MSLGROUP recently announced a whitepaper ‘LinkedIn, a New Territory for Communications‘, unveiling the opportunities LinkedIn offers communications directors and B2B professionals. As part of the whitepaper, we interviewed Laurence Bret, Marketing Director, LinkedIn Europe. (Follow her on Twitter: @lbret)

Here she talks about the evolution of LinkedIn, its content focus with LinkedIn Today, how companies are using the platform for communications campaigns, and why you should have a content management strategy for your brand on LinkedIn:

LinkedIn has significantly evolved over the last year and added apps such as the newsfeed and LinkedIn Today. Can you share with us the reason behind this increased focus on content?

Among other reasons, LinkedIn members log on to the network to access information about the sector they work in. Information plays a key role in the decision making process, and we need to offer quicker access to it. That is why LinkedIn offers information applications such as LinkedIn Today, discussion groups, company spaces and members’ status updates.
There are more than a million groups on LinkedIn today. 81% of our members subscribe to group discussions and 50% are active participants. In addition, 47% of our members use LinkedIn to find and understand the latest trends in their industry.

Tell us more about the editorial feature ‘LinkedIn Today’.

LinkedIn Today is a fairly revolutionary tool in terms of content curation: it automatically selects and distributes to each user the information that is most relevant for him or her.
Articles are selected based on popularity amongst members on LinkedIn and what fellow industry members are reading. This allows our users to stay up to date with the current trends and receive a continuous flow of information about those trends. LinkedIn Today is a popular feature that builds visitors’ engagement.

Do companies use LinkedIn more as a source of information rather than a communications tool?

LinkedIn’s activity for recruiters is based on two pillars: sourcing and employer branding. The latter evolves around communication campaigns. In terms of sourcing, our flagship product is the Recruiter, which provides unlimited access to the entire network as well as the ability to post job announcements. We have also recently launched another product called the LinkedIn Talent Pipeline that allows recruiters to integrate external sources into this working environment such as a candidate’s or an employee’s CV.

In addition, in the area of employer branding, we offer the Careers space, which allow businesses to promote themselves and disseminate job offers. And we fully contextualize this space based on recruitment needs and the company’s targets.

In addition to these products for recruiters, we offer the opportunity for advertisers to communicate through our marketing solutions. This offer includes both “classic” products such as text ads and posters as well as social networking opportunities offered exclusively through LinkedIn.

What benefits might one expect as a result of developing a content management strategy for a Company and Group space on LinkedIn?

Creating a Company space helps increase visibility on the network. This space can then include paid marketing services. The company space helps in marketing the brand, both business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C). You can also use our advertising solutions to reach a very specialized audience, by targeting your campaign based on member profiles.

Companies can publish articles and status updates on their space and allow members to follow their content. Since LinkedIn is a professional network, following a company on it brings more opportunities to engage in a professional fashion, than on other social networks. This allows companies to create more involved communities around their brands and services.

In order to learn more about the opportunities LinkedIn provides for corporate communications and B2B professionals, download the full version of the whitepaper: