Using LinkedIn sponsored updates.

AuthorMcLaurin, Julie
PositionSOCIAL MEDIA

MAKE ROOM FACE BOOK AND TWITTER--there's a new form of social advertising in town. Introducing: LinkedIn Sponsored Updates. You have probably seen ads in your newsfeed from companies you don't even follow. If you have, it's because you have been targeted.

LinkedIn is a social networking site for people in professional occupations, with more than 225 million users and almost 3 million company pages. It was created with the needs of businesses and professionals in mind and can be used to build your professional identity, to network and to generate leads.

The Sponsored Update feature for company pages was rolled out last year. Posting updates on your company page allows you to get information out to your followers, but the reach is limited to a percentage of your followers and depends on the amount of interaction a post receives. With Sponsored Updates, you can expand that reach to followers and beyond.

Sponsored Updates can be seen on desktops, smartphones and tablets, and are clearly marked "sponsored." It is an advertising solution that allows any post on a LinkedIn company page to be promoted to a targeted audience directly in their feeds. Targeting allows you to be very specific, with options to target by location, company, job title, age and more. Companies can create an audience tailored to the product or service being promoted--for example, individuals in a specific profession or those who have positions of authority, such as everyone management level and above.

LinkedIn more effective for lead generation

Sponsored Updates also have the social component that is key to advertising on social media, as members can "like," "comment" and "share" sponsored updates with their network, as well as "follow" the company right from the post.

If you are thinking that this sounds similar to a Facebook Promoted Post or a Promoted Tweet, you're right. The difference is the audience. According to HubSpot research, Linked In is 277 percent more effective for lead generation than Facebook and Twitter. They also reported that Sponsored Updates on LinkedIn increased engagement by 50 percent and generated thousands more impressions than an organic post. This has held true for a number of...

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