LinkedIn’s potential for travel brands

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tom.ollerton


LinkedIn is the leading professional social network; in fact, it claims that one in every three professionals on the planet is a member. This audience is often open to relationship building – it’s the mindset they are in when using the platform – and they are one of the most educated, affluent, and influential social audiences on the web.

LinkedIn is also moving from a professional network to a publishing platform. While previously only a limited group of influencers could publish content,this has been expanded to all members in English-speaking countries.  As a result, this is turning LinkedIn into a source of information for professionals, as it becomes an accredited hub of knowledge exchange. There are also highly refined targeting opportunities for marketers, being able to search by salary, job title, location and influence.

Despite all this, LinkedIn can be overlooked by marketers. Admittedly, it doesn’t suit all industries – for example, it may not be ideal for a number of products within home and personal care. However, one sector we’ve zeroed in on that could be using LinkedIn to benefit its business is travel; particularly brands looking to target high net worth individuals and companies whose employees travel a lot with work.

There are already some existing examples of travel brands using the platform well. For example, KLM’s meet & seat created a simple way to connect with fellow travellers on your flight. Using the KLM LinkedIn integrated website, flyers could identify someone from their network to share the flight with.

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Starwood Hotels used the platform to launch its loyalty program, buying LinkedIn ad space to attract professionals on the social site. And Tourism Australia built a LinkedIn app allowing users to enter their colleagues into a competition based on how much they needed a break. The winners were sent off to various holiday locations in Australia.

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LinkedIn may not be the obvious social platform of choice, but as we can see from these examples (and more in the SlideShare above), there are opportunities for brands to reach a well-travelled target market. With a bit of creative thinking and an understanding of the platform’s strengths, LinkedIn could prove a useful tool for travel brands.

If you’d be interested in finding out more about how LinkedIn could work for your brand, please drop us an email.