Linkedin Sponsored Updates Allow For Hyper-Targeted B2B Content Amplification

What could put a smile on the faces of content marketers on a blistering hot Denver summer afternoon (besides ice cream)?

A new way to distribute content! Today, LinkedIn announced a new product: Sponsored Updates.

Sponsored Updates are similar to Facebook “Promoted Posts.” They allow a company with a LinkedIn page to pay for visibility by sharing a post in the newsfeed of certain targeted users on LinkedIn, effectively amplifying the reach of that content.

As far as how the updates are displayed with this new functionality, LinkedIn said, “…sponsored updates can be seen on desktop, smartphone and tablet devices and will clearly be marked ‘sponsored,’ appearing in the member’s homepage feed along with the organic posts from their network and the companies they follow.” Members will have the option to “Follow” the sponsoring company as well as “Like,” “Comment,” and “Share” posts with their network.”

This is a great tool for B2B marketers seeking to drive visibility for their latest white paper, blog, press release, or webinar within their target market(s). With Sponsored Updates you can place specific content efforts directly in front of a CEO, specific company, or a lead that is halfway through the sales funnel.

The specificity of targeting not only allows you to connect the right content with the audience you need, but the niche population and narrow targeting will keep media costs down. Some of the targeting parameters that you can control are:

• Type of followers that see a certain post (Everyone, non-followers, your company’s followers)
• Geo-targeting by location
• Specific companies (or companies to exclude) and their size
• Job Function/Seniority Levels
• Skills, Background, Education, etc.

LinkedIn’s video below, albeit a little cheesey, does a good job of showing how these sponsored updates work.

As of right now, Sponsored Updates are only available to customers with a LinkedIn account representative. However, we tried to sign up and were notified that every company will have access starting July 29, 2013, meaning you won’t have to wait too long to test this out for yourselves.

We can’t wait to leverage these Sponsored Updates and see what type of impact they have on the world of social content distribution. What do you think, will you pay to promote your content on LinkedIn? Contact Carlo Ritschl with questions about getting started with LinkedIn if you haven’t already.