LinkedIn News Roundup: Answering Barack Obama and Bob Sutton
A LOT of news this past week. The LinkedIn Answers' Tech Entrepreneurship alone deserves a separate post. This past week saw Presidential candidate Barack Obama ask a question on LinkedIn Answers on startups and small business, which has already received (as of 9/15/2007) nearly 1500 answers and counting. As part of the same initiative we also have author Robert Sutton of the "No Asshole Rule" ask an open question, which you can answer here. (Related news coverage can be found on CNN Money, Mashable, MediaBistro, Webware, Silicon Valley Business Journal, Social Networking Weblog, etc...)
Besides the Tech Entrepreneurship initiative, here's a slew of news snippets on all things LinkedIn - from the Wall Street Journal to the latest Nielsen/NetRatings for the month of August 07.
Wall Street Journal | Job seekers: Put your web savvy to work
Ben Foster, a product manager at a Web-marketing firm in California, changed jobs after getting a message on LinkedIn from a recruiter who'd seen his profile.
Approximately 200,000 corporate and search-firm recruiters belong to LinkedIn, which has more than 13 million members in total, according to a spokeswoman.
Many networking sites for business professionals charge membership fees. But most also offer free access to basic features so you can determine if joining is worthwhile.
San Jose Mercury News | Momentum gains for MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook
LinkedIn takes a completely different approach from the other two. With its 14 million members, it is a great way to broaden your professional network. It started in the Bay Area, where the majority of its members are, but is spreading worldwide.
With LinkedIn, you can find contacts inside companies at places like Microsoft or Intel easily. That's why many people pay $20 a month to get more privileges (such as being able to invite more people simultaneously) that go well beyond the free version.
CNET | Nielsen/NetRatings' August Social Media numbers
Each month, I get a fun little e-mail from Nielsen/NetRatings, the online division of the big-name metrics firm, with some tracking numbers for unique visitors at social media sites--namely, social networks, blogs, and video-sharing sites. They're pretty anecdotal as far as traffic metrics go, but it's still fun to see who's losing and who's gaining--you know, like sports. And each month, I eagerly open the e-mail (no, really) to see if there are any juicy surprises in
store.
Lifehack | 15 quick ways to give value and make a positive impression
15 quick ways to give value and make a positive impression - #12. Answer their questions on LinkedIn or Yahoo Answers. Being able to answer someone’s question in a timely manner definitely adds value.
Web Worker Daily | Web Worker 101: 5 ways to find help
One of the challenges of being an independent web worker is offering all of the services that your clients want. Here are five ways to find those potential partners:
1. Work your Social Networks. Yes, there’s actually a reason you joined Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the rest. If you put out the word that you’re in need of help with HTML
design or Rails programming or anything else, it’s likely that the network will get you to the right person eventually.
Also, check out Web Worker Daily's blog post on 10 most popular posts this past year on their blog, which includes 20 ways to use LinkedIn productively. And, don't forget to check out a brand new blog post on Geo search, written by Nick Dellamaggiore.
Stay tuned to LinkedIn Answers since we have a few more interesting questions on startups and small business coming your way.