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.

Over the past year and a bit, many social media professionals have been sharing the importance of having a quality video done by a professional, a great blog or some sort of social media marketing message with an aim to take it viral.  Taking something viral online is not easy, it takes a tremendous amount of time, effort and focus. Most of time we sit back and scratch our heads asking why it didn’t take off?  The video which goes viral is something silly and has no real message behind it – how many dancing babies are shared across the Internet?

There is a shift occurring out there, many services are teaming up or putting in connectors to hook into your LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter accounts looking at farming your existing contacts to connect into their new network.  What is the difference between viral and infectious?  I am beginning to think that many social media services are now looking at ways to become infectious instead of viral.  What do I mean?

My experience with Naymz

I will take my recent experience with Naymz.  Naymz is trying real hard, in my opinion to become the next LinkedIn.  The jury is still out on Namyz as another online social media service to put effort into.   There are just so many of these services out there like Plaxo, Naymz and Biznik to name a few.  My experience with Namyz has been a tad bit embarrassing and the reason for my blog post today.  This is where the infectious mindset sets in and it was totally my fault.

I am starting to see more and more of this behaviour from the upstart social media services and those struggling for attention are heading.  In this example I will focus on my experience with Naymz.  With my approval (insert slap in face here) Namyz went through my entire LinkedIn contact list and emailed every single person asking them to join Naymz.  Wait!  I just did what?

Another area of concern is around “Connect with Facebook” and “Twitter Open Authorization”.  When we grant access using these tools and services infects our online communities, what do we do next?  Is my entire Friends or Follows list now open to this application who used these services to connect?  What happens to my reputation online or my trusted colleagues?

When is enough, enough?

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.”

Arvind Rajan, the Vice President of International at LinkedIn is one smart businessperson in my opinion.  Of course the way we do business in Canada is totally different from our colleagues in the south and in my opinion you can not run a Canadian business without having feet on the street.  LinkedIn understands the importance of connecting with the local communities.  LinkedIn now has over 2 million users in Canada according to a recent Financial Post interview with Rajan.  LinkedIn also went on to say that Canada is one of the most active countries online.

Read more about LinkedIn expansion to Canada here.

LinkedIn is also looking to expand into the UK, Netherlands, Australia, Ireland and other countries.