using linkedin to drive prospect and stakeholder engagement

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Smarter Software for Communities

August 19, 2015

8 Ways to Leverage LinkedIn for: Economic Development

2Your Host – Product Visionary for Community Systems– First 1% of all Linkedin Users– Industry speaker, content strategy and

digital marketing specialist– Former Chief Economist of the Metro

Denver EDC

Ben WrightCEO

Community Systems, Atlas [email protected]

www.twitter.com/communitysys

@communitysys

www.linkedin.com/in/atlasad/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.twitter.com/communitysys

http://www.twitter.com/communitysys

http://www.linkedin.com/in/guillermomazier/

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Presenting From Denver, COCommunity Systems Co-Working Space

4Outline

1. Introductions2. Understanding LinkedIn's Networks3. 8 Ways to Leverage LinkedIn for

Economic Development4. LinkedIn for Social Prospecting5. Bring out Your Devices - Exploring

LinkedIn6. Wrap up/Questions

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“If you wait until there is another case study in your

industry, you will be too late”

Seth GodinKeynote Speaker

Author of Permission Marketing

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LinkedIn helps connect you to the network you

need to achieve your goals (ie. Marketing, research, business development, executive

leadership)

P

B

S

L Board Members

Community Partners

Leads

Supporters of Your Brand

T

Talent

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Leveraging LinkedIn's Network

Strengthen relationships with Leads

Find the right quality Board members quickly

Identify key community or Company partners

Identify top talent to work for your organization/

Build your brand and spark dialogue among supporters

An introduction to new business prospect

A board member with strategic connections

A company with a particular skill set

A new Business Developer

Professionals following your organization’s LI pageS

P

B

L

T

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Build Relationships With Leads

Chances are you have connections to many of the Leads or Prospects you are currently pursuing. Use LinkedIn to uncover those ties and improve your relationship with your prospects.

– Work with your business development and marketing to identify prospects

– Explore your network to uncover your ties and inroads

What if instead of cold calls, you had warm introductions?

Your ProspectYou

L

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Quickly Connect With Companies And Board Members

B

LinkedIn makes it easy to explore your existing connections to find potential board candidates. Connect with your current board in order to fully leverage their connections.

Use “advanced search” and filter by:

Keyword• Geographic location• Desired skills• Company or affiliation

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Find And Engage Community PartnersP

Looking for a particular skill set? Interested in building relationships with partners from a particular company or industry? • LinkedIn’s advance search feature makes zeroing in on

the exact talent you need easy.

A strategy consultant to help build your 3-

year plan

A local Bank to invest in your EDO

A Leading Employer to provide additional

project support

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Identify Top Talent For Your Organization

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With LinkedIn you can use “advanced search” to identify potential candidates and then see shared connections. Speed up your talent search and cut through the crowd to find a perfect match

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Build Meaningful Supportive Relationships With CompaniesLinkedIn is a vibrant community with hundreds of millions of professionals worldwide. Your friends, fans and supporters are already on LinkedIn. Invite them to become your advocates.

– Create a company page, grow your follower base, and post updates to spread your message across the LinkedIn network.

– Ask your supporters to list your organization on their profile in the Volunteer & Causes section.

– Join a Linked Group that is relevant to your cause and help drive the conversation.

S

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Use LinkedIn Ads and Sales Navigator For Targeting

Prospects

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Knoxville Estimated Reach

3MillionTarget Users By

Title, Geography, Group And More

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8 Ways to Leverage LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the most valuable social tool at your disposal for ED marketing and attraction. Make sure you’re using it right and it will pay dividends.

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Your profile shouldn’t be about you, it should be about the prospects you’re trying to attract. After all, your intended targets aren’t recruiters, they’re leads.

But most economic developer’s profiles are digital resumes, or worse, a copied and pasted marketing value proposition.

By the way, don’t use these types of photos…

1. Create a Buyer Centric Profile

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• Connect with anyone with whom you’ve had a meaningful interaction. Want to reach out to people you’ve never actually met? There’s a right way to go about it. Check out all the NEW profile sections and fill them in (LinkedIn has changed for the better) If there is not a group around your area of interest or expertise, start one

2. Grow your Network with a Purpose

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• Connect with anyone with whom you’ve had a meaningful interaction. Want to reach out to people you’ve never actually met? There’s a right way to go about it.

3. Share Relevant Content (Often)

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3. Share Relevant Content (Often)

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Remember Professional – Save this for your journal, unless you want to get fired

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• Look for three types of information: role-specific, goal-specific, and common ground.

– Role-specific: What are they responsible for?– Goal-specific: What are the targets they need to hit in their role?– Common ground: Find some sort of tie back to you, whether it’s a

common connection, a college, a hobby, or an experience.

• You should also try to glean trigger events from your prospect’s LinkedIn profile, although this can be tricky. Look at the stream of content they’ve shared recently to see if you can find any press releases or other articles about new leadership, acquisitions, or significant changes.

4. Leverage Business Intelligence Tools

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4. Leverage Business Intelligence Tools

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• Just like emails, InMails are an appropriate -- and perhaps even more effective -- channel for an introduction to your product or service. Research from InsideSales.com found that:

InMail with the exact same copy as an email will get a 33% higher response.

• Pair emails and InMails. Send the email first, and then follow up with an InMail. Insert one or two lines at the beginning of your InMail, explaining that while you sent an email, you’re also reaching out on LinkedIn since you weren’t sure which channel was preferable. Then simply copy and paste the email copy into the InMail, and send. If your buyers are social, this is an easy way to boost response rates.

5. Use Multiple Tools for Effectiveness

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We Asked Site Selectors: What is the applicability of LinkedIn to your profession?

“I have used it along with Hoovers to check who is on LinkedIn and contact people for business meetings.”

“I think it has good application. I have gotten proposals through this tool.”

“Good for seeking independent information.”

“Good for finding contacts, and to keep in touch with peers.”

“More of a business site”

Useful networking toolDon’t know yet.

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6. Get Mobile or Fall Behind – Get the LinkedIn App

The industry’s best marketers are putting mobile at the center of their company attraction and retention efforts. Branded content--from emails to white papers to videos to annual reports to infographics--should all be optimized for consumption on a mobile device, as there’s nearly a 50/50 chance that that’s just where they’ll be consumed.

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“Smart phones are reinventing the connection between

companies and their customers.”

Rich MinerPartner, Google VenturesCo-Founder, Android

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7. Use LinkedIn Advertising to Target Companies

Source: Atlas Advertising

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8. Use LinkedIn for Social Prospecting

As an Economic Development marketer or business developer, you already understand the importance of social media as part of your Business Attraction Strategy. With more than 3 million companies on Linkedin, one billion monthly active users on Facebook, and over 230 million monthly active users on Twitter, smart marketers know there’s more potential than ever to use social platforms to get their name out there, spread their community’s information, and draw more people to their site.

AwarenessEngagemen

t

Interest

Action

Only the best economic developers practice social prospecting – the art of scouring the social web, identifying potential prospects or partners for your community, and engaging them

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LinkedIn Approach for Business Development and Marketing

Improve your EDO competitive position in the new economic environment

• Put out relevant content• Execute as part of a larger campaign

Enhance awareness and positive perceptions of your EDO’s business climate both locally and nationally

• Collaborating with • Driving leads and conversations

Focusing on the targeted industry sectors with highest impact and opportunity for sustained growth

Use Research• Sales Navigator• Groups• Competitive markets and geographies• Services & programs

Developing a meaningful profile that is built for your prospects, not you

Profile Strategy • No Frat Pics• Fill out completely• Increasing community visibility and engagement

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LinkedIn Workshop Exercise - Preps

(1) PrepWrite down the top three keyword phrases that people use to find you on search. You'll be able to use this content to draw prospects back to your profile or economic development website.1.2.3. Pro tip: Remember, more business-focused keywords are favored on LinkedIn. Write down three pieces of content that are related to the search results of your keyword phrases.1.2.3.

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LinkedIn Workshop Exercise - Get Started

(2) Get Started: Sign into LinkedIn, and to the left of the top search bar, select “Groups” from the drop-down icon menu, which will search all LinkedIn groups. Pro tip: You can narrow your search results in the menu on the left by choosing what your relationship is to members of the groups, for instance if you want a category of “Open” or “Members only,” or if you want search results for groups that are in one or multiple Languages. Notes:Based on the group’s description (and a quick scan), identify five LinkedIn Groups that could have potential prospects for your business and join them.1.2.3.4.5.

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LinkedIn Workshop Exercise - Action

(3) Take Action: Now it’s time to start sharing the pieces of content you identified earlier. Start engaging with potential prospects by:

Joining in on conversations in the group where you can add value with your content “Liking” content that others are sharing in the groupSharing your own content and posing your own questions to the group Marketing: When you find a particular post within the group you want to monitor, you can choose to “Follow Discussion” so you’ll be updated when content for that post is added.

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Take Home Exercise – Extra Credit

Take-home exercise]Spend 20 minutes a week:- Reviewing the content in the groups you’ve joined (5 mins)- Commenting and adding value to posts from others in the group (5 mins)- Evaluate those you engage with the most to see if a prospect is a good fit (5 mins) - Share one piece of organic content to the groups you've joined (5 mins)

And if your profile picture looks like this, change it.

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Thank you!

Contact information:

929 BroadwayDenver, CO 80203Contact: Ben Wrightt: 720.420.3800 x 210