5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn

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Learn how to attract new members, engage current members and measure the results. As an association professional, you understand the necessity to grow and engage your membership base. But do you know how to use LinkedIn to maximize your efforts? Curt Moss, Senior Product Marketing Manager at WebLink International, will share how your organization can utilize LinkedIn to help exceed your membership goals. In this webinar you'll learn how to: - Create a company profile, including some of the newest features you may not know are available. - Attract followers through the right content and by leveraging LinkedIn Groups. - Utilize best practices to achieve more views, comments and shares. - Create an affordable, targeted ad campaign that generates results.

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5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Session Agenda

• Maximize your presence

• Attract followers

• Engage followers

• Measure engagement

• Try LinkedIn ads

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

About Me

• Curt Moss, Senior Product Marketing Manager @ WebLink

• 12 years at member-based orgs – Las Vegas Chamber of

Commerce – Chapter of National Safety

Council • 7 years @ WebLink

– Faculty for W.A.C.E. – Present at association and

chamber conferences

linkedin.com/in/curtmoss

linkedin.com/company/weblink-international

#WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

About WebLink

• SaaS Company (Software as a Service), Leading Software Provider to Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations

• Established in 1996, 60 Employees, based in Indianapolis, IN

• 94% Customer Retention Rate

• Based in Indianapolis, Indiana

• 94% Customer Retention Rate

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

About WebLink

• Membership Management Software

• Website Design & Development

• Non-Dues Revenue Programs

• Partner in Your Success

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

WebLink Websites

• Responsive website design

• Automatically adjusts for any screen

• Fully integrated database & website

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

About WebLink

• iPad app for mobile commerce

• Integrated credit card reader

• New member sales

• Event registrations

• Pay open invoices

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Why bother using LinkedIn?

“Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” - Will Rogers

Fish where the fish are.

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

LinkedIn Stats

• 240 Million Users • 3 Million Company Pages • 1.5 Million Groups • 42% of users update

profile regularly • 81% of users belong to at

least one group • 50% have Bachelor’s or

Master’s degree

Sources: Business 2 Community, LinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

43% of marketers have acquired a customer through LinkedIn.

Source: HubSpot, 2013 State of Inbound Marketing

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

LinkedIn = Better Conversions

LinkedIn generated the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%, almost 3 times higher (277%) than both Twitter (.69%) and Facebook (.77%).

Source: HubSpot Internal Customer Study

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

LinkedIn = Big Deal for Business

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Which best describes your knowledge of LinkedIn?

Little or no knowledge

12%

Limited 41%

Moderate 43%

Extensive 4%

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Do you store your members’ LinkedIn pages and profiles in your membership management software?

Unsure 33%

We don’t have that feature in

our system 51%

We have LinkedIn data stored for a FEW of our members

12%

We have LinkedIn data

stored for MOST of our members

4%

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

How is your staff using LinkedIn?

No one at our organization is using LinkedIn

8%

Staff uses LinkedIn but we don’t use it as

an organization 37%

We have a company page but don’t do

much to engage 40%

We update our company page

often and engage in

discussions 15%

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

How much of an impact has LinkedIn made to your organization?

It’s essential for us and makes a big impact on membership

5%

We use LinkedIn but it hasn’t made a big

impact 46%

LinkedIn has not made any

impact on our organization

49%

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

How Can LinkedIn Benefit Your Organization?

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Extend Your Reach

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Increase Member Engagement

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Grow Your Membership

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Maximize Your Presence

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

1 2

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

• Company Type • Company size • Website URL • Industry (Non-Profit) • Operating Status • Year Founded • Locations

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

• Company Name • Description • Language

• Admins

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Add Products and Services

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Add Products and Services

• Big event

• Benefit programs

• Affinity programs

• Government affairs efforts

• Membership tiers

• Foundation

• Educational programs

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Add Products and Services

• Name • Category • Description • Image • Company contact • URL • YouTube Video • Features/Benefits

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Get Recommendations

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Add Job Listings

1 2

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Connect Your Blog

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Connect Your Blog

• Auto-post or schedule posts via Hootsuite or other service

• Buffer now supports LinkedIn pages

• Or, post manually each time

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Post Updates

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Targeted Content

• Company size • Industry • Job function • Seniority • Geography • Include/Exclude

company employees

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Examples

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

LinkedIn Pages vs. Groups

Pages • Add many more details

about your organization • Images • Product/services • Anyone can see updates

and interact

Groups • Private • Have to join to see what’s

going on • Require moderation • Good for discussion among

group members

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Attract Followers

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Send Invites

• Co-workers – Add current position at

your organization

• Members • Industry thought

leaders • Business associates • Tell them why they’ll

benefit • Reward them?

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Create a campaign strategy

• Create editorial calendar for posts (Plan!) – Date, topic, link, author,

target audience • Add link/icon on your

website to LinkedIn page • Email signature • Reward users for

following you or sharing your posts

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Leverage LinkedIn Groups

• Start conversations • Give members a reason

to share content or comment

• Join related or similar groups

• Post questions & content in these groups as well

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Engage Followers

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Content!

• Use content as question prompts

• Answers to common questions

• Blog posts • Webinars • Events • Discussion questions • Research, case studies,

whitepapers

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Creating Great Content

• Understand your audience

• Connect with them • Give them information

they want & need • Use emotion

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Tell a story

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Creating Great Content

• Informative – Expertise – Tips – Insight

• Different – Personality – Fresh Take – Surprises

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

The Two Yutes

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

What does “My Cousin Vinny” and the Two Yutes have to

do with creating content?

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

The Three “U”s

• Unique

• Useful

• Updated

“Tastes like chicken” isn’t a compliment - Seth Godin

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Great Content

“Don’t interrupt what people are interested in. Be what people are interested in.”

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

This isn’t the content you’re looking for

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

LinkedIn Posting: Best Practices

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Use Images (98% higher comment rate)

Source: LinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Include Links (drives 2x engagement)

Source: LinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Add Videos (75% higher share rate)

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

More Best Practices

• KISS (Keep it Short & Simple)

• Give audience a reason to engage

• Ask questions – Worst/best customer

service – Biggest business

mistake/success – Hiring tips – Networking advice

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

More Best Practices

• 80/20 rule - post 4 audience-focused items for every 1 promoting your organization

• Mix entertaining, inspirational with informative and insightful posts

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

More Best Practices

• Engage your co-workers • Share updates • Add comments

• LinkedIn Company Page,

Groups and your own personal accounts

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Clear Calls To Action

• Sign up for an event • Share an article • Download a case study • Tell their story • Take a survey • Contact their

representative

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Frequency

Companies that post 20 times per month reach at least 60% of their audience (LinkedIn)

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Thank Your Recommenders!

• Send LinkedIn messages • Email • Mention/tag them on

Twitter or Facebook • Thank you notes • Phone calls

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Measure Engagement

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Insight & Analytics

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

View Your Followers

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Website Traffic

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Try LinkedIn Ads

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Have You Tried LinkedIn Ads?

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Bonus Tip – For your members

Add members’ social media links on their listing on your website. Connect them with potential customers.

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Use your AMS to store members’ profile data

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Personal Profile Tips

• Professional Photo! • Concise description • Use keywords • Complete education

and work history, with descriptions

• Make connections! • Ask for

recommendations and endorsements

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

WebLink Recap: An Integrated Solution

• ONE web-based centralized database

• Prospects, members, non-members and all reps in same system

• Financials, events, email, committees, website, reporting

Central DB

Financial System

Website

Email Marketing

Members

Events

Prospects

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Association & Chamber Websites

• 500+ client websites • WebLink Local business

directory drives 67% increase in traffic from organic searches

• Adds value for members • Non-dues revenue • Responsive website

design

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

iPad App for Mobile Commerce

• Sell memberships • Event registrations • Integrated credit card

reader

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

A Question

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Webinar Recap

• We will email copy of presentation to attendees

• Link to video recording of webinar

• Please let us know if you have any questions

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

Webinar Summary

• Great content • Right audience • Right time • Right channel • Ways to respond • Ways to share • Engage your audience • Stand out from the

crowd

5 Steps to Growing Your Membership Through LinkedIn © WebLink International #WebLinkedIn

“Turn strangers into friends. Turn friends into customers. Turn customers into salespeople.” - Seth Godin

WebLink International 3905 Vincennes Road, Suite 210 Indianapolis, IN 46268 P 317-872-3909 | 1-877-231-4970 | F 317-872-3929 weblinkinternational.com | weblinkblog.com

Curt Moss

Senior Product Marketing Manager curt.moss@weblinkinternational.com