LinkedIn Buys SlideShare

by Natalie Bell

@nebell90

The age-old saying says that two heads are better than one, but in this case two companies are better than one.  LinkedIn, the top professional social network, purchased SlideShare, a site to share presentations, for $118.75 million yesterday.  Both parties are excited for the possibilities to come.

SlideShare's CEO, Rashmi Sinha, shared his opinions and reasons for the partnership in the company's blog.  He writes about his determination to eventually link the two companies.  This has been a long-term goal that he has made possible through connections and determination.  In his words the acquirement is "a natural culmination of this partnership."

LinkedIn is enthusiastic about the partnership as well.  In their blog they say that SlideShare has done a good job creating a portal for document sharing, and the two companies are excited for the possibilities coming out of this merge.  Deep Nishar for LinkedIn says, "This deal enables professionals to discover people through content, and content through people."  Presentations are a great way of sharing knowledge with others in a profession.  They also are great resources to see samples of people's work and true knowledge.

This acquirement by LinkedIn should prove to be a seamless transition.  Both parties say that SlideShare's capabilities will not be lost.  The companies, to prove this true, put together their own SlideShare presentation further explaining the benefits and reasons of the partnership.  To watch please click the image above.

Leverage Social Media By Knowing Which Network To Use

Wordless Wednesday Post: 

LinkedIn Targeted Updates

by Natalie Bell
@nebell90

LinkedIn has been available to professional individuals for nearly a decade.  Initially, the site began very small and grew slowly.  As other social media outlets gained popularity LinkedIn worked to improve.  The site opened up to students in addition to working professionals.  Companies are now able to have pages.  People and companies can post status updates.  One feature that Facebook and Google+ had over LinkedIn was the ability to  post updates to specific audiences.  Google+ has it's circles, Facebook has it's lists, and now LinkedIn has Targeted Updates.

So what are the benefits of Targeted Updates?  As a marketer overseeing our company page, I find this very exciting.  We are working to update our page and add new features -- perfect timing for a new feature to be introduced!  Targeted Updates allows you to send updates to specific subgroups of your followers.  The post will show on the news feeds of those you choose, but be visible to everyone who visits your page.  This means that the people who see the update are the ones most likely to be interested and engage with your company.

Targeted Updates gives you the availability to post to very specific groups based on their page information.  Followers can be broken down through five categories: industry, job function, company size, geography and including/excluding company employees.  Before posting you can sift through your followers to get a narrowed audience and create a higher chance of engagement.

The video below gives a quick explanation and tutorial for using LinkedIn Targeted Updates.

Could We Be Saying "Goodbye" to the Resume?

LinkedIn launched a new plug-in for company websites that will make everyone's life in the job search world a little easier. In addition to the +1, Like, and other buttons that every article seems to have now there will be an "Apply With LinkedIn" button as well. Simply view the job listing online, click the button, and voila! you have sent in all your professional info and applied for a job!

As a student going into my senior year of college, I think this will be a huge weight off my peers' shoulders. There are countless job search sites that allow you to submit cover letters and resumes, but for each site you need to first upload the documents. This LinkedIn plug-in will eliminate making dozens of separate resumes for each job. Not to say that it is no longer necessary to tailor each application to each specific position; it will just be much easier now.

Once you click the Apply With LinkedIn button your profile snapshot appears with the option to edit. You can then create your profile for the specific position before clicking the button. And what would LinkedIn be without help of connections -- that is the whole point of the site! Once you have applied for the job a screen pops up listing your connections at the company receiving your profile. This feature makes it simpler to request recommendations, which may make the difference between employment or continued searching.

The plug-in will make profiles easily searchable compared to present methods. Each application will be in the same format so sifting through applications for specific qualifications with a few clicks of a mouse. This is a great feature since there is a large possibility for users to go apply-crazy and submit applications to jobs of which they are not qualified.

Overall, I think this is a great addition to the social media world. It is another example of how our world is changing. The almighty resume could be, in the far future, on its way out.

The Missing Link?

As the guy who has taken over programming and web design duties for Daily Axioms the last few months, I've had to make decisions about different sharing features, most important of which have been about what sharing buttons to put up on our site.

What was once an easy decision (one Share This/Add This button and you're done) has been expanded to Facebook buttons, TweetMeme buttons, Twitter buttons, Evernote buttons, and scores of others that I can't rattle off the top of my head. 

Now LinkedIn has added to the mix with a sharing button of their own. That in itself isn't necessarily newsworthy, but what it means for the future of LinkedIn is. 

LinkedIn has achieved rare success and become a part of that pantheon of social media elite along with the likes of Facebook and Twitter. It's carved out and dominated its niche as a professionals' network, steady progressing and evolving along the way.

That's why this new button worries me. Yes, there has always been (and will always be) link-sharing with large social networks, including LinkedIn. The issue is that the entire concept of sharing buttons is predicated upon making link-sharing as fast and easy as possible, which is perfect for networks like Twitter and Facebook.

But LinkedIn isn't meant to be a barrage of links. Users, myself included, enjoy LinkedIn because you aren't inundated with links. And while I understand the reason for posting the occasional story to LinkedIn because it pertains to your industry or has some relevance to your professional life, LinkedIn may be opening the flood gates to overwhelming users with pointless links that other users have no interest in.

Of course, all of this depends on web developers actually implementing it into their sites, which has yet to be seen. And maybe I'm off the mark with how LinkedIn users will receive this new sharing button, but I for one don't believe LinkedIn should try to be something it's not and should stick to being the professionals' network that made it successful in the first place.

LinkedIn Quietly Making Big Strides

These days, if you don't completely overhaul your website's layout or have a possibly-scandalous movie coming out, it can be hard for your social network to get much attention.

This is the problem LinkedIn has been facing, because despite being an afterthought in the minds of many people across the social media universe, the professional-centric network has actually made a few solid upgrades over the last week or so.

These changes include a couple of beta projects like a LinkedIn-Twitter hybrid called LinkedIn Signal (which filters and displays tweets from people in your network) and a LinkedIn Career Explorer that lets college grads see data and stats about their prospective fields to better gauge where their industry is at.

But my favorite change is the upgrade to the company pages on the site, which now feature more prominent "Follow Company" buttons, easier-to-view employee profiles, and graphs that allow you to see the composition of the company. These graphs show the different job functions of the employees, as well as the educational degree and where the employees went to school. Most impressive, you can see the experience levels of the company's employees. Here's Axiom's experience level graph:

As you can see, graphs like these provide simple and usable data that even casual LinkedIn users can get something out of. Also, these graphs will require that employees keep their profiles updated to better ensure their accuracy.

So although LinkedIn's 80 million users are dwarfed by the hundreds of millions who use Facebook and Twitter, they are making the necessary upgrades to stay competitive with these larger networks.

3 Great Points From Today's Java Meetup 612

This morning I got to attend the Java MeetUp 612 social media discussion, with Nicole Harrison (@SocialNicole) and Kate-Madonna Hindes (@GirlMeetsGeek) talking about maximizing your LinkedIn use. It was a great morning of mingling and discussion, and today's post will highlight the 3 points that I found the most helpful.

LinkedIn isn't just a bobber in the water: you need to do something with it.

This was something that Kate said, but was an overarching point that both her and Nicole touched on and alluded to. LinkedIn seems to the social network that people tend to create and then ignore, but like any social media channel requires engagement and involvement to really be effective. If I had to sum up today's Java Meetup 612 in one sentence, that's what it would be.

Don't just name links: let people know why they need to click it.

This was a very interesting point that Nicole made, and she was talking about editing the website links on your profile to say what someone will see when they click it, rather than just what the link is. For instance, if I list Daily Axioms as one of my websites on my LinkedIn profile (which I do), I can change the title of the website link to "Social media news and analysis" (which I did). That way, someone knows what the link is about before they click, and because of that will be more inclined to visit the site. This was one tip I took to heart right away and acted on as soon as I sat down at my computer afterwards.


80% of employers look for recommendations, so yes recommendations do matter.

Both Kate and Nicole discussed LinkedIn recommendations and the best practices behind them. Kate let us know why they're important when she said that 80% of potential employers look for and read recommendations. She also brought up the fact that it's okay to "coach" whoever is writing your recommendation and guide them towards certain topics/projects to write about. That way the recommendations will be more genuine and offer different (yet still relevant) points for potential employers.

Nicole also brought up a great point that the best starting point for someone looking to get a recommendation is to write one themselves. Just like with Twitter, if you want to build your network you need to take the first step yourself and make the effort to reach out.

So there you have it, these were the 3 points that I personally found the most interesting. Obviously there was a lot of other topics we discussed, so I definitely recommend attending these Java Meetups. Check out the Java Meetup 612 Twitter page to get the latest updates about when the next one will be.

Commandeering social media… when you’re not a fan of Apple

I have to confess Apple isn’t among my favorite fruits. That’s actually pineapple. So how can a non-supporter of Apple understand social media if they don’t endorse products like the iPhone 3G or the iPod Touch?

I, myself, am the type of guy who will laugh at a video featuring Steve Jobs getting pied (here’s one featuring Bill Gates), but will pray for his speedy recovery. I get bothered when I walk passed Apple stores in malls and see dozens of people in droves besieging the newest innovation. People save up their hard-earned cash (over saving for a house!) to go out and spend a fortune on these products that keep them tuned out from the world around them.

I’ll even walk passed a jogger with an iPod, thinking to myself they’re "cheating their run." Running was never meant to be accompanied by headphones, and classrooms were certainly not meant to be interrupted by i-type products. Don’t get me wrong – Apple is not the perpetrator of all unsound social etiquette but I do think they have a very secret message, a subliminal undertone: buy and get hooked for life. That’s a long time.

If I continued with this attitude, I thought to myself my knowledge of social media would be rather short-sighted-- if I didn’t jump aboard the Apple app store, as I see the many social media gurus and technology reporters and bloggers often do. So I came up with a routine to navigate social media as Axiom’s social media manager, to avoid the Web traffic from the Apple Store:

1) Every day, I read social media blog posts via subscription to RSS and comments feeds from the following BLOGS:
-Mashable
-TechCrunch
-GigaOm
-Scobelizer
-WebInkNow
-Convince & Convert

2) Thanks to Drew’s master plan, I participate in blog conversation by adding my two cents in the comments section. I oftentimes read comments before posting my own to get a context for the conversation thread. Sites like DISQUS make it easy to understand when a thought is continuing and when it ends.

3) I am on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but nothing else. Reason being: you can often immerse yourself too far in social network profiles and the newest microblogging devices—to a point where you’re wasting time as you click on one link after another. Pretty soon, you’re finding yourself reading about Britney Spears from a 13-year old who happens to like pineapple just like you. And you can’t help but comment on their Piczo account. What are you doing on Piczo anyway?

4) I blog, and good blog posts don’t take 20 minutes. The ones with worthwhile content take hours to compile—tagging, linking, and adding visual elements. My most recent social media epiphany has taught me to reserve about 10 posts and schedule their publishing when the occasion arises.

5) I develop relationships with people in the space. That doesn’t mean I follow 2,000 social media enthusiasts on Twitter (just look at my number) or invite everyone, their mom, and their grand mama to “friend” me on Facebook or join “my professional network on LinkedIn.” It means I engage with the top developers of social media devices, enough so that I can one day meet with them over coffee. After all, isn’t this space about building relationships online that will stick, will cause remembrance and recognition?

A lot of social media advocates may be huge proponents of Apple, but I’m not one of them. And I’m doing just fine.

LinkedIn on Group Conversations

Professionals arrive in droves on LinkedIn, a popular social network made for the professional— so why is their an outpouring of drab conversation in group settings? Usual group participation goes as follows: read a comment in a group, respond to the comment with a link, or completely go off topic and talk about how much you need a job.

This is a conversation format we see too often part of social networks, and we just ignore it. In a not so long ago Minnesota PRSA conference, Peter Shankman informed this entire crowd of professionals that he didn’t like LinkedIn, and now I understand why. LinkedIn is becoming a spam-lover’s domain, one who acts in the guise of a professional.

There is absolutely nothing worse than seeing a comment that does not add value to the topic of conversation. It makes me want to leave a group that has worked so hard to establish its 300-member base.

When jumping on LinkedIn and joining groups, please avoid the following:

• Arriving in a forum or discussion and trying to answer a question to a topic you clearly don’t know anything about. Ask yourself: Can I REALLY answer this?

• Starting your comment with “Great post” and then moving on to tout your business and provide links that force the person out of the topic of conversation

• LinkedIn "easy-handing", meaning don't ask people to link in with you via leveraging a comment thread... yuck.
  

• Not being transparent about your reason for being in the group and saying something like “Here’s some videos that I just found…” when you’re trying to pitch the person you work for, and again—it’s not helpful.

I won’t mention names but here’s a video a person recommended to a women who was looking to develop a social media 2.0 discussion forum on her Web site.

3 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Joining a Social Network

Social media can be overwhelming. If you read Mashable or TechCrunch you could go insane trying to keep up with all of the different social networks and start-ups. It is tempting to join every new network, but unrealistic and definitely not effective.

When joining a new social network ask yourself three things:

1. How much time can I commit to this site?
Don't join a new site unless you can invest time into it. And not just time in creating a profile, I'm referring to active time on the site. It is never useful to join a site just for the sake of joining. It is kind of like having a gym membership, but never actually going. You feel good, but you haven't accomplished anything.

2. Why am I joining this site?
You should have a set objective. Every new network you join should provide some benefit for you. Know what your objective is before you join. I use Facebook for fun, Twitter for learning, and Linkedin for networking. You can have totally different objectives, but it is important to know why you are joining a site.

3. What can I offer?
Do you have ideas or information worth sharing? Or are you joining to just push your website or blog? Self promotion is fine in small doses, but you should be able to offer up something to the community you are joining. Social networks are not about you, they are about the community.

Almost Famous Online

This heifer is almost famous...

But we all want to be famous, because if we didn’t, we wouldn’t be online invading blogs, discussion forums and creating original platforms of our own. To those of you who have a fan base, a faithful following of Twitterers or you accrue relentless postings on your own blog spanning passed two people hammering back at one another, congratulations—you’re a celebrity. But for those of you still not up on social media, limited to maintaining a handle on Twitter, having to search out people to follow, you're not quite there yet.

I’m not quite there yet. I NEED to be everywhere online and it takes a lot of reading, commenting, offering advice—invading spaces, kind of like Hitchcock’s “The Birds” only a let less bloody.

One thing for certain is online spaces can be entirely exhausting and your client begs the question, “Where should we be on the Web?” and “What’s in it for us?” A lot is at stake but social media fanatics can tell you strong ROI is just around the corner. What’s more—If you’re not online, how can your client be?

Does this mean you have to spend 4 hours on Twitter “@-ing” people? Probably. Does it mean you must look for opportunities on LinkedIn to comment on people’s ongoing questions of sound PR tactics or writing a news release for the first time? Probably. Does it mean you must be among the many commenters on a credible blogger’s latest post? Absolutely. Should you start a YouTube series based on blenders? No, that’s already been done.

How up are you on social media? The paparazzi is waiting at your company's front door.

Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon on LinkedIn

This may not come as a surprise to you, but it definitely stunned me. LinkedIn usually sends a disclaimer when you click on a high-profile individual about having nothing in common with the person with who you are trying to connect. Well, what do you know? Kevin Bacon knows someone who knows me.

LinkedIn is a professional ground for not only celebrities but politicians. Look up all of the major politicians you see broadcast over CNN, MSNBC, Nightly News with Brian Williams, and voila-- they have 500+ contacts. Barack Obama has attained the 500+ status; John McCain has too, adding on 30 recommendations part of his tenure as the Arizona Senator.

With profiles that provide a detailed account of a celebrity's employment, or should I say acting history, can we really trust that it is indeed the person whose autograph we so desperately long to have and display?

Regarding politicians on LinkedIn, I'm not sure this is the best way to utilize social media to garner public support. It seems like a third-party website is the best way to reach your constituents. Or then again, maybe those 50 bajillion e-mail messages I receive from my presidential hopeful may do the online political network a bit of justice.

Should you ever want to send Kevin Bacon an e-mail, write to him at KEVIN.BAC0N@hotmail.com. (That's a zero between C and N in BAC0N), he says.

500+ contacts on LinkedIn: Is it worth it?

Those perusing and making contacts left and right might want to reconsider his/her approach to being "connected" on LinkedIn.

Evidently, some connections can be soured by invites to be introduced and when you're sending mass e-mails to other LinkedIn members about employment, events, and questions that should be targeted toward the appropriate parties-- well, it can hurt you. You might be considered a spam artist, seem a little too pushy and move people to reconsider the notion of connecting in the first place. Tread lightly and think strategically on LinkedIn, as it's a great network for your professionalism but inappropriate for announcements or favors.

Check out the Publicity Hound. She sat down with LinkedIn expert Scott Allen and discussed similar topics.

Has anyone received invites from people they didn't know and found them to be a mistake? X-perts would like to know...