Your window to LinkedIn
LinkedIn was started with the goal of helping you manage your professional relationships better, and today we’re launching our corporate blog to not only help you leverage LinkedIn more effectively but also to provide you a sounding board for all things LinkedIn. So, if you’re looking for a singular information source on LinkedIn with regular updates on upcoming product features, tips-and-tricks, and events or if you’d just like to hear about all the fun stuff associated with working at LinkedIn, you have reached the right place.
We have watched the corporate blogosphere evolve into an ecosystem populated with real voices from among a broad range of companies; the LinkedIn blog is another step in that direction. Stay tuned for exciting news we have to share with you on topics ranging from new feature announcements to milestones we've reached.
I’m Mario Sundar, the Community guy at LinkedIn and your blog guide. We consider your feedback an integral part of this conversation, so feel free to share your two cents on how we could make this blog more useful and informative to you.
Kathie Thomas Apr 25, 2007
Great to see and I'll be watching the progress. But one thing I wonder about is that this might become a Q&A forum for the things we can't find in your Q&A section at LinkedIn. I guess that might be why you're looking at comment policy at the moment, amongst other things. Although that might also be your intent and a way to announce updates and changes, etc.
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Hi Kathie,
Thanks for your comment. We see blogs as yet another way to converse with our users.
Stay tuned for updates on new features and announcements.
Jonathan Meath Apr 25, 2007
Congratulations Mario and all at LinkedIn! This blog is an interesting new step in communicating the Value Proposition of LinkedIn.
I am interested to see how you develop this space!
Best wishes,
Jonathan Meath
LinkedInnovators
Stephane MOT Apr 25, 2007
Smart move. You badly needed to enrich your interactive toolkit (ie Q&A can't be a forum, nor host an unsorted user FAQ depot).
You will need clear categories and simple labels for this blog if you plan to keep it manageable (and welcome some content).
Best regards and good luck.
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Thanks! We'll generate relevant categories as we further populate the blog with interesting content.
Vincent Wright Apr 25, 2007
Mario,
Congratulations on the Linkedin Corporate blog!
I'm certain that you have your course plotted but, please consider what TechCrunch has done here on MyBlogLog: http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/community/TechCrunch/
It would be GREAT to see the Linkedin Corporate blog, there!
Congrats!
Vincent Wright
www.MyLinkedinPowerForum.com
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Let me look into that, Vincent. Thanks for your support and ideas!
Connie Reece Apr 25, 2007
Mario, I saw your tweet about the new blog and had to come check it out. I look forward to reading tips about how to get the most out of LinkedIn, which I already consider to be a valuable networking tool. Count me as a new subscriber!
Les Blatt Apr 25, 2007
Welcome to the blogosphere, Mario. Glad to see comments open.
One suggestion: you ought to add a captcha mechanism to filter out comment spam. The ones I've seen are pretty unintrusive, and they do work pretty well.
Les Blatt Apr 25, 2007
I see...the captcha mechanism is on the NEXT page. Ah well. Ignore previous message. The "welcome" part of it still holds though. :-)
Eric Kintz Apr 25, 2007
Congrats Mario and welcome to the world of corporate bloggers!! Eric
Jeremiah Owyang Apr 25, 2007
Linkedin, Mario
Great job launching this, you've taken a step towards building a better company through reaching out to talk, listen with the community that cares about LinkedIn.
Mack Collier Apr 25, 2007
Congrats on the launch Mario, will be interesting to see where the blog goes from here!
Nilsa Apr 25, 2007
Mario - Great to see a blog about LinkedIn! I look forward to future posts. One topic that constantly comes up in forums I participate in is BIG versus SMALL. By this, I mean, is it more to your advantage to keep your LinkedIn network connections small, sticking only to those people you know, have met, etc. ... thus, knowing if you seek a recommendation or to be connected with someone else, the people in your network will be more willing to help you out. Or is it more advantageous to have a large network, full of anyone who will accept your invitation ... knowing you will always have a connection to someone else in the LinkedIn network should you need one (though the connections become less likely to help you out when, say, you seek an introduction to a third person). What does LinkedIn have to say about this???!!!
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Hey Nilsa,
That's definitely an interesting thought. We may delve into the topic in future posts. Thanks for the suggestion. Stay tuned.
dave mcclure Apr 25, 2007
congrats on the launch mario!
look forward to hearing more from LinkedIn :)
btw, let me know if you'd like to have anyone guest blog about how LinkedIn helps improve their opportunities. i'd love to participate.
regards & best of luck,
- dave mcclure
http://500hats.typepad.com/
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Hi Dave,
Thanks for the kind words and the suggestion. We may actually take you up on the offer :)
Easton Ellsworth Apr 25, 2007
Excited to see what you do with this space, Mario. Where will this blog be in six months? That's a big question. Enjoy every minute!
Damon Billian Apr 25, 2007
Glad to see that LI has finally launched a blog!
Hi Nilsa,
I would say that network size is entirely a personal choice.
dbillian.typepad.com.
Lewis Green Apr 25, 2007
Mario,
Count me in as a regular reader. Congratulations! And don't forget to continue your visits to my blog.
Wayne Hicks Apr 25, 2007
Congrats on creating this new venue for 2-way communication with your customers. Should be interesting to watch it develop over time.
peace,
Wayne Hicks
Steven Atkinson Apr 25, 2007
Great idea!
I am having trouble subscribing to the RSS feed as a live bookmark. Anyone else having the "invalid URL" problem?
Anders Abrahamsson Apr 25, 2007
Hi,
Great!
Conversational, Collaborative, Collective, Community towards more Clever :).
After all We are smarter than Me, and blogs is one side of the coin.
What about another one of the tools for emerging collective wisdom, an Official LinkedIn Wiki for all users?
Peace,
Anders
"Networker with a Cause"
PS. You could alwasy recruit some sharp minds from Center of Collective Intelligence from MIT to support a world "for better and intentional networking", right :) ? DS.
Nicki Dugan Apr 25, 2007
A great big welcome to the blogosphere from a fellow corporate blogger. Have fun and feed the beast often. Congrats!
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Hi Nicki,
Kudos on setting a great example with Yahoo's corporate blog. I'd appreciate any feedback you can provide. Thanks!
Steve Ganz Apr 25, 2007
@Steven Atkinson and anyone else having problems subscribing to the feed: It's been fixed and should be working now.
David Berkowitz Apr 25, 2007
Looks great, Mario! I like the LinkedIn profile link bit on the comments box - perhaps you can make it easy for people to search for themselves to populate it, since not everyone will know it off-hand.
Michael Morton Apr 25, 2007
Glad to see LinkedIn finally has a blog. You can bet I'll check back here often.
Hilary Marsh Apr 25, 2007
I'll add my good wishes to the queue -- this is a great idea, and I look forward to reading more about LinkedIn's plans and efforts. I've been a member and a fan for more than two years, and continue to appreciate the LinkedIn community!
Damon Billian Apr 25, 2007
Hi Mario,
Unless I missed it, I don't see a link to the blog on the homepage? Definitely something to consider...
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Damon,
The link should be live on our homepage by tomorrow. Thanks!
Steve Wilson Apr 25, 2007
This is a great idea. I'm looking forward to what you have to say and hopefully learn to use LinkedIn more effectively.
Thanks.
Tim Jackson Apr 25, 2007
Mario,
Welcome to the corporate blogging world, my friend! A very nice start and hopefully only the first in a growing tome of posts.
Tim
Araceli Arroyo Apr 25, 2007
Congrats Mario, and welcome LinkedIn to the blogosphere. I look forward to reading and transfering some of the many conversations from the message board to this new blog.
Takuya Misawa Apr 25, 2007
Congratulations! Finally the Linkedin blog is here!
Biana Babinsky Apr 25, 2007
Congratulations, Mario, I am glad to see a LinkedIn blog! I am looking forward to reading and participating.
Biana Babinsky
Tony D. Abel Apr 25, 2007
Congratulations Mario,
Great to see an extension of information from LinkedIn. I'm looking forward to reading the posting.
Tony D. Abel
dotNet Framework Solutions
Steve Woodruff Apr 25, 2007
Glad to have you here in the Marketing blogosphere. I'll add the blog to the Marketing Bloggers portal (www.pageflakes.com/stickyfigure)
Pete Prodoehl Apr 25, 2007
As mentioned above, it's great to see LinkedIn enter the world of blogging. I look forward to seeing what you can do in this space.
Mario Sundar Apr 25, 2007
Thanks to everyone for your overwhelming support.
Great suggestions from all! Keep em coming...
david grubman Apr 25, 2007
Mario, great to see the blog and I am thrilled to see your impact on the organization. I really believe in the impact that your efforts will have on the brand. As a big fan of the product, I would love to read more insight as to the history, culture and future vision. I want it all man.
good luck.
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David,
Thanks for the kind words. Looks like you're in luck, since our future posts will cover areas you've mentioned.
Louis Gray Apr 25, 2007
Mario, this is a good start. Steve Ganz and I discussed LinkedIn's need for a corporate blog last March. Transparency in this industry will be key for you and the team as you move forward. Looking forward to much more.
Charlie Rodway Apr 26, 2007
Geat improvement for Linkedin. Last month I was debating to renew my Business Membership with Linkedin and took a 'leap of faith' that they would continue to add new features and improve current ones. This blog will give other members the level of visibility required to make that choice. Well done Linkedin!
One suggestion: Limit the amount of photos pulled from Flickr - these are blocked out by our corporate filter as "Personal Network Storage and Backups"
Charles Hodgson Apr 26, 2007
Good initiative, and popular based on the number and tone of the comments.
I wanted to suggest LinkedIn allow for uploading a photo to a profile. I sometimes hear from people, or come across their profiles and think actually seeing their face would help me remember them better.
This ties in to the question of value of large or tight LinkedIn networks. A tight network doesn't need photos, a really wide one would certainly benefit, and all those mid-sized networks where one wonders whether or not to add that iffy contact--would benefit most of all.
Nuno Batista Apr 26, 2007
Great news!
In fact this was somethinh missing in LinkedIn World.
Great jog guys.
Keep the dynamics!
Laurent Bazet Apr 26, 2007
Hi Mario,
Congrats for the blog.
Happy networking to everyone!
Jorge Albinagorta Apr 26, 2007
G'day from Sydney!
Trust the blog is just the tip of the iceberg and it mobilizes the whole organization to establish a more candid and effective conversation from users and clients.
Also hope this channel enables you gain wider reach and depth globally; we'll be certainly paying attention to contribute to the growth of the LinkedIn Australian constituency
John Ebbert Apr 26, 2007
Congrats on the new blog. I (and others at ContextWeb) look forward to reading it. ContextWeb started its corporate blog in February and we have found it a great way to speak to our community of users and the online advertising community, in general.
All the best,
John
http://blog.contextweb.com
Dave C. Apr 26, 2007
Congratulations and welcome from Earthling, EarthLink's blog ( http://blogs.earthlink.net ). One suggestion: in the comment submission form you've got going, is there a way you can make it easier to find the url for my linkedin profile so I can put it with my name? If that's how you want me to identify myself, let me know how to find that quickly without having to open another window. If I'm missing something and it already is easy to find or figure out, let me know what I'm not seeing.
Charlie Apr 26, 2007
Great first step!
Two things.
One, you should burn this feed in Feedburner so you can tell how many subscribers you have. (Typepad has a very easy integration to convert all the people who already subbed to your Typepad feed.)
Two, on asking for my LinkedIn profile... Standard blog protocol is to ask for a link. I am an avid LinkedIn user, but my home on the web is my blog. Asking for a LinkedIn link makes it seem like you don't want to hear from the millions who don't actually use the service or that you only want people using it in some kind of exclusive way.
Also, comment moderation slows down the conversation. Plus, you don't say under what circumstances you approve. If it is to block spam, just write that. If I can't curse, let me know.
Niranjan Apr 26, 2007
Good stuff Mario!
Give us only good news from here on out.
Best wishes blog dude sorry guide,
Niranjan
Sylvain Apr 26, 2007
Just want to thank you all at Linkedin for your work; this blog is another good idea you have. It will be a nice way to see linkedin from the inside (if I may say) and to communicate with us. I have used a lot of different social networking tools through the years, but I must confess that I always come back to Linkedin. Better design, better usability, better network!
Congratulation again and long life to your blog.
Sylvain
http://www.blogontravel.com
Kare Anderson Apr 26, 2007
Mario
Ah a new face besides Reid. Yes, moving beyond the low hanging fruit, it will be fascinating to see what topics you cover re LinkedIn innovations
Catherine Apr 26, 2007
Hi,
A nice way to communicate with users and to inform them of new features.
Good idea.
Cheers
Mario Sundar Apr 26, 2007
@Charles Hodgson: That's an oft-repeated request. Stay tuned for news on that front. We'll also be addressing the small vs. large network theme in a future post.
@Kare Anderson: You'll be seeing a lot of new faces on the LinkedIn blog besides me.
@Charlie: We've outlined our comment policy on the sidebar to the left. And, you have the option of inputting other URLs as well.
@Dave C. & Dave Berkowitz: We've tried to incorporate your request for ease-of-use in the comment field. Take a look and let us know if the changes help.
You can also email me offline with further suggestions at msundar@linkedin.com.
Yulia Apr 26, 2007
This is great, Mario. Now, I know where to go and leave a suggestion when I have an idea. I might repeat, but it would be nice if a user can export the connections into the excel file and import from one. Should be feasible.
What I really enjoy recently is the PDF function that allows to create a file with all recommendations and overview and send it to all the folks that are still missing on the value of being on LinkedIn. I do my best promoting and persuading even the folks from other generation or higher caliber and you guys better do a good job being the number 1 professional networking site! :)
Yulia Apr 26, 2007
Oh, and with the Flickr stream, it would be nice to see names under the faces, that way we know who is who. I find it important to connect a portrait to a name. Thanks!
Mario Sundar Apr 27, 2007
@Yulia: We're working on the naming of the Flickr stream photos.
Andy Roberts Apr 27, 2007
Welcome to blogging, LinkedIn.
Dan Williams Apr 27, 2007
Great start and keep it rollin!
Dan
Jim Stroud Apr 27, 2007
It was a long time coming, but I am sure it will be worth the wait. Welcome to the blogosphere!
-Jim
Achyut Menon Apr 28, 2007
I am delighted at the timing!!
Having been a passive linkedIn user for over a couple of yrs-and often debating on the issue that Nilsa above brought out, I just plunged in a couple of days earlier-trying to reach out to the linkedIn profiles of persons I have corresponded in the past in the course of my business. It has been an interesting experience to get abreast with a lot of them-and am sure staying in touch with add value !!
with the blogging initiative I am hoping to be more sensitive to the dynamics of social networking!!
Keep it up Sundar!!
Jessan Dunn Otis Apr 28, 2007
Congratulations and kudos! I'm delighted to see Mario and LinkedIn join the blogosphere!
Cheers!
Jessan
Jennifer Brown May 2, 2007
I'm very excited to see this. LinkedIn has been steadily improving since I've joined, and I can't wait to see how else it grows. I'm already a local evangalist for it with a couple networking groups I'm with, to the point I've been asked to speak about it. I'll keep watching this space to see what else is in the works.
I've also added it to my blogroll.
Jenn
Brett May 4, 2007
Two suggestions for tweaks to the profile:
1) The ability to add multiple same-level degrees from the same educational institution. For example, people who earn a simultaneous BS and BA currently have to enter/display their school information twice, which they would never do on a resume.
2) The ability to add multiple positions/job titles within an overall company. For example, I'm at Conglomco, Inc. for 7 years, but the first two years I'm Widget Assistant, then the next 3 years I'm Senior Dingus Manager, and so on. Again currently, one has to enter/display redundant information.
Sheilah Etheridge May 5, 2007
Hello Mario,
Great blog. This is a great addition to the site. I am curious though about one thing. Linkedin is working hard to improve the site and address the wishes of the members, yet they never announce the changes and additions to the site. Why is that? In some ways it is almost like anti advertising (smile). I would love to see a new "what's new" link added to the site.
Sheilah
Mario Sundar May 5, 2007
Hi Sheila,
Thanks! We do plan on providing you the latest updates on features, LinkedIn News, etc... via this blog. I presume that's what you're referring to as the site.
Stay tuned and do subscribe to the RSS feed of our blog.
Guillaume Castevert May 7, 2007
Hi,
Good idea to have a blog, its makes communication more interactive and can help share improvement ideas with other users.
By the way, I'd like to suggest a drastic improvement for Linked In, to make it become a truly global company. I live in France and I have been using Linked In for more than a year now and found out that, although Linked In is by far the easiest networking system to use, there is a huge inconvenient at having it work in only one language. Like it or not, not everyone on earth is fluent in English, and many persons I have invited to join will not consider it if it's not in their native language. LinkedIn competitors in Europe like Viadeo or OpenBC have understood that and although their systems are more difficult to use, they could get a key advantage of their multilanguage plaform. Consider that in France only (1% of the world population), Viadeo has already a million users, whereas targeting the whole world, LinkedIn has not yet reached 10 times more. Consider for instance that eBay is working very well in France, because the interface is in French...
In addition, a small suggestion would be allow people to add a photo to their profile, it makes it much more user friendly.
Hope this helps... Thanks for the great job already done!
Sincerely yours,
Guillaume
Andrey Golub May 8, 2007
Mario,
Good Luck to this initiative!
We have in Italy a very popular here LinkedIN Milan Area Users Club, that's also called Business Club Milan-IN (http://www.milanin.com), and we are all happy so much that LinkedIN has also finally launched its Blog (you should have to do this years ago I think!).
I've forwarded this news to the Italian Users of LinkedIn through my Blog, that's also the “Corporate Blog” of Business Networking Club Milan-IN Project.
Here it is, just in the case somebody is interested. The Blog is 50% in English and 50% in Italian (no Russian although I am a Russian guy :lol:):
http://www.milanin.com/members/andrey.golub/weblog/
Once again, the best wishes from the part of LinkedIN Users of Milan Area (actually the North of Italy)!
On behalf of Business Club Milan-IN, http://www.milanin.com/
Andrey Golub,
co-founder & IT Manager
http://www.milanin.com/members/andrey.golub/
Liz O'Donnell May 9, 2007
Greetings all, I'm Liz and I work with Mario at LinkedIn.
@Guillaume: photos & languages are two very popular requests, so we definitely hear you! Several of our most tenured engineers here at LinkedIn are French, so you'll get no objections from them on the French language front, for sure. We will continue to internationalize our product over time - keep checking back for future updates, and thanks for your feedback.
@Audrey: better late than never? we appreciate your comments, and for the link on your blog - ciao a tutti!
Andrey Golub May 11, 2007
Ciao Liz,
Thank you for your intervention!
Btw, we hope to get in touch with you soon about our Italian project and also to speak about the prospects for development of LinkedIN in Europe. It's Pier Carlo Pozzati, the President of Milan-IN, who's gonna talk with you, I believe you remember Pier Carlo.
Mario, thanks for having approved my comments. I suppose you've looked at our Italian LinkedIn Club and found it interesting. We try to keep all site content bi-lingual, it's because Milan-IN is an International Club for people interested in Business Networking with the economic heart of Italy.
Kind Regards,
Andrey Golub
http://www.linkedin.com/in/andreygol
http://www.milanin.com/members/andrey.golub/
Mike May 14, 2007
Mario, Liz,
What a good idea this blog. I've long been meaning to ask whether it wouldn't be possible to add a toolbar for other PIM clients besides Outlook - or create an interface so that the KDE / GNOME guys can write one themselves?
Cheers,
Michael
Pier Carlo Pozzati May 16, 2007
Better late than never!
I am very happy to meet you all here!
Congratulations Mario and Liz!
We love LinkedIn! Now, with the blog, more than before ;)
@Liz: As Andrey said, Milano is the economic heart of Italy and our Club have about 1000 members all of them linkedin members (we only accept linkedin users in our Club)... and lot of them already met during our Mmonday Meeting: "introduce yourself"... we meet under the flag of Milan IN... and LinkedIn of course! I hope that very soon we could do something together
Bud Labitan May 23, 2007
Does LinkedIn have a meeting room for folks online who wish to chat? Say one for Marketing, Finance, Accounting, etc...................
corsiingleseijn Jun 1, 2007
Greetings..
you shared the creative job .
There were a post and author was want to read about [URL=http://corsi-ial.italy-school.com]corsi ial[/URL]
Agrigento al fondo centro ai formazione realizzazione segreteria fine.
And... I want to elect unique pages where presents http://formazione-a-distanza.italy-school.com/ - formazione a distanza
May be I surf badly :-/
Robert Hannan Jul 9, 2007
I am having problems navigating the site - is there a technical problem as I have not experienced this up to this point.
Julianna Souza Sep 6, 2007
Since the first week of August I have been unable to implement any commands on my Linkedin site. I cannot access my account, make changes to my profile, accept or extend invitations. Initially I sent an email to customer service - it took nearly two weeks to receive a response -a small percentage of users are experiencing a "loop problem" - several suggestions were made by Bob from customer service - delete cookies and history - none of his suggestions worked. A few days later I received a carbon copy of that email from Rob at customer service making the same suggestions to correct the problem - when I informed him Bob had already contacted me with the same suggestions and nothing worked Rob replied the engineers were working diligently to fix the problem - that was August 13!
I have left two voice messages for Dan Nye, CEO of Linkedin informing him of the problem - to no avail - he never responded to my calls.
A colleague accepted an invitation to connect a month ago and she still has not been added to my network. I have been totally unable to utilize my linkedin site for more than a month - AND nothing has been done to address the issue - Dan Nye doesn't even bother to respond. I thought this was the premier networking site for professionals? Is anyone else suffering with this "loop problem"?
Richard Wilson Jan 12, 2008
Using Linkedin.com and writing in my blog have made ALL of the difference in my career. It makes me seem web 2.0 savy, connects me with literally thousands of professionals each month and has lead to over 20 job offers in the past 2 years. You guys should have a donation page like Wikipedia has done lately, I bet a few thousand people would send you money that you could donate and write off or use to release some new Linkedin Blog products or something.
If you need any quotes from professionals for your own marketing materials let me know, I'd be happy to provide some very specific example stories.
Cheers.
- Richard
Richard@RichardCWilson.com
http://hedgefundblogger.com
p.s. I'm looking forward to the updated Group directory so I can see what other groups are already out there.
Olga Ocon Feb 25, 2008
I came across your blog while searching a solution to my login looping problem on LinkedIn... if anyone figures out a solution please ping me as I am having extreme difficulty adding anyone to my network!!!
Thanks!
Olga
sağlık May 1, 2008
I am having problems navigating the site - is there a technical problem as I have not experienced this up to this point.
Bud Labitan May 11, 2008
Does Linkedin have a way for me to promote my new self-published book?
My new book called "The Four Filters Invention of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger" examines the basic steps they perform in making an investment decision. Warren Buffett mentions the Four Filters this way: "Charlie and I look for companies that have a) a business we understand; b) favorable long-term economics; c) able and trustworthy management; and d) a sensible price tag." These Four Filters can enhance the probability of our investment success. I think they will help you in your search for intrinsic value and sensible investment. My book is available at www.frips.com
Here is a 10 min. audio book summary:
http://www.frips.com/4fsummary.mp3
Contact me, or pass this on in a method that you see as most appropriate.