Linking into…

Presented by Gary Slackto the B-to-B Marketing Committee

of the Association of National AdvertisersAugust 14, 2008

First, what about all of you?

PopQuiz

Q. What percent of you are on LinkedIn?

77%or 30 of 39 people

Q. What’s the average # of connections?

60for the 30 whoare LinkedIn

46for all 39 of you

Q. What’s the connection spread?

Q. # who’ve received recommendations?

9 18recommendationsin all

Q. # who’ve given recommendations?

9 24recommendationsin all

So, what is this thing called LinkedIn?

So, what is this thing called LinkedIn?

It’s burning up the networking space

Monthly Unique Visitors

Apr-08 Apr-07 YOY Growth

Myspace 58,754 57,003 3%

Facebook 22,482 14,403 56%

Classmates Online 14,514 12,913 12%

LinkedIn 8,695 1,886 361%

Windows Live Spaces 7,869 8,349 -6%

AOL Hometown 6,362 8,497 -25%

Reunion.com 6,041 5,020 20%

Club Penguin 3,806 4,073 -7%

Buzznet.com 3,229 1,685 104%

Imeem 2,856 1,491 92%Source: Nielsen

It’s built a huge lead over b2b wannabees

The hockey stick will only get steeper

• Now at 24-25 million registered users– Network efforts are really kicking in

• About 80% U.S. (for now)• More than 700,000 small-business owners• Every FORTUNE 500 company represented

– LinkedIn claims C-level registration at every firm• Adding 200,000-300,000 profiles a week• 30-35 million expected by end of 2008• 70 million possible by end of 2009

– Expansion in Europe, eyeing China• $100 million in annual sales; $1.015 billion valuation

Who isn’t(or won’t soon be)

on LinkedIn?

Network demographics

• Average age: 41• Average HHI: $109,000• College: 95%• Post-grad: 37%• HBS grads’ connections: average of 71• Gender: 64% male• BDMs: 49%• C-Level: 7.8%• Companies <500 employees: 36%• # of LinkedIn pages viewed per session: 57• Time spent per session: 12-24 minutes

Comparative demographics

Ave. Age Ave. HHI Comp. <500 BDMs Read Biz Mags

LinkedIn 41 $109,762 36% 47% 29%

WSJ.com 47 $101,039 30% 38% 44%

Forbes.com 47 $96,665 34% 40% 50%

BW.com 47 $96,414 27% 38% 50%Source: @plan

Primary uses of LinkedIn

AsIndividuals

As B-to-BMarketers

AsBusiness

Marketers

Individuals

• Create a highly detailed profile (branding)• Formalize a network of people you already know• Connect with people you don’t know (but people in your network do)

• Find and connect with people you’d lost track of• Join, upon invitation, other people’s networks• Give/receive recommendations• Ask and respond to questions (hot new area)

• Research people and companies• Look for new career opportunities, clients and projects• Join affinity groups (hot new area)

Business marketers

• Contact discovery/database enhancement• Business development (direct or indirect)• Advertise to very targeted segments• Ask business questions (a la MENG) of your network• Branding and education• Recruitment• Join professional groups• Company Groups (corporate Intranets…coming this fall)

Contact discovery

Contact discovery: the importance of hubs

• “Flip” Filipowski• Adds hundreds of names

weekly…sometimes daily• May have 50,000+

network connections• Probably responsible for

half of my 5,652,000network connections

• Amplifier effect is huge• To do database work,find or create a “Flip”

Business development

Dan Nye, CEOLinkedIn

Path 1: Connecting ThroughAn Introduction (unpaid)

Path 1: Connecting ThroughInMail (paid)

Advertising

197Custom Audience Segments

inCrowds

SeniorityDMA#connectionsGender

AgeCompany sizeIndustryJob function

16M PVs17M PVs7.5M PVs60M PVs35M PVs13M PVs

2M members1.4M members684K members3.3M members2.8M members5M members

EntrepreneursSalesProfessionals

FinanceProfessionals

Small BusinessProfessionals

ITProfessionals

CorporateExecutives

Run of Professional24 Million Professionals

In conclusion

• Fabulous platform, incredible reach and depth– Simplifies “discovery” of previously hard-to-find info– Makes the world that much more transparent– Enough “killer” apps? Not yet

• I’d encourage you to:– Experiment more with it personally and corporately (we are)– Invite in the LinkedIn people (Steve Patrizi and Dale Durrett)

• LinkedIn still has a lot to prove– As an ad medium (will people notice and click?)– As a recruiting medium (still rudimentary next to CareerBuilder)– Can engagement be sustained beyond the novelty stage?

Thanks!