Well, as a new Linkedin member I cannot account or elaborate upon the evolution of the platform. But how is it a viable B2B platform if they are selling to its own members? It will be the mediator because advertisers pay them to push their products on registered users. It did not take me that long to realize that.
I don't know what their revenue split is, but advertising is only one component. They also sell Premium packages to individuals and businesses. A few years ago, I led a sales and marketing team that used LinkedIn Sales Navigator which is a SaaS tool with monthly subscriptions and gives sales teams special prospect researching tools and other relevant sales functions within the Linkedin environment. It is quite pricey. They also have a specialized SaaS package for recruiters which I imagine is very popular and equally expensive. Linkedin, if nothing else, is a great place for recruiters to find people. I am linked to hundreds and hundreds of them.
It seems like I am getting 1-2 linkedin invitations per day to connect lately from sales reps pushing lead generation services. They are from all over the world and many of the sales pitches that come with or follow the invitation are very low quality. To my mind, it taints the whole pool so that any company "cold calling" on linkedin members will be painted with the same broad brush and considered to be a spammer or low quality marketer. I was discussing with a CEO very recently that I would never engage such a service because of my concerns about damage to the reputation of my company just from being one of those companies that participate in such an activity. Not much difference when I consider a telemarketing or other such lead gen service: first, do no harm with any marketing campaign. That's why if I do any marketing on linkedin, it will be with some form of targeted advertising.
I had a similar experience on linkedin recently. Got an invitation from someone who then sent me a message saying how nice it was to hook up with me and immediately went into his sales pitch. I think it was insurance. I asked if he found that type of approach lucrative in his line of business and then I explained that in my business world going straight into selling mode without the other person requesting the information or without getting to know each other didn't work very well. He came back with a thank you for the info and didn't even bother to answer my question. Haven't heard from him since.
That could be a B2B model right there. Linkedin selling reputation services to companies looking to improve recruitment and sales reach.to registered members. New members are worried more about exposure/networking/referrals at onset. Reputation management ensures later - if you are concerned with image among competition.
That is a good idea for someone looking for a new business opportunity. That is not my situation, of course. I am with an established, B2B company with a solution that I would like to market. I continue to have concerns about linkedin, in this regard, despite its tremendous reach in the business world.
Update: I was in the market for an appointment setting company that would set up qualified appointments for my sales team. Due to some very pertinent business reasons, the vendor had to use U.S. based appointment-setters only. I could not have us confused with the low-cost/low-quality foreign competitors that are bottomfeeders in our market. It came down to two vendors, both of whom use the telephone to close on the appointment. The first vendor incorporates some interesting search analysis tools to target potentially active prospects and then tries to open up an exchange on linkedin with the prospect that then leads to a phone call to qualify and close the appointment. The second one, just uses the traditional old cold calling into companies and trying to get appointments method. Though, they use surprisingly senior salespeople to do it. This second vendor was slightly cheaper but that was not why they won a contract with me. The first vendor lost because their system relied on outreach through linkedin and I have been so turned off by the low-quality sales pitches that am I hit with on a daily basis, that I did not want to risk my company's reputation by being lumped in with these other companies.
Another Update: I have now seen multiple posts the past couple of weeks from (admittedly attractive) businesswomen chiding the men who are hitting on them on linkedin! The women are reminding these guys that linkedin is not a dating site and is supposed to be for business networking only. When I joined linkedin, I believe that I had to be invited by an existing member (it was very early in linkedin's history.) That horse left the barn a long time ago, of course. The question is how does linkedin clean out the "trash" as it tries to grow its "pay for features" user base and maintain its dwindling reputation as "Facebook for Adults?" That's what we used to call it a decade ago. Not so much, any more. The sad part is, that I am starting to lose confidence in the lead generation firm that II had hired a few weeks ago and mentioned in my previous post. My Call Agent is fantastic: smart, well-spoken, enthusiastic, etc. Really impressive, in fact. Unfortunately, the results are not, so far. Not giving up yet, but I am a little concerned.
I continue to watch linkedin and also to be contacted daily by vendors who ask to link and then hit me with a sales pitch. I remain skeptical about the potential of linkedin for this vary reason: it is already full of spammers. That said, I have been watching a sales manager that I have mentored for about 20 years be very actively engaged on linkedin. Daily posts, video's, etc. He has been doing this for over a year and possibly a couple of years. He called me asking for advice on a different topic, yesterday, and I asked him if he was seeing results from his linkedin efforts. He hemmed and hawed and talked about expanding his outreach to Youtube, etc., but I got the strong impression that he had little, if any measurable results, from all of his efforts. Yes, he has grown his connections and followers, especially with others who are similarly very active on linkedin, but that is about all that I can see as a result. Seems to me, that a lot of these posters are engaging with each other and that is about it. I think that most of these folks are engaging heavily on linkedin with the faith that good things will develop. Reminds me of newbies signing up on DP, making their first few posts about their business or putting it in their signatures and believing that sales are going to roll in. BTW, I continue to resist working with any vendor that uses linkedin as part of their marketing formula. I do not want my company to be associated in any way with the low quality people that cold message me (and I sure everyone else, too). Anyone else seeing anything different?
Give those spammers hope. When they contact you keep telling them you're interested. Do it enthusiastically. Waste their time for weeks on end. Then say: Sorry, not interested.
Good suggestion ..... For me i say directly that will see and let you know if need, Thats all. I am also on linkedin since 12+ years and notice this also that in 2020 requests are coming more frequently than past. But i noticed that article or blog writing at linkedin is more beneficial ...... If we are writing any article and submit there then it will give us more benefits than share our website or services page there ...... We can share our written articles also to linkedin group or at our timeline or at Facebook, twitter. I got many positive queries from linkedin members and networks specially when he see our article. I think at profile page these articles show our specialty and so users or viewers try to contact us if need related suggestion or services. I am not saying that sharing website or services page is not good but if we write and share related articles on linkedin then its give us more weight and earn some good impression.
So, it sounds like you are saying that you have seen measurable results from posting articles in the form of queries from linkedin members. Were these members good quality prospects for you? Has any of them moved down your sales pipeline and/or given you business? Anything that you can share regarding the quality of these queries would be appreciated.
I am sharing only my experience .... Like facebook, twitter ... linkedin is also giving option to share what do you think or website or services page or any thing else ..... But there one more option "Write an article on LinkedIn" and generally i submit our article or blog related to our services there. As i get notification from Linkedin about these types of articles from other members ...... i think linkedin send notification to all members (Our Networks or connections) that "Someone share this article" (Not sure but i think linkedin give more priority to these articles or blog we share) because since long time we share our website page services offer etc there ..... but when we start to write and share informative contents then we get more response and search engine appearance also increasing (As linkedin share that you appeared how many times in search engines). Yes we got sales also and we have some regular clients also from there ...... who ping us due to our activities on Linkedin. So, i think if we are sharing contents (Article) also with our regular sharing website or offer or other related activities ... then can get good response for sure because Linkedin is No 1 Social platform due to many professionals who are doing only what he need or searching for in his professional life nothing else.
I just heard that linkedin announced layoffs of about 1,000 employees, yesterday. Apparently the virus shutdown has impacted hiring enough that it is hurting their revenues. I guess that means that their sales of advertising and premium recruiting/sales tools have dropped significantly. If I were them, I would be wondering how linkedin can be monetized in other areas. Their real value, imo, is that most people keep their linkedin profiles up to date so they are much more current than any other commercial database. How do they capitalize on this and diversify their business model from the hiring market?
I totally agreed with you but if you add only new connections which are like companies then you can get leads very fast as well.
LinkedIn is the goldmine of hot leads. It gives many options to connect with the right prospects and engage with potential prospects and businesses to maximize your potential customer connection level. Many businesses are now using LinkedIn automation tools to build their networks and engage with their customers and grow more business opportunities.
Very interesting post. What types of prospects on linkedin have you had such great success with? And what were you selling?
LinkedIn is the best platform for B2B marketing. I have personally generated many leads on this platform using the LinkedIn automation tool to find the best leads.
I have been thinking about doing this. I have been researching the topic before implementing this strategy into my self-marketing and promotion. From what I understand so far, once the article is published it cannot be edited. Obviously, search engines' web crawlers would come across this content naturally on the platform and possibly consider it authoritative as its on the LinkedIn domain.
I also use LinkedIn to compile a useful contact list. It is very convenient and you can always find the right person. Of course, LinkedIn should not be the main source of clients, but as an addition, it is very convenient.