Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr are all doing it, so LinkedIn was bound to follow suit. The professional networking site recently announced the introduction of Sponsored Updates with a few sample posts from Mercedes-Benz USA and Adobe.
Introducing the new feature on the official LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog, Linkedin Vice President of Product Management David Hahn explained:
With more than 3 million Company Pages on LinkedIn, companies, organizations and institutions have emerged as highly valued sources of relevant content on LinkedIn. Sponsored Updates enable these entities to build relationships by delivering their content into the homepage feed of members beyond those who are following their company.
How It Works
The new Sponsored Updates on LinkedIn are similar to those offered by other social media networks like Facebook and Twitter. You can target your updates to reach any segment of LinkedIn’s premium audience including an estimated 225 million members.
To learn more, simply visit the new Sponsored Update page, push “get started,” indicate the country where your business is located and a rough marketing budget. Then hit the “contact us” button, fill out some more basic information about your needs and a customer representative will be in touch.
For now, Hahn says sponsored posts are available to businesses only through an account representative. However, he says sponsored posts will be available to any business with a LinkedIn Company Page by the end of the month.
Customers will also be able to choose between cost per click and cost per view options for their sponsored updates. They can then use comprehensive analytics provided by LinkedIn to follow and tweak their results, Hahn said.
Ah well, it really was only a matter of time. LinkedIn needs to make its money. With that amount of users, it was money being left on the table. It’d be interesting to see what LinkedIn plans to charge compared to FB and Twitter charges.
Aira Bongco
It’s about time. LinkedIn has definitely increased in membership compared to the old days. The only difference is that its members are in it for professional reasons. This is a good way for the website to make an extra income while still serving its members.
Aira: I just hope that over time, LinkedIn doesn’t go the way I feel Facebook has or is going. Of course Facebook needs to make its money, no doubt – but sometimes I swear I can smell its greed from my computer. 🙂
It is about time LinkedIn leverage on its network of professionals to earn some revenue. It is a good source to find some people with special skills that you may require for your online ventures.
I’m happy that LinkedIn is finally going with sponsored ads because it’s such a great resource. I honestly hope that they make as much money as they can so that one day LinkedIn will challenge Facebook and Twitter as the premier C2C social media platform.