LinkedIn

Get In or Get Out

Lindsay Kwaselow

Client History & Overview

Launched May 5, 2003 and is now the world’s Largest Professional Social Network and is free to join.

2008 LinkedIn gains applications, with initial partners including Amazon, Google, Wordpress, Twitter, Slideshare and more.

By 2009 LinkedIn reached 40 million members

Currently, LinkedIn has over 75 million members in over 200 countries.

A new member joins about every second and about half of members are outside the US

All executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members.

What is LinkedIn? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlUwwgOfKw&feature=player_embedded

Current Challenges Getting college students to join before they become professionals

Competition with other social networks (Facebook’s professional intrigue)

How to take executives and professionals and make them more effective through enhanced communication.

Leverage knowledge and reputations of professionals to help others

Encouraging current users to maximize their LinkedIn usage and add value to their profiles

Future Goals

Getting value for the end user (finding high value responses for job seekers and employers)

Localizing resources to find prospects as quickly and efficiently as possible in one area

Eliminating technological malfunction, enhancing speed

Separating LinkedIn from other social networks as a business focused network, rather than a casual family and friends network

Creative StrategyLinkedIn: Get In or Get Out

A slogan that will suggest exclusivity and a network with efficient resources not available in other social media networks, i.e. a disadvantage to non-members.

Target Market

Concentration on new college graduates as well as currents students Older professionals that are unaware of social networking capabilities and older generations that may not be as technologically-advanced.

Objectives

We want to get people to notice LinkedIn’s simplicity and value compared to other social networks and to stress that it is the ONLY professional network intended for business use.Highlight the exclusivity of the site, and reiterate that there is no other social network like itUtilize other social networks and partnerships with career locating sites to gain awareness and popularity

Campaign Theme

Visuals

Get Or Get Out.

Are you ?

Key Campaign Components

Integration with other social media outlets (Twitter, Facebook)

Facebook/Twitter Integration: Establish a strong social media team that will produce valuable effects and improve existing profiles (i.e. tweeting about partnerships and connections LinkedIn helped to create)

Partnerships with other online job searching communities such as Monster, CareerBuilders.com, collegegrad.com, job.com etc.

Links on college academic department resources (Such as My Spartan Career)

Key Campaign Components

Promoting on college websites

LinkedIn Blogs

Hire a team of professional writers who are already recognized in the web community that can create a good voice for the LinkedIn blog that will give followers a daily “tip” or “update” to help users enhance their LinkedIn experience. This will give them a reason to update their user profiles and update connections.Bloggers will also inform users how to get the most out of LinkedIn and should feature videos and links elaborating on LinkedIn capabilities.

Web Banners containing campaign slogan and taglines

Banners should be placed on sites such as facbook, twitter, career finder sites previously listed, college home pages, and websites commonly visited by older generations, such as google, AARP, and newssites such as the New York Times and other daily online news outlets.

Evaluation Strategy

Methods for measuring success:

Evaluation of new members added during the peaks of the campaign in relation to past percentages

A quarterly questionnaire designed for users with an added incentive designed to determine why and how they chose to join LinkedIn to help determine which online strategies are most beneficial (i.e. blogs, web banners, partnership links, etc.)

Reports from google, facebook, and twitter to determine how often ads were clicked on and in return LinkedIn will feature ads from these sites

Budget & Timeline

Budget

Salaries for professional blog writers (30% of budget)

Salaries for social media ads (20% of budget)

Google web banners (limited costs, only pay when people click on your ad) (30% of budget)

Creative team expenses and salaries (20% of budget)

Timeline

March: Begin ad campaign during late winter and early spring to attract college students beginning to search the career market or find a summer job.

May-August: Concentration in summer months to help motivate people to be active in the professional world during the year

September: Also run campaign prior to the winter for seasonal positions such as extra needed help during holidays

RationaleWhy will this campaign work?

There will be teams of creative minds developed to focus on specific areas who will ultimately collaborate as a whole to spread awareness, gain membership, and encourage use of LinkedIn.

Each team will have a goal that they will solely focus on (i.e. to write an SEO blog, or perfect LinkedIn’s facebook pages)

A strong slogan and a unifying theme are keys to success for any campaign. As long as people are quick to recognize the LinkedIn logo and as long as the ads from this campaign are featured in as many online outlets as possible, we know we have successfully done our job.