LinkedIn rolled out two new targeting and analytics products aimed at helping companies leverage the LinkedIn users following them.
LinkedIn “Targeted Updates” permit marketers to target followers based on specific criteria including, industry, length of time at the place of employment, job description, company size and location. LinkedIn “Follower Statistics” provides users with access to a dashboard containing information about followers.
These products were released to a handful of large LinkedIn partners like AT&T, Dell, Microsoft, Samsung Mobile and HSBC. Mere mortals like you and me will be able to take advantage of the roll-out in the near future.
“It's not just that we're building relationships, we're building lasting relationships,” said Jonathan Lister, LinkedIn's VP of sales for marketing solutions in North America. Lister said the company's follower model helps brands identify and engage with their most interested consumers, and the new tools give marketers the most robust way to target and monitor engagement on the platform.
LinkedIn said that 70 percent of its more than 150 million users worldwide already follow, or would follow, companies on the site. The company declined to disclose the percentage of users who currently follow companies, saying the model is still relatively young.
LinkedIn did say that those who follow companies are twice as connected as the average member and are in twice as many LinkedIn groups as the average member.
“The value of the [follower] ecosystem is really driving media efficiency,” said Lister. “[It's] giving marketers very precise abilities to target and send messages in a really compelling way.”
What do you think about these new LinkedIn tools? Will your company use them?
