It looks like LinkedIn is taking another good step in the world of social.
Yesterday, on their blog they announced a new feature for their Company pages, allowing companies to showcase their products and recommendations. To quote Ryan Roslanksy from LinkedIn, “Company Pages will enable companies to build their brand through network-aware recommendations, giving members rich, credible insights into how any given product (or service) is perceived by their fellow professionals.”
It’s still early going now, but here are some thoughts…
What I like about it:
Advantage Small Business: What a great opportunity for a small, growing business! If you’re an entrepreneur with a fairly large network on Linkedin. You have an ability to showcase your products and services, not just you. A person can get all the recommendations in the world, but if you have multiple products or services, that’s what you can showcase on your page. Need to quickly sell your old inventory of X product or service by the end of the year? Then highlight this in the “Featured” Section.
Partner Recommendations: If you are a professional service firm with various outside partners, you should be able to recommend other business partners (or products or services) here. If I’m an ad agency that works with a printing company, I’ll be able to highlight them here, and vice versa- a nice way of passing business back and forth.
Paving the Way: I think this gets another foot in the door for LinkedIn to get allow of your company’s content to live on Linkedin. A perfect chance for your company’s blog to live alongside this content, right?
What worries me:
Ok, there has to be some bad with the good here, so here goes.
Just recommendations? Here’s a look at Samsung’s company page, featuring several of their new products. But what if I had a bad experience with one of their products? Isn’t there room for a negative comment? How about a rating system here? Perhaps LinkedIn turned off this functionality on purpose? (I’ll check with their guy, Mario Sundar on this one)
Overkill? If I’m a big company like Samsung, do I really need this? Shouldn’t my reputation speak for itself? And, if they really want to push recommendations, these results better show up on a the first page of a Google search….
Another Layer: Yep, it’s one more added layer of work for the marketing team. But, in the changing world of inbound marketing and social media, it may just be worth it in the long run.
What’s Next?
LinkedIn is smart enough to know that all business still operates on a personal level. You or your company is still more likely to make a purchasing decision based on a recommendation from a peer, right? So, Linkedin is bringing that to the company level- let’s see what happens.
What do you think? Good move by LinkedIn, or waste of time?
Last week, I went to the city for several new business, client and partner meetings. Now, when I say the “city” I mean New York City. Growing up outside Manhattan for 14 years there really is only ONE city- and it’s New York. As a Bostonian and now suburbanite, when I head into Boston, I head into “town”, but I digress…
Some quick thoughts to share:
- Don’t bother bringing your iPhone. Seriously, it’s dead weight in your pocket, the AT&T network is simply too overloaded
- Be sure to visit the new “underground” Apple Store on Fifth Avenue- across from the old Plaza
- To save a few dollars, and to get some much needed exercise, I walked most of my way through Manhattan. Grand Central to 90th and 2nd. 90th and 2nd to 86 and Lex (through park), Wall Street to 16th and 6th. Best decision I made. You simply can’t spend time in taxicabs or the subway when you’re in the city, you “feel’ the city by walking through each neighborhood.
- The site of the Twin Towers is still very much an empty space. Hard to believe it happened 9 years ago.
- Can’t wait to bring the family there next week, next month, or very very soon!
- Interesting fact of the day: I traveled to NY from the Greenwich train station. More people go IN to Greenwich to work, then go OUT of Greenwich to head to the big Apple- who knew?
- If you are a small business owner or entrepreneur, seriously consider switching over to Apple. While your iPhone doesn’t work, you can still do lots at the Apple Store (there are five of them in Manhattan) While at one of their stores, I was able to get an hour of training on some new company software, recharge my latpop, warm up (it was 29 degrees out) and enjoy the company of some genuinely nice, friendly people. It’s practically like having a remote office in every city.
A friend of mine proposed a few questions to me earlier this morning. Do you connect with everyone on Linkedin? Would you connect with neighbor who has 6 connections and works in an industry unrelated to yours? Is it the quality or the quantity of your connections on Linkedin that make it valuable?
I connect with people on Linkedin if:
- I have worked with them professionally
- I know them personally
- They come recommended through a friend or business colleague
So, yes, I’ve turned down invitations to connect with people (I don’t know them). I’ve also connected with people I haven’t met. (I don’t know them, but I have some sort of reference point for them)
Should you connect with people who were fired from a job, laid off or between opportunities? Of course. Should you connect with people you wouldn’t recommend professionally, but know personally? Yes.
The value of your Linkedin network is there for you and your network, and not for someone to look at, rate, and overanalyze. Six of my connections (and I am sure some of yours) list their title/occupation as “full-time mom”. There’s nothing wrong with that. If my network helps a full-time mom get back in the workforce, great. If a full-time mom’s network helps me and my business, great.
Your Linkedin network is both an outbound marketing tool for you and your personal brand, but also an inbound marketing tool to help other people find opportunities and shared connections within your network.
How do you use Linkedin?
