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| LinkedIn’s Global Professional Buzzwords campaign drew extensive media coverage in quality outlets: 328 mentions in one week in 2010 (like this Forbes blog post), and 430 in one week in 2011. Image courtesy of LinkedIn |
Company: LinkedIn
Timeframe: Dec. 2010 - Present
There’s nothing like attention-grabbing data to draw in the audience and position a brand as a thought leader within its markets. And it’s an even more powerful message for the brand to generate that data itself.
When you’re the professional social network LinkedIn —which sits on a treasure trove of information on more than 135 million members in 200 countries—that’s a fairly straightforward thing to do. And that’s exactly what LinkedIn did do, through its Global Professional Buzzwords campaign, which debuted in 2010 and continued throughout 2011.
The campaign was originally cooked up a few months in advance of its Dec. 14, 2010, launch by LinkedIn data scientist Monica Rogati and Krista Canfield, senior manager for corporate communications. “We were tossing around some ideas about how the data team and the PR team could work together,” says Canfield.
But any proposed initiative would have to serve an important purpose. “We could ask professionals if they’ve ever dated a co-worker or how long their commute time is,” says Canfield. “And while the answer to all of those questions would be interesting, and certainly newsworthy, they don’t necessarily encourage a member to visit LinkedIn, nor do they help professionals understand what an amazing resource the site is.”
The Buzzwords campaign, however, would fit that bill nicely. Three objectives for the campaign were set:
• Generate widespread global media attention—particularly in consumer publications—around LinkedIn and the importance of the public’s online professional identity.
• Encourage members to update their LinkedIn profiles.
• Persuade the media to think of LinkedIn as a trusted resource for uncovering trends and data about professionals.
TRUSTED ADVISER
Helping professionals learn new ways to make a first impression online pack a punch—whether it be with an employer, a business partner or a new client—was a key goal of the Buzzwords campaign, says Canfield. And to enable its members to make that great first impression online, LinkedIn would offer up the most overused words that its members use in their profiles—often the first thing read by a visitor to a member’s page. In other words, professionals would benefit from what not to do with their profiles.
Such a data-driven effort would require several LinkedIn departments working closely together with PR, says Canfield. They include:
â–¶ The Data Scientists: “They are on the front lines digging through the data and looking for patterns,” says Canfield.
â–¶ The Marketing Team: Communications is aligned closely with marketing in order to dovetail on campaign content. “The tips and tricks on making your profile stand out, for instance, can easily be reworked into an e-mail marketing campaign to LinkedIn members across the globe,” says Canfield.
â–¶ The Design Team: Created the infographics (see World Map sample) that bring the company’s stories to life in press releases and blog posts.
â–¶ The PR Team: Tasked with getting the word out about the findings, Canfield stresses that her team spent a great deal of time ensuring that the Buzzwords campaign was aligned with corporate objectives, and that messaging is on point. “It was important for us to draft up useful tips and tricks that we can serve not only to the media, but to our members as well,” she says.
PULLING THE DATA
Looking to go global, LinkedIn data scientists segmented the data by the company’s priority media markets at the time (Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.). Doing the data pull on buzzwords was time consuming, with the initial effort yielding plenty of results like “the” or “and.” “It’s those clichéd words and phrases that were a challenge to find,” says Manu Sharma, principal research scientist at LinkedIn.
PERFECT PITCH
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| As part of LinkedIn’s Global Professional Buzzwords consumer campaign which began in 2010, the company’s design team mapped overused LinkedIn profile buzzwords globally. “Extensive experience” seems to be the hallmark of American professionals, while “Innovate” dominates Europe. Source: LinkedIn |
Launching the original Buzzword effort on December 14, 2010, was no random act. Since most of the workforce has the holidays off, it was an good time of the year to encourage professionals to invest in themselves.
And since the recession was dominating the news cycles in 2010, LinkedIn deduced that media outlets would be interested in stories that were based on fresh data that their readers could act on to better their career opportunities in 2011. Tactics around the launch included:
• Truly Going Global: The data was segmented by the company’s priority media markets at the time. Canfield says LinkedIn augmented the seven core U.S. Buzzwords team members with communicators at LinkedIn offices around the globe, including Deepa Sapatnekar, head of PR in India; Tara Commerford, PR and marketing manager for Australia and New Zealand; and Richard George, European PR manager.
• Top 10 Pitches—and Tips: Top 10 Buzzwords lists were generated for each country, but rather than just provide the media with a list, pitches and press releases included tips that would help readers craft LinkedIn Profiles that would make them stand out from the crowd. Outreach in each country concentrated on major news outlets and online and print consumer-based publications.
• Expert Commentary: To round out the story, LinkedIn recruited a career and workplace expert, Lindsey Pollak, who was quoted in the U.S. release and participated in media interviews. Some countries found a local spokesperson/career coach for the quote in their versions of the release.
The 2010 campaign yielded the following results:
• 328 articles and mentions appeared across in LinkedIn’s primary global markets, including hits on Good Morning America (ABC News-TV); The Wall Street Journal; CNBC; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Epoca Magazine (Brazil); Globe and Mail (Canada); Times of India; and the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
• The tone of the media coverage was overwhelmingly positive, often positioning LinkedIn as a unique career resource that can uncover informative data and trends about professionals.
• 2,103 tweets were posted (with the keywords “LinkedIn” and “buzzwords”) within 10 days of the launch.
NEW APPROACHES
Heading into 2011, the LinkedIn team pulled the trigger on other consumer campaigns featuring compelling data, including Top CEO Names (tip: name your next child “Peter” or “Deborah”); Battle of the Sexes (revealing that men are more savvy at networking than women); and in December, the second Buzzwords campaign.
Leveraging the opening of more LinkedIn offices around the globe, the number of markets was expanded to 14. And the research methodology was altered from 2010, says Simla Ceyhan, data scientist at LinkedIn. “We included non-English profiles in the analysis after translating them,” says Ceyhan. “And, we aggregated the adjectives in the ‘summary’ section of our member’s public profiles and removed some overused nouns—like ‘mobile’— and other irrelevant words.”
Given the breadth of coverage achieved in both campaigns, the media relations piece can be branded as a great success. LinkedIn wouldn’t reveal site activity around the efforts, which would address the objective of getting members to alter their profiles. However, Canfield says a third Buzzwords campaign is in the works for the end of 2012, suggesting that perhaps those numbers were indeed promising. PRN
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CONTACT:
Krista Canfield, [email protected]; Manu Sharma, [email protected]; Simla Ceyhan, [email protected], Brian Regan, [email protected].