Managing a fast-growing business with LinkedIn: Gregg Spiridellis, Jib-Jab

Sometimes business opportunities grow legs. Gregg Spiridellis found out in 2004 when a video by his digital studio, JibJab, took off. Though JibJab had been producing since 1999, their video "This Land" touched a nerve during the heated election year and was soon ubiquitous, even being played in Antarctica and the International Space Station. And this before the advent of YouTube.

Gregg was inundated with offers, emails... and LinkedIn requests. Having never heard of the site before, he sent off a "flaming" email to customer service. But Gregg now calls LinkedIn "the best thing in the world", and uses it regularly to manage the growth of his studio. He's used LinkedIn Jobs to recruit and find the best talent, saving tens of thousands in recruiter fees. He reviews polished profiles to compose job specs. And perhaps most impressively, he conducts competitive intelligence research on LinkedIn Companies to help reverse-engineer his own org as it grows.

JibJab is now making moves in the interactive greeting card business. Something they're doing must look good to investors — they've just raised $7.5 million in new funding. Presumably none of that came from LinkedIn CEO and serial investor Reid Hoffman, though Gregg plans a penance for that hasty email if they ever meet...

LinkedIn User Snapshot

Who: Gregg Spiridellis, CEO, JibJab (Los Angeles, CA)

How: Gregg uses LinkedIn to help manage the explosive growth of his company.

LinkedIn Tips from Gregg

Maintain your privacy but stay open to business opportunities on LinkedIn:

• Manage your privacy in Account & Settings to restrict unwanted connection requests
• Find talent via LinkedIn Search or LinkedIn Jobs to save on recruiting fees
• Conduct free research on LinkedIn Companies to see how successful firms are modeled

Check out the Learning Center to learn more about using LinkedIn