Since its creation in 2003, LinkedIn has essentially become the Facebook of the professional world. With more than 430 million users, 40% of whom checked LinkedIn daily, the social networking site is now the premier place for professionals and entrepreneurs.
LinkedIn Public Profile
In addition to helping people promote themselves professionally, LinkedIn has also become one of the most popular ways people search for others. In many cases, LinkedIn is the first – or one of the first – links that come up when someone Googles their name. As more and more people are visible on LinkedIn, it has prompted a discussion about how best to control a person’s digital footprint, or online reputation.
With LinkedIn becoming so popular in searches, the professional social networking site has recently introduced the public profile option for members. Essentially, it serves as your first impression when someone unconnected from you views your profile. Members can control how much detail is shown while still making it easy for people to find you on the network. This is big news for entrepreneurs, sales professionals, consultants and others who rely on self-marketing and online visibility to drive their sales or grow their company.
You can read more about this option and the impact it can have for professionals of almost any stripe over at JOSIC.
Leveraging the Matched Audiences option
While LinkedIn is making it easier for people to find you, they’re also working on ways to make your own marketing more effective. Their Matched Audiences option helps deliver your profile – and your message – to a select demographic of your choosing.
Simply put, the new marketing tool makes it easy for you to target people based on a wider variety of variables which results in a more niche return.
For example, you can now search and target specific leaders and decision makers within a given industry and then refine those results based on their company size, how much seniority they have or even who has visited your website in the past few months or even the past week.
To learn more about the Matched Audience options, check out the feature on AdWeek.
