Tag Archive for 'social networks'

LinkedIn: What Is It?

Published
by
Ian Smith
on August 18, 2010
in Author-Simon Hénault and Web 2.0
. 0 Comments

The following post is a translation of Intelegia’s VIP blogger, Simon Hénault’s “LinkedIn, ça sert à quoi ?”“

Linkedin is already 7 years old. Curious isn’t it, since its recent popularity … at least in Quebec. In fact, over the last 12 months, the primary business social network in the world has doubled in size from 35 million to 70 million members, including 2 million in Canada and 500,000 in Quebec. Well, it’s still small compared to 500 million users of Facebook however; the profile of its members is quite different. The average member of LinkedIn earns more than US$ 100,000 per year.

Most importantly, LinkedIn is a business network first. Forget the pictures of the weekend and gossip - people really do business on LinkedIn.

For most people, LinkedIn is not a directory of resumes that are online.  To some, it is a network because they have received many invitations from others. Too bad, because LinkedIn offers many advantages that are free.  Here is a list.

1. External Communication

Forget the false email addresses, CRM applications and email campaigns - LinkedIn simplifies and integrates everything.

2.  Internal Communication

Start a group with employees in your company. Take advantage of their contacts, share your knowledge and be notified of any changes.

3.  Business Development

Enhance your visibility and be found by thousands of users. Find potential customers and partners and strengthen your business relationships.

4.  Employment

Targeting businesses, stay abreast of job openings, recruiters or join any contact within the targeted companies.

5.  Expertise

LinkedIn is a rich directory full of experts. Thanks to the advanced search, find a specialist on any topic, sector, company or region.

6.  Training

Get answers to your questions, read the comments of members and read the replies of your contacts.

7.  Business Intelligence

Stay abreast of your competitors and hiring of new individuals in your industry. Ask questions to your contacts, members of your communities or former employees of your competitors.

8.  Recruitment

Over 80% of recruiters use LinkedIn. Surprisingly, since this tool gives you access to the roadmap of millions of candidates.

In summary, if used properly, LinkedIn allows you to:

  • Reduce your operating costs
  • Improve your operational efficiency and
  • Improve your sales … for free!

About The Author Simon Hénault:

Simon invites you to join the largest business community in Quebec, Linked Quebec Linkedin Group and read the eBook, which includes the sub-group, Communications and Marketing which is moderated by Isabelle Poirier.

Simon welcomes you to listen to a set of elearning podcasts in which he provides a guide to how to use LinkedIn.  The podcasts, which are the most visited by individuals in francophone countries comprise of the following eight episodes.

  1. Why use LinkedIn ?
  2. How to complete your LinkedIn profile?
  3. How to build your LinkedIn network?
  4. How to optimize your presence in LinkedIn?
  5. How to search LinkedIn?
  6. How to keep your information confidential on LinkedIn?
  7. How to find a job on LinkedIn?
  8. How to find customers on LinkedIn?

Please Note: Content is available in french only.

Using Hootsuite To Manage Social Networks

Published
by
Ian Smith
on March 5, 2010
in Author-Ian Smith, Internet tools and Social Media Marketing
. 2 Comments

Having difficulties managing your time amongst the different social networks that your organization has a presence on?

Below is a tutorial that my colleague, Aicha Habiby, created in PowerPoint to aid individuals in using Hootsuite.

Hootsuite is an application that will allow individuals to manage multiple social network accounts via one interface.

This tool can be extremely helpful for individuals who responsible for their economic development agency’s Facebook, Twitter or blog accounts.

The complete slideshow is available in English and French on Intelegia’s Slideshare page

Want to know more about using social media marketing or Web 2.0 tools for economic development? Attend Intelegia’s seminar, “Optimize Investment Attraction Strategy Through Information and Social Media Applications“

Samepoint - A Powerful Social Media Search Tool

Published
by
Ian Smith
on October 2, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Competitive & Internet Intelligence, Internet tools, Web 2.0 and Web 2.0 Search
. 1 Comment

Content on Web 2.0 is no longer a laughing matter.  Yes, everyone enjoys a funny or cute video on YouTube however, the amount of strategic intelligence or competitive intelligence that is made available on web 2.0 is growing. What is one of the best ways to access this intelligence?  Use Google?… Use Bing?… Use Samepoint?

Samepoint???

SamePoint is a search tool that digs for information amongst the “social conversations” that are taking place on blogs and social networks.  Figure 1 shows the index page of Samepoint.

Figure 1: Index Page of Samepoint
(Click on the image to enlarge)

Testing out the tool with the keywords, “foreign direct investment”, Samepoint will provide results or “social mentions” on such social media platforms as Wikipedia, Ning and blog applications.  In addition, on the same page, you will see on the right hand side a series of Tweets that are classified as, “Recent Conversations”.  Figure 2. illustrates this point highlighted in yellow.

Figure 2: Results from Twitter on the Samepoint Result Page
(Click on the image to enlarge)

The value added feature of Samepoint is the ability to conduct an array of different queries based on the type of web 2.0 application.  Here is the exhaustive list of the applications.

  • Real-Time
  • Bookmarks
  • Wikis
  • Q&A
  • Networks
  • B2B Networks
  • Groups
  • Life Casting
  • MicroBlogs
  • Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Documents
  • Video
  • Images
  • News

Figure 3 demonstrate the results (”mentions”) Samepoint supplies for a search on B2B Networks using the keywords, “Foreign Direct Investment”.

Figure 3: “Mentions” of “Foreign Direct Investment”
(Click on the image to enlarge)

To begin using Samepoint, visit www.samepoint.com

Sustainability and Social Media : Is It A Natural? - Take 2

Published
by
Ian Smith
on July 20, 2009
in Author-Ian Smith, Author-Isabelle Poirier, Economic Development, Social Media Marketing and Web 2.0 Strategy
. 0 Comments

In May 2008, Intelegia examined the Dow Jones Sustainability Index - 10 Supersectors Leaders in terms of the use of blogs in their approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development (SD).    After conducting a thorough examination of the websites of the companies listed in the index, Intelegia discovered that Intel had a full compliment of Web 2.0 tools (i.e., blogs, podcasts, videocasts) and Web 1.0 applications (i.e., newsletter and news alerts) to deal with social responsibility issues.

With the acceptance of online social networks as viable communication tools during the past year, Intelegia decided to conduct the same exercise with the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (2008 / 2009).  The image below is the scorecard that was used to evaluate the company’s websites. (Please click on the image to few a full scale version of the table.)

DJI Sustainability Index and Social Media

Source: E&B DATA / Intelegia

Please Note: Only online social networks that are mentioned on the company’s website are considered.

Findings from the study include:

  • Of the 18 companies in the index, only two companies do not have a section of their corporation website discussing corporate social responsibility or sustainability development. Itausa-Investimentos Itau and TNT N.V.
  • Intel still leads the way in terms of adopting Web 2.0 applications when it is comes to promoting their dedication to corporate social responsibility.  This is seen through Intel’s official Facebook Fan page for their Inspired by Education project.  Although not located in their CSR section, the company has a channel on YouTube titled, Channel Intel.  It would not be a big shock if Intel creates a channel specifically for CSR content in the near future.
  • adidas AG does not offer much in terms of Web 2.0 tools when it comes to CSR or SD however; looking at their products website is a different story.  adidas.com offers an array of Web 2.0 tools such as podcasts
  • Eni, an integrated energy has a collection of videocasts discussing their various sustainability initiatives.
  • Air France-KLM in the airline industry does not have a presence on Web 2.0 which is surprising.  For a company that should be engaging with  clients, Air France-KLM must begin an effort to use social media tools.

With the power of the Web 2.0 or social media offer to connect with other, it is interesting to see who will be quickly adopting applications and who will be conducting “business as usual” over the next 12 months.

Focus Group Intelligence

Published
by
Ian Smith
on February 13, 2008
in Author-Ian Smith and Competitive & Internet Intelligence
. 0 Comments

I know that my colleague Stephan covers everything dealing with social media marketing on his blog however, I would like to put my spin on things especially when companies use social networks to collect information for strategic purposes.

I finally got around to reading the Wall Street Journal article, “The New Focus Groups: Online Networks” . It is an interesting read. It highlights the use of some web 2.0 platforms to initiate online focus groups. The example used in the article, Del Monte Foods was smart enough to utilized private networks on the backbone of web 2.0 .

Yet just another way to gather information via the web however this time, it is gathering primary data.

The Forgotten Platforms: Electronic Bulletins Boards & Discussion Groups

Published
by
viorel
on July 5, 2007
in Author-Ian Smith and Competitive & Internet Intelligence
. 0 Comments

Blogs and social networks are sexy these days. There are simple platforms to share information and thanks to a handful of search tools, finding and extracting information is made easy. Whenever I am asked to search for information on what is the latest ‘buzz’ on the web or what people are saying, my first reaction is to turn to the Web 2.0 however; I often remind myself of two platforms that seem to fall off the radar in terms internet intelligence: electronic bulletins boards and discussion groups.

Yes, I know that they lack the bells and whistles of blogs but do they not serve the same purpose - to share information with others? Take for example, eGroups (now YahooGroups) permits individuals to connect with others to discuss similar interests via the web. Some of the content from these discussion groups and bulletin boards is archived and searchable. Another perfect example, Google Groups, that has the archives of the Usenet newsgroups.

With that being said, I advise you to know some of the tools that can be used to search for information available on electronic bulletins boards and discussion groups.