25 LinkedIn Case Studies for Successful Professionals

1. Frank Coletta, CEO at Mobile Advanced Care in Brazil, uses LinkedIn to research professionals before meeting with them. He finds that he uncovers important insights that he would have otherwise not known.

2. James Filbird in China gets 75% of his business from LinkedIn. He has found that the quality of information, people and tools available on LinkedIn surpass all other social networking sites in terms of business. He is the owner of JMF International Trade Group in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.

3. Evan stumbled upon his dream job on LinkedIn. For fun he did a random search for “Advertising Sales Director”. A position at TravelZoo was advertised and  applying, interviewing and receiving the job, Evan was able to get back into an industry he loves mainly due to his LinkedIn profile.

4. Nikhita Arora, business executive, Madison Outdoor Media – Nikhita maintained an updated profile on LinkedIn and used it to network with mentors from the industry, alumni and other professionals. A recruiter viewed her LinkedIn profile and called her for an interview. Withing 24 hours of the interview being conducted, Nikhita was hired. In her new job, she uses her profile to initiate business meetings with contacts she made online.

5. Brett McGrath started IndiEngage at the beginning of October with the intention to break down all the silos that exist within the live music experience. It is basically a start-up company for fans and bands. LinkedIn has served as a tremendously valuable tool during the process of starting the company. LinkedIn is extremely value to Brian because it allows him to generate buzz before the product is launched. It is a free relationship management, marketing and networking tool rolled into one. He uses it as his digital rolodex.

6. Kristina Allen (Previously the online marketing manager at ion interactive, now the marketing manager at Nimble, makers of the first truly social CRM.) ran a LinkedIn ad campaign in order to drive more interaction and leads for her company. We learned that her click-through rate was an abysmal under 1% CTR (despite really targeted ads. She notes that it could be because she was targeting online marketers at the management/executive level who may be mostly bling to online ads.

However, she did receive high conversion rates (20-30% range). In order to get the high conversion rates she created a landing page for each ad campaign with a message to match. She included a call to action as the last sentence of the ad and optimized the landing page for conversion.

5. Peter Taliangis, real estate agent, Realty 1. He used LinkedIn to sell a $300,000 home in Western Australia after being approached on LinkedIn by a prospective buyer. The deal was closed before the official ‘open for inspection’ even took place.

6. Heidi Cool, owner of Heidi Cool Consulting used LinkedIn Questions and Answers. Heidi shared  how by providing excellent answers to the questions of other LinkedIn members, she has built visibility and credibility for her business, more and higher quality traffic to her Web site and more leads. (from Inc.com)

7. Ken Nussbaum, CPA and consultant, K. Nussbaum & Associates. He used LinkedIn to market and build his network. In addition to being an active member of a multitude of LinkedIn Groups (like the K. Nussbaum and Associates LinkedIn Group), Ken has numerous recommendations included on his profile. From clients and professional colleagues, the recommendations have been a contributing factor in allowing him to create new relationships, strengthen existing relationships, and draw the attention of individuals seeking his professional services.

8. James Filbird, owner of JMF International Trade Group. James used LinkedIn to grow his company to $5 million in annual revenue and finds 75 percent of his business via LinkedIn. He used the site to get introduced to, and maintain relationships with, like-minded professionals. Using LinkedIn to develop his network has consistently led to new business opportunities for his American-owned, China-based consulting firm.

9.  Uriel Alvarado, head of marketing – Latin region, Saxo Bank – Uriel has been part of LinkedIn from the beginning; he has experienced the network as a post-grad student, as a businessman with personal projects, and now in his role as head of marketing for Saxo Bank’s Latin region. As a student, he actively participated in discussion forums, and used the network to look for work and for academics with an interest in his field of study. As a businessman, LinkedIn has helped him build up his network internationally, to include suppliers, partners and sales leads.

10. Kevin L. Nichols, president and CEO of KLN Publishing LLC and president of KLN Consulting Group. Kevin uses his affiliations in various LinkedIn Groups to create warm leads. He uses LinkedIn Events to organize professional mixers so he can introduce his target market to his services. Nichols has been successful at using his LinkedIn Status Updates to draw traffic to his Website and allow potential clients to find him on the internet, avoiding paying for expensive CRM software.

11.Carlos Victor Costa, manager at Llorente&Cuenca – Needing a job to secure residency and relocate his family from Brazil to Spain, Carlos and his wife used LinkedIn to discover opportunities and apply, eventually landing a position with a communications company and an IT company respectively.

12. Ed Campana uses LinkedIn to show recruiters how they can earn credibility with hiring managers by illustrating the data behind their searches.  While hiring managers make their candidate demands known, it can be helpful to educate the hiring manager on “supply side” of the equation.

13. Davina Brewer, principal at 3Hats Communications, used LinkedIn and a blog post to get a speaking engagement. The story goes that she cross-posted her blog to Twitter and to the SoloPR group on LinkedIn. She figured the audience would identify with her thoughts and the views of 3Hats Communications. After posting and syncing – she received the speaking engagement!

14., Barbara Maldonado used LinkedIn as the key to landing her current job as business development director for Marketing Resources Incorporated near Chicago. Her original strategy was to participate in group discussions. It didn’t take long for someone in her groups to connect that she needed a job. Three months later, she had a new job.

15. Rachel Kerstetter used LinkedIn after she had a great internship at a public relations agency during her last semester of college, unfortunately they weren’t hiring when she graduated, but many of the people she worked with offered to be job references for her. So (you guess it) she asked them to write me recommendations on LinkedIn.

She finished at the agency at the end of April, graduated the first week of May then the first weekend in June her new husband and her were at the airport leaving for her honeymoon when she got an email from one of the VPs she had worked with in her internship, asking her to call him when she returned because, “John Sonnhalter of Sonnhalter Advertising is interested in meeting you. Opportunity is 25-30 hours/week with potential for full time.”

John had found her on LinkedIn

16. The EyeWorks placed an advertisement on LinkedIn for marketing of the company. Of course, they were somewhat skeptical at first, but then a week later they received a solid lead. Although they used a free trial to post their advertisement, they were happy with the results and now they are looking at ways to improve our advertisements on LinkedIn in the future.

17. The Chief Scientist at Endeca found success on LinkedIn with the search feature. He helped organize and call people who had a strong interest in the topics for the event. After conducting a search on LinkedIn he chose 100 people to send a personalized connection request. He found more than 50% of those people accepted the connection. In addition, he found that some of these connections submitted papers to the workshop, one volunteered to review the book he had been working on and others expressed their thankfulness in finding a connection based on their targeted interests.

18. Deepak Srinath and Uday Disley, Co-Founders and Directors at Viedea Capital Advisors. They used LinkedIn to connect with potential investors in Europe for a Mumbai based digital firm using their LinkedIn Connections. Even today, most of their business development takes place through the strong LinkedIn network that they have developed by engaging with their connections.

19. David T. Stevens, event manager executive streamlineevents. Within just two weeks, David had used his LinkedIn connections to land an interview at streamlineevents, was offered a position and accepted the new job.

20.Andrew Kable, director and owner, H2Otalent – After facing difficulty in finding candidates through job boards, Andrew started using LinkedIn to identify exceptional professionals in his network who possess the special skills required in the water sector. Andrew found major success in using LinkedIn for recruiting.

21. Avinash Raghava is the regional director of the Northern Region at NASSCOM. Avinash created NASSCOM EMERGE Forum on LinkedIn Groups to engage with delegates. The forum now has many active discussions on industry issues and best practices. It also enables fellow delegates to post trade leads and build partnerships. NASSCOM is looking to convert this discourse into actual panel topics.

22. Paul Noon, director of trade and investment Australia atUK Trade & Investment. Paul participates in the “UK Professionals in Australia” LinkedIn Group for updates about trade and investment news, policy and industry developments. He also uses LinkedIn Answers to post questions about queries he receives, and uses LinkedIn Polls to guage the feedback from the business community to key UK-Australia policy developments.

23. Senior Director of a Retail Company –

LinkedIn has been tremendously helpful in my job search. In fact – I have LinkedIn to thank for helping to get me in the door at two companies, Company X and Company Y, both at the top of my target list.
One of the folks in my network had heard about an opening for a senior position at Company X that he thought I would be well suited for and he fired me a quick message to alert me to the opportunity. I really wanted to find out who the hiring manager was so I could ensure that my cover letter and resume got to the RIGHT people and not lost in the HR web.

I searched my network to see who was connected to Company X. One of my contacts was connected to several people at Company X, so I asked him if he would reach out to his contacts to find out who the hiring manager was. He gladly reached out to his contacts and successfully connected me to the hiring manager. The result was a great interview with the CEO of Company X.

At the same time I have had three successful interviews at Company Y and am through to the next stage for an interview tomorrow with the folks that would be reporting to me! In preparation for my third interview with Company Y I was able to reach out to a new connection on LinkedIn. I met her at an event and invited her to join my network as she had previously worked at Company Y and was able to provide some insight on the company culture and some of the people I was meeting with.

(via Alexa Samuels)

24. Krishna De – Has have found that developing a comprehensive profile and also sharing content as status updates has enabled her to enhance her online visibility with her LinkedIn network, which in turn has resulted in business opportunities and leads.

Take for example a colleague she last worked with in The Netherlands back in the 1990’s. They are now in a senior role for a global consumer goods company in the US and she is in Ireland. The content they saw her share on LinkedIn encouraged to contact her to support them and their team with a business challenge they faced.

So despite the fact that they could have chosen to work with people closer to them geographically,  the strong ties and business relationship they had in the past  combined with the online visibility enabled by LinkedIn has resulted in a great business opportunity.

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