Leveraging on LinkedIn and other professional social networking sites, platforms and

services for marketing collaboration and engagement:

Analysis and Case Studies

By Rodelio Concepcion

Comm 455 Literature Review

Table of Contents

Introduction

Literature Review

I.    Definition – Professional vs. General/personal

II.   Reasons for professionalizing social media

III.  Examples of Professional Social Media Networks and Platforms

A.     General Professional Networks

1.     LinkedIn

2.     Other examples (Xing, BranchOut)

B.     Industry-specific social networking sites

1. Efactor – for entrepreneurs

2. Mediabistro – for content/creative industries

C.    Social Network Enterprise

1. Yammer

2. Chatter

IV.   Ways on how marketing professionals can leverage on social media – Case Studies

A.     Follower Engagement – Salesforce

B. Accurate Contact Management

C. Lead Generation - Evalueserve

D. Recruitment and Talent Building – CH2M HILL

E.     Intra-organizational Collaboration – StarCommMedia Vest

F. Reputation Management – Anvil Media

V. Rules of Engagement for Users in LinkedIn and Other Professional Social Media

VI.   Issues and Emerging Trends on Professional Social Media

Conclusion

References

Introduction:

The rise of public social media has provided marketers with an additional tool to utilize for their

marketing efforts targeted at consumers. With almost everyone having their own identities and

profiles in social media sites, friends, fans, consumers, customers, partners are most likely

available and can be communicated and reached out online. Such has been true for business-to-

business (B2B) and intra-organizational communications as well. Niche professional social

networks geared towards businesses, enterprises and specific industries are recently emerging,

as the social media sphere evolve. Professional social networks and enterprises rise in order to

cater to these types of communications. This rise brought up the concept of social business,

which is defined as “defined social business as activities that use social media, social software

and social networks to enable more efficient, effective and mutually useful connections between

people, information and assets”1 However, there is a fine line that separates these social media

from the rest of the other social media available to the public, that clearly defines how to do social

business. For marketers, what are the different ways on how to leverage their marketing efforts in

order to maximize the utilization of these networks depending on their needs? Which engagement

processes should be considered that sets these apart from public social networks? A careful

analysis and look at case studies are essential for marketers to see the impact of these social

networks and how these will be more beneficial to their work.

It is important to take a look and analyze the phenomena of professional social media and take a

look at how companies leverage on the benefits of these media. Below is an outline of the

importance of this study:

To understand the concept of ‘professional social media’ as opposed to ‘public/general

social media’

To identify ways on how professional social media can be maximized in marketing

To analyze how other enterprises use professional social media

To identify rules of engagement and behaviors

To identify the issues faced by marketers as well as emerging trends in using

professional social networks and platform

I. Definition – Professional vs. General/personal

1 Kiron, D., Palmer, D., Phillips, A. N., & Kruschwitz, N. (2012). What managers really think about social business. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(4), 51-60. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1023762000?accountid=9840

According to Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein, social media is "a group of Internet-

based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,

and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content”.2

Social media has proliferated over the past decade, although its history traces back

together with the history of the Internet.

General/personal social networking sites are social websites that cater to the general

consumption of the public. Examples of these websites are FaceBook, MySpace, Google

Plus and Twitter. These websites focus on building relationships among people with similar

interests and activities and allow them to post anything personal or opinionated freely.

On the other hand, a different type of social media has evolved that cater to a more

professional use and consumption of the technology. Professional social media cater to a

more collaborative, career and business oriented online social interaction among

professionals, businesses, corporations and industries. The rise of LinkedIn has paved the

way in popularizing a more professional use of social media, and has influenced as well a

professional use of even the personal social media websites like FaceBook, MySpace and

Twitter.

II. Reasons for professionalizing social media

Just like traditional communication, communication among and between professionals,

businesses and enterprises exemplify a different degree of communication methods

compared to public communications. The recent developments in the social media sphere

have urged companies to adopt social media strategies and policies, as well as usage in

order to achieve their goals and objectives. These adoptions require a less personal but

more professional when it comes to dealings with other businesses and individuals online.

Companies and professionals also see the need for an added security and privacy. They

need social media with a polish that felt safe for business, and that kept social networking

to a minimum.

Different aspects of people’s job functions and activities are starting to go online through

social media. In an online article, Courtney Jansson said “Web 2.0 technologies are

2 Kaplan, Andreas M.; Michael Haenlein (2010) "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media". Business Horizons 53(1): 59–68.

changing the approach to the traditional job search. No longer are job searches confined to

just a resume. It's now all about your web presence.”3

Similarly, numerous companies are starting to build their online identities and presence,

which makes collaboration easier by searching and contacting these companies through

their social media profiles. This opens activities done by companies involving social media

to be collectively known as social business. In the study entitled, “What Managers Really

Think About Social Business,”4 it has been found out that the importance of social business

to organizations is expected to grow over the next few years. Media and technology

industries are early adopters. Respondents indicated that the top two business challenges

that could be addressed by social software were managing customer relationships and

innovating for competitive differentiation.

III. Examples of Professional Social Media Networks and Platforms

A. General Professional Networks

1. LinkedIn

LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com) is a publicly-held social networking site for

people in professional occupations, as well as for companies looking for B2B

collaborations. According to the company background section of LInkedIn on its

website, LinkedIn started out in the living room of co-founder Reid Hoffman in

2002. The site officially launched on May 5, 2003. At the end of the first month in

operation, LinkedIn had a total of 4,500 members in the network.5

LinkedIn has a diversified business model with revenues coming from hiring

solutions, marketing solutions and premium subscriptions.

Currently, LinkedIn is ahead of its competition in terms of the number of members

(161 million subscribers). In the article “LinkedIn or LoseOut”, Wayne BreitBarth

3 Jansson, Courtney. Use Social Media to Professionalize your Online Presence. http://www.examiner.com/article/use-social-media-to-professionalize-your-online-presence 4 Kiron, D., Palmer, D., Phillips, A. N., & Kruschwitz, N. (2012). What managers really think about social business. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(4), 51-60. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1023762000?accountid=9840

5 http://press.linkedin.com/about

listed down the benefits of why professionals should consider using LinkedIn.6

These are as follows:

a. LinkedIn is the largest and best database for finding business professionals in

the world. With millions of members around the globe, its keyword search looks

at a vast database to look for potential employer, customer, vendor, supplier,

partner or even a speaker for an event. LinkedIn also helps out in leveraging

relationships developed with individuals.

b. You can see relationships that exist between your friends and their friends.

After connecting with a friend, one can see who they know and who their

friends know on LinkedIn.

c. You and information about your organization are now keyword searchable in

the world’s largest business database. Optimizing personal and company

profiles make it easier for one to be found in searches.

d. Your competitors are undoubtedly using LinkedIn, and you can keep an eye on

them.

e. We could all use a free 24/7 virtual assistant.

f. More business is transacted online.

g. Your profile, or “resume on steroids,” will display your credibility and expertise.

h. Experts from throughout the world are available to answer your business

questions.

i. Researching companies and the people who work there just got much easier.

j. It is free and easy.

2. Other examples (Xing, BranchOut)

There are two social networks considered as close competitors of LinkedIn: Xing

and Viadeo. Xing (http:// https://www.xing.com) is a social media platform for

enabling a small-world network for business professionals in German-speaking

countries. By displaying how each member is connected to any other member, it

visualizes the small-world phenomenon.7 According to its website, it is a platform

where professionals from all kinds of different industries can meet up, find jobs,

colleagues, new assignments, cooperation partners, experts and generate

business ideas.8 It offers personal profiles, groups, discussion forums, event

6 Breitbarth, W. (2011). Linked in® or lose out. Quality Progress, 44(7), 18-22. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/888057324?accountid=9840

7 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XING8 http://corporate.xing.com/no_cache/english/company/xing-ag/

coordination, and other common social community features. Basic membership is

free. However, core functions such as searching for people with specific

qualifications or messaging people to whom one is not already connected, can only

be accessed by the premium members who pay for a fee. Also according to its

website, it has around 12 million members worldwide as of June 2012. The

platform was officially launched on 1 November 2003 in Germany, and was

renamed Xing form OpenBC in November 2006.

Paid memberships (subscriptions) is currently their core business to date, and has

expanded into the e-Recruiting, Advertising and Events markets where they have

successfully established their business model.9

It also offers the system for closed communities, called Enterprise groups with their

own access paths and interface designs. The platform serves as the infrastructure

for corporate groups, including IBM, McKinsey, Accenture and others.

On the other hand, FaceBook came out with its own version of professional social

networking through BranchOut (http:// http://branchout.com). It was founded by

Rick Marini in July 2010, and is designed for finding jobs, networking

professionally, and recruiting employees. It is a free Facebook application, which

allows users to create professional profiles that include their work history and

education (personal information, like photo albums and status updates, is not

included within these profiles)10. Once the user installs the app, a dashboard is

displayed that shows the user’s corporate relationships. It generates revenue from

job posts and enterprise solutions.

According to its website, BranchOut has three types of enterprise products for job

seekers and recruiters: RecruiterConnect allows recruiters to search millions of

BranchOut profiles for qualified candidates. CareerConnect gives companies the

ability to publish job postings on their Facebook page. SocialJobs allows people to

display inside connections within a job slot, and share job posts on Facebook and

Twitter11.

B. Industry-specific social networking sites

9 http://corporate.xing.com/english/investor-relations/ 10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BranchOut11 http://business.branchout.com/about-home

1. Efactor – for entrepreneurs

According to Wikipedia, Efactor (http://www.efactor.com) is an online community

and offline community for entrepreneurs. It is a social network that connects

investors and entrepreneurs through networking events in various cities throughout

the United States and the world. EFactor is a place where entrepreneurs can find

tools and resources to build their own business or startup company12. It is currently

tagged as the fastest growing social network for entrepreneurs and investors that

offer health insurance to its members. According to its website, it provides

resources that every small business owner needs: funding, knowledge, gain

revenue and save cost13. This means that by giving entrepreneurs online and

offline social tools, its users can connect, promote, and find funding. The website is

multilingual and currently has users in 185 countries. It was founded in March

2008.

Further information according to its website, EFactor helps members find funding

by carefully selecting qualified investors appropriate for their specific enterprises.

By networking with other EFactor members in similar industries or via EFactor

resource channels, members can gain further knowledge about their own industries

as well as other businesses in similar domains.

2. Mediabistro – for content/creative industries

Mediabistro is a Web site that publishes various blogs and job listings for

journalists. According to its website, it is a place “dedicated to anyone who creates

or works with content, or who is a non-creative professional working in a

content/creative industry.” Their mission is to provide opportunities to meet, share

resources, become informed of job opportunities and interesting projects and news,

improve career skills, and showcase the members’ work.14 Laurel Touby founded

the site in 1993. Mediabistro.com has since grown into an international resource for

media professionals. The site claims 1.4 million users have registered for its

diverse services which includes job postings, educational courses, events, forums

and AvantGuild, its premium subscription service. Mediabistro.com also hosts a

number of industry-specific blogs isuch as TVNewser (covering broadcast & cable

news), GalleyCat (book publishing), UnBeige (design), AgencySpy (advertising),

12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFactor.com13 http://www.efactor.com/about/ 14 http://www.mediabistro.com/aboutus/

PRNewser (public relations) and MobileContentToday (mobile apps).

On July 17, 2007, WebMediaBrands acquired the site for $20 million in cash plus a

two-year earn-out that could result in an additional $3 million.15

C. Social Network Enterprise

1. Yammer

Yammer is a freemium enterprise social network service that was launched in 2008

and sold to Microsoft in 2012. It is used for private communication within

organizations or between organizational members and pre-designated groups,

making it an example of enterprise social software. It originally launched as an

enterprise microblogging service and now has applications on several different

operating systems and devices. Access to a Yammer network is determined by a

user's Internet domain, so only those with appropriate email addresses may join

their respective networks.16

According to Brian Giesen, Yammer is a microblogging service that allows users to

post messages, follow others’ updates and tag comment. The only difference is

that only individuals with the same e-mail domain can join any given network.17

2. Chatter

Chatter is a real-time collaboration platform for users developed by

Salesforce.com, a global enterprise software company known for its customer

relationship management (CRM) product. It was released in June 2010. The

service sends information proactively via a real-time news stream. Users can follow

coworkers and data to receive broadcast updates about project and customer

status. Users can also form groups and post messages on each other's profiles to

collaborate on projects.18

Employees and colleagues want to be able to connect with each other from within

web and mobile applications, instead of conversing through standalone Web 2.0

tools such as blogs and wikis. Salesforce.com just introduced a business

15 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediabistro.com16 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer17 Giesen, B. (2009). How digital tools can improve comms efforts. Strategic Communication Management, 13(6), 8-8. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/203581640?accountid=9840

18 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com#Chatter

collaboration application called Chatterbox that monitors activities on Salesforce's

Force.com against a set of rules defined by users. When a rule is triggered, users

linked to that rule are notified and a Salesforce Chatter stream is started.

Chatterbox searches constantly for events that trigger those alerts and encourages

collaboration in response to a situation.19

IV. Ways on how marketing professionals can leverage on professional social media –

Case Studies

As professional social media is relatively new and slow in development until the global

market was hit by a financial crisis, which made people more concerned with building their

online presence for recruitment and collaboration, I have identified some key areas where

marketers and professionals can really benefit from the maximized use of LinkedIn and

other professional social media and platforms.

A. Follower Engagement – Salesforce.com

With the increase of companies creating profiles and engaging in professional social

media sites such as LinkedIn, the ability to network with one another has been easier.

Through networking, companies can reach out to potential customers and

professionals who will be able to collaborate with one’s business to achieve some

common business goals. Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company,

used its network on LinkedIn in order to collaborate with potential attendees to its

events. Salesforce.com has built a solid reputation for the quality of its events that they

do in person and online, including Cloudforce, which is held in various cities globally

every year.

“Our objective is to drive an audience to attend – not just in person, but also online,

because we broadcast these events online,” explained by Jennifer Burnham, director of

content and social strategy for salesforce.com in an interview done by LinkedIn for its

marketing case study. In addition to using its social networks to publicize Cloudforce,

salesforce.com uses LinkedIn to spread the word about company news and updates.

Burnham added, “our followers want to hear more about the salesforce.com culture,

our leadership, and social enterprise trends.”20

19 http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/all/how-one-company-uses-salesforcecoms-chatter/?cs=41450

20http://marketing.linkedin.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/LinkedIn_SalesforceCom_CaseStudy2012.pdf

The challenge for salesforce.com’s social strategy team is pushing out content and

updates to followers without wearing out its welcome – especially for news aimed at a

regional audience or a specific demographic. Other challenges that the company had

were: engaging followers and drive event attendance; avoiding message

oversaturation; and reaching regional audiences with localized content.

However, they chose LinkedIn because it enables them to do precise targeting to help

them reach their desired audience. Targeted Status Updates allow organizations with

LinkedIn Company Pages to deliver status updates to well-defined groups of followers,

which can help increase engagement and improve brand loyalty. Marketers can target

followers based on company size, industry, function, and geography, among other

parameters. It allowed them to target a geographic area and create more frequent and

tailored updates, mentioning local speakers and venues.

LinkedIn also allows them to use relevant updates that drive higher engagement and

stronger brand loyalty. It allows the events team to focus their messages at a regional

or industry level to can delight audiences with relevant content. It also allows them to

reach beyond their core follower base and not just employees.

Because it is easy to administer, it encourages easier adoption among its members. It

allows Burnham’s team to give control of content to regional social media managers,

who can customize updates based on what they know about their specific audiences.

Finally, a real-time result tracking helps marketers refine their strategy.

With salesforce.com’s adoption of LinkedIn, they were able to achieve the following

results: 30% increase in engagement by followers; 30% increase in amplification

(sharing) of messages; local social teams can customize messages for greater

relevancy; and ability to increase frequency creates more opportunities for

engagement.

B. Accurate Contact Management

One of the challenges with contact management and customer retention is maintaining

accurate information. Many organizations use a pull method of information

management. The pull method consists of employing an individual or firm to collect

data using traditional methods such as phone survey, email, or snail mail. In these

methods the customer of organizational member is contacted and the information is

asked of them in a manner that is outside their daily routines or customary norms. In

contrast to the pull method, the social media site has become more of a push source of

data where members are not prompted to update but feel compelled to let others know

about recent changes in their profiles. The member is pushing the information to the

organization in the daily use and updating of the social media site.

In her research entitled “Utilizing Social Media and Networking for Accurate Contact

Management: Contrasting the Push/pull Methods of Data Research and Maintenance”,

Joanne Hamilton studied a LinkedIn group which was created from an existing

Facebook group and a traditional database. Members were encouraged to engage with

each other through online discussions and periodic group Skype calls. They were also

encouraged to give support to other members and individual feedback. The outcome

was a forum that served for personal betterment for the group as a whole. Within 2

months of the creation of the group we began our survey. 21

Initially, we sent out emails to all members within our traditional database. These were

individuals who had given their contact information in a traditional manner. We

documented how many email addresses were no longer functional and compiled any

responses received. We then moved on to the Social Networks and Web 2.0

community emails and sent out to all existing members of both the LinkedIn group and

the Facebook group simultaneously. Finally we undertook a twelve week phone survey

campaign where we called every individual within the traditional database. There were

145 individuals that were both in the traditional database and members of the social

networks and therefore received multiple contacts for survey purposes. Many

acknowledged the receiving of emails during the phone surveys and expressed an

intention to reply.

The findings they got were that member information maintenance from Web 2.0 social

media utilization versus traditional methods was shown to be as much as 4 times more

accurate. Social media members were willing to spend 2.3 times longer engaged in

surveys. Members of social media sites displayed community involvement and concern

that exceeded those not involved with the social media. Social media members pushing

information to database managers resulted in 80% of social media member information

21 Hamilton, J. (2011). Utilizing social media and networking for accurate contact management: Contrasting the Push/pull methods of data research and maintenance. Competition Forum, 9(2), 334-338. Retrieved

from http://search.proquest.com/docview/912867883?accountid=9840

being updated. The use of a pull method of information with non-members yielded

4.1% of non-member information being updated. When calculated using total

membership, social media members constituted 30% of total database updates, non-

members constituted 2.8%.

C. Lead Generation – Evalueserve

Evalueserve, according to its website, is a global specialist in knowledge processes

with a team of more than 2,600 professionals worldwide22. It provides knowledge

process outsourcing (KPO) services.

One of the challenges encountered by its global sales and marketing team is identifying

the key contacts at organizations for the initial contact, and eventually scheduling

meetings with these contacts has been a challenge. The team has been doing cold-

calling but it was not very successful due to the fact that there has been no background

information for the contacts being called. Reaching clients through traditional media

(press releases, white papers, etc.) has been useful in general brand building.

However, LinkedIn helped the company a lot in creating greater impact for their present

and prospective clients, and get them to recognize Evaluseserve as a large knowledge

services firm.23

The Sales team gains direct access to C-Level people without having to go through

numerous rounds of calls with secretaries. Using LinkedIn, one gets to know the focus

of the profile being contacted and can customize the pitch accordingly to garner

maximum interest. This helps the company in reaching the right audience, saving a lot

of time and improving their success rate.

For branding, the Marketing Communications (Marcom) team has been encouraging

the controlled use of forums for the distribution of white papers, articles, etc. or for

answering questions asked by members, researching events and more. New white

papers are systematically posted (excerpts or links) in relevant groups or forums.

Selected professionals of Evalueserve regularly browse LinkedIn forums to post advice

on queries. The Marcom team also regularly checks forums and questions, and

arranges answers/forum posts to be published. Guidelines for Social Media have been

included in the global Media Communication manual.

22 http://www.evalueserve.com/site/ 23 http://www.indiasocial.in/case-study-evalueserve-–-using-linkedin-for-lead-generation-and-brand-building/

By posting white papers on LinkedIn, we have received several requests from

traditional media or blogs. Several Client Engagement Managers have also received

messages through LinkedIn about their posts. We have also noticed the influx of

external recommendations on LinkedIn. Using LinkedIn for marketing has helped us to

improve our visibility and catch the attention of our target audience; traditional media is

still used as a tool to reach out to a more general audience.

D. Recruitment and Talent Building – CH2M HILL

CH2M Hill is a multinational engineer-procure-construct company that provides

consulting, design, design-build, operations, and program management. In a SMART

conference held in January 2011, David Masson, head of talent acquisition for CH2M

HILL, talked about how LinkedIn helped them recruit globally with less volume of

applicants but get more quality of candidates. In order to do this, his team focused

efforts on social media, Internet networking, developing its own website and research-

based techniques. They have had significant success with LinkedIn as a direct

recruitment tool but also as a way to raise their employer brand and engage with

specific targets 24

Further to Broat’s article, as a global company with 25000 employees around the world

with 70 internal recruiters, it is necessary that recruitment be done efficiently by using

social media that allows them to source and target the right people.

To do this, they set their recruitment strategies as per below according to Laurent

Brouat:

1. Harness social media to attract candidates: test and try different social media

platforms

2. Targeting Candidates effectively: using the right tools and ways to target

candidates

3. Using social media to attract new geographical audiences: attract local candidates

vs. expatriates and develop a diversified pool of talents

Broat further added that CH2M HILL bought licenses for the recruitment solutions in

order to have access to the 90 million members of Linkedin with 50 inmails per month

and per license. Through this, they can solve their recruitment issues faster. David

24 http://linkhumans.com/blog/how-a-company-used-linkedin-and-social-media-to-recruit

Masson cited a specific example of when they needed to hire a very specialized civil

engineering post in Korea. With Linkedin they were able to produce a long list of 100

target candidates in 30 minutes. This was soon trimmed down to make a short list of 10

candidates. Interviews were conducted with these shortlisted candidates and were able

to match one of them to the post without the use of an expensive recruitment agency.

Broat also mentioned that the company profile on Linkedin is fully customized with

banners on the side driving traffic to the careers page of the corporate website but also

there is a video of employees presenting the company.The careers page on Linkedin

goes a step further as there is a huge banner at the top redirecting to the careers page

on the website.And they have a widget integrated with their careers site that allows

searching of their ATS for jobs within Linkedin.

And finally they sow all the jobs they posted on Linkedin on their company page,

careers page (customised according to your location and profile) and to their followers.

With the recruitment solutions, they have a number of postings per month and CH2M

HILL is clearly maximising the number of the job board option.

Part of strategy and part of the Linkedin service, CH2M HILL used campaigns with very

targeted adverts.

According to Broat, CH2M HILL succeeded on their use of LinkedIn for recruitment due

to the following:

1. They discovered that the demographic of the user base on Linkedin is aligned with

the current type of professionals they target ie 43 years old and the level of

qualifications they look for

2. They put their careers page on the corporate website at the center of their strategy

with many banners coming from Linkedin careers page and all the employees

profiles directing to the website

3. They just tried, did it and learnt on the job. They clearly realised that Facebook and

Twitter were not the ideal tools to recruit directly

4. They focused on the candidate experience by using a great design, customising

career pages, and exchanging as much personal information as they could (videos,

career paths, pictures, usability…)

5. They always tried to provide content and exchange with current employees and

candidates, they did real efforts to engage even if the results were mixed

6. This is a great company to work for as they have received awards and their strong

selling point is that it is employee-owned, with 14,000 of the company’s 25,000

employees owning shares that are not tradable outside the company.If you provide

a bad experience to your employees, social media won’t change anything…and

employees won’t participate in any social media activity…(look at Zappos case!)

The results were very positive, with 98% of hires in the US are directly sourced, 95% of

all hires outside of the US are also the result of direct recruitment activities. They

reduced significantly the cost and time to hire.

Linkedin leveraged their global strategy by providing a professional image, enhancing

their reputation and driving traffic to their careers page.

E. Intra-organizational Collaboration – StarCommMedia Vest

Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) is one of the largest and most celebrated brand

communications and consumer contact organizations in the world, with 110 offices in

67 countries. SMG’s 6,200 global media professionals looking to build captivating

connections between consumers and brands for hundreds of clients, including many of

the world's most powerful marketers such as Coca-Cola, P&G, Walmart, and Kraft.25

According to the case study published by Yammer, in early 2009, leaders within SMG’s

Knowledge Management team recognized that email communication was often

constraining information within offices, regions, and divisions. Looking into collaboration

software, the group started a Yammer network. Particularly because the firm’s success

depends on its ability to deliver and execute on creative ideas, streamlined information

flow is vital. As Yammer usage rapidly spread across the company, it became

increasingly apparent how much institutional wisdom had gone untapped, restricted by

the undiscoverable nature of email. 26

According to the case study posted on Yammer website, SMG Chief Digital Officer,

Sean Finnegan leveraged Yammer to keep employees up to date in real-time on high-

level conversations happening as part of a global portal tour with key industry partners;

Google, Yahoo!, Facebook & MSN. SMGers around the world could follow the tag

25 https://www.yammer.com/customers/casestudies/smg/

26 https://www.yammer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Yammer_Success_SMG.pdf

#portaltour in Yammer to review meeting updates and pose questions or dialogue with

senior management as part of the message threads.

Because SMG serves some of the largest companies in the world, often across multiple

markets around the world, the firm must coordinate global work related to these clients.

SMG relies on Yammer groups for just that. For example, SMG employees have

formed the Coca-Cola Global Group as well as regional groups like Coke USA, Coke

Mexico, and Coke Europe. This way, all professionals working with Coca-Cola can

follow international efforts while also coordinating by region. For P&G alone, SMG has

a total of 25 internal groups with over 1,000 members. With 25 groups, each region

working with P&G benefits by seeing the best P&G-related work and applying these

best practices to their local region.27

Further to the case study retrieved from Yammer website, SMG has made

crowdsourcing creative ideas a regular practice, finding that the best ideas can come

from the most unexpected places.

As part of the strategy to improve connectivity among SMG’s 110 global offices, the

firm has launched Market Week, a program run entirely through Yammer. According to

the case study, Mauro Ravicini, Director of Communications for SMG’s Europe, Middle

East and Africa region, identified an opportunity to encourage greater communication

and camaraderie among SMG’s global offices. He developed a program to allow each

country in the network to informally introduce itself and its staff to the global community,

sharing unique information about life and work in that specific country.

The case study further added details on the Market Week program, which is an effort

for global offices to showcase their own personalities that will be interesting to other

employees in other regions. Each week, the CEO from one of SMG’s international

markets uses Yammer’s Announcement feature to post case studies, photos and

videos about the regional office to the global SMG network. The personality of each

region shines through in these posts, giving them distinction among other regional

offices. The Market Week program has helped SMG’s media professionals connect on

deeper levels as well. Market Week has sparked remarkable engagement among

employees within the SMG Yammer network, stimulating around 22,000 interactions

(likes, replies, video views, etc.) within four months since it was launched.

27 https://www.yammer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Yammer_Success_SMG.pdf

According to the case study, with the use of Yammer, SMG was able to achieve the

following:

1. Collective employee expertise is leveraged, surfacing key emerging topics.

2. Meeting highlights and action plans are easily captured via threads and shared

globally in real-time.

3. Employees feel engaged and empowered to be part of key management dialogue.

4. In 3 days, 151 messages were shared with 1549 active followers.

F. Reputation Management – Anvil Media

Compelling content, strategic connection building and search engine optimization

(SEO) are just a few tools that Anvil Media president Kent Lewis uses to gain prestige

via LinkedIn. 28

Founded in 2000 by Lewis himself, Anvil Media, Inc. is a search engine marketing

agency specializing in SEO, pay-per-click management, search engine marketing

public relations, online reputation management, and social media marketing services.

Lewis works to continuously plow both the firm’s reputation and his personal brand.

To proactively connect with prospective clients and partners, Lewis requests

introductions from existing contacts and uses the “People you may know” feature on his

LinkedIn homepage. His goal is not to make as many connections as possible, but to

make quality connections. The main reason Lewis makes an effort to grow his contact

base is to “flatten out the six degrees of separation” to the people he wants to meet.

Lewis gives priority to a high number of recommendations. He would usually ask for

recommendations for every experience he has added on his profile. This helped boost

up his brand with 84 recommendations today covering every position he has held.

He also lists every experience he has had and included pertinent keywords in every

description in an attempt to optimize his profile, giving it a greater chance to show up

on search results in both LinkedIn and Google. This way, Lewis gains control of his

own personal brand to be searchable and easily found by prospects who will make a

search of particular keywords either through LinkedIn or through Google.

28 http://www.mcbru.com/review/MCBRU/August10/files/MProfs_LinkedInCSC.pdf

Furthermore as per mentioned on the case study, LinkedIn lets users list three links on

their profiles, so Lewis uses this space to describe each link with industry keywords

instead of the default titles of “my website” or “my portfolio.”

LinkedIn has some applications that Lewis took advantage of, like SlideShare,

WordPress, and Events, to display his expertise and maintain his name prominently

featured on connections’ homepages.

During the time when Twitter can be synched with Linkedin profiles, Lewis also

synched his Twitter profile to his LinkedIn profile in order to broadcast interesting news

in order to highlight his being up-to-date especially with what is going on with the

industry. He actually gets more interaction through the cross post in LinedIn than in

Twitter, he said.

Lewis also uses LinkedIn Polls wherein his network and connections are notified

everytime a new poll is launched. Lewis takes the chance to share both the initial

feedback and final results he collects from respondents. This showcases his credibility

and his deep understanding and knowledge of the industry.

Finally, Lewis is able to build and maintain his brand authority by answering questions

related to his line of work through LinkedIn Answers. He would usually do this by

answering three to ten questions per week. He was able to reach 28 responses that

were considered as “best answers” which makes him appear as one of the top five

experts in his network, boost and promotion of his authority as seen by his contacts.

“Create messaging so compelling that people are likely to share it, vote it a

‘best answer’ and contact you directly,” Lewis says in the case study article from the

MCBRU website. “When someone reads your answers and then takes the time to learn

about who answered it, they’re already sold by that point.”

His responses on LinkedIn Answers, the details about his background and experiences

shown on his profile are instrumental in establishing Lewis’ authority and Anvil Media

as competent person and company in the industry.

The case study concluded with Lewis reporting that LinkedIn is one of the top three

sources of qualified leads for Anvil Media. It has helped him identify and connect with

key clients, such as the firm’s largest one, Borders Books. It also helped him secure a

keynote speaking engagement at SEM4SMB in Austin, Texas, and aided in the

development of an important partnership with an out-of-state company, for whom he

may become a strategic advisor.

V. Rules of Engagement for Users in LinkedIn and Other Professional Social Media

Lida Citroen in her article entitled “Reputation Management Tips: Using LinkedIn for

Personal Branding” listed some pointers on how to best use LinkedIn to make connections,

share content and promote oneself29. This also applies to other professional social network

sites and platforms. Her pointers are below:

1. Nothing is private.  Anything you post online (regardless of privacy settings) is public

information. Since LinkedIn is a business tool, keep specific client information, project

details and confidential information off your posts and comments. They are searchable

within the site, and are indexed by Google to be searchable outside of LinkedIn.

2. Project a good image.  Pay attention to your headshot and the tone of your profile.

3. Use all the features. LinkedIn gives one the opportunity to fill out a robust and

informative profile. Take advantage of as many of the apps and plug-ins as make

sense. For instance:

- Include a Summary of your experience in your Profile. Be sure this isn’t just resume-

content. Use the Summary to describe who you are and what you do (what are you

passionate about)?

- Add the Amazon app plug-in to share your favorite books with your connections. Be

sure to include a review of the book and whether you would recommend it to others.

This gives your connections more insight into your interests.

- Include your past career experience – not as a resume. What were your successes at

that job? What contribution did you make? What did you learn? What did you enjoy the

most?

4. Seek recommendations.  Recommendations are a great way for others to see how you

work and how you contribute. The beauty of LinkedIn recommendations is that they

must be attached to another person’s profile, which adds to the credibility of the

comments. Additionally, you have an opportunity to view and edit the recommendation

before it is posted. Pay attention to how you want to be perceived. Then ask yourself,

“Does this recommendation support the perception I want my network to have of me

and my work?” If necessary, go back to the endorser and suggest key phrases or key

words to help strengthen their recommendation of you and your work. Always follow

your company’s social media protocol when considering whether to offer a

29 http://unleashingyourbrand.com/reputation-management-tips-using-linkedin-for-personal-branding/

recommendation to a colleague. Many companies do not approve of employees

endorsing or recommending staff or colleagues, for legal and human resources

reasons.

5. Use keywords.  LinkedIn is highly searchable. Consider key words in your summary,

title, and experience descriptions that make your profile more findable to prospects,

colleagues and partners. I used several key “tags” or words to make my profile more

findable to someone seeking “personal branding” “personal branding for executives” or

“reputation management.” Under a search (people) for “reputation management” there

are almost 150,000 results returned.

6. Join Groups.  LinkedIn offers you hundreds of groups to choose from, where you can

become engaged and involved in conversations around areas of interest, alumni

groups, causes and business initiatives. Choose the groups wisely – you build your

own reputation in part through the groups with whom you associate. Once you join a

group, post and comment where appropriate and comfortable. Ask questions, offer

insight and share information around the topic of the group. Be aware of posting

guidelines (often shared at the outset by the group administrator) so you don’t

inadvertently post a job opening to a group that prohibits such posts. Be aware that

groups are highly conversational and participatory. If you make a post about something

you are passionate about, expect to receive feedback, input and possibly even

negative comments from others. If this becomes uncomfortable, speak to someone in

your company’s marketing department before engaging in an online (public!) conflict.

7. Research.  Consider adding LinkedIn tools to your research arsenal. For instance,

suppose your business involved real estate development. A search for “land

ownership” returned over 9,000 results under “people”, 234 results in companies; and

10 in groups. Imagine the connections, data and resources you could uncover. The

information, connections and awareness that can be harnessed by using LinkedIn as a

research tool are amazing!

8. Get connected.  Sending a request to a professional contact or colleague is easy with

LinkedIn. If you know the person well, send the invitation. If you do not know the person

well, be sure to personalize the invitation beyond the default language the system

generates. Identify where you met them, how you know them (“we share a common

interest in environmental sustainability,” or “we both worked for XYZ Company”) so the

recipient can quickly identify the connection. A personalized invitation is always

preferred to the standard, cold default message; “I’d like to add you to my professional

network on LinkedIn.”Similarly, apply discretion to accepting invitations to connect on

LinkedIn. Most of the time, invitations will come to you from people   who see a

mutually beneficial professional relationship with you, or appreciate your posts and

comments and would like to be  connected. There are, however, spammers and

companies/people who use LinkedIn as a tool to build databases. I recommend you 

review and evaluate each invitation and weigh the merits of the connection for yourself

rather than connect with just anyone who wants to link with you.

9. Update regularly.  Sending an update to either your LinkedIn status or profile, groups or

apps ensures you stay top of mind with your network. When someone signs up for

LinkedIn, they have the option of choosing how often they want to hear from their

contacts. Most people opt for once a week, or once a day (can be quite a lot!) Rarely

do people choose not to hear from their network, since the point of LinkedIn is to stay

connected. Posting something relevant every 7-10 days increases your odds of being

top of mind in the digest of most of your contacts. This average seems to work well for

most busy professionals.Some ideas of things to post: updates on your career,

professional interests or business, links to articles, blogs or news that would interest

and inform your network, comments or ideas or celebrations about trends, happenings

and topics of interest that relate to your business, industry or professional circle of

influence.

10. Be authentic.  While LinkedIn doesn’t have the social appeal of a network like

Facebook, the need is still very strong to connect with professionals who are genuine

and approachable. Showing your authentic enthusiasm, passion, talent and interests

create a well-rounded profile of yourself and what others can expect to experience if

they work with you. In the online world of social networking, strive to be authentic in the

content you post and comment on, particularly in LinkedIn.

While there is still no definite rule of engagement proliferating around on how to best use

LinkedIn and other professional social networking sites, I agree with Citroen with the above.

These activities are similar to what should an employee do in the actual workplace to

expand his networks and improve his personal brand. The arena has just changed and was

brought online through LinkedIn.

Citroen further added the following tips that will be helpful in being successful in LinkedIn30:

1. Consider your LinkedIn profile as a marketing piece. Use every tool and feature to

create an impression of your experience, passion, interests and goals.

2. Get very clear on your target audience. Simply pursuing “hiring managers” is not

specific enough. Be clear about what kind of hiring managers, what kind of companies,

where they are and what they are looking for. Then, you can tailor your personal profile

content to be consistent with their goals and needs.

30 http://unleashingyourbrand.com/reputation-management-tips-using-linkedin-for-personal-branding/

3. Do not just put your resume up on LinkedIn. Customize each section to meet your

goals and attract your target audience. Be specific about what you are looking for, what

you enjoy, what you’re good at and why people value you.

4. Seek specific recommendations. They give viewers an idea of how others have viewed

your work. But don’t leave them up to chance. When someone offers to give you a

recommendation, suggest key words, phrases or specific experience for them to

comment on. This is your marketing piece, and you should direct it.

5. Consider Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Populate your profile with key words and

phrases that increase your likelihood of being found when a prospect searches for you.

6. Get connected. The main purpose of LinkedIn is to connect with other business

professionals. Strive for a healthy amount of quality contacts, based on your personal

brand strategy.

7. When you ask for connections, personalize the invitation. No one likes to get the

default invitation – it is impersonal and appears too casual. Instead, refer to the

place/time/location where you met the person, offer insight into how you’ve come to

know them, or mention your goals in wanting to connect with them. This gives you a

better chance of a relationship with your new contact, not just a connection.

8. Don’t accept every invitation to connect.  I recommend clients be discerning when

accepting invitations to connect. When you connect with new contacts, you are in

essence inviting them into your professional network and leveraging the credibility of

your personal brand.

9. Pay attention to the image you use. Strive for an image that is consistent with your

desired personal brand and reputation.

10. Update your profile or status every seven to 10 days. This degree of frequency will give

you a high likelihood of staying top of mind with key prospects and audiences.

VI. Issues and Emerging Trends on Professional Social Media

Privacy concerns have been raised on the risks of providing too much personal information

online. Furthermore, there is a perceived privacy danger in relation to placing too much

personal information in the hands of large corporations or governmental bodies, allowing a

profile to be produced on an individual's behavior on which decisions, detrimental to an

individual, may be taken. In addition, there is an issue over the control of data—information

that was altered or removed by the user may in fact be retained and/or passed to third

parties.

Abril, Levin and Del Riego in 2012 discusses the future of employee privacy in social media

through their paper “Blurred Boundaries: Social Media Privacy and the Twenty-First-

Century Employee”. The paper reviews the extant legal landscape with an emphasis on

three general areas of employer activity related to employees’ online activities: (1)

monitoring and surveillance of employee social media profiles, (2) evaluation of applicants’

social media profiles and online speech in making hiring decisions, and (3) limiting

employees’ off-duty online activities. It also reports the results of an empirical research

project into the expectations of young employees regarding the role of social media in the

workplace. The authors asked respondents about a wide range of topics related to social

media, such as the extent of personal information they post online, the privacy-protective

measures they employ on social media sites, their level of concern regarding their privacy

online, and their attitudes and expectations regarding the use of social media in the

workplace. Despite granting employers access to information about their private lives by

participating online, respondents expect that work life and private life should be generally

segregated — and that actions in one domain should not affect the other. Guided by the

survey findings and legal examples from international jurisdictions, they offer workable

recommendations designed to protect employees’ desire to maintain some separation

between personal and professional contexts.31 They concluded that in light of the ubiquity of

social media, employers and employees need guidance on how to view social media in the

workplace context and how to shape appropriate policies on their use. Recent international

debates and decisions have also provided instruction on privacy expectations in the

workplace.

Barnes, Nancy Dupre, PhD;Barnes, Frederick R, JD in 2009 mentioned about additional

risks that could organizations should explore. These are legal risks and operational risks.

For legal risks, copyright and trademark or logo-related issues might occur, while

proprietary information and confidential data of a personal nature must be monitored by

organizations. On the other hand, each organization must strategically plan and examine its

operational policies and procedures before implementing a social networking site in order

to prevent any financial, operational or legal repercussions in the end.32

31 Sánchez Abril, P., Levin, A. and Del Riego, A. (2012), Blurred Boundaries: Social Media Privacy and the Twenty-First-Century Employee. American Business Law Journal, 49: 63–124. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-1714.2011.01127.x

32 Barnes, N. D., PhD., & Barnes, F. R., J.D. (2009). Equipping your organization for the social networking game. Information Management Journal, 43(6), 28-29,31-33,47. Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com/docview/227726153?accountid=9840

On the other hand, social media advances has led to a much more growing adoption of

social media by companies and marketers on their policies and strategies.

According to Wikipedia, companies have begun to merge business technologies and

solutions, such as cloud computing, with social networking concepts. Instead of connecting

individuals based on social interest, companies are developing interactive communities that

connect individuals based on shared business needs or experiences. Many provide

specialized networking tools and applications that can be accessed via their websites, such

as LinkedIn. Others companies, such as Monster.com, have been steadily developing a

more "socialized" feel to their career center sites to harness some of the power of social

networking sites. These more business related sites have their own nomenclature for the

most part but the most common naming conventions are "Vocational Networking Sites" or

"Vocational Media Networks", with the former more closely tied to individual networking

relationships based on social networking principles.33

In the coming decade, chief information officers (CIOs) will need to develop strategies for

implementing four key technologies: cloud computing, context- based computing, pattern-

based computing, and social computing. Although some might view these technologies

independently, it’s important for CIOs to recognize how they weave together as part of a

social media strategic plan. 34

CIOs will likely need to lead the effort to define their organization’s social media policy,

engaging as many business colleagues as possible to ensure the organization can reach

its goals. Beyond knowing what the company wants to achieve, you’ll need to know what

works for your organization. Different industries use social media in different ways, so

there’s no recipe outlining where to start or how to proceed. Just be sure to tie your social

media strategy to one or more corporate strategic initiatives and to make the strategy

measureable.

Conclusion

Professional social media have truly invaded business and it is becoming part of one’s

professional life. Companies and organizations have realized the advantages that these

social media sites and platforms bring that facilitate a faster, more effective and efficient

interaction and engagement for companies to attain their goals. Truly, these social media

33 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service 34 Prohaska, B. (2011). Social media for the collaborative enterprise. IT Professional Magazine, 13(4), 64-63. doi: 10.1109/MITP.2011.67

networks and platforms help companies in engagement, accurate contact management,

generating leads, recruitment and tapping the right people to join the organization,

collaboration among employees, and reputation management. However, in order to fully

maximize its benefits, companies should allow employees to explore all features and usage

of these professional social media such as LinkedIn. Professional social media have a

different type of engagement compared to personal social media so as users, one should

be conscious of how to deal with networks and other people and contacts online.

Concerns on privacy, legal and operational risks still occur, as with other social media

networks and platforms, which professionals, businesses and companies should take

further precaution so as not to be affected with the legal, financial and reputational

repercussions these would bring in the end.

On the other hand, further studies need to be done in order to fully understand behavioral

patterns exhibited by users of professional social media compared to its public counterparts

as these will be beneficial for marketers to fully understand when they prepare their tactics

and strategies online. As LinkedIn and other social media websites and platforms have just

recently emerged and slowly developed, most of the practices being done today emerged

through trial and error. Studies about professional social media have just started quite

recently and further, much more focused analysis is needed in order for the engagement of

professionals with the said media be understood.

References:

Barnes, N. D., PhD., & Barnes, F. R., J.D. (2009). Equipping your organization for the social networking game. Information Management Journal, 43(6), 28-29,31-33,47. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/227726153?accountid=9840

Blakeman, K. and Brown, S. (2010), Part II: Social media: Essential for research, marketing and branding. Bul. Am. Soc. Info. Sci. Tech., 37: 47–50. doi: 10.1002/bult.2010.1720370121

Breitbarth, W. (2011). Linked in® or lose out. Quality Progress, 44(7), 18-22. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/888057324?accountid=9840

Chatterjee, P. (2011). Drivers of new product recommending and referral behaviour on social network sites. International Journal Of Advertising, 30(1), 77-101.

Christidis, K., Mentzas, G., & Apostolou, D. (2011). Supercharging enterprise 2.0. IT Professional Magazine, 13(4), 29-35. doi: 10.1109/MITP.2011.70

Elefant, C. (2011). The "power" of social media: Legal issues & best practices for utilities engaging social media. Energy Law Journal, 32(1), 1-56. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/869071042?accountid=9840

Fichter, D. (2012). Tools of influence: Strategic use of social media. Online, 36(4), 58-60. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1023798780?accountid=9840

Ford,Caroline O., C.P.A.,PhD., & Lim, J. (2011). Are you linked in? Journal of Accountancy, 211(3), 48-51,12. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/855813024?accountid=9840

Giesen, B. (2009). How digital tools can improve comms efforts. Strategic Communication Management, 13(6), 8-8. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/203581640?accountid=9840

Hamilton, J. (2011). Utilizing social media and networking for accurate contact management: Contrasting the Push/pull methods of data research and maintenance. Competition

Forum, 9(2), 334-338. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/912867883?accountid=9840

Kaplan, Andreas M.; Michael Haenlein (2010) "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media". Business Horizons 53(1): 59–68.

Kiron, D., Palmer, D., Phillips, A. N., & Kruschwitz, N. (2012). Social business: What are companies really doing? MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(4), 1-32. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1023762094?accountid=9840

Kiron, D., Palmer, D., Phillips, A. N., & Kruschwitz, N. (2012). What managers really think about social business. MIT Sloan Management Review, 53(4), 51-60. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1023762000?accountid=9840

Kleinschmidt, J. (2009). Cross-company knowledge sharing. Information Management, 19(8), 56. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/214669795?accountid=9840

Prohaska, B. (2011). Social media for the collaborative enterprise. IT Professional Magazine, 13(4), 64-63. doi: 10.1109/MITP.2011.67

Sánchez Abril, P., Levin, A. and Del Riego, A. (2012), Blurred Boundaries: Social Media Privacy and the Twenty-First-Century Employee. American Business Law Journal, 49: 63–124. doi: 10.1111/j.1744-1714.2011.01127.x

Slutsky, I. (2010). Why LinkedIn is the social network that will never die. Advertising Age, 81(43),

2-23.

Case Studies:

Salesforce

http://marketing.linkedin.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/LinkedIn_SalesforceCom_CaseStudy2012.pdf

Evalueserve

http://www.indiasocial.in/case-study-evalueserve-–-using-linkedin-for-lead-generation-and-brand-building/

StarComm MediaVest

https://www.yammer.com/customers/casestudies/smg/

https://www.yammer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Yammer_Success_SMG.pdf

CH2M Hill

http://linkhumans.com/blog/how-a-company-used-linkedin-and-social-media-to-recruit

Anvil Media

http://www.mcbru.com/review/MCBRU/August10/files/MProfs_LinkedInCSC.pdf

Other Online Resources:

http://www.examiner.com/article/use-social-media-to-professionalize-your-online-presence

http://press.linkedin.com/about

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XING

http://corporate.xing.com/no_cache/english/company/xing-ag/

http://corporate.xing.com/english/investor-relations/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BranchOut

http://business.branchout.com/about-home

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EFactor.com

http://www.efactor.com/about/

http://www.mediabistro.com/aboutus/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediabistro.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yammer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salesforce.com#Chatter

http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/all/how-one-company-uses-salesforcecoms-chatter/?cs=41450

http://marketing.linkedin.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/LinkedIn_SalesforceCom_CaseStudy2012.pdf

http://www.evalueserve.com/site/

http://unleashingyourbrand.com/reputation-management-tips-using-linkedin-for-personal-branding/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service