Tag: linkedin | Danny Brown

If LinkedIn.com Fails in the Social Network Forest, Will It Make a Sound?

This is a guest post by Kevin Green.

Would anyone be really upset if LinkedIn?s .com destination up and disappeared tomorrow?

It?s safe to assume that recruiters scouring the site for new talent and current shareholders would be pretty peeved, even if the stock (LNKD) is trading at half price from the IPO.?But how would the lack of an online destination really impact everyday users?

Users that are tethered to their mobile phones and enamored by the promise of applications, innovation and integration?

Of the top 10 most trafficked social networking sites, LinkedIn is a bit of an anomaly.?Its success is not dependent on status updates, games or rich media content, but on connecting individuals around professional interests and capabilities.

Even with 135 million registered users, LinkedIn has (not surprisingly) had difficulty keeping the attention of its user base ? with members spending an average of only8 minutes per visit (source: Google DoubleClick Ad Planner).

Compare that to the new social media darling, Pinterest.com. Traffic to Pinterest has grown a whopping 40% in the last 6 months ? and its 13 Million users are spending an average time spent of 15 minutes and 40 seconds on the site ? nearly double time spent on LinkedIn.com.

With numbers like these you can?t help but wonder how LinkedIn will compete for mindshare when interest-based social networks are cropping up everywhere and stealing bigger pieces of the consumer engagement pie?

If I was Reid Hoffman, I?d A) ? be a lot wealthier, and B) ? try a new approach that liberated LinkedIn from its .com chains, and focus more on applications and integration.

From a pure functionality standpoint, the standalone LinkedIn.com destination doesn?t offer anything that can?t be found or easily deployed within Facebook or Google+.? However, as a brand, LinkedIn has established a lot of credibility with business professionals around the world and has become the de facto standard in online CVs.

But there is only so long LinkedIn can maintain that credibility without innovating to better meet user needs ? because it?s only a matter of time before someone does ?LinkedIn? better.

Opportunities and Competitive Challenges

Facebook?s Open Graph applications present an interesting opportunity and risk for LinkedIn.

Of the initial 80+ applications within the Timeline Apps catalogue, Monster Worldwide managed to squeeze in the LinkedIn competitor Branch Out. Although the application struggled initially, the feature set is nearly identical to what is offered by LinkedIn, and deeper alignment with Facebook could gain significantly more interest.

Note – Alison Hillman of BranchOut offered a correction the the comparison Brian makes. You can find more information here.

Considering Facebook?s 800+ million global user base and the staggering amount of time users spend on the social network per visit on average (23 minutes and 20 seconds), Monster?s move to integrate Branch Out deeper into the Facebook ecosystem presents significant risk to LinkedIn?s externally-focused strategy.

To date, LinkedIn has focused more attention on bringing users from Twitter, Facebook and Google+ deeper into its social network.? Users have linked accounts to share their activity in these more populated destinations rather than participate within the LinkedIn destination itself (we?ll see what happens when users realize the Tweets application is no longer supported as of January 31, 2012).

The result has been a redundancy in content and value.? While some of the LinkedIn Groups are thriving, many times it?s still not enough to warrant a separate destination as participation is infrequent and the feature is not dramatically differentiated from circles in Google+ or Facebook Groups.

LinkedIn has traditionally held the user base close to their vest and been strict about third party application development and sharing information.?However, the opportunity to bring down some of those walls, innovate and integrate is now.?While Branch Out may not be a true competitor in the long run, it?s only a matter of time before someone approaches the professional audience and delivers a more seamless experience with a unique feature set.

With such a powerful brand presence, LinkedIn has the opportunity to own the professional dialogue and connectivity across social networks, and not just on LinkedIn.com.

Time for LinkedIn to Re-Engage

As it?s become such a trusted resource in finding, evaluating and hiring employees, the LinkedIn ?Seal of Approval? carries weight and should be amplified to encourage more connections, more conversation and more action.? It?s not a new concept, LinkedIn tried back in 2010 to deploy an application in Facebook, but it failed miserably (9,000 likes compared to 398,347 for Branch Out).? Why LinkedIn chose not to continue its integration with Facebook is a bit of a mystery, but it?s time to re-engage.

The development of a robust application could dramatically increase interaction and time spent among LinkedIn?s core user base.? It also creates an opportunity to gather more data about members and enhance their targeted advertising around interests and behaviors.

If the core functionality of LinkedIn was more portable, then the role of the LinkedIn.com destination moves away from being a standard social network that requires daily participation, to a distributed presence that can more easily integrate with highly trafficked and engaging social networks and eventually, permeate corporate websites.

Just think about how LinkedIn community engagement would change if it was effectively integrated with Facebook, where 81% of users log in at least weekly (in comparison to the 14% of users that log in to LinkedIn)? (Source: Mintel ?Use of leading social networks, June 2011?)

In my opinion, LinkedIn as a social network is too valuable and useful to disappear entirely, but without some strategic adjustments, it faces the biggest challenge from competitors and entrepreneurs.? Segregating itself from others and facilitating fringe connections with Twitter and others is a missed opportunity.

That said, if there was one social network to watch over the next two years, I?d place my bets on LinkedIn, if it strives to innovate and integrate.? Otherwise, LinkedIn could become the MySpace of professional social networking.

About the author: Kevin M. Green is the Vice President, Strategy at Digital Influence Group, a full service digital marketing agency located in the Boston, Massachusetts area.? He blogs regularly at Green Matter Thoughts?and can be reached on Twitter @kevinmgreen.? For more on his professional background, you can visit?Kevin’s LinkedIn profile.

The Best Way to Get Involved in Social Media

This is a guest post from social media consultant Jacob Morgan.

The best way to get involved in social media can be summed up in one word – act. Spending 6 months researching and planning your social media campaign is not the best thing to do. Now I?m not saying don?t have a plan – I?m saying have a plan that you can put together and act on quickly and effectively and make it actionable sooner rather than later.

It?s always a good idea to start listening and getting a feel for your landscape and surroundings, I consider this a part of acting as it involves engaging in the social media space. Every day you spend ?planning? is a day where you are potentially missing hundreds or thousands of conversations/relationships that you could be engaging in.

You have to remember that social media is very dynamic.

New tools emerge daily
Your competition isn?t going to sit still
Brand/company sentiments can change rapidly
You are going to miss out on the conversations that are going on now if you wait
Part of succeeding in social media is about trying new things, it won?t be ?perfect?
There is no formula for success

Your plan is most likely going to change once you actually engage in social media and begin interacting with your users and customers. In fact, your users and customers SHOULD dictate some of your plan; they will tell you what they want, how to build it, who they want to talk to, and what they expect (among other things).

The best thing to do is start small (even while you are still formulating and constructing your plan) because at least you can begin engaging in conversations and building relationships. For example, you may want to create a Twitter account for a customer service representative that can monitor conversations and engage in them. Maybe you want to create a customer facing blog that the company can use to provide some unique company or industry information.

While these conversations and relationships are building you can think of larger more strategic ways to engage with your users, i.e. building microsites, creating your own social network, promoting products/services via social media channels, etc.

Creating a plan is good – acting is better.

Jacob Morgan is a social media marketing consultant and runs a team of Technical SEO’s. Jacob has founded a start-up in the social media space and has worked with brands such as Adobe, Conde Nast, Sandisk and Salesforce. He is an avid and passionate blogger on all things social media and marketing related. He also loves meeting and building relationships with people so say hello and let him know if he can help you! You can connect with Jacob on:
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn

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Social Media is a Language of Its Own

This is a guest post from my wife Jacki. I thought it’d be interesting to get the views of someone who has no real interest in social media and let them explain why. And one thing I love about Jacki is her no-nonsense approach to everything. To learn more or connect with Jacki, please visit her blog Just Kickin’ It.

I was recently asked my views on social media and all the glorious tools therein. Truthfully, my mind went blank. I couldn’t tell you the difference between Twitter and Stumbleupon.

I understand Google as a search engine, so when someone says ?She found me on Google? ? well, that makes sense. But what the heck does ?She sent me a tweet? mean?

This is a hypothetical question, don?t answer it ? I don?t care and will likely forget what it means anyways. If I need to find something I Google it. If I?ve read something I liked and am able to comment I will, if not, well my opinion doesn?t mean a whole lot anyways. I?m not overly devastated if I don?t get to share it.

I recently started a new blog. I still don?t fully understand what that even means. What I do is I write a virtual journal, I rant about the latest current affairs, I discuss in great detail all of the things that irritate me and what the world could do to improve. Mostly it?s social etiquette and common sense.

When I?m bored and feeling creative, I might tell a story or two, involving a little bit of research on my part. I assume since it?s on the Web, anyone can read it. Great, go for it. I just learned what it meant to ?tag?, something which makes sense, but I still don?t know how to do it. So if you can?t find me, well I guess that?s my fault too.

For this I use Blogger. I tried to post a couple of pictures on my recent blog and what a pain that was. I think I?ll stick to journal format from now on in. It?s a personal blog, not professional. It doesn?t have any business purpose, so I?m not trying to draw in any clientele.

My other blog, I run with a couple of other ladies. This is a virtual book club. It?s a bit different than the regular book clubs but it suits its purpose. We use WordPress for this. I can honestly say that after playing with it a bit, it?s far more user-friendly than Blogger. And I?ve mastered the art of adding pictures. I think that deserves a pat on the back right there.

Facebook is a given. But someone listed a bunch of other nonsense:

Twitter
Stumbleupon
Digg
Friendfeed
LinkedIn
Delicious
Reddit
Google Alerts
Google Reader
Monitter
Technorati

What is all of this? It?s a foreign language to me. If you want me to read something, send me a link. I really couldn?t care less what you use to spread the word, or what format you put things in. I?m glad it works for you, really I am. But are all these things really necessary?

Take Stumbleupon for example. There was probably about a month where my husband went nuts with sending me a bunch of things he stumbled upon. One day I watched him send out an email. He had to cut here, paste there, click a few buttons and voila! Seems simple, right? Why the heck couldn?t he just paste the link in a normal email and send that out? Why go through Stumbleupon at all?

And Twitter? This one I can?t get over because it?s all the new rage amongst Social Media Experts and PR Gurus. I guess I don?t understand the Internet world, and what is the point of learning it when it changes on a daily basis?

I use Blogger, WordPress and Facebook. But really, if I want to write something and share it, is there any difference if I use Microsoft Word or Notepad? Couldn?t I just use that and send it off to whomever I want to read it?

If I want it to go public, then using some domain might be an idea, but does it really matter one way or the other what the heck I put it in? Can you tell the difference between Blogger and WordPress, as a reader? Maybe one is more appealing to the eye than the other but it?s more of the same.

So go on and speak your language. But in plain English, you could just tell me, ?Here? read?.

Thanks for listening.