FleishmanHillard has rolled out a new offering called the Native Newsroom, which in its first iteration, focuses on content marketing on LinkedIn.

While LinkedIn isn’t an official partner on the project, Fleishman worked closely with the company to build the Native Newsroom around the professional social network’s existing and upcoming capabilities. Ultimately, the offering will be extended to other social networks.

“We saw that news is the best content to start a long-term conversation,” says Ephraim Cohen, Fleishman’s digital and social lead for the East Region. “You start with news release, but then extend that into a blog series, social content from customers, the social team posts this in [LinkedIn] groups and answers questions — it all ties back to the initial news.”

The approach uses LinkedIn’s organic and paid/sponsored ad channels, as well as its analytics to develop content based on what people are talking about and to gauge how content is performing. LinkedIn’s team provided Fleishman with feedback on different ways to use its tools and capabilities across its newsfeed, via ongoing topics on its groups, its company showcases and through engagement.

“The difference between B2B and consumer social media is that consumers are not looking to engage with brands, they are looking to talk with their friends,” Cohen points out. “But in the working world, and I’m either open to or need to engage with other brands.”

Clients using the tool will also work with Fleishman’s brand journalists and audience management teams to develop editorial. One example of the types of content is slide decks that take advantage of LinkedIn’s integration with SlideShare.

“That’s a type of visual content that allows a lot more information than just a single visual,” Cohen explains. “And all the recent indications show that SlideShare and LinkedIn are becoming more integrated.”

Content marketing expertise will be integrated into the Native Newsroom through Fleishman’s Freshwire service and a LinkedIn’s content partner Newscred will offer participating companies the option to further manage content across other channels.

 Photo credit: Nan Palmero