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Cognito
globalmarketing@cognitomedia.com

The lively event touched on key themes including insights from the LinkedIn’s Finance Connect NYC event which was held earlier in May; the growing trend towards full funnel marketing; a piece of interesting research on millennials and a glimpse into how emerging technologies are impacting Institutional Investing.

The stimulating panel discussion also provided a snapshot on how social is used in the real world for big firms such as Prudential and HSBC. Here are some of the main insights presented during the event

• Institutional investors are three times more likely to use LinkedIn over Twitter or Facebook when seeking subject matter education

• Marketing is not about branding, it is about the journey you provide to the customer

• There is a growing trend towards full funnel marketing

• LinkedIn as a publishing platform receives about 10k posts a day

• The affluent millennials, aged 18-34 with a minimum investable assets of HKD 800k (USD 103k, are open to financial service (fs) offerings from traditionally non-fs brands

• The affluent millennials are hungry for information, especially on financial planning, personal tax, loans and financial markets/events

In April, LinkedIn signalled their intentions to become a publishing platform by allowing members to write long form posts on their expertise and interest. To date, such publishing was only available to an invited group of LinkedIn Influencers consisting of approximately 500 professionals. This group comprised the likes of Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Guy Kawasaki and Arianna Huffington.

Broadly, this means that members are now able to share text with images. This will appear on their profile page, which will in turn be pushed out to the homepage, email digest and Pulse (a newsreader app acquired in 2013).

This move allows communicators and marketers to leverage LinkedIn to engage effectively with their key target audience. A regular and well planned content strategy leveraging on various forms of content such as thought-leadership posts, visual infographic and even photographs, can go a long way in profile-raising for a company or spokesperson. This is a major opportunity as financial services professionals typically access information first via the LinkedIn page.

Yet the ability to engage effectively on a platform like LinkedIn depends very much on the nature of the content. Information or experiences that audiences are interested in reading will always be more engaging than a constant spill of product advertisement. As LinkedIn sums it up well in their presentation, don’t just develop content, create experiences. Be authentic, be relevant and engage in dialogue – these will be key steps to create trust and engagements with the followers on LinkedIn.

For more recommendations on how to optimise the LinkedIn page, read our post here