn what works best with your network. Plan an editorial calendar. While an editorial calendar is more advanced, users that organize their content in an editorial calendar enjoy higher levels of accountability and better consistency with updates. Monitor, analyze and refine. Pay attention to what drives the most engagement, whether it s targeting, types of content, time of day or posting frequency. By monitoring individual status update performance, you ll acquire the insights necessary to optimize your strategy.

12 II. How to Curate Content to Share on LinkedIn To make content discovery and curation easier, you ll want to utilize freely accessible tools and best practices in following and reading publishers relevant to your industry or interests. Set up Google Alerts. Google Alerts search the web for mentions of specific keywords, and sends you an notification with a link to the content. For example: if you re looking for updates on hotel conferences in Austin, Texas, you can receive a message every time new content on the subject is published. Use Reader services. There are many reader services that curate content for users by aggregating blog posts from all over the Internet. Reader services like Feedly and Scoop.it allow users to track and share content from their favorite publications, writers, trends, verticals and topics all in one place. Read and subscribe to other people s blogs. Find blogs from both direct and indirect competitors, industry thought leaders and people writing about what products or services your audience values. Reading and sharing an assortment of content will help your company identify topics you should be writing about and allow you to stay up-to-date with your customers needs. Monitor social news streams. Search Twitter and Facebook using hashtags for both broad and more detailed information. Utilizing search queries such as #customerservice or #leadgeneration will yield broad results while queries like #luxuryhotel will provide more concentrated outcomes. This method will also help identify excellent Twitter accounts to follow for future curation. Search the Internet for relevant articles, blog posts or videos. Running a simple search query on Google, Yahoo!, Bing or any other search engine may result in valuable pieces of content to share. Sample queries could include: sales strategies for hotels, how to boost hotel sales, or networking tips for hotel industry. III. Examples of Quality Content to Share Depending on your business division within the company, you will want to share content on LinkedIn that adds value to your area of expertise. If you work in Human Resources and the majority of your LinkedIn connections work in HR, you won t be adding value to your community by sharing sales content. Read on for specific examples of high quality content to share. Human Resources 1. Helpful tips from the pros. Have anything to add? 2. Great insights and best practices for recruiting and retaining hotel employees.

13 Sales 1. How to turn social media into a powerful sales tool for hotels. A must read! 2. Work for a small hotel? You ll love these 10 ways to boost your sales. boostrevenue/ Thought Leaders 1. If you work in hospitality, keep a close eye on these trends in Is this what the hotel of the future looks like to you?

14 How to Write LinkedIn Connection Invitations Whether you re new to LinkedIn or a veteran member, connecting with people (especially those you may not know) can be challenging. One way to ensure a higher likelihood of other professionals accepting your connection request is to write a personalized invitation. This requires ditching the generic I d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn template and replacing it with an introduction that explains why you d like to connect with them. Your message is an opportunity to connect on a deeper, more personal level and show that you actually care about connecting with the individual. Invitations are limited to 300 characters so make them count! Personalize your greeting. Begin by writing Hi [name] or Dear [name] and make sure you ve spelled their name correctly. Establish how you know them. At some point in your message, remind the person how they know you. Did you meet them at a conference or did they attend one of your events? Are you in the same LinkedIn Group? By raising familiarity, you ll increase the comfort level of the person with whom you want to connect. Explain why you d like to connect with them on LinkedIn. Perhaps the most important piece of your invitation is clarifying why you d like to connect. Often times, people receive spam connections from people concerned with their number of connections and it s important to separate yourself. Tell them what you do. There s always a chance someone won t remember who you are, even if you ve met him or her in person. Include one or two sentences that describe what you do. Thank them and include kind parting words. It s nice to wrap up your invitation with a compliment or a few kind words about the person s work, experience, business or company. Thanking a person in advance also encourages connections to be made. Don t forget a warm sign-off. Even though it may seem like a small detail, a warm sign-off makes your invitation feel much more personal and welcoming. Example Custom LinkedIn Invitation Hi Steve, I greatly appreciate you attending Omni's event. It was a pleasure speaking with you about your sales training tips and I d love to connect. I m the Events Director at Omni and often hold sales trainings. I m always looking to improve our process. Keep up the great work! Kind Regards, John

15 Measuring Individual Success Now that you have the information needed to boost your professional presence on LinkedIn, you ll want to measure your progress to help you stay on track and reach your personal goals. LinkedIn provides a variety of metrics that indicate whether or not your current efforts are increasing your presence and value within the network. I. KPIs and Data Points to Keep an Eye On LinkedIn makes it convenient to measure most of your activities very accurately. By keeping track of the following metrics, you ll be able to understand how your investment in the channel is paying off. First-degree connections: In general, the bigger your network, the better off you are. Keep in mind the quality of your connections and try not to sacrifice quality in favor of quantity. Profile views: While quantity is important here as well, what s more important is who views your profile and what steps you take to connect with higher-valued individuals. To make sure your account is set up so you can see who views your profile, following these steps: 1) Hover over your profile image in the top right corner of the LinkedIn homepage 2) Select Privacy & Settings 3) Select the Profile tab on the left 4) Click Select what others see when you ve viewed their profile 5) Select Your name and headline 6) Click Save changes Search results including your profile: Placing keywords in the correct places within your profile and increasing your number of connections, will increase the amount of search results your profile appears in. Invitations to connect: Keep track of how many invitations you receive to connect. If the amount increases month after month, your activity level on the platform and in the real world is likely increasing as well. Views of your updates: After posting status updates, be sure to take note of how many people are viewing your content. This allows you to better understand what types of updates are resonating with your audience and what day and times during the week are best for posting. Engagements on your updates: Likes, shares and comments are also a great way to keep track of how well your updates are performing within your network. Consider thanking users who engage by reaching out with a simple note. Endorsements of your skills: Endorsements from other LinkedIn users provide a level of social proof that increases the value of your profile. Keep track of users who endorse you and endorse others who you may have worked with in past experiences. Recommendations: Thoughtful recommendations carry even more weight than endorsements. Be mindful of what it will take to receive LinkedIn recommendations from fellow colleagues or connections and write well thought-out recommendations for deserving people.

16 Advanced LinkedIn Features I. LinkedIn Publishing Platform LinkedIn s publishing platform allows you to create original long-form content published directly on the LinkedIn platform, giving users a powerful way to build their professional brand. When a member publishes a post on LinkedIn, their content becomes part of their professional profile, is shared with their network and has the ability to reach a much broader audience through search and engagement effects. Engagement metrics including views, likes, comments and shares allow the original content to be monitored and spread within the LinkedIn platform and across the web. Users also have the ability to follow other users that are not in their network and build up their own group of followers. The publishing platform also allows members to visually share their expertise and experiences by posting photos, images, videos and original presentations on SlideShare. The LinkedIn publishing platform is a very simple tool to use. To access the publisher, go to your LinkedIn homepage. At the top, click where it says Publish a post to open up the publisher and begin writing your post. To learn how to benefit from the LinkedIn Publishing Platform, read through the following tips: Establish a strategy. Before you begin writing posts, your content should be a part of a broader marketing plan with a specific target audience, whether it s intended for increasing sales, brand building, or communicating with employees, prospects, customers or vendors. Create valuable, audience-relevant content. Before you begin posting, have a game plan in place. Decide what content is most useful for your audience and be sure your post doesn t sound like a sales pitch. LinkedIn also provides helpful guidelines about what to publish in its Help Center. It s important to try to frame your content to resonate and provide value to your, current and potential, audience. Write eye-catching, well-written headlines. Your headline or title must be able to capture the user s attention and spark interest. When writing headlines, try to be unique but not overly obscure to the point of confusion. The best headlines are written in an active voice, clear, short, create intrigue, state explicit benefits and speak directly to the reader. To improve the post s search-ability, include keywords or keyword phrases in your headlines that your target audience is searching for either on LinkedIn or across the web. Suggest a list (10 Ways to Celebrate New Year s in San Francisco) Begin with How to (How to Celebrate New Year s in San Francisco) Ask a question (Want to Celebrate New Year s in San Francisco?) State a command (Celebrate New Year s in San Francisco With A Bang) Tease your idea (Celebrating New Year s in San Francisco Has Never Been More Fun) Make a new announcement (Announcing Our Newest Way to Celebrate New Year s in San Francisco) Fascinate by using a hook (What San Francisco Has in Store This New Year s)

17 Keep your posts between words and publish new content weekly. However, feel free to experiment with these recommendations to determine what works best for you and your audience. Use keywords throughout your post. An important aspect of your post should be improving your ability to be discovered in search results. To do this, decide upon 1-2 keywords or keyword phrases to focus on for each of your LinkedIn posts. Make sure your headlines and post body contain the keywords that your customers and prospects enter into search queries but be careful not to over-use keywords. Work them into the body of your content in ways that sound natural when visitors read your copy. Have an opinion and develop a consistent voice. Your opinions should align with your professional experiences and thoughts reflected in your personal LinkedIn profile. Try to maintain consistency throughout your posts by developing a voice that s unique to you. If you re unsure about what your voice should be, try developing a personal mission statement to use as your foundation. Make it easy for people to consume your content quickly. Like most social networks, people have short attention spans and want to consume information as quickly as possible. Write digestible, attractive content by using compelling headlines, placing an engaging image at the top of your posts, bolding important ideas and breaking up longer paragraphs into more digestible sentences. Enhance your articles with visuals. Place YouTube videos, images, graphs, GIFs and SlideShare presentations throughout your posts to break up long sequences of text and make your articles as interesting as possible. Share your LinkedIn posts across all of your digital channels. In order to maximize reach and engagement both within LinkedIn and outside of the platform, share your post on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, blogs and any other channels you may have such as marketing lists or internal company websites. Increased engagement on multiple channels sends signals to Google s search algorithms that help increase your content s visibility in search results. Monitor and maintain the comments section of your posts. When members comment on your post, respond and engage people who leave feedback or begin discussions. You also have the ability to hide and/or flag comments that appear to be spam. Assess your content s performance. LinkedIn displays your post s views, likes, comments and shares immediately and updates in real time. See what content resonates well with your audience by tracking your metrics and comparing your posts to see which ones outperformed others. Visit LinkedIn articles from your favorite influencers and competitors and consider how you can use related tactics to boost your success.

18 If you re finding it difficult to determine which types of posts to write, see below for a helpful list of suggestions. Types of Blog Posts to Consider Writing How To s Lists or Lists of Resources Informative Industry Post Reviews Cheat Sheets or Checklists Interviews Case Studies In-The-News Problem-And-Solution II. LinkedIn Premium Subscriptions LinkedIn is well known for providing a powerful networking and connection service, with many of its best and most useful tools available for free. While basic accounts include an impressive array of features, LinkedIn Premium Subscriptions include additional, highly-valuable tools tailored to specific subscription account types. There are four different categories of membership: 1) Job Seeker 2) Sales Navigator 3) Recruiter Lite 4) Business Plus Sales Navigator Price: $80/month Focused on the accounts and prospects that matter to you, Sales Navigator is designed for sales professionals, offering up the real-time insights needed to build relationships that help make sales. Premium features available to users with a Sales Navigator subscription are listed below. Lead Recommendations: With LinkedIn s sophisticated algorithm, this sales tool gives you lead recommendations that are tailored to you. Easily save leads and follow updates of your prospects to contribute to conversations that matter most. Advanced Search with Lead Builder: Find the right people and companies with Premium search filters like function and seniority that reflect the way you prospect. With over 300 million members, LinkedIn has the data needed on the people you want to talk to and Lead Builder makes it easy to find them. Account and Contact Import: Connect LinkedIn Sales Navigator with your CRM software to automatically bring in your accounts and contacts. Data will sync daily from Salesforce to LinkedIn, keeping your data fresh and using this information to recommend companies and leads.

19 Account Pages: Focus on your target accounts with company updates and information on new and existing relationships. Account pages give you the latest on the companies you care about, plus help you discover new leads with recommendations tailored to you. Real-Time Sales Updates: Get relevant and timely sales insights on your accounts and leads including: 1. Lead Updates: Know when your leads change roles, have an anniversary or connect with someone in your network. 2. Shares: Understand what your leads care about. 3. Company Updates: Receive key information about your accounts. 4. In the news: See when people or companies get mentioned in the news 5. Potential Leads: Identify new potential contacts or decision makes when accounts make new hires. Out-of-Network Profile Unlocks: (Available in Team edition) Gain access to 347M+ member profiles, even those outside of your network. Unlock up to 25 profiles per month from your search results to get visibility into sales prospects beyond your 3 rd degree connections. Who s Viewed Your Profile: See the full list of who s viewed your profile over the last 90 days and reach out to people interested in your or save them as leads. Premium Profile: Take advantage of a background image and larger profile image for better first impressions. InMail Messages: Reach your prospects directly and credibly with InMail, even if you don t have their address. InMail is a private message that has shown to get higher response rates than cold calling or . Send up to 30 messages per month to contact decisions makes, even those outside of your network. TeamLink: (Available in Team edition) Use your company s network to uncover the best way to get introduced. Se who within your company is connected to your leads and contacts, find common connections to minimize the need for cold calling, search your TeamLink network to find prospects, and tap into your extended network for introductions and insights. Business Plus Price: $60/month Focused on growing and nurturing your network, LinkedIn Business Plus is designed for professionals who want to promote and grow their business, maximize the power of their network and enhance their professional brand. Premium features available to users with a Business Plus subscription are listed below. Premium Profile: Take advantage of a background image and larger profile image for better first impressions. Additionally, your listing is 2x more prominent than other search results, allowing you to display more info from your profile. Higher Profile Search-ability: Increase your chances of appearing in relevant LinkedIn search results with top keyword suggestions that you can add to the Summary section of your profile.

20 Who s Viewed Your Profile: See the full list of who s viewed your profile over the last 90 days and reach out to people interested in your or save them as leads. Professional Profile Analytics: Take advantage of exclusive insights about how people are finding you. See trends over time, top search terms, and industries and locations of people visiting your profile. InMail Messages: Contact anyone on LinkedIn, even if you re not connected. Send up to 25 messages per month. Introduction Requests: Get up to 25 introduction requests, increasing your chance of a response. For a member you re trying to reach, LinkedIn will show you people you have in common. From there, choose a connection to make the introduction. Advanced Search: Fine-tune your search with up to 8 additional search filters, including job function, seniority, and years of experience and company size. Saved Searches: Save your favorite searches and lose the need to recreate commonly used search queries. LinkedIn will also send you automatic alerts whenever someone new matches your criteria. III. Paid Advertising on LinkedIn Similar to Facebook, Twitter and Google, the LinkedIn platform offers a full suite of paid advertising products. With more than 300 million self-identifying professionals worldwide, LinkedIn offers a unique opportunity to target advertising efforts with precision. Advertising on the platform is a huge opportunity for lead generation for B2B companies, as well as a great chance for marketers to serve sponsored content to professionals despite a smaller platform audience overall. What makes LinkedIn advertising so valuable are the following targeting options: 1. Demographics: location, gender, age. 2. Education: school, field of study, degree. 3. Professional: company name, company size, job title, job function, job seniority, skills, groups. To begin creating your own LinkedIn ads, visit your LinkedIn homepage, move the cursor over Business Services at the top right, and click on Advertise from the drop-down menu. You can then choose from a variety of advertising products including some of the options listed below. For some of the more advanced LinkedIn advertising products, you ll need to contact LinkedIn by visiting this site. Lead Accelerator: Deliver high-quality leads to your sales teams by engaging prospects anywhere with ads and content relevant to them. Nurture prospects across the Web through targeted display and social ads, including Sponsored Updates. Sequence your ads and content based on who your prospects are, and what they re doing on your website. Sponsored Updates: Get your content in front of the world s professionals on desktop, smartphone and tablet. Using LinkedIn s targeting options, raise awareness about your brand within the exact audience you choose across all platforms. Increase engagement, drive traffic or spark meaningful conversations with the right prospects whether you re sharing your company s content or an upcoming event.

21 Sponsored InMail: Send highly targeted messages to the people that matter most to your business right to their LinkedIn Inboxes. Sponsored InMail only gets delivered when members are active on LinkedIn. Boost conversations with targeted product and service promotions, thought leadership content, and personalized invitations to events and conferences. Display Ads: Drive awareness by serving display ads to targeted professionals in order to keep your business on prospects minds, anywhere online. Accurately target members on LinkedIn and engage them in a professional context with IAB-standard ads, plus formats unique to LinkedIn like Follow Company Ads, Spotlight Ads, Join Group Ads, and more. With the LinkedIn Network Display, you can reach your target prospects wherever they travel online, keeping members engaged again and again. Text Ads: Drive new customers to your business on a budget that works for you- with LinkedIn s easy, self-service pay per click (PPC) advertising platform. Drive traffic to your website or landing pages, generate quality leads and control your costs by choosing from pay per click (PPC) or cost per impression (CPM) pricing options so you can set your own budget.