Joe Pulizzi says, “In December 2013, CMI released its annual content marketing predictions report (as we do every December). That year, my first prediction was as follows: Microsoft will buy one, maybe two, media companies in certain industries. The outcome of these moves will pave the way for further media purchases throughout the year by non-media companies. So, I was a mere 30 months early with that prediction. Correct, but two years early. Microsoft acquires LinkedIn A few weeks back, Microsoft agreed to acquire LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in cash. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner talked about... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “Remember bookstores. Remember how if you wanted a book you had to put in the extra effort required to physically go somewhere to get it. Then remember when you started buying books online and it was so much easier and the bookstores started going away because it was cheaper for them to sell the books online. The same thing is happening to desktop display advertising. LinkedIn has decided it will officially start auctioning off its desktop-only display ads because it will be easier for brands to buy those banners and more cost-effective for the social network to sell them.... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “While much of the talk about Microsoft’s plans to buy LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in cash, announced Monday, has focused on beefing up its cloud business, there’s much to be considered for advertisers, particularly B2B advertisers. In past years, Bing Ads executives have talked about the breadth of user data that Microsoft has spanning work and personal accounts and hinted at a newfound willingness to open access to that data vault for ad targeting under Satya Nadella. In 2014, David Pann, Bing’s General Manager, told me in an interview that they were looking at ways... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Freelancers with marketing skills are the most searched for on LinkedIn, according to recent research from LinkedIn Profinder. The report was based on internal LinkedIn search data from March 2016 as well as profile and geographic data from 2015. The number of freelancers on LinkedIn has increased 43% over the past five years, the analysis found. After marketing, the most searched for freelance skills by potential employers/clients are accounting, business consulting, design, and software development”. The Most In-Demand Freelance Skills on LinkedIn MarketingProfs  [...]

Leslie Ye says, “If you’re a sales rep, you’re probably on LinkedIn. (If you don’t, drop everything and go create a social selling-optimized LinkedIn profile right now.) Take a closer look at your profile. If you’re like most people, it’ll include your job history, educational background, and your professional achievements. But you’re not most people. You’re a salesperson — which means your LinkedIn serves a different purpose than anybody else’s. In the course of my job, I’ve probably seen 1,000 salespeople’s LinkedIn profile. They’re B2B and B2C reps, sell in... [...]

Josh Turner says, “Newcomers to the networking platform LinkedIn make every mistake in the book. But they can sidestep their spammy promotional ways — if they can banish certain misconceptions from their minds. Consider for instance the question of why 76 percent of CEOs check LinkedIn daily. Trust me, it’s not for the viral Dilbert memes. In reality, LinkedIn remains simply the best place to build relationships and make sales. Half of all users are likely to buy from a company they engage with on the platform, and 80 percent agree that company connections provide opportunities to... [...]

David Reilly says, “For many B2B marketers, creating and distributing content is a challenging and time-consuming process. LinkedIn has traditionally been a very text-heavy social network for professionals, but has now evolved into a very powerful platform for hosting and distributing content. In this post I’ll examine how LinkedIn provides a formidable commercial opportunity for content marketing via three solutions. This information is taken from Econsultancy’s new Guide to LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. 1. Pulse content platform Pulse is LinkedIn’s self-publishing platform... [...]

SBT team says, “Finding success as a producer of content is often a hit-or-miss endeavor. With such a flood of content being produced by so many people on a constant basis, getting your name out there as an effective author can be incredibly challenging. Whether you’re writing for a personal or professional blog, strategically producing content for specific campaigns, or practicing engagement with pre-existing content, it’s important to contribute to the Web in ways that will ultimately drive other users back to your own content. Publishing on LinkedIn is one way to do it. Publishing... [...]

Anita Campbell says, “If you run a B2B company (i.e., a business that sells to other businesses), have you ever wanted to benchmark your company’s social media efforts? See how you’re doing compared to others? TrackMaven recently conducted a study of B2B brands and their social media activity. The study found that LinkedIn just kills it when it comes to the average number of social media followers among B2B businesses. B2B companies had an impressive 109,000 LinkedIn followers on average. Other social networks didn’t even come close when it came to the average number of social media... [...]

Tim Peterson says, “LinkedIn is ready to let advertisers use their own data to target ads on the business-centric social network. Similar to Facebook’s Custom Audiences, Twitter’s Tailored Audiences and Google’s Customer Match targeting options, LinkedIn’s new account-targeting option will let businesses upload lists of companies they do business with or want to do business with, and LinkedIn will cross-reference those lists with its own list of more than eight million company pages and show ads to its users who work for those companies. “This is us launching our audience match... [...]