Make the most of your political network in the lead up to‘General Election 2010’

Guide for Parliamentary Candidates to use LinkedIn.com

Congratulations on your selection as a Parliamentary Candidate for the 2010 General Election.

With each of your parties reaching out to as many audiences as possible and the election campaign widely expected to be Britain’s first ‘digital’election we wanted to make sure you had the guidance you needed to speak to the professional community, some of the most influential voters, via LinkedIn.

Political branding doesn’t only count at the national level. While standing for Parliament is reflective of your wish to represent your constituency and to promote the policies of your chosen political party, modern political candidature is also about ‘personal branding’.

• How do you want voters to see you? • How can your ‘brand’ reach and influence new audiences? • How can personal branding and use of social media support your

fundraising? • How can social media help you to understand and interact with key groups

and take the pulse of professionals and business influencers?

This LinkedIn guide shows you how you can harness professional networking to support your campaign. In the last couple of years the power of LinkedIn has been used by the Obama Presidential campaign, and locally by Harriet Harman MP, Ed Vaizey MP and Kenneth Clarke MP and others.

Our goal is to make our members more productive and successful and as one of our members we’d like to help you with this too.

Good luck for your campaign ahead.Kevin Eyres, MD LinkedIn Europe

Kevin EyresManaging Director, LinkedIn Europe

Why LinkedIn?

• World’s largest professional network • Used by business leaders worldwide to connect and share information• Already used by politicians from President Obama to Ed Vaizey MP• 65+ million members globally; 15 million in Europe; over 3 million in the UK• One new member joining every second• Members range from graduates to directors from every FTSE 100

company through to sole traders and entrepreneurs• The average LinkedIn member is in their early forties, university educated

and a decision maker in their organisation• A business focused environment distinct from social networks

LinkedIn is the best platform on which to communicate with the business community, whether that’s to ask opinion of a development in a local community, or to gather country-wide feedback on manifesto points.

Why bother with online campaigning?

As you know, the 2010 election campaign is already unrecognisable and quite different to any previous General Election campaign. Times have changed. Political campaigning has changed. Standard methods of communication such as television and newspapers are in decline and the public – the voters - flock to the internet and their smartphones for news and information.

Voters today expect engagement and the internet permits a dialogue with more people than traditional methods of campaigning.

It is an effective way of talking directly with voters. The last US presidential election campaign in 2008 was a vivid display of just how powerful the internet can be in political campaigning.

Using the power of the internet you can create a strong personal brand. Brand building is about letting the public know what to expect from you.

How can LinkedIn help you as a candidate?

During the coming weeks you will meet hundreds if not thousands of people. They will be drawn from across local professional or business groups such as Chambers of Commerce, voluntary groups and civic organizations. LinkedIn provides an opportunity to maintain these connections. It allows you to build a professional network, in your own constituency, of valuable contacts with whom you can stay in touch, consult, or just keep up to date on your campaign. LinkedIn helps you as a candidate, or as an MP to:

• Increase your visibility• Highlight your political and

campaigning experience• Raise funds• Interact with constituents on key political

issues• Share your tweets• Manage your contacts

1. Create or enhance your profile on uk.linkedin.com

LinkedIn allows candidates to get input and increase visibility among the professional community in your constituency as well as nationally. It is free to join and has the advantage of being specialised so you can reach directly into the business community.

How to build a strong profile

• Showcase your experience: list your current and past roles as well as your education

• Add a photo: help people to identify you • Tell your story: add a summary paragraph. This

is your chance to say who you are and what you can do

• Bring your ‘real world’ contacts online: use the tools available to import your contacts from Outlook, Mac Address and others in seconds. The larger your personal network the wider the potential reach for your messages

2. Use ‘LinkedIn Answers’

All three major party leaders have promised to ‘reach out’ to voters who can often not be reached through traditional campaigning techniques. Some of the hardest but most influential voters to reach are often local business leaders or professionals who are working long hours. LinkedIn can help you to reach and build relationships with such influential voters.

LinkedIn can help candidates gain access to an invaluable resource of knowledge, experience and feedback from the professional community – a crucial target group of voters for any candidate.

This is a forum where people are likely to care about and have a view on the issues that you raiseParticipating on answers gives you a better insight into the issues facing professionals to shape your campaign

Asking a Question

Any question that allows members to share their knowledge, experience or opinion will produce insightful answers. Asking a question is quick and easy:1. Enter your question 2. Select the appropriate category to place it under3. Consider if additionally, you want to send your question by email to specific connections

What will happen?Your question will immediately appear:1. Listed under the Answers tab 2. On your profile 3. On the LinkedIn homepage of your connections 4. In email, if you sent your question to any specific connections

Answering a Question

Demonstrate your own expertise and interests, which will also help boost your profile.Questions can be found in these places:1. Through your Network Update on your home page 2. Under the Answers tab you can check new questions from people in your network or by category3. Using the advanced answers search

What will happen?If you post an answer it will appear:1. Under the question you answered 2. As a network update on the homepages of your connections 3. On your profile 4. In an email to the person who asked the question

3. Build your own group and join others

LinkedIn can help you to build a community of local SMEs and larger businesses in your constituency. Groups are specialist communities of like-minded professionals who share a common expertise, experience, passion, interest, affiliation or goal.

• Joining a group allows you to show your support for an issue or cause

• Updating your group(s) is a great way to update professionals about your policies which may work to their advantage

• Surveying the group(s) on key issues affecting professionals: e.g. rail surveys, SME assistance, red tape or business rates enables you to interact with their concerns and questions

Get the most out of your group(s)

1. Keep it visual: Use a relevant logo to help potential members find you easily

2. Keep it manageable: If a core group becomes too big, use sub-groups to help to generate specialist conversations. e.g. a central party group might then have sub-groups by policy areas

3. Keep it lively: Enhance your group by using the unique messaging features and adding custom content such as blog posts, twitter feeds, photos and stand alone videos with interviews, event coverage etc.

4. Keep talking: Get real-time feedback and insights from your group members. Post regular questions to drive discussions and acknowledge and respond to those who do the same. Use other social media and online tools to promote interesting discussions in the group

How to get started in four easy steps

1. Clear goals: Decide what your message is, what is the purpose of the group? Who should join and what should they expect?

2. Personality: Identify a primary contact who can coordinate the activities of the group and keep engaged

3. Grow the membership: Invite others to join your group to help to engage with your discussions or kick start their own.

4. Set your guidelines: Choose whether to make it an ‘open’ or ‘closed’ group. Remember while the latter gives you more control over membership it will take more time to manage the group

• Open groups: automatically accept any member that wants to be part of the group

• Closed groups: require the group owner to invite or individually approve members before they can participate

4. Reach more people

LinkedIn is fully integrated with Twitter so if you are a ‘tweeting’ politician then you can share your tweets with those that are connected to you.

You can also use LinkedIn to:• Highlight your own website or blog to professionals• Find out what people are saying about you on Twitter via

the Company Buzz application• Share files and slide presentations with your network

using SlideShare or Box.net Files• Capture facts, figures and opinions to share with others

by polling your network or a wider selection of members

5. On the go

• With a suite of mobile applications, LinkedIn is available to more business people than any other professional network in the world

• LinkedIn has applications for the iPhone, Blackberry and Palm Pre, so you can keep up to date with your network updates, manage your inbox and make new connections on the campaign trail

Shadow Business Secretary of State Kenneth Clarke received 171 answers to his question about what Government could do to help businesses in the economic climate during the recession.

Examples of those who have already used LinkedIn to engage with professionals seeking their views and opinions

Harriet Harman received over 900 responses to a series of polls on equality

Two of the most popular profiles forUS presidential candidates in 2008

When Barack Obama posed a business related question on LinkedIn he immediately reached the US site’s 13 million members.

Examples of those who have already used LinkedIn to engage with professionals during campaigns

About LinkedIn

LinkedIn Corporation is an Internet company focused on connecting the world’s professionals. The company is privately held and has a diversified business model with revenues driven from user subscriptions, advertising sales and software licensing. The LinkedIn web site was launched in 2003 and is the largest professional networking site in the world with more than 65 million members representing 200 countries and executives from every FTSE 100 company. The company’s worldwide corporate headquarters is based in Mountain View, Calif.

Useful links for you to find out more

1. New starters can find more out here -http://learn.linkedinlabs.com/new-users/

2. Learning centre for more information about everything you might want to do -http://learn.linkedinlabs.com/

3. Regular news from LinkedIn -http://blog.linkedin.com/

4. Download apps for your smart phone -http://www.linkedin.com/mobile

5. List your event for free and invite your network or check what is happening in your local town – http://events.linkedin.com/

6. Integrate your email and web browsers by downloading the additional tools –http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=tools

7. Browse the other tools and applications available - http://www.linkedin.com/apps

It doesn’t need to be time consuming. If you have just…

5 minutes…• Update your status• Read your network updates• Connect to someone you’ve met on the trail

10 minutes…• Ask a question to gather views• Join a group to build up your network• Track the Twitter buzz around an issue you are following

20 minutes…Answer a question to share your opinion Find out what people in your network are attending, reading,

or even where they are travelling to