SMCSYD: Bigger Brand Opportunities
SMCYD: Using LinkedIn To Build Brands
I just finished moderating tonight’s discussion for Social Media Club Sydney (SMCSYD) at the Oxford Arts Factory. The conversation I had was with Cliff Rosenburg, MD of LinkedIn AU/NZ, and Michael Field – a sole practitioner in the marketing strategy space, as a case study. I’m sure there’ll be some further content generated from the event (speakers presentations etc.) but there were some really interesting insights for me. I’m doing a bit of a brain dump, but I’ll break it up into key areas. Oh, and have we connected on LinkedIn?
Different benefits for:
- Agencies (and their clients – brands)
- Brands
- Sole Practitioners
- Recruiters
Key outake: it’s about knowing your business objectives, and devising a strategy where the return on investment is positive
Some ideas I had (when I was summing up for all the groups – bar sole practitioners, which both speakers covered).
- Agencies: paid ads and paid polls seem to be the best form of engagement and return
- Brands: finding new employees
- Sole Practitioners: building relationships online*
- Recruiter: access to 65 million users across the world for $500 a month
*- Although Michael Fields outlined all his leads were now inbound – I feel that the time and effort he puts in was understated. If he charges at say $400 an hour (totally a mock figure here, no quoting etc) then the time he puts into his LinkedIn group, Next Director, would have a cost.
Time is precious, and should be valued as such.
Bigger Opportunity for Agencies
I rushed my closing remarks on stage, but my main point was this: when people – clients, brands, other agencies, potential employees, management, anyone – interacts with a business, it’s the people who are involved (their skill sets, aptitude, personality, passion) that really seals the deal.
Brands and agencies have an opportunity to use LinkedIn to help promote their own staff as subject matter experts, who are passionate about their jobs and really want the best outcome for clients and partners alike.
If this challenge is too big for you then there may be a problem in the culture or attitude – what I’ve said is nothing new, LinkedIn just provided a new platform to provide, yes, you guessed it
- expertise
- passion
- value
to potential customers and partners and delivering your real, bottom line business outcomes.
3 Comments
[...] Bigger brand opportunities by Jye Smith [...]
Thank you for the opportunity to present at Social Media Club Sydney. It was a great night, well organised, well moderated and incredibly well attended.
I wish to clarify that the time it takes to maintain a LinkedIn presence (once it is built) is minimal. On average, I do only spend an hour or so a week maintaining my online profile.
Your point is valid though. It does take time to build your presence and the time investment is heavier at the beginning and significantly lighter once you have gained critical mass and momentum.
I liken it to making snowballs. You start with a handful of flakes and pack them roughly together. It is very difficult at the beginning because you are on your hands and knees rolling a relatively small clump of snow on the ground.
If you persevere, your humble creation starts to take shape and given time, the biggest issue becomes steering and controlling a very large object.
You are right to identify that the time invested has a cost attached to it and it is wise for people to choose which platforms they intend to invest their time on and determine in advance how they will measure success.
From my perspective, I have reaped rewards significantly greater than the time invested as I have built and strengthened relationships through creating value in the Next Director group.
The time investment in managing groups is a different proposition and can be managed in a number of ways. One of which is to appoint group moderators and managers to share the workload.
Perhaps we could do a follow up session and do more of a deep dive into the management and maintenance of groups?
Thank you again for the opportunity to share my LinkedIn experience.
I really appreciate it.
Definitely very interesting. I’m glad you took the time to put together this summary. I couldn’t make this event, although I really wanted to attend.