The online medium gives companies instant access to billions of users worldwide, but they still have to innovate to reach out to their ‘target' audience.
Now, professional networking site LinkedIn, which has 13 million members in India, is offering companies a slew of marketing and recruitment tools that can help them reach decision makers quickly.
For instance, Volkswagen last year created a LinkedIn ‘Company Page' to promote its cars to ‘relevant' audiences. So even as a CEO was being tempted with a Volkswagen Jetta, a mid-level manager's home page would lead him or her to Vento, or a woman professional would be enticed by the home page of the Beetle. “It was a case of relevant car to relevant audiences,” says Mr Dhiman Mukherjee, Director, Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn India.
Through ‘partner messages,' advertisers reach out to CEOs and CTOs and solicit their responses for a product or a service. In B2C marketing, real estate companies and auto manufacturers have used ‘targeted banners' (where the ads are seen on the professional's home page and lead them to the relevant links) to sell their products/ services to the professionals.
LinkedIn has also used the recommendation ads platform to help professionals influence their peers with their product/service choices.
Hiring solutions
Two weeks back, LinkedIn India launched localised hiring initiatives that recruitment agencies can use to reach out to potential employees from professionals in the network. “By creating localised products for recruiters in India, we hope to build on our philosophy of connecting talent with opportunity,” according to Mr Irfan Abdulla, Head of Hiring Solutions at LinkedIn India.
LinkedIn Hiring Solutions offers sourcing solutions with a search platform to companies and staffing companies. This means, positions and jobs get listed on the professional's home page. “Here relevant jobs (Jobs You Are Interested In) follow the candidates and not the other way round,” he says.
ING Vysya, Genpact, Biocon, Wal-mart and HCL are some companies that are currently using the hiring solutions to fulfil their talent needs.