LinkedIn is already the most influential professional-networking system online today. The service’s social capabilities make it easy for businesses to connect with new, current and prospective customers in personable ways through friendly messages, mentions, endorsements and custom content sharing.
To improve the power of LinkedIn connections, the company unveiled a new lead generation and nurturing feature called Contacts, which brings information from all over the web together in one place. LinkedIn Contacts will compile content from users’ address books, email accounts and calendars to the social network. The feature will soon be available on both LinkedIn.com and its new mobile application.
With contact information together in one place, businesses can develop content for LinkedIn marketing campaigns that continues conversations had elsewhere online and off. Webmarketing123’s “State of Digital Marketing 2012” report shows that companies already generate leads and website conversions from LinkedIn. The newer features should help more B2Bs and B2Cs create social media marketing strategies that lead to higher profit margins.
The source noted that 44 percent of B2Bs generated leads via LinkedIn last year, and 23 percent converted followers from the site. More, 21 percent of B2Cs fostered relationships with customers via the network, and 9 percent compelled connections to convert.
Brands looking to grow their professional networks online and increase revenue from social media initiatives should take advantage of LinkedIn’s arsenal of new features. From its new Contacts option to its SlideShare ads feature, companies can develop strong relationships with B2B and B2C audiences online. However, LinkedIn continues to show its increasing focus on branded content, so in order to thrive on the network, companies must focus on content creation for social campaigns.
