by Daria Steigman on November 29, 2008
Are you on LinkedIn? It’s a reasonable question, since a LinkedIn profile is rapidly becoming a “must have” element of every professional’s online presence. While LinkedIn boasts over 30 million users, I’m constantly amazed when I meet business people who haven’t taken the time to join the business networking site.
LinkedIn is one of the first places I look for information about a person, whether it’s a colleague I’m meeting for the first time or a prospective client. And it’s one of the places people are looking for me, judging from the number of people who tell me they read my profile and the call I got from a recruiter the other day who was searching for candidates on LinkedIn.
If you’re not on LinkedIn, set up a profile today. The site has a simple interface to guide you through the basic steps, after which you can always go back in and edit your information, add jobs, schools, and other information. LinkedIn recently added new capabilities that you might also want to explore, including a way to add your recent blog posts, upload a presentation, and more.
The good news for newbies is that there are some excellent resources to help you get started, get connected, and get active on LinkedIn. I love Jason Alba’s I’m on LinkedIn, Now What? blog, which offers how-to advice on everything from honing your profile to using LinkedIn Answers effectively. And LinkedIn’s own blog is filled with case studies and helpful information.
What are you waiting for? Get LinkedIn today.
Tagged as:
Business,
LinkedIn,
Social Media
by Daria Steigman on November 26, 2008
It happened again this morning. I picked up two followers on Twitter whose sole purpose seems to be to get me to follow their constant stream of business promos and links to their Web sites. I don’t think so. And then there were the four people whose questions on various LinkedIn groups are not-even-thinly-disguised ads for their businesses. Needless to say, I’m not checking them out.
Shannon Paul had a great post a couple of months ago about that guy, and Amber Naslund penned a post aptly titled, Click on My Junk. If you’re new to Twitter, please don’t be one of those people. Instead, find some people to follow who are in your industry, share common interests, or are just plain smart and generous with their time. And approach LinkedIn groups and other discussion forums in a similar way: add value, not spam.
For an excellent primer on Web 2.0 etiquette, check out this great post by Beth Harte. Her focus is Twitter, but her advice applies broadly across social media as she talks about being authentic and offers tips for joining the online conversation.
Tagged as:
Etiquette,
Social Media
by Daria Steigman on November 21, 2008
“Many companies are held captive by their capabilities. That is, start the search for growth with what they do well. Instead of letting new strategies lead to innovative business models, their current business model dictates their strategic options.”
–Scott Anthony
What can your business do today to innovate?
Tagged as:
Business,
Entrepreneurship
by Daria Steigman on November 20, 2008
Did you ever wonder what it would be like if Barney Frank and Ben Stein agreed on something?
It happened the other day when the two men concurred that it would be catastrophic for the U.S. economy if the Big 3 automakers were to fold. That was, of course, before the 3 CEOs took their 3 corporate jets for a jaunt to Washington to ask for billions of dollars of government money. Now, who knows?
I guess “jet-pooling” was out of the question. Umair Haque points out in his Edge Economy blog that the automakers spent the 20th century lobbying against public transportation. Isn’t that an irony: cars are ubiquitous–but most of them aren’t from Ford, GM, or Chrysler.
Far smarter people than me will have to sort what to do with the Big 3, but I have a few thoughts on the subject:
- 2.5 million jobs. That’s the estimate I keep hearing of the number of people who will be out of work along the supply chain. And that doesn’t even begin to touch the ripple effect in communities across the country. The U.S. economy can’t handle that big a shock–especially now.
- It’s not about labor costs, it’s about selling a product no one wants to buy. I’ve heard that $2,000 per car is attributable to labor costs. But people don’t say these cars are overpriced; they say they’re gas guzzlers and unsexy–and that’s the polite critique.
- These companies need vision and new leaders (lots of them). The current team has no strategy for viability.
I agree with both Frank and Stein: Our economy and 2.5 million jobs is too big a risk to take. But I also agree with Mike Enzi, who said that “if this package were taken to a banker with a request for $25,000, he’d send the applicant back to work to actually do a business plan.”
And that brings up the $25 billion question: is there any vision left in Detroit? From 3 guys in 3 planes, I’m not sure we have 1 person with common sense. If we bail them out without a plan to change how they do business, it’ll be deja vu all over again in a few months.
Can GM, Chrysler, and Ford restructure? What do you think?
Tagged as:
Big 3,
Business,
Leadership,
Vision
