Vetting a corporate buyout with LinkedIn – Steve Hassett, The Weather Channel
What would you do if someone cold-called you to pitch a corporate buyout? Over the phone, that might be an awkward conversation. By email, it’d probably be dismissed as spam. But on the strength of an InMail via LinkedIn, The Weather Channel went on to acquire two significant vacation rental sites last year.
In June 2007, Steve Hassett received an InMail asking if The Weather Channel might be interested in acquiring LakeRentals.com and CoastRentals.com, two sites founded by web entrepreneur Brant Bukowsky of Columbia, Missouri. LinkedIn first enabled Brant to find the right person at The Weather Channel for the pitch. In return, LinkedIn then enabled Steve to surmise that the opportunity was legit. A detailed investigation followed, revealing that LakeRentals and CoastRentals had grown by 50% for six consecutive quarters.
Three months after the InMail, The Weather Channel acquired both websites. “As a result of that success,” Steve said, “I went on to rewrite my profile to make it more of a billboard for what we’re trying to do.”
LinkedIn User Snapshot
Who: Steve Hassett, Vice President, International & Emerging Businesses, The Weather Channel Interactive (Atlanta)
How: The Weather Channel Interactive is always looking for dynamic web properties to acquire. By having a profile on LinkedIn, Steve has an official presence through which he can field incoming opportunities. Without LinkedIn, incoming opportunities might get hung up in a company phone directory or left in a dead letter box. An official profile helps people searching LinkedIn to find the right person for the right opportunity.
LinkedIn Tip from Steve
Make your profile a billboard for what you do
• Summarize your professional experience and goals to reflect what you’re trying to achieve in your position
• Fill out a complete professional history, adding positions to represent your experience
• Add hyperlinks to the properties or websites that illustrate your accomplishments – and select “Other” from the drop down menus to give each an interesting title
Check out the Learning Center to learn more about using LinkedIn
trackback
http://blog.linkedin.com/2008/09/10/vetting-a-corpo/trackback/
Anthony September 10th, 2008
I am a Director of a company called Nubax and we are currently seeking seed capital to take our product International. Do you have any suggestions about how I could do this using LinkedIN? Any help would be appreciated.
Mike Wise September 13th, 2008
This is an awesome story. Thanks for sharing. Funny story – I was at an insurance marketing industry conference last January. All week I was asking people, “Are you on Linkedin?” Most said, “Yeah, but I don’t really know about it…” At one point, this one guy said flatly, “I don’t have time for that.” OK, this guy is in MARKETING!!! So I gave him a look that said, “You’re an idiot.” A few months later, one thing led to another, and I find myself in Manhattan having coffee with the SAME GUY. I had forgotten “the look”. The conversation turned to the Social Web and I asked again, “Are you on Linkedin?” Funny. They guy said, “No, but I understand it’s important to you. You gave me a killer look the last time we had this conversation.” Too funny. So I just forwarded this article to him! And I’m also linking to your blog from mine where I’m writing a story about how I use Linkedin. http://blog.insurance-technologies.com/
Keithen September 14th, 2008
Emotional intelligence, a concept made popular by the groundbreaking book by Daniel Goleman, which is based on years of research by numerous scientists such as Peter Salovey, John Meyer, Howard Gardner, Robert Sternberg and Jack Block, just to name a few. For various reasons and thanks to a wide range of abilities, people with high emotional intelligence tend to be more successful in life than those with lower EIQ even if their classical IQ is average. Can anyone share how they are using this testing in the workplace?
Greg September 19th, 2008
Just a heads-up – the word “acquisition” is misspelled in the LinkedIn banner ad that links to this story.
Mario Sundar October 2nd, 2008
@Anthony,
I’d recommend your checking out our Learning Center, which has all the answers you’re looking for.
http://learn.linkedin.com/
@Mike,
Thanks for sharing. Hopefully, we’ll have a success story from your friend in marketing :)
@Greg,
Thanks for the heads-up!
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