LinkedIn Delivering Some REAL Value

You know what I hate? Technology for technology sake. You know what I love? When technology comes along and solves a majore pain point by being smart and anticipating my needs. Guess who just did the latter (okay smarty pants, you knew the answer already because I gave it away in the title). Yup, LinkedIn.

I've been a fan of LinkedIn for a while and if my recollection is correct, I've been a member since 2003 which is a long time in the life of a social network. While I originally liked LinkedIn for it's ability to connect me to other smart business folks, the functionality was pretty flat beyond being an online repository for resumes for the first 5-6 years. Over the last 18 months, they've really ramped up their efforts and have made the site much more social in nature.

This morning, they ratcheted things up on more notch by offering a great feature which essentially automates the matchmaking around forwarding on job recommendations. Here is a screenshot of the e-mail I received from LinkedIn this morning:

For any of you reading this in an RSS reader without graphic capabilities, essentially the new LinkedIn functionality works this way:

• Person A pings me with a job request
• LinkedIn looks through my contacts for people that have that job description in their current or past history
• I am then offered the ability to forward that description onto my network (see e-mail template on LinkedIn below).
• Even better, LinkedIn looks into the connections of my connections and offers to allow my connections to forward this description onto their network thus adding value for me AND my network.

The other great thing is that I can delete (or add) additional folks to the e-mail. And as always, I can customize the messaging. In this particular case, I was able to forward this job description from Karen onto five people, five of which I wouldn't have immediately thought of when I originally received the request had LinkedIn not done the heavy lifting for me.

Kudos to you LinkedIn. It's functionality like this that is going to keep you relevant and in business for a long time. Keep up the great work!

Hootsuite: Morphing from Twitter Client to *Badass Social Media Dashboard*

While I don't personally use social media dashboard/tool, HootSuite, I have a number of friends and colleagues who do. At some point, I plan to give it a try. To that end, I do take a personal and professional interest in knowing as much about the spectrum of social tools and networks as possible, particularly since I'm on the hook for staying on top of these things for work and for the weekly podcast I do with Jennifer Leggio of ZDNet (note: live interview on the Quick-n-Dirty podcast show coming with Hootsuite founder, Ryan Holmes, on January 14).

When I found about some of the latest features that Hootsuite was announcing this morning (9 AM PT), I couldn't resist at least spending a couple of minutes letting the folks that read this blog know about it. For a more thorough review, you can check out Hootsuite's blog or Mashable, but for the "quick-n-dirty version, see below...

What's new:

• Integration with Facebook, LinkedIn & Ping.fm
• Users may now update Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles from one location
• According to HootSuite they are the only Twitter client which allows you to schedule updates for these individual social networks
• Users may manage social profiles for multiple accounts
• Users can now read your friends' Facebook and LinkedIn updates and view in-line Facebook comments within HootSuite
• Direct integration with LinkedIn (this is a big one in my mind)
  

• As a result of LinkedIn opening their developer API over the weekend (more on this from Jeremiah Owyang here), HootSuite jumped in (and to my knowledge) is the first to have integrated direct LinkedIn status updates
• HootSuite is one of the first clients (I believe that Seesmic is the other) that allows users to manage lists. Users may now:
• Create lists by dragging and dropping users into columns
• Import lists you've already created & save them as a column in HootSuite

Clearly, Hootsuite is working hard to stay in front of the everchanging landscape of social tools and functionality. For that, they are to be applauded. How long can they keep up with this frantic pace? Who knows, but I like the way CEO, Ryan Holmes thinks. When asked for a quote on Hootsuite's latest release, he replied...

This update sees HootSuite morphing from Twitter client to badass social media dashboard. We're constantly listening to our users to hear what they want. Beyond that, we're thinking about what they might want that they haven't even imagined yet. We think about these things and then try to make them a reality.

Anyone that knows me at all will recognize that Ryan's words are music to my ears. Congratulations to the folks at Hootsuite. I look forward to hearing more!

LinkedIn Goes Facebook

Got this e-mail from LinkedIn today (see below). I've know this was coming for a while but it was nice to see that LinkedIn is realizing that social networking and is ultimately about engagement. While LinkedIn was good for a while at serving as place to connect online and create an online resume, it was not a good place to really engage with one another. Now they are taking a page out of Facebook's playbook and adding some "social" features.

Today we're announcing many more ways to interact with your network on LinkedIn. Whether it's a new way to create projects and collaborate, share information, customize your profile, or gain key insights, the new LinkedIn Applications deliver.

Click here and you'll be able to add applications that enable you to:
Work collaboratively with your network.

• Box on LinkedIn: Share files and collaborate with your network.
  
• Huddle on LinkedIn: Private workspaces to collaborate with your network on projects.
  

Share information and keep up to date with your network.

• Amazon on LinkedIn: Discover what your network is reading.
  
• TripIt on LinkedIn: See where your network is traveling.
  
• SixApart on LinkedIn: Stay up to date with your network's latest blog posts.
  

Present yourself and your work in new ways.

• Google Docs on LinkedIn: Embed a presentation on your profile.
  
• SlideShare on LinkedIn: Share, view and comment on presentations from your network.
  
• WordPress on LinkedIn: Promote your blog and latest posts.
  

Gain key insights that will make you more effective.

• Company Buzz by LinkedIn: See what people are saying about your company.
  

If you want to check out these features, here's the link.