AUDIENCE(53)

Can monetize both apps and activities within apps.

CHALLENGES: Getting and sustaining an audience. The volume of apps produced monthly can drown out new entrants.

Cost to build, market, and maintain both the app and engaged SUBSCRIBERS across multiple mobile operating systems.

Potentially onerous approval process to publish and update.

a Quick reminder: I refer to Mobile App users as SUBSCRIBERS because installation of the app opens up a direct, permission-based, push-button communication channel.

1. Bruce Horovitz, “Starbucks CEO Schultz on Digital Innovation,” USA Today, April 25, 2013, www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/24/starbucks-howard-schultz-innovators/2047655/.

2. Jason Ankeny, “Starbucks: Mobile Payments Now 10% of All U.S. Transactions,” FierceMobileContent, June 19, 2013, www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/starbucks-mobile-payments-now-10-all-us-transactions/2013-06-19.

3. Allison Stadd, “79% of People 18–44 Have Their Smartphones with Them 22 Hours a Day,” AllTwitter, April 2, 2013, www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/smartphones_b39001.

4. Luke Wroblewski, “Why Mobile Matters,” LukeW.com, February 21, 2012, www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1506.

5. Margaret Kane, “Apple Launches New iTunes with App Store,” CNET, July 10, 2008, http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9987100-93.

6. Ryan Lawler, “Mary Meeker’s 2013 Internet Trends: Mobile Makes Up 15% of All Internet Traffic, With 1.5B Users Worldwide,” TechCrunch, May 29, 2013, http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/29/mary-meeker-2013-internet-trends/.

7. Sam Costello, “What Are iPad Sales All Time?,” About.com, last modified April 25, 2012, http://ipod.about.com/od/ipadmodelsandterms/f/ipad-sales-to-date.htm.

8. ABI Research, “Android Will Account for 58% of Smartphone App Downloads in 2013, with iOS Commanding a Market Share of 75% in Tablet Apps,” March 4, 2013, www.abiresearch.com/press/android-will-account-for-58-of-smartphone-app-down.

9. Lavey-Heaton, Megan, “App Store Hits 50 Billion Apps Downloaded,” TUAW.com, May 15, 2013, www.tuaw.com/2013/05/15/app-store-hits-50-billion-apps-downloaded/.





Chapter 14


LinkedIn: The Professional Audience


We’re focused on creating value by helping [enterprises] transform the way they hire, market, and sell . . . [while also] enabling companies to eliminate cold calls in favor of warm prospects.1

—Jeff Weiner

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner (@JeffWeiner) wants you to know a few things:

1. LinkedIn is much more than a jobs site.

2. LinkedIn is much more than a digital Rolodex.

3. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network.



Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know one or two of these; after all, the world has been a bit more fixated on social networks like Facebook and Twitter the past few years. While LinkedIn has remained outside the glare of the spotlight, it has grown its user base and diversified its business model to place more emphasis on high-quality content and community development. In so doing, the service has evolved from a place where individuals post their online résumés to one in which individuals and companies curate their professional identities.





Content and Influence


This transformation means that LinkedIn will likely play a far more important role in your Proprietary Audience Development efforts than it may have just a few years ago. Indeed, if you’re a B2B company, LinkedIn may emerge as one of your most important channels.

That’s certainly the case for MedCity Media (@MedCityNews), a company founded in 2009 to provide events, news, and information to professionals in the growing healthcare and life sciences industries. According to CEO and cofounder Chris Seper (@ChrisSeper), LinkedIn was initially just a source for potential EMPLOYEES wanting to write for the company’s primary publication, www.medcitynews.com. Today, however, LinkedIn also provides MedCity with:

Access to healthcare INFLUENCERS

Introductions to potential advertising and distribution PARTNERS

Distribution of MedCity News content to SEEKERS and AMPLIFIERS

A way to build FOLLOWERS



That last point is particularly interesting as Chris is part of an invitation-only content program called LinkedIn Influencers. Launched in October 2012, it gives selected industry thought leaders the ability to publish content directly to LinkedIn and build direct FOLLOWERS for that content.2

Titans of industry like Sir Richard Branson (@SirRichardBranson), Bill Gates (@BillGates), and Jack Welch (@Jack_Welch) all write for LinkedIn Influencers. And as of September 2013, Chris from MedCity had 20,165 FOLLOWERS via LinkedIn Influencers with his most popular post—“Why I Cheer When My Employees Leave”—amassing over 400,000 views.3 While it may be invitation-only at present, the initiative points to LinkedIn’s long-term strategy to become a hub for professional content from INFLUENCERS.