1. Marketing SolutionsHewlett-PackardCase StudyCreating 2,000+ brandadvocates in two weeks withLinkedIn Recommendation Ads Challenge Engagecommercial clients on LinkedIn Encouragebusiness professionals to recommend HP products and services to their peers Quickly build a critical mass of recommendationsHewlett Packards social media team is responsible foraccelerating the expansion of HPs social capabilities Solutionglobally to: EstablishLinkedIn Company Page to engage Createadvocacy for the HP brand, products, and servicesprofessionals in a business context Generate strong engagement, sentiment, and conversation Activate LinkedIn recommendation capability, invitingaround HP products and servicesvisitors to endorse HP products and services Support HP customers quickly and easily Use LinkedIn Recommendation Ads to accelerate results Drive leads, revenue, conversion, and cost savingsLarry Nelson, director of digital strategy at HP, says, WeWhy LinkedIn?were looking for new ways to use social media to engage #1resource for career-minded professionalsour commercial clients when LinkedIn approached us with Precisetargeting by seniority, industry, job function,an opportunity called Company Pages, which provides anand geographyHP-branded environment within the LinkedIn community.Its essential for our content to be available anywhere, anytime, in communities where our customers and prospects Resultscongregate. 2,000 product recommendations in two weeks 20,000 new followers on HP Company PageCompany Page targets business professionals 500,000 viral updates about HP products and servicesHP launched its Company Page in November, 2010, alongwith LinkedIns new recommendation capability, whichenables members to post recommendations of HP productsand services. Each recommendation is automaticallycommunicated to the recommenders LinkedIn network, andalso appears on the HP Company Page as a resource forthose interested in community feedback on HP productsand services.

2. Recommendation Ads accelerate results300025002000 Start of1500Recommendation AdsHP Company page on LinkedIn + example of a Recommendation1000sent as a network update www.linkedin.com/company/hewlett-packard 500Kari Homan, HPs worldwide social media manager, explains,The power of LinkedIn is its ability to connect customers in 0a professional business context, using recommendations of Week 0 Week 2Week 4Week 6trusted peers. From the first discussions we saw the valueof LinkedIns recommendation engine and how this could Natural growth With Recommendation Adsdrive customer advocacy in the enterprise and smallbusiness markets.LinkedIn member-generated recommendations of HP productsand services increased dramatically with the launch theWe were pleasantly surprised with how quickly the HP recommendation ad campaign in December, 2010Company Page came together. The number of recommenda-tions was growing organically, at a slow and steady pace.Our next question was whether we could run a paid campaignRapid resultsto build a critical mass of recommendations more quickly.Kari explains, We launched the campaign in December and injust two weeks, over 2,000 LinkedIn professionals had taken theRecommendation Ads augment HP fanbase time to recommend HP products and services. TheseKari continues, We had a lot of discussion on whether a demand recommendations in turn generated over 500,000 viral updates.generation campaign could be used to accelerate ratings and Traffic to our products and services pages more than doubled.reviews. The key issue was whether we could advertise the initial By the end of the month, we had 2,900 new recommendationsrecommendations wed received and request more of them from business professionals and 20,000 new followers on thewhen there were not yet a lot of endorsements for certain HP Company Page.products due to the recommendation function being so new.Kari says, We were fairly confident that recommendation-basedads would drive high click-through rates, but the number ofLinkedIn members that then went on to identify themselves as HPcustomers and personally recommend our products and servicesexceeded our expectations.Larry states, This entire process changed our perception ofLinkedIn. We knew they provided a valuable platform and growingmembership base, and many of us use LinkedIn on a personallevel. But now theyre innovating in ways that create rich newopportunities for brands. There are not a lot of other vehicles toreach a business audience on the scale that we can with LinkedIn.Sample HP Recommendation AdsAfter careful consideration, HP went ahead with a campaignusing Recommendation Ads (shown above) featuring actualLinkedIn members who had endorsed HP products. The adsReach the worlds largest audience of business professionalsencouraged LinkedIn members to visit the HP Company Pagewith LinkedIn.on LinkedIn, recommend HP products and services, and shareLinkedIn Marketing Solutionsthose recommendations with their network.http://marketing.linkedin.com/contactCopyright 2011 LinkedIn Corporation. LinkedIn, the LinkedIn logo, and InMail are registered trademarks of LinkedIn Corporation inthe United States and/or other countries. All other brands and names are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.10-LCS-025-G 0311