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
trackback
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Mike O'Neil January 15th, 2009
I always look at the profiles of people in LinkedIn news stories. I look to see if big sections are missing like a Summary. Never know what I will find.
Geoff Higgins January 15th, 2009
A great story. My family and I used JibJab’s e-card this Christmas and it was a very cool and zany use of internet technology.
…Geoff
Michael Quale April 29th, 2009
Very cool, and so true. Sometimes you cannot predict when something is going to takeoff. Be prepared for it, it has happened to us more than once.