GDPR - 6 strategies to leverage LinkedIn in light of GDPR

I don’t know about you but when the law changes and there are large penalties threatened, I become fearful of being caught. For drivers around Bristol the latest hazard is mobile speed cameras in 20mph zones. Whether they actually make the roads safer is questionable, but they are likely to change our attitudes so we drive more slowly, maybe with our eyes on to the speedometer rather than the road.

The introduction of new laws may mean we consider alternatives, which for motorists might include walking or public transport. Despite being a driving enthusiast I’m looking forward to self-driving cars for the mundane journeys

Rethinking contact management and communications strategies

The new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) from the EU can be seen in a similar light. NB. Another set of related regulations are PECR (privacy & electronic communication regulation). I see GDPR as a powerful trigger for us to rethink our contact management and communications strategies. And it’s worth doing this ahead of the deadline on May 25th 2018 (easy for me to remember as it’s the day before my birthday) so that we can shift our strategies sooner rather than at the last minute.

A GDPR specialist I contacted during my research sees GDPR transforming the marketing relationship and value exchange. What was initially 'spray and pray' has moved to segmentation and smaller far more targeted communications. With GDPR he anticipates that we're looking at an almost 1-2-1 marketing relationship where consumers only get what they've actually signed up to (ie. LinkedIn), or consented to elsewhere.

LinkedIn makes GDPR compliance a little easier

As LinkedIn is a membership system run by an international company where users manage their own settings and data we can in effect let LinkedIn deal with GDPR regulations on our behalf in key areas. LinkedIn provides us with the tools to find, connect with, share content with and message people in the UK, Europe and all over the world. LinkedIn will need to make sure the platform is GDPR compliance. Data within LinkedIn has been provided voluntarily by users, who have the ability to control access to it via the various privacy setting.

Where we need to be very cautious is when we take information out of LinkedIn, into a CRM or email marketing system. One way we can do this is by exporting out contacts as a CSV file. Another way is using software tools that scrape data from what is publicly available on LinkedIn. A third is synchronising data between systems. We will need to be very careful about how we source and store and use data about people to comply with GDPR.

How we can use LinkedIn to grow our businesses under GDPR?

Looking for the positives, I've identified 6 ways to turn GDPR into an opportunity, to leverage LinkedIn and our relationships and the platform capabilities, to support the marketing and sales process and help us to continue to grow our businesses.

Which of these is most relevant and potentially beneficial to you?

1.   Develop a Leadership positioning through LinkedIn.

If we and our businesses do not stand out then we will struggle to get attention, develop relationships and grow. There’s a vital ingredient we need to develop if we want people to follow us, to read our content, and to buy our products and services. This runs right across all channels, not just social media. It also applies to email communications, websites, video, phone calls to face to face meetings. The purchase and implementation of most products and services in the B2B markets involves change. To effect change, especially from outside and/or where it is disruptive or transformational requires leadership, not just management.

There are many types of leader – if fact probably every area of business and personal life has people in leadership positions. Business Leaders. Sales Leaders. Technical leaders. Political leaders. Religious leaders. The list goes on.

So, what’s your leadership position? What is the domain in which you are a leader? As an aside, the term Thought-leader is rather meaningless without a context. GDPR is a catalyst to undertake some essential analysis and planning. And then execute this through LinkedIn and elsewhere.

2. Get closer to 1st connections through LinkedIn

One of the main functions of LinkedIn is our ability to view activity the activities and content shared by others. This is especially so for our 1st connections as their content makes up our home feed, which essentially becomes our own personal news feed. And from this we have an easy ability to interact with our 1st connections, via Likes, Comments, Shares and Messages. Being interested is a great way to become interesting. Giving to others will set up opportunities to receive in return. Our generosity in LinkedIn is visible to others who care to look.

While many LinkedIn users have become inactive, and relationships have gone cold, that doesn’t mean we also need to be passive ourselves. As a leader we can take the initiative and be pro-active to initiate and re-kindle relationships. And where better to start than with our 1st connections.

3. Messaging through LinkedIn

The internet and digital communications has contributed to explosive growth in communications. In particular, email inboxes are often very cluttered and deliverability rates of email can be questionable, and open and click rates diminishing.

Using LinkedIn Messaging to communicate on a personal 1 to 1 basis with 1st connections is very powerful, when done well. Developing a range of template messages to copy, paste, amend and send means messages can be sent in a productive way. This may provide a better way of reaching people, especially senior decision-makers, than email, at least for a while.

4. Content marketing through LinkedIn

As GDPR places restrictions on the 1 to 1 communications that we associate with email marketing it’s worth reviewing and revising the balance of communications. Using Social Media to communicate with a community of people at the top of the sales funnel is a very powerful strategy. A big part of this is because our message can be amplified by others in the social community. It’s a great way to demonstrate our expertise and leadership.

LinkedIn now lets us create status updates and articles that combine text, images and video. The foundations of a content marketing plan is a mix of messages that engage, inform and educate readers. We can leverage the capabilities of the LinkedIn platform by creating sharable content that others Like, Comment and Share. If you’re not already doing this there’s no reason why you can’t start now, ahead of GDPR.

5. Lead Generation through LinkedIn

Inviting and encouraging people to express their interest is one of the prime events to track in lead generation. How many people sign-up to various types of offer, such as information product downloads, toolkits, webinars and so-on are the main devices used in campaign tracking. GDPR is making permission gained on sign-up even more essential.

There are several ways that LinkedIn can be used to invite people to visit sign-up pages. Articles with a call to action via text or an image is one. Another is status updates leading through to blog articles on our website or directly to a landing page for an ‘offer’. Advertising on the LinkedIn platform is a third. It is an evolving process to find the right approach and tone for our target audience(s) and for the LinkedIn community. Again, this is something that can be started now, ahead of GDPR.

6. Building Partnerships through LinkedIn

Creating collaborations between complementary people and businesses is a way to leverage the strengths of the relationships both parties have with their LinkedIn connections. Cross-promotions between peers via email is an established process in several markets. For those who have strong relationships with people in their community or on their email list this is a way to monetize it. To work well there needs to be an understanding of the value that both parties offer and gain. This is a great example of how quality beats quantity. At the end of the day it’s conversion rates that matter. Partnering with others who have a trusted relationship with people who follow them is a powerful way to generate leads.

Collaboration can be as easy as sharing an article by another respected author with your followers and 1st connections. Commenting into relevant articles is a second way, and a third is to Like it. In a different way, asking one of our 1st connections for an introduction, and encouraging people to provide us with referrals takes it up a level. Joint campaigns, co-marketing, joint ventures, partner programs promoted through LinkedIn are top-end options.

Prepare for GDPR sooner rather than later

Do these strategies help you to view GDPR as an opportunity to be positive and pro-active as we approach the 2018 deadline? Taking time to review our positioning, contact management, content marketing and communication strategies now means we can plan, develop and build ahead of the deadline. Taking the lead in this puts us in a stronger position, not just for the arrival of GDPR, but also in how we build our businesses.

GDPR can be viewed as the trigger for a transformational programme impacting on People, Technology, Data and Processes. While larger organisations should have GDPR on the organisational risk register so that the appropriate level of resource funds are allocated to it for risk mitigation, for smaller businesses a similar level of importance should be assigned to GDPR.

And unfortunately the trend continues as GDPR will be followed by EPR (ePrivacy Regulations) which is due for enforcement on May 25th 2019 (12 months after GDPR). This will focus on VOIP, Cookies, Tracking technology and yes, Social Networks such as LinkedIn.

What's STOPPING you from getting more from LinkedIn?

There are many things we COULD and probably SHOULD be doing on/with LinkedIn.

However, for each of us there may well be ONE THING that is reducing our results.

To help Experts and Specialists to identify what their ONE THING is I've developed a short SELF-ASSESSMENT that people can take - for free - to prioritise their action area(s).

Click on this LINKEDIN BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SELF-ASSESSMENT link

or click the image below...

About Mark Stonham

I help Experts and Specialists to be more successful, especially through Business Development and LinkedIn strategies, techniques and tactics.

I've developed the LinkedWIN Business Development Blueprint to provide a structured approach to business development supported by LinkedIn, specifically for experts and specialists, such as trusted advisors, consultants, solicitors, accountants, business development professionals, solution sales people, business owners and business leaders.

Find out more at wurlwind.co.uk and linkedwin.co.uk