LinkedIn’s Stuart Bartram speaks with Marketing about the professional networking site’s benefits for Australian marketers.

Every second, two new members sign up to LinkedIn, joining a network of two million members in Australia and 120 million worldwide. Marketing asks Stuart Bartram, Director of Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn Australia and New Zealand what that means for advertisers and brand managers looking to reach this valuable audience.

With independent research showing LinkedIn to be the dominant social media platform for B2B marketing, advertisers and brand managers have an opportunity to target “the world’s largest professional network of affluent, influential and successful people in key markets and industries such as automotive, financial services and education,” says Bartram

“Australian businesses clearly see the benefits of using LinkedIn,” he continues, with its strength lying in the network’s collection of professional data and the type of audience it attracts, giving advertisers better targeting options and more precision for their advertising spend, and therefore potentially stronger return on investment for companies. And, interestingly, it’s a site where users’ state of mind is not typical for the web: “When on LinkedIn, people are typically in a ‘work’ state of mind – they’re not casually surfing the web, meaning they’re more receptive to relevant advertising,” notes Bartram.

For brands trying to raise awareness, Bartram suggests LinkedIn’s Marketing Solutions, whereby “advertisers work with a dedicated field sales rep to create a customised program, including traditional, targeted display ads, Company Pages, Custom Groups and Partner Messages.” If your objectives are more direct response in nature, the self-service LinkedIn Ads offers a platform for marketers and businesses to display simple text ads.

With Australian organisations lagging the rest of the world in their use of social media – recent figures from KPMG show only half of all large businesses have a presence – LinkedIn is hoping to be the go-to place for advertisers and brand managers to fill at least the B2B part of that gap.