Visible Networking

NET - Linkedin vs openBC: a members game

I recently exchanged a few emails with Konstantin Guericke, one of Linkedin founders: we discussed the situation for openBC and Linkedin in Europe. I believe openBC is strong in Europe, especially in Germany and Austria. Linkedin is very strong worldwide. Konstantin shared new figures with me, and made a comment regarding the recent communication from openBC...

I thought it would be a good idea to better understand the current situation for those two excellent social/business networks!

Total number of members: advantage Linkedin
Please find below the growth from Linkedin and openBC (respectively May 2003 and November 2003)

Visible remarks
* Both networks have grown faster in the last 12 months
* Linkedin counts over 4 times the number of members than openBC
* Linkedin has more than 1million users compared to openBC which has 1.7million users globally

Methodology: I used the figures available on openBC (Press Releases & Press Review) and Linkedin (Press Releases & Media Coverage). Of course, social networks don't publish their number of members or subscribers on regular basis, so I had to calculate the average growth rate per month between one official announcement to the following one!

Now, let's have a closer look at 4 specific periods since 2003.

Since creation
Linkedin (May 2003) and openBC (November 2003)






Visible remarks
* Those figures are impressive for both networks
* Especially for Linkedin which managed to reach almost 8 millions members in less than 4 years
* Linkedin will almost achieve its target of 10 million members by the end of 2006: well done!
* I believe it is going to be tougher for openBC to reach its target of 10 million members by the end of 2007...

From creation to March 2006






Visible remarks
* I decided to use March 2006 as a milestone as Linkedin and openBC both published their figures at that time
* It marks the beginning of a faster pace of growth for both networks

Since March 2006






Visible remarks
* Outstanding growth for Linkedin: they add over 13,000 members every single day!
* Excellent rate for openBC too: they add almost 3,000 members every day (even though it has been slowed down compared to the period Dec 05 - February 06...)
* Please note the aggressive growth in Europe for Linkedin. Europe has been identified as a major market for growth. Konstantin is in Germany right now, and Linkedin will target countries like the UK or France in early 2007

Between December 2005 and February 2006






Visible remarks
* Excellent growth rate for openBC during that period: they even matched Linkedin's growth rate in Europe. Well done Lars (and your dynamic team), and keep up the good work!
* The growth rate for openBC in the last 6 months dropped-off though...

Conclusion
* Linkedin seems to be far ahead in terms of members both in Europe and worldwide
* And as an active user, I must insist on the fact that I am still impressed with the quality of the members on Linkedin
* The total number of members is a good indicator, but it would be useful to know the number of subscribers and the ARPU. The quality of the members and their profiles is also critical!
* We musn't forget that openBC and Linkedin have two different business models (I invite you to check my post named NET - Linkedin & openBC: no competition!) Indeed, openBC makes its technology available to other networks ("The platform" - white label service) and is quite successful in that space...

Making available some figures about specific countries in Europe? And subscribers?
I would love to compare the growth of openBC and Linkedin in Europe, in countries such as the UK, Germany or France: so openBC and Linkedin, I very much look forward to hearing from you!
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Technorati: businessnetworking, socialnetworking, openbc, linkedin

NET - Make the most of Linkedin! (part 3: contact requests)

NET - Make the most of Linkedin! (part 1: build your profile)
NET - Make the most of Linkedin! (part 2: grow your network)
NET - Make the most of Linkedin! (part 3: contact requests)
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As far as I am concerned, Linkedin is the best tool for business networking. It is simple to use, intuitive and the quality of its members is impressive.

Contact requests on Linkedin
Please find below a couple of comments and remarks I wanted to cover today regaring the contact requests on Linkedin.

Privacy / conflict of interest
Social networking revolutionalized the recruitment industry: Linkedin, openbc or Viaduc are goldmines for Head Hunters... And interesting indicators for Managers!

Head hunters
If you think about it, there is a slight problem of impartiality when you send a request on Linkedin: imagine one of your contacts, a head hunter, who wants to get in touch with a person 2 degres away from you. The person you have in common is another head hunter... What is going to happen?

Managers
You are not happy with your job, and you are looking elsewhere: you found the perfect contact at a competitor and you decided yo send a contact request... one of your senior executives is the only way through John Smith on Linkedin, and you are not aware of that...

My advice: keep sending contact requests, but do it smartly!

Mega-networkers: hub or bottle neck?
This is the reason why I am not in favour of quantity/volume, but more quality, especially on Linkedin.
With several thousands connections, you are very likely to be part of the chain of contacts to reach dozen of thousands of people...

So, the more contacts, the more requests: except if you have someone who works for you and is dedicated to answering those requests, or if you are wealthy and love spending your day forwarding requests, it is a big issue and this is the cause of delay or unsuccessul requests!

If you are looking for quantity, please do that on other networks such as ecademy or ryze!

Check the original request!
I have the feeling that most linkedin users don't check the original request!
As a routine, please make sure to check the request from the sender: as far as I am concerned, I don't forward requests with the wrong name (!), or without focus.

Don't forget the original concept of Linkedin: bring value to the request!
I receive a lot of request from my contacts who forward requests saying "hi, could you please forward this request?"... That is not what I expect on Linkedin: tell me more about the sender, how well do you know her/him, how professional she/he is, why I should forward the request to my contacts... 
The idea is to create trust.

Don't send too many requests via the same person!
It is critical to manage your network efficiently. Don't ask too much, don't send requests too often and make sure not to send your requests through the same people!

Examples
Please find below some contact requests I received from members on openbc, Linkedin, Ecademy and Viaduc.

------------------------------------------------
"Hi! Sir,
Could you please add me to your contact list?
Have a nice day!
Cheers,
John Smith"

"Hi Cristophe, Can we connect and network Rgds John Smith"

"Hi Christophe.. Let's connect !!"

I am always very disapointed when I receive those emails from Thomas P...
"You're someone I'd like to stay in touch and up to date with so I'm
inviting you to join my professional network on Ecademy.
Ecademy helps me build trusted relationships, opportunities and support
for my business:
http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=8&xref=8
Regards,
--
Thomas Power thomas.power@ecademy.com"

And in French!
"Offrant et cherchant comme vous à élargir le cercle de mes contacts professionnels, je vous propose de mutualiser nos réseaux respectifs. Cordialement"

The following message is better (we are both member of the same group), but as we never met it needs more customization...
"Christophe,
I'm using LinkedIn to keep up with my professional contacts and help them with introductions.
By linking both PWN and Linked-in networks, I inscrease the opportunities to find good business contacts, and help you to find some more : It would be great if you could join my personal network.
Let's stay in touch.
Kind regards, "
------------------------------------------------

Why should I connect with them?
Think about it, think about the human factor!
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Technorati: businessnetworking, socialnetworking, linkedin

NET - Make the most of Linkedin! (part 1: build your profile)

NET - Make the most of Linkedin! (part 1: build your profile)
NET - Make the most of Linkedin! (part 2: grow your network)
NET - Make the most of Linkedin! (part 3: contact requests)
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My goal: helping people to create opportunities
By experience, most people who are not using social networking tools such as Linkedin belong to three main categories:
* They heard about social networking, but they are convinced it is not for them: they have enough contacts, they don't have time to spend online, they don't need anything now...
* They received an invitation, but they never registered, because they thought it would take too much time, or they didn't want to make the effort...
* They registered sometime ago, but nothing happened and they forgot about it...

I would like to a) urge people to register and try the service, b) explain how it works, c) and help them to network efficiently.

Visible Remark: in the end, I decided to write my advice instead of shooting a video: please get back to me with your comments, and tell me how useful a video would be!

Social networking, key concepts
I invite you to check my post about social networking: NET - Key steps to successful online networking.

Linkedin, the leading website for online networking
I have been using Linkedin for almost 3 years now, and I am a huge fan of this excellent network. As far as I am concerned, it is the best website for business networking.

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Linkedin: how do you search the database?
First of all, before building a good profile you need to understand how users can search the Linkedin database.

Please find below a screenshot of the People search (12/10/06)
Standard features
Most social networks enable their users to search the database based on fields contained in the profiles, such as Name, Company, Country (here Location), industry.

Keywords
Linkedin provides you the opportunity to do a "plain text" search, which proves to be very useful! They allow you to search for specific words in any field of the profile.

Visible Remark: according to me, using keywords is the most efficient way to find the people you are looking for.

By interests
When you create your profile (and you can update it at anytime) you need to share your interests in Linkedin: find a job (active or passive way), look for contract/consulting opportunities, get in touch with colleagues...

Recent members
Technically, one could say you are more likely to be found in your first 3 months.

Groups
Linkedin for Groups is a feature available to alumni associations, corporates, networking groups who would like to raise their visibility, and improve communication with their members.
I invite you to check my post on Groups: NET - Linkedin for Groups.

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Linkedin, build a good profile and create opportunities
To better understand how people search the database. Now, I will insist on the profile.
* profile compliteness
* public profile

Get found... and get contacted!
Your first goal is to be found! Once they found your profile, users must be interested and click to visit your profile. (headline) Then, they need to find interesting things... Summary, job position.

1. Join LinkedIn
* Name, email, and password
* Experience and industry
* Education

2. How do you want to use Linkedin
Now, you access your contact settings.













Visible Tip: you can modify your contact settings at any time.

Once you saved your settings, you will reach your homepage as below:
 















3. My Profile
Click on My Profile to start building up your presence on LinkedIn.

3.1. Professional summary
 







Professional "headline": you can change it and add a expertise in an industry, on a specific topic, or a degree such as a MBA

Specialties: here, you need to put your key assets and areas of expertise.

Visible Tip: be concise, use keywords, and remember to put comas between two separate entries!

3.2. Experience







Visible Tip: I advise you to enter at least your current position plus two of the most recent/interesting past ones.

3.3 Additional Information




Websites
You can enter a few websites from your company to your blog.

Visible remark: it is not compulsory but I see at least two reasons to use it though: it is a good way to 1) increase the awareness of your company (members can click on the link and check your corporate website), and 2) emphasize the fact that you have a blog... and an expertise / a passion for a specific topic or industry!
   
Interests
List here your hobbies, interests, anything you like doing. Try not to use lengthy sentences.

Visible Tip: think and use your "50 words"! These are words which show your personality, what you like, your hobbies... It is very efficient as people are using keywords.

Groups and associations
List the groups and associations you belong to: they could be offline or online. If there is an acronym you may want to explain what it stands for.

Visible Tip: make sure to use comas after every single interest, group or association! Try to think about the keywords people will use to search the database!

Honors and awards
If you have won an award for outstanding achievement, you have been named in the press, you wrote a book... It goes in that section!

3.4. Public profile
Nowadays, people use the internet a lot and try to find info about people on websites such as Google or Yahoo! It is essential to be visible (in the first 5/6 results) and to get found!

Linkedin offers the opportunity to raise your presence on those websites via their Public Profile feature.





How does it work?
The idea is to make your profile available to non-members. It helps you to be listed on all the main search engines.

You can customize your public profile, and choose the section of your profile you want to display.
I advise you to tick the Full View option on the left handside.

Then, you just have to tick the boxes and select the sections you want to show to anybody (member or not)

On the right handside, in the Public Profile preview, you can see how your profile will look like.
   


Visible Remark: public profiles are good for Linkedin too, as it urges more people to register, and it further increase Linkedin's presence on the web, their member satisfaction, and their revenues with Google ads.

Check your profile


At anytime, when you edit your profile from the "My Profile" section you can check how your profile looks like on Linkedin: at the top right of the screen, you can click on View My Profile as others see it.

See how comprehensive your profile is



When you edit your profile, you can check its completeness thanks to the Profile Completeness button.

Please find below how your profile should look like (edit section)





Please find below how your profile should look like (on Linkedin)


















4. Build trust and credibility: endorsements
An important feature in Linkedin are the endorsements. You are supposed to invite people you know well, who you trust, and who would be pleased to endorse your work and vice versa.

Linkedin, expand your network: volume is important... Quality is critical!
But before asking for endorsements, you need to have more contacts in your network! Please check my second post, NET - Make the most of Linkedin! (part 2: grow your network)
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Technorati: socialnetworking, businessnetworking, linkedin

NET - Linkedin and Viaduc focus on international growth

I found an interesting post on Bob Stumpel's blog (everything 2.0) about the growth strategy of Linkedin and Viaduc: it looks like those two (very different!) networks both plan to have a strong international growth in 2007.

Linkedin
In our last couple of emails, Konstantin Guericke (Linkedin co-founder) confirmed that he would concentrate on growing its number of subscribers in Germay in 2006. Today, Lars hinrichs (openBC Founder) wrote an article "Germany is hot".

Nb: Germany is known as an excellent market for subscribers. A lot of people are ready to pay for extra services.

Viaduc
Bob says that Viaduc will soon rebrand to Viadeo, be available in 6 languages, and partner with a Chinese social network, Tianji.

Viaduc founders have done well in France. The reason for their success? 1) They were well-k-nown, 2) they had a lot of connections, 3) they benefit from a very good coverage in the medias, 4) France was almost a virgin market at the time: there was no major competitor with an interface in French (even though other networks are in French such as openBC or 6nergies).

I can see them doing well in French speaking countries next to France, but all over the world?

openBC / XING
openBC is German, and they have been multilingual right from the beginning: they already have the experience at "country level", they rely on proactive and visible country managers...  They have a clear competitive advantage in that space.
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Technorati: businessnetworking, socialnetworking, linkedin, viaduc, openBC

NET - Online Business Networking in France

I want to discuss an article I found in the October issue of Management (a leading specialized magazine in France).

It is not the first article about social/business networking in that magazine: the topic is quite fashionable, still intriguing for most people, so it helps selling.

Their main recommendation... To use Viaduc in France!

Key remarks
* They insist a lot on offline / online
* They talk about "courtesy rules" or "the importance of having the right behaviour" on those sites, but they don't really explain what you must/musn't do!
* Most of their contributors are head hunters, except for one banker who says something not relevant about Linkedin...
* It is by far too biased, in favour of Viaduc

They introduce a few websites specialized in business networking such as Linkedin, openBC, Viaduc or 6nergies. They also talk about aSmallWorld and introduce this service as the most exclusive on the web, with an incredible selection process: I have an anecdote about that... :)

Visible remark: the way they introduce this section is a bit misleading as they wrote "From the most international network to the "Frenchest" network" and they start with... Viaduc!

Viaduc
One of Viaduc founders, Dan Sarfaty, is on the cover page. Obviously, the article dedicated to business networking kind of promotes Viaduc.

* "Viaduc is very easy to use"
* "they provide excellent search features"
* About its forums (3000+): this is "the best way to grow your network" and be invited to the parties/events"
* Quote from a user: "many users use it as a tool to find a job, and expect a lot from it without giving much"

Visible remarks:
* Business model: first, I am a bit surprised that they don't say that you need to subscribe to have access to pretty much all the main features! You must pay if you want to use Viaduc: I don't like their approach, and most of their competitors provide most of the essential features for free.
* Interface: I don't like the interface much which is not as intuitive as Linkedin, and far less comprehensive as openBC.
* Status in France: they have done a good job in France, but my opinion is that a significant portion of their members are working in SMEs, and are looking for clients...

Linkedin
* "7million members and 200,000 in France"
* "More for business than recruitment"
* "The average level is higher than Viaduc"
* "Similar to Viaduc, but without forums and offline meetings" -> So, "it is more difficult to build and grow your network"
* "Linkedin is not monitored properly: you find a lot of silly profiles (example: Jacques Chirac) which impact its credibility"...

Visible remarks:
* Quality: I like their point about the "quality" of the members, more senior in their organization, and that you use Linkedin to make business and not only to find a job.
* Features: I disagree with the way they compare Viaduc to Linkedin: basically they say that Viaduc is as good as Linkedin plus they have forums and they organize events... This is untrue!
* New contacts: Another "untrue" statement is when they say it is easier to grow your network on Viaduc: yes it is easier on Viaduc, which is more open than Linkedin, in terms of volume... But what about the quality of your network? Linkedin is all about credibility, trust and excellent relationships: two very different approaches!
* Credibility: "Silly profiles which impact Linkedin's credibility"... What is the problem with that friendly banker? On every single social network, unfortunately, you can find these joke profiles. Remember it is not always obvious: the name can be real, but the content can be a joke! Based on my experience, there certainely are no more silly profiles on Linkedin than openBC or Viaduc...
 
openBC
* "2 million members", "events/forum", "Skype"
* "You must pay 5,95 euros per month" -> "you need to use it a lot to make the investment profitable"
* Quote from Yann Mauchamp: "Service directory such as yellow pages"
* "20 moderators" -> another blow against Linkedin
* "We advise you not to use it if you are mainly looking for contacts in France!"

Visible remarks:
* Price: it is not compulsory to pay to use the platform. Or course, subscribers have access to extra services and features. Why didn't they insist on Viaduc's strategy, which is more restrictive than openBC?
* Wrong advice: I find it incredible to advise not to use openBC if you are looking for contacts in France! You can use French as your main language. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that openBC is very strong in Germany and Austria.
* Interface: The interface is 10 times better than Viaduc's and the team, lead by my friend Yann Mauchamp -the country manager-, is very dynamic.
* Events: openBC organize regular events themselves. To my knowledge, Viaduc does not really organize events but they let the forum/group managers do it!

6nergies
* 13,500 members
* You pay what you want (20 euros per year on average)
* Monthly events in 3 cities in France
* Good reference on Google
* Good example at the beginning of the article

Visible Remarks
* I know Alain Lefebvre, founder of 6nergies, as we were both speakers at a conference about social networking in Paris in 2005. Alain has a blog -in French- named Les Reseaux Sociaux, which promotes his book about social networking.
* The article is good for 6nergies as Frederic Bianchi from Management start his article with a long testimonial from one of 6nergies members

aSmallWorld
* The most exclusive online network
* Members such as Paul Allen or Tiger Woods
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Technorati: businessnetworking, socialnetworking, linkedin, openbc, xing, viaduc

NET - Linkedin & openBC: no competition!

I feel like it was important to talk about two excellent online networks, Linkedin and openBC.
My goal is to explain the key benefits, differences and differentiators, and show you that it is worth to register on both websites which kind of complement each other!

Linkedin's key benefits
* Purely business networking
* Quality of its members
* Simple interface, which appeals to senior executives
* Endorsements

openBC's key benefits
* Between social and business networking (Pictures and html friendly)
* Communication features (messages, forums, events)
* Extra value for its subscribers: offline meetings + PremiumWorld
* Strong in Europe (mainly in Germany and Austria)
* Multilingual
 
Key differences (Linkedin / openBC)
* Business model: Subscribers (InMail, Job Board) + Ads / Subscribers + "Private label"
* Advertising: yes (google ads) / no (add free)
* Communication features: no -limited- (there is an Inbox though) / yes (messages, forums, groups, events)
* Membership: different kinds of packages / one -more limited-
* Premium advantages: depends on the package (more InMail, more info on contacts out of reach) / create groups, events, use power search, benefit from PremiumWorld, discount for offline meetings
* Language: english only / multilingual
 
Statistics from Linked Intelligence by Scott Allen
A couple of weeks ago, Scott created Linked Intelligence. It is a great blog dedicated to Linkedin.
In his post titled LinkedIn Daily 2006-09-06, Scott gives interesting figures which "compare" Linkedin to openbc.

Worldwide comScore numbers for July 2006
(LINKEDIN.COM/OPENBC.COM)
* Total Unique Visitors: 1,346,000 / 1,439,000
* Average Daily Visitors: 75,000 / 142,000
* Total Minutes: 20 million / 47 million
* Total Pages Viewed: 44 million / 90 million
* Average Minutes per Visitor: 15.0 / 32.9
* Average Pages per Visitor: 33 / 63
(Figures obtained directly from comScore Europe – figures are world-wide.)

I agree with Scott's comments: you can't compare openbc to Linkedin. openbc is a platform which help people communicate and interact: members can send/receive messages, post a message on the forums, create an event send invitation and send reminders... It generates a lot of activity and it explains the significant differences in favour of openbc.

Now, I am going to quote Scott, Linkedin is all about "getting more done with less effort"...
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Technorati: businessnetworking, socialnetworking, linkedin, openbc, xing

NET - Articles on Linkedin New Service directory

Please find below some articles I found about the new service directory launched by Linkedin on Monday.

First, I invite you to check my post: NET - Service Provider Recommendation on Linkedin (NEW). And leave your opinion, comments or remarks!

Articles and comments from bloggers
* LinkedIn launches useful service directory, on Rafe Needleman's blog
* Cultural Changes at LinkedIn, on Red Herring
* Two Rating Services Launch for Small Business, One From LinkedIn, on ClickZNetwork
* LinkedIn Wants To Suggest A Plumber, on webpronews
* LinkedIn Expands Beyond B2B, on online media daily

News
* LinkedIn adds yellow-pages-like services directory, on Reuters
* LinkedIn adds yellow-pages-like services directory, on Washington Post
* LinkedIn adds new directory service, on e-consultancy

Interview Konstantin Guericke, vice president of marketing
* LinkedIn Co-Founder Speaks at HBS, on HBS online

"LinkedIn does not claim to be creating a wholesale replacement for the Yellow Pages or their online equivalent, only listings in a select set of categories in which relationships count and friends rate businesses", Guericke said.

"We are in the very beginning of building this marketplace. It's the sections of the Yellow Pages people use most," he said.
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Technorati: socialnetworking, businessnetworking, linkedin

NET - Service Provider Recommendation on Linkedin (NEW)

Today, I would like to share my initial comments about the NEW (or improved) Services section on Linkedin. Linkedin provides a list of users (service providers), who have been endorsed by other members. The more endorsements... the better the ranking, and the more visible... the more opportunities!

Visible Remark: The idea for Linkedin is to leverage its existing base of users, urge more users to use its excellent recommendation feature which help create trust and credibility, again demonstrate the efficiency of its trusted relationships. Also, it will help Linkedin further increase its number of users.

This is not a revolution in social networking though: Ziggs introduced its professional directory a couple of months ago (starting with photographs).

Please find below a screenshot (17/10/2006)


















Display



There are 4 ways to display the recommendations, based on the degree/distance with the members: from Recommendations from you to Recommendations from all Linkedin users.

From the homepage of the Services section, only the most recent recommendations are displayed.

When you click on a specific category, by default it is also the most recent recommendations which are displayed. Nevertheless, you can choose to display the service providers sorted by Top Results.

Can you recommend... ?
LinkedIn urge their users to recommend people they trust, and help those great people get new contracts.



There are two main steps:
1) Enter the name and email address of the service provider you want to recommend.





2) Create your recommendation
First, you need to select a category of service, a year (date when you used the person's skills), precise if you have used her services more than once, and where the person lives.

Next, you need to select 3 key attributes which describe the service provider.

Then, you have to write a recommendation.









Available categories (so far)
Currently, there are 6 main categories of services, plus "other".
* Art, Creative and Media
(Graphic/Web Designer, Photographer, Writer/Editor)
* Consulting
(Business Consultant, IT Consultant)
* Employment Services
(Career Coach, Recruiter)
* Financial & Legal Services
(Accountant, Attorney, Financial Advisor, Insurance Agent, Real Estate Agent)
* Health & Medical
(Dentist, Doctor, Personal Trainer)
* Home & Garden
(Architect, Gardener, General Contractor, Handyman, House Cleaner)
* Other Professional Services
(Child Care Provider, Travel Agent, Veterinarian)

Visible Remark: on one hand, this is a good initiative from Linkedin. It will help them to insist on one of their key differentiators, the endorsements, and go beyond their reputation as a highly efficient recruitment tool. Well done LinkedIn!

On the other hand, I am a bit confused. They are some challenges which LinkedIn will probably face soon:
1) Maintain its "quality"
as far as I am concerned, one of the key benefits of Linkedin is to be able to find professionals from various industries and especially very senior people in the organization. Will those people keep registering if Linkedin further "open its doors" to everybody?
2) More SPAM?
Most poeple are not used to social networking. They don't know how to do it... or more precisely they don't know how to do it WELL! The core of LinkedIn users are probably "sneezers" (thanks to Seth Godin for its "Purple Cow"), people interested in new technology and the web, curious about networking: some of those users are already sending or forwarding "very average" requests... So another potential consequence could be an increased number of contact requests, and more SPAM...
3) Confuse its members / no clear strategy?
First, there are quite a lot of websites/market places whose goal is to help service providers build a credibility online, and be rewarded. Those sites are more targeted to the consumer market, are more for SMEs, and are not B-to-B where I believe Linkedin stands (or at least used to stand initially...)
Will I use LinkedIn to find a service provider... I am not sure about that!
4) Too US centric?
I wonder what the situation will be in the next 6 months, especially regarding providers included in the 3 last categories. I wouldn't be surprised if most of those providers were based in the United States...
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Technorati: socialnetworking, businessnetworking, linkedin

NET - Linkedin for Groups

I decided to create that post to help every association (like EPWN) which wonders how useful it is to create a group on Linkedin.
As far as I am concerned, Linkedin is the best website for business networking. Linkedin provides a "must have" group feature. Let me further explain the concept.
 
Linkedin for Groups: key benefits
Please find below a list of the key benefits as far as I am concerned.
* It helps increase the visibility of your alumni association/group/company.
  -> Your logo will appear on the Group Directory
  -> Your logo will appear on every member's profile

* It helps create value for your members
  -> You can urge people to register on Linkedin, increase their visibility, and create opportunities
  -> Your members will try online networking, expand their network, and increase the value for the whole group

* It helps facilitate a better communication within members
  -> The group Manager can easily send a message to its members
  -> Your members benefits from very good browsing features

Groups -> interface & features
I thought it would be a good idea to give you an idea of what a group look like, from the point of view of a member. For my example, I used my membership to the Centrale Alumni group. I would like to salute this excellent initiative from the Centraliens!

Video on YouTube


Where to find more info on Linkedin for Groups?
They don't really advertise that feature anymore. Linkedin usually doesn't advertise its services, everything works by efficient word and mouth!
The easiest way to access the Groups main page is to click on Linkedin -> Linkedin for Groups

Should you have any questions, please check the FAQ.

You found that post useful? Should you have any comments or remarks, I invite you to leave a comment!
Moreover, feel free to check all my posts on Linkedin and spread the word & talk about www.Visible-Networking.com!
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Technorati: socialnetworking, businessnetworking, linkedin, EPWN

NET - Get Linkedin!

Please find below a link to a video by Alexa Lee urging people to use Linkedin.
Video on YouTube

It is a clever way to increase her visiblity as the video is focused on her and her business, and she talks about Linkedin for maybe 25 seconds. She is smart, energetic and good looking: congratulations!
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Technorati: video, videoblogging, socialnetworking, businessnetworking, Linkedin