Comments on: B2B Social Networking With LinkedIn

By: Jerry Brenneman

Jerry Brenneman — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 16:55:44 +0000

Are there any other sites that are similar to LinkedIN in the way that it allows you to prospect business professionals???

By: Kathy Cabrera

Kathy Cabrera — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:40:13 +0000

Thanks for sharing this piece with me. I will check it out to also make the most of my LinkedIn “real estate”.

By: Kathy Cabrera

Kathy Cabrera — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:39:29 +0000

Great point – thank you for sharing!

By: Kathy Cabrera

Kathy Cabrera — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:38:50 +0000

Stephen – Thanks for your comment. Each company, depending on its culture, may need to determine whether it’s better suited for LinkedIn – which is strictly BtoB and for business/career use or Facebook – which combines everything from family photos to some work updates/recreational interests (like Jeremy’s lacrosse example). Some companies have a presence on both.

A lot of smaller or mid-sized enterprises I work with have effectively developed a presence on LinkedIn and connected with a targeted niche of their prospects as a result. Some of the successful groups I work with include those that are created to support traffic to a blog (related to a cause/trend/issue) or expert’s profile. These differ from a company’s profile page on LinkedIn that just lists their business’ information. For example, I’ve found his trend-oriented group successful (listed below) and allows anyone who’s interested to join:

- Dan McDade, President of PointClear – shares discussions on “The Truth about Leads” in this LinkedIn forum: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2138290

Any groups related to an industry, cause or trend that you create should be “open invitation” and also differ from member alumni groups which are reserved for past/present employees or members of an organization or educational institution or association.

Please feel free to write with any other questions!

- Kathy Cabrera, Director of New Media, http://www.carabinerpr.com

By: Jeremy Porter

Jeremy Porter — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:28:47 +0000

For LinkedIn, I would suggest browsing Groups in the Groups Directory. Honestly, only the largest organizations seem to have the best LinkedIn Groups pages (for example, Best Buy does a great job with their employee alumni network – but you have to be a former/current employee). Facebook Groups or Pages are much better for keeping members updated (they also seem to be less “spammy”). I’m not sure what it is about FB, but people tend to be less commercial in most groups. There are always exceptions, but your best bet is to search based on your interests and try some out over time. I’m a lifelong lacrosse fanatic, so I enjoy US Lacrosse updates on both Facebook and LinkedIn.

By: stephen harris

stephen harris — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:20:00 +0000

hello – nice article. can you name some B2B corp that use the groups (meaning they have one and maintain it) effectively. particularly where people outside can join…

I think of facebook fan pages – and their interactivity… what is comparable on linkedin and who is doing it well. who might not be?

thanks!!

By: Patrick OMalley

Patrick OMalley — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:59:37 +0000

Good article.

LinkedIn tip for you – don’t forget to put common misspellings of your name, like Cabrerra (or other common misspellings you see), into the Summary field of your LinkedIn profile. That way, if people look for you with that misspelling, they still find you. More at http://www.the-linkedin-speaker.com/blog/2009/01/27/missing-linkedin-tip-%E2%80%93-misspell-your-last-name-in-your-linkedin-profile/

By: Shari Weiss

Shari Weiss — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:47:21 +0000

Make the most of your LinkedIn profile summary. Until I attended a LinkedIn workshop, I had no idea how I was “missing the boat” by not fully filling out that piece of LinkedIn “real estate.”

Here was the article I wrote on what you should put in your summary: http://sharisax.com/2009/10/06/the-magic-of-linkedin-making-your-profile-work-for-you/