LinkedIn may not be the largest social media network out there, but for businesses, it has some of the best marketing tools to ensure customer acquisition, sales and revenue boost. It may have started out as a network showcasing professionals and their resumes, but over the years, it has become a marketer’s best friend.

A study carried out by BtoB Magazine and the Association of National Advertisers demonstrated that 81% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn. And they have good reason to do so. With more than 460 million members across the globe, including executives from all Fortune 500 companies, LinkedIn has become the go-to tool to brand yourself as a thought leader, generate participants for company events, conduct market research and forge new business contacts.

ESTABLISH AUTHORITY

A messaging system is a must-have form of communication for any social media platform, but in the context of LinkedIn, it becomes a marketing power tool. You can easily establish authority using InMail—something that is especially important when it comes to building trust in client-company relationships. Without trust, there are no sales. When people reach out to you through InMail with questions, you can share your insights and advice, while simultaneously establishing yourself as an industry expert.

Planning an event? InMail can also be used to spread the word on that too. Alternatively, a status update or joining and posting on LinkedIn Groups are two other ways of keeping your connections informed of upcoming events that you and your contacts are planning to attend. It’s a great way to spread awareness so that other interested parties can also reach out. More attendees mean more prospects who are actually interested in your services.

Content in the form of a blog post is also critical for spreading the word about your expertise and products. The Blog Link or WordPress application syncs web pages with LinkedIn profiles so that recently published posts are automatically shared on LinkedIn as well. Not only will increase brand awareness and offer valuable information to readers, it will also increase traffic to your web page.

ACQUIRE NEW BUSINESS

The traditional way to acquire new customers is through advertising, a feature that is available on LinkedIn through on-site ads, sponsorships, and eblasts. The best part is that advertising can be customized to target a specific demographic. If your product is a must-need for everyone, you can direct your ads at the entire LinkedIn network.

A simple upgrade allows marketers to communicate with anyone on the LinkedIn network using InMail. This means a target audience can be identified and the leads most likely to convert can be contacted directly. That gets you one step closer to achieving your customer acquisition goals.

A report published by Marketing Profs in 2010 shared the success stories of businesses that used LinkedIn to achieve sales. “Twitter is real time, and you’re a blip on the screen,” Patti D. Hill, CEO and founder of Penman Public Relations told Marketing Profs. “LinkedIn waits for us. Like email, it’s there when you want it.”
Armed with all these features and tools, there is no doubt that LinkedIn makes the life of a marketer a little bit easier when it comes to spreading the word, making connections and achieving sales.

United Airlines is in the midst of a public relations disaster.

On Sunday, David Dao, a doctor was forcibly removed from a United plane scheduled to depart from Chicago O’Hare Airport to Louisville, Kentucky and was dragged down the aisle and off the aircraft by his arms. There are multiple videos of the incident that show the man bloodied and disorientated after being taken off the aircraft multiple times; the final time, he fell over between seats and had to be carried off on a stretcher. The man is now in a Chicago-area hospital and plans to file two lawsuits against United Airlines.

The incident started when a United employee boarded the aircraft and announced that four passengers would need to give up their seats to make room for United staff who needed to be in Louisville. The passengers were offered an incentive to disembark; they were first offered $400, then $800. The airline later said that it offered up to $1,000 in compensation. Three complied, while a fourth protested because he claimed to be a doctor and needed to be in Louisville that night because he needed to see patients the following day.

Public Backlash
The backlash against United Airlines on social media was swift and resulted in the airline losing almost a billion in market value the following day.

What escalated the backlash was the perceived frigidness of United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz. The CEO had released three statements in two days, in the first, Munoz says “I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers.” This attempt to tone done the incident by using the word “re-accommodate” came off as corporate jargon and insincere. Ironically, Munoz was the recipient of PRWeek’s Communicator of the Year Award last month.

The second statement Munoz made was meant to quell the uproar from his first, in which he starts off by saying “The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight has elicited many responses from all of us: outrage, anger, disappointment. I share all of those sentiments, and one above all: my deepest apologies for what happened.”

Chris Ann Goddard, president of CPPR public relations, says United Airlines should have immediately shifted into crisis mode instead of being forced to backtrack.

“Three apologies in two days? Really?” Goddard told USA Today. “Put the heartfelt apology out there, issue a thoughtful statement, admit a company’s wrongdoing, be consistent on social media. … And, oh, by the way, don’t blame anyone else, especially the victim.”

The public backlash stems from the lack of empathy shown by Munoz. His initial statement came off as defensive and callous when the right approach would have been to acknowledge all wrongdoing on the company’s part along with a sincere apology to the individual.

Show Empathy
Even if Munoz actually believed the protocol in “re-accommodating” passengers to make room for United Airlines was sound, the outrage on social media should have been taken into account. Customer service is vital to those in the airline industry because they are reliant on loyalty in a saturated market. By not apologizing directly to the customer and not being clear on their policy of removing passengers, it has eroded trust in their brand.
Ultimately, customers who fly with United will be leery of their staff because it has skewed the assumption that once you are in your seat, it’s yours.

Too Little, Too Late
Munoz did not send out his first statement until the following day, which by that time, was already a full-blown public relations crisis. The company was already trending and being ridiculed on social media with the hashtag #NewUnitedAirlinesMottos. The incident also attracted huge attention in China because the passenger is of Chinese origin, which is one of United’s key growth markets.

An airline like United that has been in operation since 1931 should have approached their policy of removal with more incentives and have a clear crisis management plan in place in the event of a fallout. For example, the airline should not have stopped at providing an incentive of $800, they should have kept increasing that amount paired with add-ons like points or hotel accommodation. This would have been much cheaper than having to lose millions in future revenue.

Social media is vital to your company’s online reputation management and a crucial component of consumer outreach. Don’t take your company’s online presence lightly; OnPath has the tools and expertise to create a comprehensive online reputation management plan that ensures you’re prepared for any crisis. Give us a call today at 1.855.420.3244 or browse our full-scale B2B lead generation services here.

The public relations departments at Pepsi and United Airlines are having a rough start to 2017. The media coverage they have received for Pepsi’s “protester” campaign gone array and a security guard dragging off a seated passenger off a United flight has caused the public perception of their brands to plummet.
These prove the way the public views your brand, especially in the age of social media, is absolutely crucial. One wrong move and your brand will be lambasted in the newsfeeds of tens of millions, but it can also go the other way. A successful viral campaign called the “Ice Bucket Challenge” in 2014 drew tons of funding for research and is proof that social media can also do some good. Regardless of the campaign you launch, your customer service department and call center team must know all the details about the campaign and be prepared for both a negative or positive reception. Despite the risks of public backlash, companies know that it takes a calculated risk to rapidly build awareness, so in honor of good PR, here are 5 marketing stunts that hit it right on the money.

1. RED BULL’S STRATOS SPACE JUMP

On October 14, 2012, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped from a height of 39 km (24 miles), well into the atmosphere over New Mexico. He rode a helium balloon up and deployed his parachute after 4 minutes and 19 seconds – it made Baumgartner the first person to break the sound barrier without the use of an engine. Although the Red Bull Stratos stunt was the complete opposite of their motto “It gives you wings,” it was a resounding success with 8 million live views on YouTube.

2. DOVE’S “REAL BEAUTY” CAMPAIGN

Dove’s parent company Unilever launched this campaign in 2004 to promote female body positivity through commercials, advertisements, workshops and published a book, among other avenues. The campaign revolved around using “real” women of all shapes and sizes in their advertisements rather than stick-thin models. The campaign was a tremendous success with sales boosted by 700 percent.

3. THE GUINNESS BOTTLE DROP

A.W. Fawcett, the former Managing Director of Guinness, had the ingenious idea of dropping bottles of his beer into the ocean. Enclosed in the bottle was a message stating that the bottle be returned to Guinness Exports. Its finder would also need to report the location and date it was retrieved. Fawcett dumped 50,000 bottles in 1954, then another 150,000 in 1959 after the initial success of the first drop that saw bottles land as far away as the Bahamas and Tahiti. In fact, bottles are still turning up today!

4. ALS ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE

This campaign when viral in the summer of 2014 after an American man named Pat Quinn dumped a bucket of ice water on his head in support of his friend Pete Frates who was diagnosed with ALS in 2012. Quinn “challenged” others to take part or donate to an ALS charitable organization if they did not comply within 24 hours. By the end of the year, there were more than 1.2 million tagged videos on Facebook between June 1 and August 13, according to the New York Times, with a reported $1.8 million donated to the ALS Association.

5. WESTJET CHRISTMAS MIRACLE CAMPAIGN

In December 2013, Canadian airline WestJet gave passengers a chance to meet Santa after they scanned their boarding passes. Each told Santa what they wanted for Christmas. While their flight was in the air, WestJet employees went out and bought the gifts and surprised the passengers when each of their wishes came down the conveyor belt at baggage claim. These weren’t small requests, some passengers received a flat-screen TV and others received Android tablets. The YouTube video created went viral around the world and significantly boosted WestJet’s brand awareness as an airline that cares about its customers.

Value, trust, and respect – if your email marketing campaign doesn’t have these three characteristics, then you’re doomed to fail. That’s because users are looking out for themselves: what can they learn from your newsletter?

If your campaign centers around brand promotion, then you are not respecting the subscribers because it’s they who signed up for your newsletter with their consent because you’ve promised they would find value.

Email marketing is great for promoting brand advocacy and return users, but if your content is irrelevant and doesn’t provide any new knowledge, then you’re wasting their time and yours. That’s why it’s essential that you plan a content calendar, including sending an e-blast based on each user’s familiarity with your brand. Why would you send the same email to someone who first signs up as a one who’s a loyal reader? Regardless of the relationship with the user, each deserves to be treated with respect by satisfying their curiosity. Unfortunately, too many brands violate a user’s trust by not providing real value, but to ensure you don’t make the same mistakes, here’s why a newsletter fails:

Flooding their Inbox

Opening your mailbox to see spammy subject lines like “YOU’VE WON” or “Earn $$$ FAST!” are clear indicators that opening the email is a waste of time…and maybe a virus. If you’re going to send an email every week, that’s fine, but this is dependent on the rapport you’ve built with the user. Based on analytics, determine who is the likeliest to open it and click through to the post, then on towards conversion.

Poor Planning

When a user signs up for your newsletter, they are being thrown in the loop. This is a problem because they don’t know what to expect and have no context for the posts you choose to include in the latest newsletter. Take a proactive approach in your email marketing strategy to capture their attention when their curiosity is piqued – when they first sign up. Thank the user for sign up and provide them with a list of your highest converting posts as well as information about your company and brand message.

Lack of Honesty

Establish expectations with a user before they sign up by including the frequency of emails they will receive, its content, and why the newsletter is beneficial. This requires a carefully planned content calendar as well as a predetermined email schedule so the user knows what to expect and when to expect it. This is what it takes to build brand-user relationships at scale.

You require the user to give you permission to communicate and they can unsubscribe at any time. So give them a reason to keep coming back. That’s why you should be cautious about pushing promotions if subscribers are accustomed to educational material. If you do plan to promote conversion by email, then they must give consent when signing up. Plan accordingly and remember: trust is earned over several steps.