LinkedIn discovers the truth about Cannes

Last month I took one for the team here at LinkedIn. I'm happy to do the gig no one wants. I'll suck it up and get the job done. So in early May I booked a ticket for Nice and headed to the Cannes Film Festival.

As the Entertainment Market Manager, my mission at Cannes was to find out how filmmakers were using LinkedIn. Certainly I discovered much about how a bewildered American navigates Southern France without a cell phone or a single Euro. But I also found out the truth about Cannes — the terrible secret they don’t want you to know. Watch the video for more.

LinkedIn sponsored The American Pavilion, a place where yankees can meet and network amidst the fury of the festival. The member badges proudly announced, "I'm LinkedIn at The American Pavilion". There's nothing like a badge to make you feel like an insider. Vis à vis:

LinkedIn is quickly becoming a required utility for the entertainment industry. Studios, agencies, record labels and guilds are all discovering the incredible utility of visualizing your network and making connections you didn’t know you had. For a volatile industry, it helps to know where your people are. Cannes is swarmed with filmmakers, producers and distributors all looking for business. Check out the video for some first-person accounts of how LinkedIn proves invaluable — and here are some more practical tips I found useful.

1) Use status to promote your film or French phone number

Many folks get a temporary phone while they’re in Cannes, which gives them a new phone number every year they’re there. Some have taken to posting their temporary numbers in their status fields – that way anyone over in Cannes can look them up on LinkedIn and get their +33 number. Those that don’t get a French phone can quietly promote the properties they’re shopping at Cannes, like Chatsby Films President Adam Matalon, who posted, “Adam is in Cannes doing business for ‘Seasons In The Valley’ and ‘Death on Demand’.”

2) Include your LinkedIn URL in your email signature

No one in the film business wants to field calls from unknown entities. Validate your career efforts by placing your custom URL (e.g., www.linkedin.com/in/jdvandenberghe ) in your email signature. This enables people to click through and quickly see where you’ve been, what you’re up to now, and why they might take a meeting with you.

3) Upload a photo to make connecting easy

It’s not unusual to make more LA connections in Cannes than you might living in LA. But Cannes is a busy place, and trying to meet up with new people can be hit or miss. Uploading a photo will enable new connections to know the face they’re looking for in a crowd of strangers. And for reconnecting with old colleagues and classmates, nothing beats a familiar face.

4) Link directly to your media properties

As LinkedIn represents your professional brand online, use the three outgoing hyperlinks to send people right to your movie, music, or filmography online. Got your projects on iTunes? Netflix? Amazon? IMDb? YouTube? Link to these and enable people to review your creative efforts first-hand.

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Keep checking the LinkedIn Blog to find out how other industries are using the site to open the right doors and develop opportunities for their companies and careers. I'll be here doing the dirty work for LinkedIn, leaving no stone unturned to get the story. Special thanks to Marcio and Telemetrik for use of their song "Nova"!

UPDATE: Download an mp4 of the video: 320x240 (10.3 MB) or 480x360 (48.9 MB)