LinkedIn Tutorial

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© 2010 Teach to Fish Digital, LLC

What is LinkedIn? LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network helping people find and share opportunities every day. It is an authoritative career resource for staying in touch with colleagues even when your connections change jobs or email addresses. Utilized by many as an online Rolodex, LinkedIn is great for developing and maintaining business relationships. Special features like Groups and Answers help professionals discuss issues relevant to their jobs and solve problems that impact their careers. Statistics

• LinkedIn saw over 70M visits in March 2010. This represents a 18.5% year-‐over-‐year increase.

Source: Compete.com

• LinkedIn has over 65 million members in over 200 countries. • A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of its

members live outside the U.S. • Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.

LinkedIn Demographics

Source: Google Ad Planner Data

50% 50%

0%

20%

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60%

Male Femaie

LinkedIn by Gender

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A large percentage of hiring managers use LinkedIn when researching and sourcing job candidates.

4% 10%

34% 38%

14%

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Some High School High School Diploma

Some College Bachelors Degree Graduate Degree

LinkedIn by Education Level

3% 4%

16%

28% 28%

17%

4%

0%

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30%

0-‐17 18-‐24 25-‐34 35-‐44 45-‐54 55-‐64 65+

LinkedIn by Age

11%

19% 24%

21% 16%

9%

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30%

$0-‐24K $25-‐49K $50-‐74K $75-‐99K $100-‐149K $150K+

LinkedIn by Annual Income

26%

48%

75%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Candidate Research

16%

23%

66%

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Candidate Sourcing

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Creating An Account Individuals without LinkedIn profiles can easily create one by joining from the LinkedIn Home page. 1. Complete the form or select “Join Today.” Both pages offer the same form fields to start.

2. You will then be invited to provide additional details about your profession, employment status and employer if applicable. If someone from your organization is already on LinkedIn, you may have the opportunity to select your company from a list as you type. Zip code information is kept private, but your region is made public (e.g. Washington D.C. Area).

3. Based on the email address you provide, you may be invited to welcome contacts you already have through that email account. You can also enter contact email addresses by hand later in the process.

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Once you have an account, you will be presented with an option to create a Premium LinkedIn membership for $24.95 per month. This service is primarily utilized by hiring managers and business development personnel for companies with a B2B focus. The following benefits are made available to Premium LinkedIn Members only.

• Have unlimited access to see who has viewed your LinkedIn profile • Have unlimited access to view every professional profile on Linkedin • Send messages to people who are not directly connected to you • Apply premium search filters and generate automated search alerts for job

opportunities • Save profiles into folders within your LinkedIn account • Add notes and contact information to any profile

Finding & Making Connections There are four primary methods for finding connections on LinkedIn.

1. Upload –When you create a LinkedIn account or associate your existing account with an email address supported by Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN (Hotmail) and others, LinkedIn allows you to upload your contacts from your email account. Professional LinkedIn accounts associated with the email addresses you have uploaded will receive an invitation to connect with you on LinkedIn.

2. Search – LinkedIn offers a robust search mechanism to find contacts by name, company and/or profession. Simply use the “People” search available on every page of LinkedIn. Advanced search also allows you to find people based search criteria beyond name including Company, Title, Location, Industry, etc.

3. Get Suggestions – To encourage you to

make connections with people you already know, LinkedIn will provide suggestions for people who may be in your network. These suggestions are based on associated connections (i.e. friends of friends). Suggestions are made throughout the LinkedIn website once you are logged in to your account. You can also choose to “See more people you may know.”

4. Join Groups – Many people join groups on LinkedIn to share in discussions and get introduced to others within their industry. Groups are a great way to stay in touch with those you may know and create new connections. Many professional organizations of which you may be a member are already represented on LinkedIn. You can create new groups and encourage LinkedIn members to join.

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Basic Profile Attributes 1. Name 2. Title 3. Location (Major Metro Areas) 4. Photo 5. Current & Past Positions 6. Education Background 7. Number of Connections 8. Websites (Corporate & Personal) 9. Link to Public LinkedIn Profile 10. Professional Summary 11. Summarization of Specialties 12. Professional History Detail 13. Education History Detail Other Available Attributes • Recommendations – Your colleagues

and clients can write recommendations for your work that appear on your LinkedIn profile page.

• Interests – Individuals can list personal interests (e.g. reading, hiking, volunteering, etc.) and professional interests (e.g. job opportunities, speaking assignments, freelance work).

• Groups & Associations – The groups you join on LinkedIn are listed on your profile page. These are added to provide credibility and facilitate connections between group members.

• Applications – LinkedIn allows you to include several applications on your LinkedIn profile. Sample applications include a list of latest posts from your blog, a list of books recently read with links to Amazon.com, links to presentations posted to SlideShare.net, polls and poll results, your personal Twitter feed, etc.

• Events – Provide a list of events that you plan to attend on your LinkedIn profile.

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LinkedIn Groups LinkedIn Groups provide areas where like-‐minded individuals who work in the same industry, at the same company or simply share the same interests can explore ideas, discuss business opportunities and take part in conversation. Individuals can join pre-‐established LinkedIn groups simply by visiting the Groups section on LinkedIn. Search for groups by name or use a relevant keyword (e.g. agriculture associations). Groups are organized into categories such as Professional, Non-‐Profit, Alumni, Networking, etc. Some groups require a request to join and others offer open access. There is no limit to the number of groups you can join as a LinkedIn member. When you join or host a group, that group’s icon and link are posted to your profile page.

As a LinkedIn account holder, you can create a group and invite your connections to join. To do so, go to the Groups section on LinkedIn and select “Create a Group” (see arrows above). This will take you to a page where you can complete information about your group including the name, description, website address if applicable, preferred language, etc. When adding members to your group, you can “Send Invitations.” There are three ways to invite someone to join your group: 1) select them from a list of your personal connections, 2) enter their email addresses, and 3) upload a CSV [Excel] file with contact information.

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LinkedIn Answers To help those seeking resources, information and answers to burning questions, LinkedIn has created “Answers.” As a member of the LinkedIn professional network, you can ask and answer questions relevant to your profession. When you submit a question it is made public. Anyone who finds your question may submit an answer. Those who submit the question to start can select the best answer from those provided. If you provide the best answer for a particular question, this information will be shared on LinkedIn Answers and with your connections.

Company Pages In addition to personal profile accounts, organizations may create company pages on LinkedIn. Company pages can be used to make announcements, share discussion and promote job opportunities with your company. To create a company page for your business, go to the main Companies page at LinkedIn.com/companies and select “Add a Company.” Every company page must have a name, description, headquarters location, and a list of specialties that your business provides.

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Several popular businesses in the Fortune 500 already have a company page on LinkedIn. You can find them with the search function or by browsing by industry. LinkedIn allows you to “follow” companies and receive alerts when activity occurs such as new hires, departures and job openings.

Advertising One of the three sources of revenue for LinkedIn, outside of premium accounts and employment services, is advertising. LinkedIn advertisers can promote their product, service or event to specific LinkedIn account holders based on location, industry and title. LinkedIn has proven to be a successful medium for companies with a business-‐to-‐business audience.

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There are two primary methods of advertising on LinkedIn. The first and most economical option is called DirectAds. Similar to paid search advertisements on Google AdWords, DirectAds gives your business the opportunity to promote your company, job opening or event to a specific audience based with a text-‐based ad. DirectAds appear on profile pages, groups pages and several other areas of LinkedIn. Ad components include headline, description, graphic (your headshot or logo) and a link. Advertisers can create multiple DirectAds to test creative messaging. Once your ads are created, you can refine your audience. Among the target criteria, advertisers can select three of the following: company size, job function, industry, seniority/title, gender, age, and geography. In addition to selecting country in the geography category, advertisers can choose from multiple US cities. LinkedIn DirectAds are highly targeted at the business audience. This is clearly reflected in the cost per click (CPC). Where most Google ads run at minimums of 10¢ per click, the CPC fees for DirectAds range from $3 to $6 depending on your selects.

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The second option for LinkedIn advertising requires a budget of $25,000 or more. Several programs available at this price tag include: Display Advertising – Rich media advertising with banners and other ad formats targeted at specific LinkedIn members or set to reach the entire LinkedIn audience. Sponsorship – Packages available to advertisers to align their brands with specific sections of LinkedIn such as Answers, Polls/Surveys, Applications and Events. White Paper Distribution – A channel that helps marketers promote relevant studies and white papers for the purpose of generating business leads. Partner Messages – Email campaigns sent to LinkedIn members based on their profile attributes and their willingness to receive offers. As a complement to these programs, LinkedIn provides four primary options for targeting: Run of Site – Reach everyone on the LinkedIn network InCrowd Targeting – Nine specific audience segments including:

1. Small and Medium Business Professionals 2. Business Decision Makers (based on title, no consideration to company size) 3. Corporate Executives (based on title, companies with 500+ employees) 4. Financial Service Professionals 5. Sales Professionals 6. Marketing Professionals 7. Startup Professionals 8. IT Professionals 9. Career Changers -‐ professionals who have changed employers in the past 60 days

Content Targeting – Message delivery to profiles and group pages based on keywords used on a LinkedIn page. Custom Targeting – Similar to InCrowd targeting only with a segment specifically designed by the advertiser with LinkedIn’s help.

LinkedIn Tutorial

Technology

Transcript of LinkedIn Tutorial