Despite its recent IPO,LinkedIn is often overlooked as a social media platform. Recently, this business network has been introducing new features almost weekly and working feverishly to enhance its utility. And quite frankly, as a B2B networking tool, LinkedIn is excellent. I have personally benefited from participation in this network. That is why make I even make it a point to check in a few times a week. Recently I’ve been wondering how effective this tool is as a B2C vehicle? Can brands within the travel and hospitality category (and other similar categories) use LinkedIn to reach business consumers? After all their customers are already on LinkedIn and these categories can double as both a B2C and a B2B offering.
Since LinkedIn is positioned as a business networking tool, it is important to first review the LinkedIn Terms of Service. It was heartening to see that the LinkedIn TOS didn’t include anything that would prevent the creation of a local group page focused on a brand and design specifically to reach consumers. While this is good news it is not clear how successful having such a group page would be as a consumer marketing channel. Also, it is not entirely clear the kind of outcome that could be expected if a brand were to engage through a LinkedIn group.
So since we are trying to reach consumers, it is important to have features and tools available that can maximize a brands efforts and activity on the social network. After a close observation, it becomes obvious that LinkedIn is not yet there as an effective B2C vehicle. Here are the reasons why:
- Confusion. It is not a go-to destination for information on consumer products and services. Since consumers do not turn to this platform for information on products and services, delivering this message to them can confuse and annoy them.
- Reach. There is no group related information/updates on the main news feed. This makes it hard to expand your network and group participation. One of the main benefits of participating in Facebook is how your business’s activity can be seamlessly incorporated into the users news feed. This is not a feature on LinkedIn.
- Relevance. The vast majority of groups are focused on topics focused on business networking: alumni, career, industry etc. There is not even a category selection for including your business products and service.
- Tools. There are some available for facilitate discussion: Q&A features, group discussions etc. But the ones that have strong membership and are active are focused on career-related topics. Again, this makes is more difficult to grow the group and achieve goals.
This is not to say companies have not created groups focused on their products and services. However, the company group pages I visited were not very active. It was certainly not for lack of effort on their part – as many seemed to post updates regularly. There was no consumer interaction with the brand and hence no opportunity to influence them to a desired outcome. It is clear that a brand is better off spending valuable resources on a different channel.
This doesn’t mean there is no other opportunity in LinkedIn – or that it won’t evolve to include more. For example, they recently adopted a paid search advertising model with full geo-targeting features. For brands geared specifically towards the business community then advertising on the social network should certainly be a consideration.
Are you an active LinkedIn user? In your opinion, what entities – if any – are doing the best job there? Make sure you check ours out at
www.linkedin.com/company/e.b.-lane
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