LinkedIn

By BDX Guest Blogger, Carol Morgan, mRELEVANCE

LinkedIn, the top social network for professionals, is looking to increase its business appeal by introducing sponsored updates for company pages.

While LinkedIn advertising has existed for a few years, the newly added sponsored updates allow businesses to specifically target updates to customers. And, with a new prominent placement in users’ news feeds, instead of in the sidebar, sponsored updates exponentially increase the potential for engagement and exposure.

When it comes to defining the audience for your sponsored update, the sky is the limit. Audience filtering options include countries, states or regions within states; specific companies, industries or company sizes; job titles or function; education; skills; group memberships; gender and age. However, audience isn’t the only thing businesses can control, as they can also determine budget, campaign length and if they want to pay every time LinkedIn shows or every time a user clicks on their update.

If LinkedIn advertising sounds like just another social media network you have to pay money to, think again. While Facebook and Twitter are great for reaching current or potential customers, LinkedIn is the go-to source for building or enhancing business relationships and for reaching professionals who are searching for their next job. LinkedIn’s core audience is already on the site because they want to learn more about you, your company and your job openings, so sponsored updates are a great way to more effectively reach an already willing audience.

 

 

By BDX Guest Blogger, Carol Morgan, mRELEVANCE

Last month, LinkedIn reached the 200 million members worldwide milestone. This comes as no surprise since the online professional networking site has plenty to offer for those of any status in the work force, from recent college graduates to seasoned business professionals.

One of the newest, and most useful, features of LinkedIn is the endorsement sections. This section is easier to use than the lengthy testimonials section and because of this has become quite popular. Endorsements allow professionals to validate and recognize the skills and expertise their peers have added to their profile. Reward your business partners and coworkers for their mastery of a skill by giving them recognition through an endorsement. This feature is the perfect opportunity to do so without having to write out a full recommendation.

Here’s a quick overview of how to endorse your peers:

  • At the top of a connection’s profile, you’ll see recommended endorsements, simply click on the skills you want to endorse them for
  • In addition, you can suggest additional skills
  • Endorsements can also be made in the new Skills & Expertise section

If you’ve been endorsed, you will receive a notification from LinkedIn both by email and when you log into the site. You can view who has endorsed you for each skill by viewing your own Skills & Expertise section, where you can also accept any new skills recommended by your colleagues or include additional skills.

While the new endorsements section is great for recognizing other’s achievements and expertise, it does raise a few questions when it comes to business etiquette.

  • If someone endorses me, do I have to endorse them? Endorsing someone isn’t time consuming, and it’s always good to return positive favors!
  • What if someone endorses me, but I don’t want others to see it? Simply click on their face next to the skill they have endorsed you for. Then, you’ll be able to select the hide endorsement button.
  • Is endorsing someone even worth my time? On the whole, I wouldn’t suggest going on an endorsing spree, but if your peer has done exceptionally well at something or if you know they are looking for a new job in a specific field, endorsing them could potentially help them out.

For more tips and tricks when it comes to social media and business etiquette online, be sure to visit www.MarketingRELEVANCE.com.