Unpaid CEO
Bloggers Spike LinkedIn Traffic 63%
SAN ANSELMO, CA - JANUARY 27: In this photo
illustration, the LinkedIn logo is displayed on the screen of a laptop computer
on January 27, 2011. (Getty Images via @daylife)
LinkedIn has discovered a valuable formula for
online media success — if you tap into CEOs’ egos, you can get them to
write for free — and spur a spike in traffic.
That formula is the domain of Daniel
Roth, the executive editor of LinkedIn, who runs Influencers — musings that
LinkedIn started posting in October 2012 of “a select group of people in
leadership positions on life, careers and the secrets of success in both,”
according to Bits.
Influencers has profoundly boosted user
engagement for LinkedIn. Its 225 million users viewed 63% more pages in
the first quarter of 2013 than they did in the same period in 2012. Roth said
that “traffic to all its news products had increased eightfold since
Influencers was introduced,” according to Bits.
And with Influencers including “Bill
Gates, Jeffrey R. Immelt and President Obama,” it’s clear that getting invited
to blog at no pay is a club that lesser luminaries are craving to join. Roth
told Bits: “We have a long list of CEOs who are
asking to get in.”
LinkedIn’s ambition is to challenge
online publishers in the advertising market by making its users addicted to
checking their news feeds and then hiding the peas of sponsored articles
and videos from the likes of Shell, Xerox XRX +0.66% and American Express AXP +1.19% in the mashed potatoes of personalized
content — including Influencers.
Why would someone write for free? Bits says that they like connecting with a large
audience of business professionals while their content is lightly edited
and LinkedIn “trades on the executives’ vanity.”
Online real estate platform, Redfin
founder, Glenn Kelman, is an Influencer mostly because he likes the ego
boost he gets from highly-trafficked posts. He told Bits, “It created a feedback loop that has turned me
into a gerbil turning on the wheel. I have met other CEOs and we ask each other
whether we have better things to do, but if you want people to know about your
company you have to be there. It is just a new competitive weapon.”
Tapping CEO ego could be a profitable way for
LinkedIn to boost its advertising revenues while keeping its content production
costs in check. But the strategy’s success depends on two
factors: LinkedIn users find enough Influencers who produce must-read
content and LinkedIn can sell enough sponsored content that does not turn off
those users.
With LinkedIn’s stock down 12% from its high — and
trading at a P/E of 516, Roth will have to do better than 63% growth to justify
the stock’s valuation.
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