In the midst of ongoing industry-wide reorganisation, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has announced the layoff of 281 workers throughout California, joining a growing number of IT firms that have done so.
A recent filing with the state’s employment agency revealed the job layoffs, which primarily affected talent account directors, senior product managers, and software engineers.
These layoffs follow Microsoft’s announcement that, as part of larger efforts to streamline operations, it would eliminate nearly 6,000 jobs, or roughly 3% of its global workforce. The wave of layoffs draws attention to persistent issues in the computer industry, where businesses are reassessing their objectives and increasing productivity.
LinkedIn Shrinking its Workforce
Over the past year, LinkedIn, a prominent professional networking and recruitment platform, has experienced multiple rounds of layoffs. The corporation laid off 668 employees in its finance, talent, and engineering departments in October 2023.
Earlier, in May 2023, 716 positions were eliminated from the operations, sales, and support teams in an effort to streamline the company and expedite decision-making. Similar upheaval still affects the larger tech sector.
In May, Google laid off 200 workers from its global business unit, primarily impacting the partnerships and sales teams.
Significant changes were also revealed earlier this year by parent firm Meta, which laid off 3,600 employees, or 5% of its workforce, mostly from the logistics, Facebook, and Horizon VR teams after a revised performance evaluation.
Might Following Others to Infuse More AI in Work Operations
Although LinkedIn has not issued a formal announcement, industry watchers believe that the layoffs were likely sparked by Microsoft’s overall strategy move towards artificial intelligence. Recently, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that up to 30% of the code in a number of internal projects is now written by AI.
This statistic highlights the increasing significance of automation in fundamental development processes. These layoffs seem to be a component of Microsoft’s broader employment cut, which is expected to impact 6,000 workers worldwide.
In another round of layoffs earlier this month, 122 Microsoft workers in the Bay Area were let go. Although Ryan Roslansky, the CEO of LinkedIn, has not made any public statements, this quiet stands in stark contrast to the company’s 2023 layoff of 716 employees, in which Roslansky addressed the decision directly in a widely shared employee email.
Many workers and spectators are guessing about the scope and direction of future cuts as a result of this time around’s lack of information.
Restructuring the Entire Ecosystem
LinkedIn, which employs more than 18,400 people full-time worldwide, has long been regarded as a reliable platform inside the Microsoft ecosystem. This most recent round of layoffs, however, suggests a possible change in strategy.
Businesses like Microsoft are reassessing their workforce requirements as AI tools become more integrated into development, operations, and product processes.
The layoffs’ timing also fits with a larger industry trend of operations being streamlined in the face of economic challenges and growing automation capabilities.
Although AI increases efficiency, it also poses challenging issues about the future of human positions in tech-driven organisations, especially in fields like engineering that were previously seen to be secure.
Freelancing is on the verge of conquering industry upon industry, people are leaving their daily 9 to 5 jobs and are opting to become a freelancer. There are various reasons for this, flexibility, good payments, and freedom of work are some of them. Freelancing is one of the strongest career paths today. Writing is one of the most popular tracks in freelancing.This is a major reason behind the plethora of content writers you see today. A freelance writer can reach great heights once he or she perfects the art of writing and indulge themselves in the profession.
There are several categories within freelancing writing one can pursue, copywriting, editing, blog writing, b2b writing, and others. Each one of them is an entire world in its own sense. The process of becoming a freelance writer within any of these mediums is all similar.
A freelance writer with enviable skills can easily earn more than 50,000 INR per month in India, in fact, even more. In this article, we will talk about how to become a good freelance writer. So without any further ado, let’s get right into the business.
Writing capabilities in terms of grammatical expertise and eloquence is the base requirement. If you don’t know the difference between they’re and there, and is completely clueless about vocabulary and grammar, no one’s going to be interested in your write-ups. Hence, having command over the written form of the language is essential.
You can become a freelance writer in literally any field and industry. However, if you have some experience and expertise in a certain field, any piece you write related to that domain is a notch higher than writing on a totally alien topic. For example, if you have done some cool projects related to Blockchain and know the nitty-gritty details about it, the information you’ll impart via a Blockchain-based article will be a treat to read. So make a list of the domains and fields you have knowledge about. Go through your work experience, education, hobbies, other activities you follow, and the topics people reach out to you for advice as to the guiding star, this is how you build a niche. Figure out the overlap between a profitable freelance writing niche and your background and then work on it.
Choose a Niche
Once you have a list of topics and domains decided, it’s now time to prioritize them. There’s going to be one topic where your experience and expertise triumph over the other shortlisted topics. While the ability to write on multiple topics as a freelancer is appealing, establishing credibility in one genre is better for the writer and shows their excellence in the said genre. Keep in mind that it may take some time to figure out what your niche is. Don’t be afraid to start broad and then narrow down as you go.
Research About Your Niche
Once you get your niche, you need to research further. Make a comprehensive list of businesses, agencies, social media accounts, blogs and websites of the big shots in the industry dealing with that same genre. The more you know about the industry, the better off you are going to be. Having a list and the contact information of all relevant individuals in the niche get you through a long way.
Create Your Target Audience
Figure out the potential clients who will be interested in your write-ups. You should ask questions like who are they? Where do they live? How much money do they have? What do they do for a living? What do they do for fun? These are some indicators to get a good sense of the audience you want to market yourself to.
The more you can get in their head and understand their needs, the easier it becomes to showcase your offerings. Say, you want to start writing about smart homes and connected devices. Make a list of all the products the target audience uses every day, it could be smartwatches, audio systems, Alexa, and whatnot. It could be a connected car technology. These components fit in the smart home universe. Remember, the aim is to establish a deeper connection with the client.
Make a list of the different resources the target audience uses to get information online. You want to be familiar with the concepts and the trending news in the niche domain chosen.
So, when you are talking to potential clients you have to be upto date relevant and be speaking the same language as them. Then, start thinking about what can you write. It might be product blogs, trade magazines, trade publications, industry sites or others. You can start breaking it down, you should have a good idea of the types of people you are going to pitch.
When it comes to the type of writing, there’s a long list as well. It could be a blog post, white paper, thought pieces, E-books, product launches, sales email. By the time you are done with all the decisions, you have a game plan and is ready to go. Now, it’s time to start putting the business into motion.
Build Your Portfolio
You can use Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress. WordPress is the most flexible and robust way to build a portfolio at present. New resources like Ghost are also coming up. You are not necessarily using this website to find a bunch of new clients, and it is probably going to take some time for you to rank in search engines. You need to build up content on this website where people can organically find you and your portfolio.
One doesn’t need an over-the-top website. An about page, contact page, portfolio page, and an appealing homepage would suffice to start with. You may also have a rates page where you talk about your pricing. Adding a link to your blog is an awesome way of showing off your writing ability. You can have a handful of samples that shows the different writing types you are capable of offering as a freelance writer. The aim is to give people concrete visibility which sets you apart from other random freelance writers down the street.
Platform for Freelance Content Writing
After confirming your niche, one needs to look for platforms where they can get freelance content writing jobs. Sites like Contently, Skyward, and Freelancer are some platforms to seek freelance writing assignments. They have the best-paying customers and clients and you can reach out to them directly. Having some projects done on freelancing websites helps build a profile and makes it easy to find new leads.
Email Marketing
Sending a personalized cold email is a famous way to gain clients. It can be painful, tedious, and time-consuming, but it works overtime. It is truly a numbers game if you send 500 personalized emails even if it takes a couple of months to do it. Email marketing is surely one of the best form of marketing.
You will get clients this way, and some of them will become permanent. The key to doing this correctly is not sending the same email template to every prospect. That’s not going to work. Take time to research, the person you’re pitching to, and send a personalized email. It’s a matter of dedicating some time. These people probably get dozens of emails. Do something to reflect the time and efforts you put in and that you respect them enough to send something personal beyond a blanket template email.
Seeking Clients Through Social Media
This is important for any freelancer and not just a freelance writer. LinkedIn is phenomenal for building relationships via social media. Most people don’t think about it, they overlook LinkedIn even though that’s where most of your target customers are hanging out.
Identify organizations and companies that are looking for freelance content writers. This will also give you an idea of what’s in demand with respect to a content writer, what do the majority of the job descriptions seek, these details worth a lot.
Go to LinkedIn and click on the jobs section; you might get lucky and find some engaging projects. If not jobs, connect with people who work for the type of organizations listed above. Look for people with titles related to marketing, content, or social media.
Send a contact request with a personalized introduction. Under any circumstance, do not directly pitch for a job in the first introduction. Establish a connection, start a relationship, and get the conversation going. If you do this with enough people in your industry, there’s a good chance of finding some freelance jobs along the way.
Think Yourself as a Brand
You have to be consistent with your effort. Have a plan for building relationships and clients? Spend some time every single day on marketing your business, be it by sending emails, talking to people on LinkedIn, working on your website, creating content for yourself, meetups, or looking on freelancing platforms for projects.
Think of yourself as a brand, a business that has to succeed on all frontiers. If you truly invest in yourself and treat the entire process akin to building a business, you will secure plenty of paid writing assignments over time. It will help transition from being unhappy to bringing in money accompanied by newfound skills to building a long-term content writing business.
Conclusion
After Covid-19, the freelance market of the world has increased tremendously, people have found their peace in this way of employment and are preferring it over a 9to 5 job. Freelance writers are in great demand and with the current ongoing trend, the demand is only going to increase in coming years.
FAQs
Do freelancers get paid?
Freelancers get paid after completing their work.
What does a freelance writer do?
A freelance writer is a self-employed person who writes articles, copy and and other types of content.
How many people are involve in freelancing?
Approximately, there are 1.1 billion people who are freelancers.
Business Development refers to the actions such as initiatives, plans, and concepts designed to make a business more efficient. It is the process of making business-related decisions that are strategic and accelerating the expansion of business, generating more revenue and maximising profits by forming strategic partnerships.
Before we go into the topic, let’s take a look at who a business development manager is.
A Business Development Manager is the person who creates a growth plan which is centred around the financial benefits and satisfaction of customers. They could play a variety of roles throughout an initiative. This could affect the long-term performance of a company. The company’s business development team are always looking for new ways to make money.
Different businesses development activities are executed in various departments, including marketing, sales and management, along with managing vendors and their products. These include networking, negotiation collaborations as well as cost-saving strategies and collaborations. These various divisions are led by the goals to develop business. The tasks of business development are carried out internally or with the assistance of an expert in the field of business development.
Roles & Responsibilities of a Business Development Manager
The Roles & Responsibilities of Business Development Manager Explained
A Business Development Manager is required to fulfil essential duties and responsibilities. They have to accomplish both long and short-term objectives. The main tasks of a business growth manager are listed below.
Recognizing and attracting salespeople with the appropriate abilities to increase sales performance.
They should coach and supervise their sales team in order to improve their performance.
Make sure that the resources are managed according to the budget requirements for executing the business plan.
Examine the needs of customers and the conditions of a market that is competitive. This aids in making an improvement in the preparation and implementation of sales plans.
New business opportunities can be created through networking, cold-calling and more.
Enhance the marketing strategies to increase awareness of the product offered by the business through coordination with the marketing department.
Make sure that the information is communicated about the most recent business information is shared among the corporate communications team, sales staff and management as well as customers.
These are the mosteffective strategies for business development:
1. Recognize Your Competitors
The primary strategy for business growth is to understand your competitors. You must evaluate the services they provide and analyze the factors that make your company stand out from the rest of the pack.
2. Tap the Right Opportunities
It is advisable to check your contacts with those you intend to strike the deal with. It is essential to identify potential customers to work with. It is essential to search the market for an effective partnership before signing any contract.
3. Pay Attention to Your Website
In today’s world, the appearance of a website is important significantly. It is because the majority of consumers browse through websites for businesses prior to making a choice. Therefore, it is important to include videos and other new features to your website to be the most popular choice for potential customers.
4. Sharpen Your Listening Skill
Being able to listen is the best method of business development that one can employ to grow their business. The role of the business manager is to know the viewpoint of the client, the issues or problems and the type of work that is done. Therefore, they must be a good listener in order to expand their business.
5. Take a Look at Online Reviews
Nowadays, customers read online reviews to determine if they are required to conduct business with a certain business or not. So, it is important to create a Google notification for your company to track responses to online reviews as needed.
6. Focus on Client’s Requirement
It is important to communicate what the client wants instead of presenting the services you offer. You must be attentive to the concerns of your client to ensure that you tailor your services according to the needs of your client.
7. Time Management
Never say – I don’t have time, because time management is among the most essential abilities that every successful entrepreneur should have. It’s all about prioritizing tasks. First, complete the work that is important and then move on to other tasks.
8. Offer Quality Services
When you begin working with customers, it’s time to please them with top-quality services. The client should be given a strict deadline in order to be able to access new business opportunities following the completion of one task.
9. Innovation At Its Best
If you can offer something unique to your clients, it is likely that they’ll continue to do transactions with you. Everyone wants items or solutions that have most recent on the market.
10. Networking Events
Make sure you maintain the network. Being in the office and making different plans does not help by yourself. You must attend various business gatherings that aid in building your network.
List of Business Development Tools
Often used tools for business development
There is a myriad of business development tools that could help to improve your business. A few tools used by business executives in business development include:
Semrush
If you’re searching for organizations to work with, Semrush will help us identify the most lucrative commercial opportunities. Semrush is a SaaS (software as an online service) platform. It provides subscriptions to marketing analytics software and online visibility. It also offers keyword strategies as well as reports on data. The platform was founded by Dmitry Melnikov and Oleg Shchegolev in 2008.
Semrush provides so many functions and insights. It is mainly utilized in the implementation of digital marketing and strategic planning. The tool has advanced functions such as competitor insights, topic research, SEO audits, lead generation tools, and keyword position tracking.
Every business development team needs a powerful email tool that can assist them with their outreach. AWeber is a great email marketing tool that can send different email campaigns. Also, you can schedule an automated sequence by using this tool.
It allows to tag different emails based on clicks and open rates. That will help to categorize your prospecting lists, to keep the most interested ones. It includes advanced features like drip campaigns and A/B testing. AWeber is designed in a way that is easy and intuitive to use. It was founded by Tom Kulzer in 1998.
InstaPage, Inc. is an online software business based in America. It was founded by Tyson Quick in 2012. Additionally, he is the current CEO of the company. InstaPage is a great tool to design and create custom landing pages. You can design a custom page that is targeted at the business rather than posting a link to our business partner on our public home page.
InstaPage has a feature called Heatmaps. It allows you to see which users are scrolling and clicking most on the page. It helps us optimize conversions.
Fiverr
Fiverr is a great tool to assign certain tasks to others, such as freelancers. It allows us to concentrate on the important work by delegating repetitive tasks to other people. Additionally, it helps us save time. Fiverr is demonstrating a different method of freelance work.
It lets you browse the site exactly as you would shop instead of creating a post and taking bids. Fiverr was established in 2010 by Shai Wininger along with Micha Kaufman. There are so many options available on the website. It provides writing, translation, graphic design, programming and editing videos, among others.
Canva
Canva is a fantastic platform for graphic design. It lets users create posters as well as social media images, documents, presentations and other visual media. It is available both on mobile devices and on the web. It incorporates a wide variety of templates including fonts, images, and illustrations.
Users can choose designs from the range of designs designed by professionals, and then edit the designs. It also allows users to upload images using the Drag and Drop interface. Paid subscriptions, which include Canva for Enterprise and Canva Pro also come with additional options. It was created in 2012 by Melanie Perkins, Clifford Obrecht along Cameron Adams.
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social network that focuses on employment. It is home to around 706 million members spread across 150 countries. Users can search for things related to work on LinkedIn. It is mostly used to facilitate professional, social and career-related networking. Employers post jobs to locate candidates. Additionally, job candidates post their CVs to be considered for a position.
The website functions to serve as an internet-based directory for professional and non-professional organizations. Additionally, it lets you find people based on their jobs and establish connections. It assists in expanding our networks. LinkedIn was created in 2003 byReid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, and Jean-Luc Vaillan.
We know now who the business development manager actually is, and what his roles and responsibilities are. The strategies they employ to grow their company, and the tools commonly used for business development, can make them stand above the rest of their competition.
FAQs
What is the business development process?
Business development is the process that is used to identify, nurture and acquire new clients and business opportunities that increase profitability and growth. A business development plan is a document that outlines the strategies you’ll employ to achieve that goal.
What does the business development manager do?
The job of a business development manager is to find prospects for sales, pitch products or services to potential customers and maintain a positive connection with new customers.
What are the roles and responsibilities of a business development manager?
The role and responsibilities of a business development manager include:
Recognizing and attracting salespeople with the appropriate abilities to increase sales performance.
They should coach and supervise their sales team in order to improve their performance.
Create business plans and effective sales plans to meet the goals of sales.
Implement training and programs to improve abilities. Also, address the issues discovered in the business.
Make sure that the resources are managed according to the budget requirements for executing the business plan.
Which are the most effective business development tools?
Here’s a list that includes the most effective tools for business development.
SEMrush
AWeber
InstaPage
Fiverr
Canva
LinkedIn
What are the strategies for business development?
Strategies for effective business development include:
LinkedIn is known as one of the most prominent social networking site for the professionals around the world. These facts and statistics based on LinkedIn will guide you to successfully use the site for your benefits. The users of this platform can create online resume, list out their current and previous job roles, and most importantly their skills and education. This site connects the LinkedIn members to the jobs available based on their criteria. The LinkedIn website also allows its users to be endorsed by other users for their individual skills.
The members can also further join professional groups that are relevant to their interests. LinkedIn also allows business to create their companies profiles and put out their current vacancies. Giving the members an opportunity to apply for these positions directly through its interface. It also provides a platform for publishing with the thought of facilitating leadership in the business world.
Demographics are further divided based on sex, age and geographical location
The LinkedIn user distribution worldwide.
Age:
37% of the users are from the age group of 30 to 49 years old, 28% of them are 18 to 29 years old and 24% of them are 50 to 64 years old while 11% of them are above 65 years old and above.
While marketers can only reach 12% of people aged 18 years or older with the help of adverts on LinkedIn.
37% of the American adults and 51% of US college graduate are on LinkedIn.
Out of the 2 billion millennial globally, 87 million millennial are on LinkedIn with 11 million in decision making positions.
Sex:
57% of the overall users are males and 43% of the overall users are female.
29%of LinkedIn users are males and 24% of the users are females in an average session.
43% the LinkedIn ads audience is female while 57% of their LinkedIn audience is male.
Geographical location:
LinkedIn is spread out to more than 200 countries while representing 30 companies from all over the world by 2019.
33% of the users come from urban areas while 30% are from suburban and 10% from the rural areas.
The countries with the greatest reach are: USA (167,000,000), India (64,000,000), China (50,000,000), Brazil (41,000,000) and UK (28,000,000).
More than 70% of LinkedIn users are from outside the USA.
LinkedIn has an overall of 675 million users from all over the world, while 310 million of them are monthly active users. 38.6% of the LinkedIn traffic comes from the countries like US with 38.6% and India with 16.8%.
Other facts based on the users of LinkedIn
Out of those 4% of them engage on a daily basis. While most user only spend 17 minutes on LinkedIn per month.
According to the study done by Pew Research Center 2018 Social Media Use study, LinkedIn is popular among youth as 50% of the college graduates in the USA are LinkedIn users.
44% of the LinkedIn users in the US take home more than $75,000 per year which about their national medium.
Although the US has most LinkedIn users at 167 million, 70% of the LinkedIn users come from outside the US.
Linked in has 2 new members every second, but their goal is to reach 3 billion users and also to be the hub for every job posting across the estimated 70 million companies worldwide.
LinkedIn profiles that have photos get 21 times more views and 36 times more messages.
LinkedIn users spend an average of 10 to 20 minutes on the site regularly; visiting 8 to 9 pages.
122 million users have been invited to an interview through LinkedIn, with 35.5% million getting a job through someone with whom they are connected.
In 2016, Microsoft acquired the company for $26.2 Billion after recognizing the value of LinkedIn. Since its acquisition, LinkedIn’s Financial have been consolidated with Microsoft’s. However, unlike other social media platform that rely on advertisements for revenue. LinkedIn services are something that users are willing to pay.
The annual revenue amounted to almost 6.8 billion U.S dollars.
In 2018, it contributed $5.3 billion in revenue. In 2019, revenue increased by 27%.
Linked generates more than $454.000 per employee.
Most of LinkedIn Revenue is generated from three of its main major services
Talent solutions:
Before the acquisition of the company in 2016, 65% of third quarter revenue, totaling $960 million which came from recruitment services called Talent solutions. This service helped companies in hiring employees and learning and development (L&D) to the existing employees of the company.
Marketing solutions:
This solution provides a platform for the companies to advertise to LinkedIn users. In 2016, it accounted for 18% of the total revenue or $109 million from the combination of advertising to the online marketers and the sale of sponsored updates posted to a target audiences within the members of the LinkedIn feed.
LinkedIn Premium:
The four tiers of LinkedIn Premium
A total of LinkedIn users pay for LinkedIn Premium which now has four price tiers:
Premium Career – meant for those looking for job opportunities in any field. It includes in mail messages per month and in demand videos, as well as the ability to see who viewed your profile. The monthly subscription fee is $29.99/month and INR 1400 per month.
Premium Business – This service gives you additional information about business and unlimited people searches. The business owners, MSME and Startups prefer this as it’s pretty much a pocket friendly option for them. The monthly subscription fee is $59.99/month and INR 1900 per month.
Sales Navigator pro – This allows the user advanced search filters, access to different sales tools and the ability to make notes on the user profiles. It is mostly chosen by the companies who lookout for some good quality leads through LinkedIn products. The subscription fee is $79.99/month and INR 3900 per month.
Recruiter Lite – This service suggests them the top recruiters especially associated with the MNC’s go for this plan. The main purpose for them is to get a good amount of job application for the opportunities they have. The subscription fee is $119.95/month and INR 5000 per month.
LinkedIn is the No. 1 B2B marketer because it distributes content at 94%. It makes up more than 50% of all social traffic to B2B websites and blogs. Only 3 million users share content on weekly basis, while 1 million users publish an article on LinkedIn.
Content marketing done by LinkedIn
97% of B2B marketers utilizes it for their content marketing efforts.
The professional content posted gets 15x more content impressions than job postings with 57% consuming content on mobile.
280 billion feed updates are viewers annually.
92% of the B2B marketers includes LinkedIn in their digital marketing mix.
If the posts are split into 5, 7 or 9 headings perform the best on the site.
The articles titles between 40 to 49 characters perform the best on LinkedIn.
The articles perform better without video than compared to the ones that contain a video in them.
45% of marketers have gained customers by using this platform, 65% of the B2B companies have LinkedIn paid ads services to acquire customers
80% of the B2B leads come from LinkedIn then compared to 13% from Twitter and 7% from Facebook.
In LinkedIn the content that gets the most shared are the long form of content.
It is an effective platform for lead generator and customer acquisition. It is even 277% more effective than Facebook in generating leads.
Last but not the least LinkedIn is the most top rated paid social media platform with 76% of B2B content marketers using it.
