LinkedIn is one of the industry leading social networks and online communities in use today across multiple businesses and industries. LinkedIn’s focus on business-to-business networking and facilitating the sharing of ideas and strategies has won the trust of business professionals globally. Not unlike many of their counterparts, LinkedIn does have privacy challenges according to many CEO level executives. Many organizations are now reviewing their policies related to LinkedIn and how information propagates through this business social network.

More and more business professionals are turning to LinkedIn because of its overall effectiveness in the marketplace. However, many are unaware of the apparent risks to corporate contacts when setting up their LinkedIn accounts. There are many settings that are on automatically allowing for browsing of contacts and also leaving a trace of who visited another profile. Many organizations as part of their social media acceptable use policy are now requiring specific changes to LinkedIn privacy settings be made ensuring business contacts and information are kept confidential.

LinkedIn is build on a community and like many other online networks; they embrace the sharing of information and contacts. How do businesses balance the foundations of LinkedIn with the compliance and confidentiality measures of business today?

Read my white paper on the two required LinkedIn security settings.

Over the past week I have spent many hours deeply engaged with local and industry communities.  At the beginning of the week I started off at the HTG Peer Group annual summit in Dallas, TX.  HTG is a community that I was deeply involved with during my days as a Calgary Computer Support Specialist.  HTG is made up of like-minded IT firms and brings them together in large groups, small groups and special interest groups built on the sharing of best practices and getting involved in the health of each member’s business.

At HTG Summit, I had an opportunity to speak about “online marketing” to a small group of HTG Marketing Professionals on Monday.  Marketing your business and ensuring you have a strategy to keep your business pipeline full is just one of the critical success elements for all business.  Doesn’t matter if you are a tech company, selling real estate or selling hot dogs on the street corner – marketing is a must.  Great marketing is the heartbeat of any business.  What I shared with these HTG professionals is the importance of online marketing when it is balanced with all other aspects of your business marketing, you have look at your overall strategy and how the web fits into your marketing.  You can read my review of the first couple of days with HTG by visiting “The VarGuy site“.

When I returned to Calgary on Tuesday, Ulistic jumped into education mode and brought together a number of great business people for a day of LinkedIn training at our monthly LinkedIn Workshop.  This week we had an experience with a national industry peer group and also a local community of business professionals right in our own backyard.

How do communities work with your business?

Are you the type to engage with community or walk away from those you see as competitors?

I heard something from one of my friends and mentors, Dr. Leslie Roberts from Calgary small business training firm GoForth Institute about competition in our world today during my small business podcast.  Plus, I also just need to turn to what Erik and Lyf are doing in Minneapolis with their Techpulse Minneapolis event.  In MSP, Erik and Lyf come together, competitors in the same industry and they also bring their own customers and share….very powerful.  A great community of professionals led by two leaders in industry.

Here is my advice…don’t hide in the corner, sucking your thumb…get out and engage with others in your community.

First, a little knowledge about how LinkedIn provides your business with the ability to promote your business easily.  LinkedIn provides businesses of all shapes and sizes the ability to create a detailed profile which can be used to bring your employees together under one company umbrella, showcase your corporate blog and provide basic business information such as number of employees, industry, and many more options.

During our Calgary Social Media Course at the Blackfoot Inn we found some serious vulnerabilities and issues around who can access and make changes to your company information on LinkedIn.  During our workshop one of our students was able to make changes to their company information without any approval other than an email address, verification email and a simple re-logon to LinkedIn.  This was an alarming discovery and could be a major issue when it comes to what is being said online about your business.

Does this concern you?  Our students in the Social Media Workshop became very concerned about this potential flaw to their company information.  What is stopping an employee from making any changes they want, perhaps something which questions the firms creditability in the public.  Sure LinkedIn records who made changes however they potential reputation management flaw does leave some business owners a little concerned.

Here is what LinkedIn says about who can edit a company profile.

Can I control who edits my Company Profile?
Any member who has a confirmed a valid company email address can edit your Company Profile. Company Profiles are user content driven.

Thanks to Frank Allen for his comments from our social media course.  Frank provides valuable insight to his clients, his Calgary Weight-loss programs help many Calgarians battle this challenge.

“Stuart and the Ulistic team provided me unbelievable value. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Evident right from the onset, Stuart is a true Go Giver indeed and is always there to be of service. Further to this though he almost always exceeds expectations. Best service provider of the decade in my books.”

I totally understand the importance of building a quality list of endorsements on LinkedIn however some people are taking this wonderful service to the extreme.  How so?  Just ask yourself this one question, have I ever received a request for a recommendation from someone I don’t know?

Well, I get them all the time.  Many of my peers and colleagues in the Calgary small business community and through the Small Business Computer Support world have requested recommendations or endorsements and for many of them since we have a working relationship, it isn’t a problem.

Here is where the problem lies.  When you get a recommendation request from someone you really don’t know or maybe it is from someone you know however your working relationship doesn’t expand past, seeing them across the room at your Chamber of Commerce social event.  What do you do?  Do  you or don’t you offer your good name as an endorsement of their product and service?  Have you experienced what they have to offer?  If not, how can you endorse a product or service without experiencing it for yourself?  If you do endorse it without experiencing it, then you are really no different from many of those fakes on commercials who tell us every 10 minutes on TV how great a product is through TV commercials.

This is where I have to put the brakes on and say NO.  I cannot lend my name to something I have no experience with at all.  It is simple business.

Sorry for those who have sent me requests in the past and I haven’t responded, it is not personal, well maybe it is…business is personal these days and my endorsements have to go with those whose work I have experienced first hand.  Once again simple business smarts.  Like something say it, dislike something say it…no knowledge, keep your hands tied behind your back and away from your keyboard.

• In short, if you and I have worked together – No problem
• If we belong to the same network club and you have went beyond the call of duty and did something to enrich the group – No problem
• If you just show up – Well, Houston this is where the problem lies.

Here is a great article on why Jeremy Owyang doesn’t do LinkedIn Recommendations.

New document and spreadsheet features
We’ve responded to many of your requests for features you’re used to in desktop software. In documents, we’ve added a margin ruler, better numbering and bullets and easier image placement options. And in spreadsheets, you’ll now find a formula editing bar, cell auto-complete, drag-and-drop columns and other features not possible with older browser technologies.

Stuart’s note – still no page break though…disappointing

Higher fidelity document import
We’ve made big improvements to our document upload feature so moving files from your computer to the cloud is easier now. Imported documents retain their original structure more accurately, so you can hit the ground running editing in the browser without having to fix formatting like bullets and text alignment.

Speed and responsiveness
New browser technologies like faster JavaScript processing have made it possible for us to speed up Google Docs significantly. Even very large spreadsheets are fast to work with in your browser now. Applications that run this fast feel like desktop applications but have the unique advantages of being in the cloud.

Faster collaboration
We’ve extended Google Docs’ collaboration capabilities too, with support for up to 50 people working together at once, and in documents, you can now see other people’s edits as they happen character-by-character. And now you can also collaborate on flow charts, diagrams and other schematics in real time with a new editor for drawings on Google Docs.

Here is our official press release announcing the opening of the Ulistic storefront and registration site.

April 1, 2010 Ulistic Inc., a Calgary Social Media consultancy and search engine optimization service have opened a registration site. The new registration site is where Ulistic will feature upcoming training workshops.

Currently workshops, scheduled and ready for registrations include;

• Search Engine Optimization
• Social Media for Business Owners
• A Social Media Breakfast for Real Estate Agents
• LinkedIn for Business

The Ulistic approach to internet consulting is based on empower the client to take ownership of their online presence through education and support.

A practical “newbie” training…? By Sandy – Mar 30, 2010

I have been privileged to take two of Ulistic’s social media courses and they have helped me overcome my fear in this area. They taught it in an understandable, hands-on method so that when I left, I felt confident that I could do this. Other courses left me feeling overwhelmed, rather than equipped. Though they’re very experienced in this field, they didn’t make me feel that my questions were silly. I felt very comfortable during the course and excited to try it out for my business. Thanks, Ulistic!!?

My blogging has been pretty light this week, some of you may actually be happy about this.  It is simply because we have an abundance of proposals and training sessions going on this week.  In the past week Ulistic has brought on two new mentoring clients in the US, working with firms in Houston and Seattle and most recently speaking to another firm in Tampa about how we can help them win new opportunities with effective online marketing strategies.  Combine this with our local obligations…well it is amazing and we are very blessed to say the least.  I simply love to serve those companies interested in learning more about how their business can prosper by leveraging online marketing.

I started a Facebook debate on Wednesday evening around the “Social Media Expert” topic.  For those who follow my blog know that I absolutely detest those who claim to be social media experts and have no business substance or experience to support their claim.  This Facebook discussion focuses around those who claim to be social media experts however lack business acumen on how social media can actually fit into their business model and the actual goals of the corporation.

Want to the join the discussion, visit Stuart Crawford Facebook profile to join in.

I have been following some of the networking tips shared by Bob Burg over the past little while about networking etiquette and what is acceptable bahaviour when it comes to handing out your business card at events, lunches etc.  Well, according to all the experts and networking gurus they state “never give out your card until someone asks for it”.  Good advice in my opinion.

This same approach can spill over to the online world.  Especially one of my favourite business to business sites, LinkedIn.  Why do some people reach out to you when you really have no relationship?  There are legitimate people out there looking for help or advice, great this is what social networking is all about.  Some maybe looking to sell to you, this is what social networking is not about.

Therefore, if you are reaching out to sell something using online social technologies, don’t.  If you are looking at linking up with some to build a network, share experiences, share client needs or seek help or advice….make sure you state that in your request.  You will have a better chance of successfully building your online and face-to-face networks.

Don’t through your card in someone’s face…wait for them to ask for it.

This evening I managed to invest some time with HTG1 and the HTG Advisory Council here in the Valley of the Sun, Phoenix, Arizona.  Tonight is a sad night for me.  It was my official last social engagement as a member of Heartland Tech Groups (HTG) and the HTG Advisory Council.  A great bunch of awesome guys, however with my new career direction in the Calgary Search Engine Optimization and Social Media world. it is unfortunate but I am no longer a fit for HTG, as a member at least.  There maybe something else we can figure out, hopefully.

Canada’s Social Media Landscape

Yesterday I mentioned the Social Landscape and what I feel are contributors to the overall landscape in our socially connected online world that we live in.  A critically important online world that can’t be overlooked any longer by business, families and anyone else who is stuck in a log cabin up north totally disconnect from all human interaction.

Many of us as professionals in social media, throw the words “social media” around pretty loosely.  But really what is social media?  Many of my peers including myself have different descriptions for social media and as a consultant serving the Calgary community I may just continue to use it, out of context in my mind, because that is what people know.

In my opinion, Social Media is simply the art of communicating, the art of delivering the message to a reader, the crafting of the message for people to view, and the reaction to the original message or posting.  Print media is the same thing, the newspaper you read is the tool for reading print media.  I can get the message in a magazine, paper or even a cocktail napkin.  In our online world, Facebook is just a tool for you to read social (online) media.  I hope this make sense to many of you.

Social media is the message, Facebook is the tool, and social networking is the art of creating mutual win-win online relationships and social currency is the “go giver” of the online world.  Like I said, I hope this makes sense to many of you.

Here is another example.  If you are a publicly traded firm in Canada and need to combat some negative press coverage in the print media world, you can turn to social media to help share your side of the story to reach your audience.  Different tools and perhaps the same message.  Twitter can be a service or tool for you to get your word out (the media).

Love to hear what you all think on the this topic.  This is my first leg of what I can the “Social Landscape”.