A communications guru in Toronto, who I am lucky enough to call a colleague and a friend, once told me that LinkedIn isn’t about connecting with other colleagues from our company, it’s about connecting with external people and their connections to leverage opportunities.
According to a recent survey by the Arketi Group, 92 percent of journalists have a LinkedIn account. We need to leverage this opportunity because LinkedIn provides an easy way for reporters to connect with sources.
"It comes as no surprise more BtoB journalists are participating in social media sites, especially LinkedIn," says Mike Neumeier, principal of Arketi Group. "LinkedIn provides an online outlet for them to connect with industry sources, find story leads and build their professional networks."
While more journalists are on LinkedIn than any other social network, they have increased their presence on other networks, too. The survey found that 85 percent of journalists are on Facebook and 84 percent use Twitter. Only 55 percent of journalists used Facebook in 2009, and 24 percent were on Twitter.
Almost all journalists—99 percent—get story ideas from industry sources, and social media makes it easy for them to track sources down. When journalists can't get through to a source, 85 percent turn to industry experts—who are easy to find on LinkedIn.
So if your boss walks by when you're creating, updating, and monitoring your LinkedIn page and wonders what you are doing, just tell her/him that you are finding media opportunities to leverage PCL in the marketplace!
I absolutely agree with you regarding leveraging opportunities and relationships through LinkedIn. I have very few PCLers in my network. Mainly it's great way for me to stay connected to clients and consultants. It's also a great way to follow our client's company and stay up to date overall on what's happening in their world. It's a great tool. I hope more will get connected through LinkedIn and use it. It's great for business.
Posted by: Paula Stamp | 09/11/2011 at 11:44 AM