MERCADO OBJETIVO

LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking service. Founded in December 2002 and launched on

May 5, 2003 it is mainly used for professional networking. In 2006, LinkedIn increased to 20 million members. As of June 2013, LinkedIn reports more than 259 million acquired users in more than 200 countries and territories.

LinkedIn allows companies to create professional profiles for themselves as well as their business to network and meet others. Through the use of widgets, members can promote their various social networking activities, such as Twitter stream or blog entries of their product pages, onto their LinkedIn profile page. LinkedIn provides its members the opportunity to generate sales leads and business partners. Members can use “Company Pages” similar to Facebook pages to create an area that will allow business owners to promote their products or services and be able to interact with their customers. Due to spread of spam mail sent to job seeker, leading companies prefer to use LinkedIn for employee's recruitment instead using different job portals. Additionally, companies have voiced a preference for the amount of information that can be gleaned from LinkedIn profile, versus a limited email.

Pros and Cons of social media marketing on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of today’s biggest social networks but it’s not exactly what you might call “strictly social.” LinkedIn provides a great deal of exposure to businesses and can help find new partners, business opportunities, or employees. Some might even call LinkedIn a social network for business as it’s used mainly for “professional networking.” As a social platform LinkedIn incorporates many social aspects, but its main focus is the business world. As a result, many small business owners join LinkedIn with the hopes of expanding their ventures and creating new connections that might prove beneficial. But like most things, LinkedIn has its pros and cons.

Pros

• The first, most obvious benefit from using LinkedIn comes from the algorithmic realm of SEO (search engine optimization). It’s yet another avenue that search engines use to bring businesses in search query results. It’s the perfect tool to give a business more exposure while also allowing it to expose the most crucial parts of its business – the mission, the background, the members of the team, etc. Increased SEO exposure leads to increased web traffic which, in turn, leads to an increased conversion rate.

• LinkedIn is also a great way to stay up-to-date with the news from your industry or field of interest. This is a major benefit it keeps you in the current loop, indicates upcoming trends or big ideas, and provides a ripe stomping ground for sharing experiences and advice among experts surrounding topics that are important to the business. These easily accessible resources are invaluable to a company, particularly smaller ones, due to its low cost and high beneficial value.

• LinkedIn is also a great asset because of the amount of information it gives about a particular company or business. Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn will tell you all the major data you need to know about a company as well as give you the professional profiles of the individuals associated with the business – from employees to investors. Access to this type of specific data and information allows users to easily find potential partners or recruit new employees, saving you a lot of time, energy, and resources.

• LinkedIn Answer also gives users the chance to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in their respective field to establish themselves as credible experts with vast knowledge and expertise. In turn, this is beneficial for LinkedIn users as it positions them as experts and boosts the company’s credibility.

Cons:

• When looking at LinkedIn, it’s also important to be aware of and acknowledge its cons. One of the major negatives is the way users use LinkedIn as an advertising megaphone via SPAM so brace yourself for the slew of SPAM coming your way.

• Once established, LinkedIn is a major timesaver. But in the beginning, it requires a lot of personal time and work version of LinkedIn, but that might not be an option for smaller companies with a limited budget. to get your connections flowing and conversations started. Users need to constantly ask others to be introduced to companies and individuals they are interested in connecting with, which can be cumbersome at times. Always keep in mind that LinkedIn is a platform for connections and conversations so approach these tasks with the outcome of building a business relationship in mind. This task can be sidestepped with the paid

• Overall, LinkedIn is a solid platform for businesses and individuals. If you are just getting started, keep these pros and cons in mind. If you do, your relationship and experience with LinkedIn will prove beneficial.

• In our internship, we used LinkedIn to grow the professional network of Institute of Digital Marketing. This institute not only provides knowledge but also do business with its skill sets. LinkedIn helps in building great professional network and in getting new businesses. Apart from the workshops and course classes, Institute of Digital Marketing has some set of people who develops e-commerce websites and optimizes them. Hence, in order to get business we have used LinkedIn as a major platform.

• In LinkedIn groups, there will be discussions going on every time. So, we have created a LinkedIn group and started discussions on various topics on digital marketing. In the beginning the results were very slow since LinkedIn is strictly a professional network and the targeted

people might not

Show much interest here. As it goes on, our discussion has got a wide popularity with students from different colleges asking questions and actively participating in the discussion.

With this growing popularity on LinkedIn, slowly business started coming in. in the beginning only small projects used to come like landing page creation, content creation, blog postings etc. There were two big projects came during my internship tenure from Dharani Computers and The Suntech Corporation for developing and managing the website and do search engine optimization for them.

3.5 Pinterest:

It is a visual discovery social network. It is a way of sharing images of anything, from fashion to pets to pot plants. You can create your own online pinboards to suits any theme and share it with likeminded people. Pinterest completely revolves around the premise of being creative and visual. 70% users are female and aged between 25 and 44. So if you are targeting women pinterest is the right platform. Pinterest is now one of the top 10 social networking sites tracked by Hit wise.

How brands can use pinterest

Pinterest does not encourage product pushing, this means brands must look at crating boards that are

culture and lifestyle related. You can create boards on trends, behind the scenes, preliminary sketches for

3.6 Instagram:

Instgram, the new revolutionary photo-sharing program, making it easier than ever to share your best pictures with the world. The social media program allow you to upload, add digital filters, and then post your pictures on your Instagram-feed, as well as other social networking sites. You can connect your Instgram account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare and your email account. This makes it easy to share your pictures on multiple platforms all at once.

When it comes to brands and businesses, Instagram goal is to help companies to reach their respective audiences through captivating imagery in a rich, visual environment. Moreover, Instagram provides a platform where user and company can communicate publicly and directly, making itself an ideal platform for companies to connect with their current and potential customers.

3.7 Google +:

Google has described Google+ as a "social layer" that enhances many of its online properties, and that it is not simply a social networking website, but also an authorship tool that associates web-content directly with its owner/author. It is the second-largest social networking site in the world after Facebook. 540 million monthly active users are part of the Identity service site, by interacting socially with Google+'s enhanced properties, like Gmail, +1 button, and YouTube comments. In October 2013, Google counted 540 million active users who used at least one Google+ service, of which 300 million users are active in "the stream".

Pros:

With most marketers comfortable with using Facebook for their primary social media marketing tactics they quite often don’t see the other opportunities. Here are some compelling reasons to register and start using a Google+ page to complement your Facebook page, your social media and digital marketing activities.

Google+ hangouts

Google+ hangouts have been an important part of the Google+ platform since day one. They allow you to create online meetings that are limited to 10 active users but it allows you to stream YouTube video to an unlimited number of viewers. Hangouts provide a way to engage with small groups of customers that you may want to share important information and/or educate.

No update filtering

Google doesn’t need to make money from Google+ as its major revenue (over $30 billion) is from its Google ad words and search advertising. It doesn’t need to force you to pay to be visible on Google+. Facebook has increasingly applied its Edge rank technology that filters the updates that are seen by people that have liked your brand’s “Facebook page”. Some research shows it at less than 15% and shrinking. This is so they can force you to spend to advertise on Facebook to get attention. It has become “pay to play” Google plus does not filter (censor) your updates to followers that are following your page.

No ads

and no one wanting to sell you weight loss or dating services.

Social signals

Google wanted to enhance its search engine capabilities by having humans vote on what content they liked. (That is the Google+ button). This is now built into Google’s search algorithms to ensure that Google remains relevant on the web. This makes certain that your content is receiving votes (social signals) when you are participating on Google+.

By participating on Google plus you are increasing the visibility of your brand. Ever searched for a brand or business and noticed what comes to the top of the rankings? It is all the major social networks that appear on the first page. Also what should be considered is the importance of securing your brand name on Google+, which is an important part of building your online digital assets.

It is the second largest social network

Google plus is no longer something to be ignored with over 600 million registered users and over 350 million active monthly users. Many of your customers are now on Google+. That on its own should be enough to make you motivated to participate. You do need to establish a marketing beachhead on this significant platform.

Local marketing

Google has removed “Google Places” and now has created a “Google+ Places Page”. This means that customers who are on Google+ can leave reviews for your business there. This turns up on local search results. Now that is something you shouldn’t ignore if local location marketing is vital for your retail store or business.

Integration with other Google properties

Google built Google+ from day one to be integrated into its other web properties. They consider it as being “core” to its entire online strategy so it is woven into Gmail, the Chrome browser, Picasa and YouTube. This integration will lead to more effective marketing over time.

Cons:

Google Plus still has Relatively Low Reach

Google Plus still serves a much smaller market than Twitter and Facebook, and it is not surprising that many customers cannot be reached through Google Plus. As such, many potential customers will not see or be interested in your company’s Google Plus content on your business page because they don’t want to use Google Plus.

Google’s Poor Social Media Track Record

This is a legitimate risk factor. Many of Google’s past forays into social media like Buzz and Wave not only failed, but failed with scandals and controversy. There is a fair amount of scepticism whether or not Google Plus is just another house of cards waiting to collapse, even after several years of operation.