LinkedIn Means Business With New Application Platform

Announcing Applications on LinkedIn

Reid Hoffman Oct 28, 2008

Hi Everyone. I’m writing today to announce the launch of LinkedIn’s applications platform that will enable over 30 million professionals on LinkedIn to communicate, collaborate, and share information even better than before.

This initial roll out features productivity applications that range from gathering information that professionals around you are generating to enhancing your abilities to collaborate and communicate more effectively. You’ll be able to work much more closely with your contacts on LinkedIn with tools such as file sharing, project management, business trips and many more.

The nine applications that you see live today on LinkedIn include productivity enhancing applications from Amazon, Box.net, Google, Huddle, Six Apart, SlideShare, Tripit, and WordPress as well a Company Buzz application developed by LinkedIn. Each of these applications will help you stay current and competitive as a professional in today’s rapidly changing business world…

LinkedIn Means Business With New Application Platform

LinkedIn has launched its new OpenSocial-based application platform called InApps – an answer to the platforms found on social networks like Facebook and MySpace, but without the clutter and “junk” apps that plague those sites. Unlike most other social networks, LinkedIn apps must go through an approval process before they will go live on the store, and all apps must be deemed “professional” in purpose to appear on the business-oriented social network. To prevent an overwhelming amount of clutter, users will be restricted to including a maximum of 15 applications on their main profile pages, though they will eventually have the option to install more apps on a separate page.

Beyond the quality assurance process, LinkedIn is also limiting the flexibility apps will have when it comes to monetization. Apps won’t be allowed to use third party ad networks – instead, they’ll have to work with LinkedIn’s ad system. For now applications will only have access to LinkedIn’s current ad inventory, which could make targeting ads less effective (though it sounds like there will be more options for targeted ads in the future). Apps will still be allowed to charge users for individual goods, and can also implement a paid subscription service (launch partner Box.net is using this model)…

LinkedIn To Launch Its Own Ad Network

from TechCrunch by Erick Schonfeld

At a time when most social networks are still trying to figure out how to make money from advertising, one social network is bucking the trend. LinkedIn, the social network for business professionals, has so much demand from advertisers that it will be launching its own ad network on Monday. In conjunction with ad network Collective Media (which targets high-end media sites), LinkedIn will let other select sites target its users when they visit those partner sites.

Most social networks have a hard time selling ads at more than $1 CPMs (cost per thousand impressions), but LinkedIn’s rate card shows display ads starting at $30 CPMs and going up to $76.50. Text ads range from $12 to $20 CPMs. Even with the regular discounting from the rate card that many advertisers might recieve, LinkedIn is still doing much better than most social networks. That is because it has a more desirable audience that advertisers want to reach…

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn | Guy Kawasaki

« Grameen Foundation does LinkedIn for Good | Main | Antarctica 2007: Swimming with the Penguins! »

Mario Sundar Jul 25, 2007

When Guy Kawasaki blogged about the Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn, LinkedIn had 8.5 million users in 130 industries. Since then we’ve grown to over 12 million users covering 147 industries, but many of Guy’s suggestions on using LinkedIn (see below), still remain a great way for professionals to strengthen their online brand reputation and leverage their professional network. Happy Reading!

1. Increase your visibility.

   By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do business with. In addition to appearing at the top of search results (which is a major plus if you’re one of the 52,000 product managers on LinkedIn), people would much rather work with people who their friends know and trust.

2. Improve your connectability.

   Most new users put only their current company in their profile. By doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You should fill out your profile like it’s an executive bio, so include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities.

   You can also include a link to your profile as part of an email signature. The added benefit is that the link enables people to see all your credentials, which would be awkward if not downright strange, as an attachment.

3. Improve your Google PageRank.

   LinkedIn allows you to make your profile information available for search engines to index. Since LinkedIn profiles receive a fairly high PageRank in Google, this is a good way to influence what people see when they search for you.

   To do this, create a public profile and select “Full View.” Also, instead of using the default URL, customize your public profile’s URL to be your actual name. To strengthen the visibility of this page in search engines, use this link in various places on the web> For example, when you comment in a blog, include a link to your profile in your signature.

LinkedIn Rolls Out Enhanced Groups Features; Facebook adds Live Feed

Ed: Myspace, Facebook, and LinkedIn have taken dramatically different approaches to social networking, communications.

• Myspace is a free-for-all with their founding as social circles for groupies to touch their favorite musicians. Unfortunately, this has expanded to include hookers and other undesirable audiences. 
• Facebook started with the top universities. Although, they have lost universities like Stanford, users prefer them over the new Affinity Circle. Facebook has grown to attract high school students and boomers. International growth makes them number one. The networking feature is primarily wall posts (quick comments) on news feed items like photos, videos, or status reports (i.e. what am I doing now) Today, Facebook released Live Feed, a tab from the home page that shows real changes without clicking. Cool.
• LinkedIn has cleaned up their cluttered interface and added the discussion boards for groups. They recently opened groups for any user; and now adds the discussion board as a group feature. Structurally, it is similar to the question, answer feature. It is integrated into the newsfeed like feature on the home page. On it’s first day, the discussions have been immediately popular.

The pace of change is astounding. Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo look like slow moving dinosaurs by comparison.

LinkedIn Rolls Out Enhanced Groups Features

Last week, we wrote about LinkedIn’s recent issues with its Groups – as part of a new platform rollout, a number of management features were apparently buggy, while others had been removed entirely.

Tonight sees the release of a number of new features on the platform that should quell some of these concerns. Among the new features are a centralized hub page for every group, where group members can come together and converse with each other in one place. The release also introduces enhanced group and user management features, including a searchable roster.

While it’s nice to see LinkedIn enhancing its groups functionality, its surprising to see that the company has taken this long to introduce them – most of them seem to be fairly basic. That said, the added community features should be a boon to the site’s professional user base as they look to enhance their connections with their peers.

Understanding Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace for Boomers

In the short life of this blog, the post about Facebook for web 1.0 users has zoomed past hundreds to become number 3 on Google – just behind Techcrunch. It’s time to update the post.

Understanding Facebook Basics

Understanding Facebook Basics. August 30, 2007. OK, after a couple of posts which discuss the impact of Facebook on the web, let’s get down to “brass tacks” …
www.davidrisley.com/2007/ 08/30/understanding-facebook-basics/ – 40k 

Facebook Users Revolt, Facebook Replies

Sep 6, 2006 … I applaud you for clearly not understanding Facebook. If you look again, you’ll realize that this feature is a long list of teasers that …
www.techcrunch.com/2006/09/ 06/facebook-users-revolt-facebook-replies/ – 145k 

New Economics of Advertising: HOW-TO: Understanding Facebook for …

Feb 18, 2008 … HOW-TO: Understanding Facebook for Web 1.0 Users. Facebook is the second largest social network, and growing fast. In Web 1.0 terms, …
adecon101.blogspot.com/ 2008/02/understanding-facebook.html – 97k -Cached - Similar pages

Why Social Networks – the Simple Value Proposition

I’ve encouraged hundreds of boomers to open Facebook or LinkedIn accounts. Most have the impression that they are too old. Social networks are for the young.

One feature may be enough to convince boomers that social networks are for everyone. 

Eliminate menial email and address maintenance

Like mailing lists, email lists change rapidly. At 2-3% change per month, the list is useless after one year without maintenance. 

Using social networks, we link to our contacts. From then on, each party maintains their own contact information. This saves time.

Getting Social

Without connections, social networks seem meaningless. The new user wonders why millions make much ado about nothing. 

1. Import: Start by importing your current address list from Yahoo mail, Google mail, Hotmail, AOL mail, Outlook, or other mail programs. Social networks often automate the access. If all methods fail, export contacts and import.
2. Invite: After import, use supplied tools to invite friends to connect. It’s a few clicks. No invitation to write. Most networks already tell you which contacts have active accounts. Active friends will accept your invitation without question.
3. Share: Once you have a few dozen connections, it’s time to act socialably.

Becoming Social

Your personal homepage shows a summarized feed of news (i.e. news feed) containing updates from your connections. This includes photos, address changes, blog postings, videos, and current status (i.e. what am I doing now.)

With the new Facebook, you can scan the feed, read an item, and comment immediately. This commenting replaces the wall feature – a nice change for the better. LinkedIn has a formal method to write recommendation for friends, but no informal feature for personal exchange.

In a few months, friends from 30 years ago have found and connected with me. Getting caught up, maintaining touch, and exchanging ideas has changed my world for the better.

Beyond commenting on friends, you can proactively manage your feed of information to friends. This is your mini-feed. When combined with the mini-feeds of other friends, it provides the personalized news feed for each friend.

You can post articles from the web, videos from Youtube, or write articles to solicit comment or argument. The original post contains a detailed list of actions.

Fear of change should not stop us. Enjoy the new world.