Social Media Marketing for Business

If lead generation and conversion are important to your business, you should know LinkedIn has the highest rate of any social network – 3X higher than Facebook and Twitter.

Did you also know?

• 80% of LinkedIn’s revenue comes from brands, corporations and businesses (Social Media Examiner)
• 81% of LinkedIn users belong to LinkedIn Groups (HubSpot)
• 83% of B2B marketers use Linkedlin to distribute content (Content Marketing Institute)
• 3 million+ companies have Company Pages on LinkedIn (Brafton)
• 238  million people are on LinkedIn (as of August 2013 with 10 new member join every 5 seconds (Digital Marketing Ramblings)

Does this create a marketplace for doing business that generates revenue with measurable results? See for yourself. Here are 11 company case studies that prove the ROI of LinkedIn.

• DOCUSIGN: the global standard for eSignitures, bought LinkedIn’s little-known sponsored InMail in bulk to target by geographic area, company size and job title for a 6-month lead-generation campaign. Sales rose +45% from 550 participants before the LinkedIn effort  to more than 800 after.
• EUREX: One of the leading derivative exchanges, wanted to drive broader connections, build relationship and create engagement. They updated their LinkedIn company page, posted relevant updates and use targeted LinkedIn display ads. Company page Followers grew from 500 to 13,000+ in 3 months; 81% of Followers engage exclusively on LinkedIn; LinkedIn Followers are 42% more likely to engage with EUREX and 43% more likely to recommend to a friend.
• GOSHIDO: a software solution that makes is easier for people around the world to work together and collaborated, used LinkedIn to find seed capital for its own creation.  This was done by identifying and leveraging connections who could be potential investors. Approximately $150,000 was raised.
• HEWLETT PACKARD: is the first company to hit 1,000,000 Followers for a Company Page. They also set up a specific Discussion Group to attract small businesses that has 5,500+ members; 75% who actively engage in discussions and who are 2X more likely to recommend HP. Since a video tell more than 1,000 words, here’s the story.

• NEAL SCHAFFER: a leader in helping businesses and professional strategically (and fellow MBA Faculty Member at Rutgers CMD), used Success Stories from LinkedIn. One day Neal saw a comment of one of his LinkedIn Groups, “Prove to me the ROI of social media.” He saw the person lived in the same county and he was connected to his brother on LinkedIn. He offered to meet the person for coffee. The connection led to two referrals that turned into clients within weeks.
• POSTCARD MANIA: Joined LinkedIn groups for the various types of small businesses the company targets, and judiciously contributed to discussions and questions about marketing. The company uses relevant content like “8 Ways to Grow Your Local Business for FREE!” Each of the eight ways was a “snippet” with links to get more information, each of which collected the person’s contact information. Postcard Mania has generated 600 leads and $72,000, just from LinkedIn.
• PENMAN PUBLIC RELATIONS: used LinkedIn to research a client’s planned launch of a high-end gaming system from their client, Hardcore Computer .Penman found that connecting with potential product users individually through LinkedIn offered more straightforward feedback and less “groupthink” than focus groups often deliver. They got more traffic to their website and more research responses (100′s more) at a fraction of the cost of focus group research.
• PJA: An advertising and marketing agency in Boston, invested an hour a day targeting searches for such keywords as “VP of marketing,” specific ZIP codes and company names, to identify key contacts to call, InMail, email, or forward the agency’s portfolio. They tracked who looked at the company’s LinkedIn profile. They participated in discussions catering to CMO’s. It led to inquiries, agency pitches, and new accounts, including Guidewire and Chase.
• SAMSUNG MOBILE: tries to attract upscale influencers who seek out the latest, leading-edge technologies in mobile devices. They post status updates on their LinkedIn Company Page and launch previews that leads to and API powered microsite with news about one of their latest mobile devices. They are able to target 20,000,000 LinkedIn members across 7 countries through their page, updates and mircosite; 33% says they are more likely to purchase from Samsung Mobile after following them on LinkedIn.
• VIRAL SOLUTIONS: An automated relationship marketing company, has company partners actively participating in relevant LinkedIn Groups. They discovered that 50.7% of top sellers belonged to 30+ groups compared to only 11.5% of their counterparts. As a result, 58% of the company revenue now comes from LinkedIn Groups with an average deal size of $7500.
• WILD APRICOT: Offers membership management and website development software for non-profits and associations. In 2010, Wild Apricot created a LinkedIn Company Page in mid-2010, They took advantage of the Company Pages recommendation feature, which allows  members to post product and service reviews. They tested the recommendations on their website. They tested: 1) a recent user survey, 2) a link to an online software directory and 3) a link to the LinkedIn product reviews, along with LinkedIn’s logo. Showcasing LinkedIn recommendations on our home page raised conversions by 15%.

If this was of value to you and you’d like to receive other updates, follow BarnRaisers on LinkedIn. If you’d like to know more about the ROI of social media, you can download our Complementary eBook, 166 Case Studies Prove Social Media Marketing ROI at our website. It’s been downloaded 65,000+ times. Or, you can always just get in touch.

Did these case studies prove the ROI of LinkedIn to you? Did they also tell you how and why it could work for you? Did it give you ideas for your business?

Meet Rob Petersen

About the Author » Rob Petersen Rob Petersen is President of BarnRaisers, an online marketing solutions company using social media, the power of community and the proven principles of relationship marketing. Rob was EVP/Chief Strategy Officer for Omnicom and has held leadership positions at FCB, Euro RSCG and Saatchi & Saatchi.

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