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<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/utility/FeedStylesheets/rss.xsl" media="screen"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"><channel><title>'Net Features : linkedin</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx</link><description>Tags: linkedin</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><generator>CommunityServer 2008 SP2 (Build: 31104.93)</generator><item><title>Big List of Personal Branding Solutions</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/04/24/big-list-of-solutions-for-personal-branding-on-the-web.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 24 Apr 2013 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:24636</guid><dc:creator>Michael Garrity</dc:creator><slash:comments>1</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=24636</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/04/24/big-list-of-solutions-for-personal-branding-on-the-web.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Web has made the &amp;ldquo;personal brand&amp;rdquo; 
more of an actual thing than ever before. These days, individuals can 
have their own websites, online portfolios, social media profiles and 
other online spaces where they can share work, market themselves or 
connect with their audiences or customers. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Personal branding
 is a useful tool for freelancers and individuals who own their own 
businesses, but it also has numerous benefits and presents marketing 
opportunities for people who work for larger organizations, as it allows
 them to share company news and information (although you have to be 
careful to follow SEC guidelines), personally interact with their 
customers and generally humanize their organizations a bit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Luckily,
 the Internet won&amp;rsquo;t just leave you hanging. There are a number of useful
 tools available online that can help you simplify, automate and improve
 your personal branding efforts around the Web. Check out Website 
Magazine&amp;rsquo;s big list of personal branding solutions by clicking &amp;quot;Read More&amp;quot; below.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/pages/big-list-of-personal-branding-solutions.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h1&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/pages/big-list-of-personal-branding-solutions.aspx" target="_blank"&gt;Read More&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=24636" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/social+media/default.aspx">social media</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/hootsuite/default.aspx">hootsuite</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/big+list/default.aspx">big list</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wmfeature/default.aspx">wmfeature</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-socialmedia/default.aspx">wm-socialmedia</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-social/default.aspx">wm-social</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/personal+branding/default.aspx">personal branding</category></item><item><title>LinkedIn Gets Smart About Unified Search</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/03/26/linkedin-gets-smart-about-unified-search.aspx</link><pubDate>Tue, 26 Mar 2013 17:45:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:24093</guid><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=24093</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/03/26/linkedin-gets-smart-about-unified-search.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Professional social network LinkedIn rolled out numerous &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://blog.linkedin.com/2013/03/25/linkedin-search-just-got-smarter/"&gt;improvements&lt;/a&gt; to its unified search capabilities, offering up what LinkedIn users hope will be more relevant results.&lt;/strong&gt; 
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
LinkedIn is no slouch when it comes to the number of searches conducted on its website (over 5.7 billion according to the company). A better search experience, one that pulls content from across the site (and elsewhere) and includes better intent detection - which obviously leads to more relevant results - could certainly prove invaluable to users of LinkedIn. 
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The social network, likely in an effort not to be undone by the likes of Facebook&amp;#39;s Graph Search, is also touting its auto-complete feature which provides a list of search options as members type their search terms. And the more LinkedIn learns (detects) about their &amp;quot;intent&amp;quot; over time, the more relevant auto-complete results will become for users. 
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
There are also a whole host of advanced filters that let members search by location, company and school, and members can even set up automated alerts that send notifications when their saved search results have changed.  
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The changes to LinkedIn&amp;#39;s search capabilities has evolved over time but this certainly seems to be one of the more aggressive releases. The upgrades should be available to all LinkedIn members over the coming weeks.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=24093" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/search/default.aspx">search</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-searchmarketing/default.aspx">wm-searchmarketing</category></item><item><title>12 Effective Corporate Blog Designs</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/03/14/12-effective-corporate-blog-designs.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 14 Mar 2013 19:35:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:23800</guid><dc:creator>Michael Garrity</dc:creator><slash:comments>10</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=23800</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/03/14/12-effective-corporate-blog-designs.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In the age of likes, retweets and shares, content marketing has suddenly become the best way to spread the word about your brand to bring in new customers and rack up conversions. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;However, since social media has its limitations, in terms of both branding and the type of content that companies can offer, many businesses have taken to blogging to provide insightful and valuable information to their customers, while also producing likeable and sharable content that can benefit their SEO efforts. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Look, plenty has already been written about how blogs can &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/09/07/blogging-for-success-weekend-warrior.aspx"&gt;improve a brand&amp;rsquo;s content marketing campaigns&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2010/04/20/want-more-leads-write-more-blog-posts.aspx"&gt;increase leads&lt;/a&gt;, but we&amp;rsquo;re here to be a little more superficial than that. While content is undoubtedly and absolutely the most important aspect of a valuable, successful blog, it&amp;rsquo;s not the only thing that matters. After all, we&amp;rsquo;ve all heard about the effect that a good (or bad) first impression can have on new consumers. That&amp;rsquo;s why all of that great content on your blog should look nice, as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you&amp;rsquo;re in need of some inspiration, we&amp;rsquo;ve compiled this list of 12 of the most effective corporate blog designs on the Web. Each of them takes a different approach; some are design-heavy and visually striking (e.g. Whole Foods, Southwest), while others take a simpler, less bold approach that is more in line with what the brand offers (e.g. LinkedIn, Bigelow Tea).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Which designs are your favorites? Let us know in the comments section, or share some other great corporate blogs that you know about!&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.bigelowteablog.com/"&gt;Bigelow Tea Blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/blogelow.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="625" alt="" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://blog.linkedin.com/"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://blog.linkedin.com/"&gt;The Official LinkedIn Blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/linkedblog.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="635" alt="" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.seventhgeneration.com/learn/blog"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.seventhgeneration.com/learn/blog"&gt;7Gen Blog by Seventh Generation&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/7genblog.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="450" alt="" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://ebayinkblog.com/"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://ebayinkblog.com/"&gt;eBay inc. Ink&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/eblog.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="650" alt="" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/"&gt;Disney Parks Blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/disney-blog.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="625" alt="" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/whole-story"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/whole-story"&gt;Whole Story by Whole Foods&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/whole-blog.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="440" alt="" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.thecleanestline.com/"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.thecleanestline.com/"&gt;The Cleanest Line by Patagonia&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/patagonia.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="909" alt="" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.blogsouthwest.com/"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.blogsouthwest.com/"&gt;Nuts About Southwest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/southwest-blog.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="450" alt="" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://blog.dropbox.com/"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://blog.dropbox.com/"&gt;The Dropbox Blog&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/dropblog.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="500" alt="" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/"&gt;All Songs Considered by NPR&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/all-songs-blog.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="425" alt="" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://blog.toms.com/"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://blog.toms.com/"&gt;TOMS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/toms-blog.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="650" alt="" /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://icecreamjournal.turkeyhill.com/"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://icecreamjournal.turkeyhill.com/"&gt;Ice Cream Journal by Turkey Hill Dairy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/ice-cream-blog.jpg" style="vertical-align:middle;border:1px solid black;margin:10px;" width="650" height="465" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=23800" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/ebay/default.aspx">ebay</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/blogging/default.aspx">blogging</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/blogs/default.aspx">blogs</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/themes/default.aspx">themes</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/tumblr/default.aspx">tumblr</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/design+and+development/default.aspx">design and development</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/Dropbox/default.aspx">Dropbox</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wmfeature/default.aspx">wmfeature</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-designdev/default.aspx">wm-designdev</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/Whole+Foods/default.aspx">Whole Foods</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/Disney/default.aspx">Disney</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/npr/default.aspx">npr</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/toms/default.aspx">toms</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/patagonia/default.aspx">patagonia</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/blog+design/default.aspx">blog design</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/templates/default.aspx">templates</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/southwest+airlines/default.aspx">southwest airlines</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/seventh+generation/default.aspx">seventh generation</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/bigelow+tea/default.aspx">bigelow tea</category></item><item><title>Slideshare's Send Tracker Provides Feedback Loop </title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/02/20/slideshare-s-send-tracker-provides-feedback-loop.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 20 Feb 2013 12:05:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:23353</guid><dc:creator>Pete Prestipino</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=23353</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/02/20/slideshare-s-send-tracker-provides-feedback-loop.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Content and presentation sharing site &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://slideshare.net"&gt;Slideshare&lt;/a&gt;, a LinkedIn owned company (covered extensively at &lt;i&gt;Website Magazine)&lt;/i&gt;, has released a custom analytics solution focused on helping sales and lead generation professionals understand more about the performance of their presentations.
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Slideshare&amp;rsquo;s new Send Tracker offering is essentially a content analytics tool that lets users share their content (presentations, etc) to prospects via email. The solution then reports on engagement insights such as when prospects opened it (real-time alerts) and how they interacted with it (e.g. how long the viewer was on a certain slide). By knowing where prospects are spending their time in the presentation, a sales professional can customize their presentations accordingly, leading ideally to a greater number of conversions. 
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
SlideShare&amp;#39;s paid product starts at $19 per month, but the service is offering all application users the option to test Send Tracker free of charge on a single presentation.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="334" width="411" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/sendtracker.png" style="margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=23353" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/slideshare/default.aspx">slideshare</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/sales/default.aspx">sales</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/presentations/default.aspx">presentations</category></item><item><title>Profile Inspirations for the Big 4 Social Networks</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/01/23/profile-inspirations-for-the-big-4-social-networks.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:55:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:23004</guid><dc:creator>Allison Howen</dc:creator><slash:comments>3</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=23004</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/01/23/profile-inspirations-for-the-big-4-social-networks.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In today&amp;rsquo;s digital age, it is important for every business to broaden its audience reach by maintaining a presence on four of the &amp;rsquo;Net&amp;rsquo;s most popular social networks &amp;ndash; Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, posting engaging content and interacting with fans is just one part of the equation when it comes to maintaining a successful social presence, with the other part of the equation being design. In fact, often times, brands focus solely on posting a variety of content to social networks and forget about optimizing the real estate on their profile altogether.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Luckily, &lt;i&gt;Website Magazine&lt;/i&gt; has found some of the best examples of social profiles on the Web to help provide some inspiration for future profile-redesign projects. Check them out below:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Facebook&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is a large amount of space to work with on Facebook Pages, most notably, the 851 x 315 px cover photo that is featured at the top of every profile. Although most brands have a Facebook presence, few utilize the social network&amp;rsquo;s design aspects quite like the brands below.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/kitkat?ref=stream"&gt;Kit Kat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;This sweet company takes fan engagement to a whole new level by prominently featuring fans on its cover photo.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="330" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/Kitkatfb.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/priceline?ref=stream"&gt;Priceline&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;This travel company has streamlined its marketing initiatives by using its Facebook cover photo to promote its ongoing &amp;ldquo;Priceline Negotiator&amp;rdquo; campaign. Moreover, the image features a specific hashtag so that fans can take their conversations from Facebook to Twitter without missing a beat.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="330" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/pricelinefb.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/method?ref=stream"&gt;Method&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Method maintains a clean design by featuring and identifying its line of products on a white background in the company&amp;rsquo;s cover photo.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="330" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/methodfb.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Twitter&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Designing a Twitter profile can be tricky, because this micro-blogging social network displays profile pictures directly in the middle of the 520 x 260 px header images. As if creating a design that works with two images wasn&amp;rsquo;t hard enough, Twitter profiles also leave room for background images, which can appear differently on computer screens depending on resolution. However, the trick is to make all these elements come together into one large design.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/Beggin"&gt;Beggin&amp;rsquo; Strips&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Purina&amp;rsquo;s Twitter account for the delectable doggie treat, Beggin&amp;rsquo; Strips, uses strategic placement to make its profile picture and header image appear as one design.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="330" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/beggint.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/DesignByIKEA"&gt;IKEA USA&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;While IKEA USA&amp;rsquo;s Twitter header and background image flow together nicely, the company keeps its branding initiatives strong by featuring the company&amp;rsquo;s icon as its profile picture.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="330" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/ikeat.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/CoreCommerce"&gt;CoreCommerce&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;CoreCommerce does a really good job at maintaining a simple profile design on Twitter that still attracts attention with the use of bright colors. Additionally, the company uses its background design to let prospective clients know exactly what type of services they can expect from the CoreCommerce platform.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="330" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/corecommercet.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Google+&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Although Google+ hasn&amp;rsquo;t taken off in the way that social sites like Facebook and Twitter did, it is still vital for companies to maintain a profile on this network &amp;ndash; to boost their SEO initiatives, if for nothing else. The main design elements to focus on when optimizing a Google+ profile include the large 250 x 250 px profile picture and the even larger cover photo, which measures 890 x 180 px.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://plus.google.com/+SanDiegoZoo/posts"&gt;San Diego Zoo&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;The San Diego Zoo has an unfair advantage when it comes to design, because its entire business is built on animals, and who doesn&amp;rsquo;t like looking at pictures of animals? That being said, the zoo still took some time to create a cover photo and profile image that feature a variety of the zoo&amp;rsquo;s inhabitants &amp;ndash; mammals, birds and amphibians.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="300" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/sandiegozoog.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/107465225766858733923/posts"&gt;Instagram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For proof that simple is sometimes better, look no further than Instagram&amp;rsquo;s Google+ profile design.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="300" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/instagramg.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/+silverpop/posts"&gt;Silverpop&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This cover photo has been leveraged to visually feature the types of services that Silverpop offers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="300" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/silverpopg.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Brands attract a whole different type of audience on LinkedIn, which is a good thing. However, optimizing the design on LinkedIn Company Pages can be a bit of challenge because brands want to attract attention yet stay professional at the same time, all with a limited amount of customizable space. That being said, the focus for these pages should be the 646 x 220 px main cover photo, because this is the first thing people see when arriving at a Company Page.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;Nokia&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Nokia uses its cover photo for featuring a variety of its products on a simple background.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="330" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/nokial.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/general-motors"&gt;General Motors&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;This automobile company optimized its cover photo specifically for LinkedIn by keeping the focus on people.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="330" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/gml.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.linkedin.com/company/hootsuite?trk=top_nav_home"&gt;HootSuite&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Just like Nokia, HootSuite does a solid job of featuring the type of services it offers without being too flashy or over-promotional.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img height="330" width="630" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/hootsuitel.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:5px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=23004" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/facebook/default.aspx">facebook</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/social+media/default.aspx">social media</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/twitter/default.aspx">twitter</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/google_2B00_/default.aspx">google+</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wmfeature/default.aspx">wmfeature</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-socialmedia/default.aspx">wm-socialmedia</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-designdev/default.aspx">wm-designdev</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/profile+design/default.aspx">profile design</category></item><item><title>Social Media for Home-Based Businesses</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/01/23/social-media-for-home-based-businesses.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:15:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:22940</guid><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator><slash:comments>1</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=22940</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/01/23/social-media-for-home-based-businesses.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;When running a home-based business, the pressure of completing vital daily actions, in addition to time constraints, means social media strategy may not be your highest priority. But to outreach to an extensive customer base, build your online authority and gain a valuable platform for real-time customer service, it should be.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All social networks are not created equal, however. Brand social media is not a tool exclusive to large organizations, and for home businesses especially, can be crucially beneficial and should play an active role in daily business. Choosing a social channel for business depends on a number of variables, so before selecting one (or jumping straight into all networks) consider:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="padding-left:30px;"&gt;&amp;bull;&lt;span&gt;	&lt;/span&gt;What the home business is&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="padding-left:30px;"&gt;&amp;bull;&lt;span&gt;	&lt;/span&gt;Who the target market is and which channel they are most likely to be active and responsive on&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="padding-left:30px;"&gt;&amp;bull;&lt;span&gt;	&lt;/span&gt;The nature of the products and services sold&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Considering what you want your social strategy to achieve can also help with your decision. For example, if you want to build yourself up as an industry leader, network, or promote your company and yourself through industry based discussion, then LinkedIn may be the most suitable network. But if you&amp;#39;re likely to post numerous, frequent news, product and offer updates, and want to target and interact with potential clients more directly, using Facebook or Twitter may be a better route to take.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Of course there&amp;#39;s nothing to stop you from using both! If you can meet the time requirements to maintain a dedicated and active presence across numerous social media channels, you&amp;#39;ll be presenting a more varied, accessible and authoritative business profile. Just note that you don&amp;#39;t have to join all networks at once, and be wary of the dangers and damaging effects which incomplete and sloppy social profiling can have.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Key social networks you may consider choosing include:&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.linkedin.com/"&gt;LinkedIn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;LinkedIn acts as a virtual CV, networking and job-hunting tool, and for that reason works well as a B2B social network. Giving you the social status to network as a business figurehead, creating a LinkedIn company page can inform LinkedIn users of your home business, as well as your personal attributes and will showcase your services and company updates. Networking to contact key industry individuals and participation in regular discussion groups can establish your authority as a thought leader within your industry or area of business. It can also allow you as a business owner to advance, network, and raise your professional profile.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Depending upon your business or service offering (this may work well for freelance services for example), LinkedIn can also be an excellent way to source clients.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/"&gt;Twitter&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For most organizations, Twitter is the go-to network. With users expectant and tolerant of much more frequent posting (some more brand active profiles post upward of 10 tweets a day), news, links relevant to your industry, retweets and other shared content can boost your profile. Plus, by taking advantage of Twitter features, such as hashtags, your tweets can be easily found in searches and your presence raised. Allowing you to present an accessible front, promote new product and converse with your client base, Twitter lets you directly access a much wider potential customer base, and can be a great way to gather feedback. Have an active follow and interaction strategy to boost and interact with followers and spread the name of your business.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Regarding the time restraints of being commercially active on Twitter, tweets can be scheduled, searched for and ordered using management applications, such as HootSuite or TweetDeck - meaning all daily social activity can be done at once.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://pinterest.com/"&gt;Pinterest&lt;/a&gt; &amp;amp; &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://instagram.com/"&gt;Instagram&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;For businesses that offer a visually appealing product, having a Pinterest or Instagram account can be incredibly beneficial. Whilst Instagram works well in conjunction with Twitter (owing to its use of hashtags allowing users to locate images) and can be a way to encourage customers to create social content/ their own images related to your brand product, Pinterest works more as a virtual pinboard. Allowing users to &amp;#39;repin&amp;#39; images of your product (once you have a developed profile), if your product can be aesthetically endorsed, both networks could work very well to an advantage.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/"&gt;Facebook&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is an excellent tool for home businesses with small audiences who wish to get to know their audience and fans. You can use your page insights to see what sort of content garners the best responses. Facebook is ideal for sharing and is more directly personal than Twitter, so knowing what content (images, links, competitions, etc.) your Facebook followers respond best to, can work to a business advantage in that you can encourage those followers to share your brand content to their own friends and followers as well. As a great place to share news, offers and promotions, Facebook works well for businesses with a wider consumer base, such as fashion or food, and offers a simple approach to customer service (comments and interaction).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=oz&amp;amp;continue=https://plus.google.com/?gpsrc%3Dogpy0%26tab%3DwX%26gpsrc%3Dogpy0&amp;amp;hl=en"&gt;Google +&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Though less popular than the other networks, a Google + presence can be just as important. More relaxed when it comes to self-promotion, Google + allows for status and content sharing as with Facebook and LinkedIn, but importantly, as a Google owned service, means it is linked with all of Google&amp;#39;s other products. An active account can provide additional SEO benefit: especially useful for smaller, location-dependent businesses.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once you&amp;#39;ve decided which network to use:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Any social network can encourage customers to move from your social profile to your business site, and once you&amp;#39;ve decided which network(s) to be active on, you should consider some form of basic strategy to build a following - this can be as basic as deciding to use &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://hootsuite.com/"&gt;HootSuite&lt;/a&gt; to schedule in a certain number of tweets a day and replying to any customer feedback (good or bad), to forming a more comprehensive approach such as following targeted users and ensuring you mix your content between status updates, links, images etc.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The approach you take toward social media will vary depending on the time you have to invest in it, but making this investment can really help launch the profile of a whole business, especially if targeting a local market. You should make it easy for people to access your social networks, connect, share and promote you.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;b&gt;About&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;b&gt;the Author:&lt;/b&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;Alastair Kane is a freelance writer working for 2touch, a leading provider of &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.2touch.co.uk/solutions/fulfilment-company-and-warehousing/order-fulfillment-centre"&gt;fulfillment services&lt;/a&gt; helping businesses keep their customers happy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=22940" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/facebook/default.aspx">facebook</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/twitter/default.aspx">twitter</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/google_2B00_/default.aspx">google+</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/pinterest/default.aspx">pinterest</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-socialmedia/default.aspx">wm-socialmedia</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/instagram/default.aspx">instagram</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/home+businesses/default.aspx">home businesses</category></item><item><title>LinkedIn Milestone - 200 Million Members</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/01/10/linkedin-milestone-200-million-members.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:22798</guid><dc:creator>Pete Prestipino</dc:creator><slash:comments>1</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=22798</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2013/01/10/linkedin-milestone-200-million-members.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You might be a Twitterholic, a Facebook Junkie or a Google+ Maven, but if you&amp;#39;re not tapping into the power of LinkedIn, you&amp;#39;re likely missing out on some important career building and networking opportunities. 
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
LinkedIn, really the original business/social network, announced that it just passed an important milestone - 200 million members are now part of its networks. What&amp;#39;s amazing is that the network actually double its membership since March 2011 - adding a whopping 13 million since November 1st, 2012. 
LinkedIn&amp;#39;s rise to in the past few years has been phenomenal. It&amp;#39;s now so big, in fact, that if it were a actual country it would have the fifth largest popular population in the world. That&amp;#39;s impressive. Some other immensely interesting LinkedIn data points include: 
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
- Countries With the Most LinkedIn Members (in millions): United States (74), India (18), United Kingdom (11), Brazil (11), Canada (7)&lt;br /&gt;
- Fastest Growing Countries: Turkey, Columbia, Indonesia&lt;br /&gt;
- 2 members per second join the network, equaling just over 172,000 registrations per day &lt;br /&gt;
- The largest industries include information technology and services, financial services, and higher education&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=22798" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/social+media/default.aspx">social media</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-social/default.aspx">wm-social</category></item><item><title>Video Ads Come to LinkedIn</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/10/24/video-ads-come-to-linkedin.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:45:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:21789</guid><dc:creator>Allison Howen</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=21789</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/10/24/video-ads-come-to-linkedin.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;There is a whole new way for advertisers to reach their prospects through LinkedIn.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is because the professional social network has announced that the company&amp;rsquo;s self-serve platform, &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.linkedin.com/advertising"&gt;LinkedIn Ads&lt;/a&gt;, now allows advertisers to use videos to promote their brands. The platform also works with YouTube, which means that brands can leverage videos from their existing YouTube presence to promote their brand on LinkedIn.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to a LinkedIn &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://marketing.linkedin.com/video-on-linkedin-ads"&gt;blog post&lt;/a&gt;, the video ads will appear in 300x250 units across the social network and will compete for impressions in the same way that the site&amp;#39;s traditional text and image ad formats do. Furthermore, when a LinkedIn user is engaged with a video ad, the video will take over the entire ad unit and play for 30 seconds. After the video&amp;rsquo;s completion, users have the ability to click through to the advertiser&amp;rsquo;s landing page or website.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;img height="270" width="324" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/linkedinvideoad.png" style="vertical-align:middle;margin:10px;" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=21789" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/video/default.aspx">video</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/video+advertising/default.aspx">video advertising</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/advertising+alternatives/default.aspx">advertising alternatives</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-advertising/default.aspx">wm-advertising</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-social/default.aspx">wm-social</category></item><item><title>Kudos in a Click with LinkedIn Endorsements </title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/10/08/kudos-in-a-click-with-linkedin-endorsements.aspx</link><pubDate>Mon, 08 Oct 2012 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:21546</guid><dc:creator>Administrator</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=21546</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/10/08/kudos-in-a-click-with-linkedin-endorsements.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Professional social network Linkedin has introduced a new feature in &amp;ldquo;&lt;a href="http://blog.linkedin.com/2012/09/24/introducing-endorsements-give-kudos-with-just-one-click/" target="_blank"&gt;Endorsements&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rdquo; recently which makes it quite a bit simpler (like one-click simple) to recognize your professional connections for their skills and general expertise.  
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
LinkedIn Endorsements make it possible to endorse connections for any skill they have listed on their profile and can also be used to recommend a skill those connections have yet to add. Unlike the network&amp;rsquo;s existing recommendations feature, endorsements can be made with one click when visiting an individual profile. 
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
The new Endorsements are visible from within the new &amp;ldquo;Skills &amp;amp; Expertise&amp;rdquo; section. LinkedIn users are notified by email and on LinkedIn whenever new endorsements are received. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The new feature has numerous potential uses but likely none greater than being able to rank individual users based on the volume of their endorsements for particular skills. Coming soon? We think so, b ut how about you? &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Share your thoughts on how LinkedIn might use the data gathered from endorsements by commenting below.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=21546" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/endorsements/default.aspx">endorsements</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-socialmedia/default.aspx">wm-socialmedia</category></item><item><title>Collect Email Addresses via Social Sign-In</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/09/18/collect-email-addresses-via-social-sign-in.aspx</link><pubDate>Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:47:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:21254</guid><dc:creator>Allison Howen</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=21254</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/09/18/collect-email-addresses-via-social-sign-in.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Collecting email addresses just got a whole lot easier, especially for B2B marketers.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.silverpop.com/"&gt;Silverpop&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;is to thank. The company announced an enhancement to its Social Sign-In feature, which&amp;nbsp;is built through a partnership with&amp;nbsp;social identity and user management solutions provider&amp;nbsp;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://janrain.com/"&gt;Janrain&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The enhancement&amp;nbsp;gives Silverpop customers the ability to collect email addresses when an individual registers for an offer using existing LinkedIn credentials.&amp;nbsp;This is an especially valuable feature for B2B marketers, who are more interested in interacting with potential buyers via their professional email than a personal account, as well as for marketers who want to target communication based on recipients&amp;#39; professional backgrounds.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;Social Sign-In benefits both buyers and marketers, making registration processes simpler, thus decreasing the possibility of form abandonment while also getting the marketer closer to the social behaviors of each contact&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt; said Bryan Brown, director of product strategy at Silverpop. &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;For B2B marketers, while the information collected from social networks like Facebook and Twitter is certainly valuable, the likelihood of attaining a contact&amp;#39;s business email address is low. With LinkedIn accounts, individuals are more likely to include their business-related information. Having this capability is a giant leap for B2B marketers in general, and Silverpop customers in particular, as they can take advantage of this enhancement right out of the gate due to our existing strategic partnership with Janrain.&amp;quot;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Social sign-in is becoming an increasingly popular feature because many people are too frustrated by online registration processes to create new user accounts, or simply don&amp;#39;t want to remember another password. However, Janrain has found that companies can achieve an increase in conversion rates when they provide users with the option to &amp;quot;sign in&amp;quot; using social credentials.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;The increase in form completions and conversion rates has an obvious benefit to marketers, but so does the ability to connect users to their social profiles, providing additional, highly valuable insight about their site visitors,&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt; said Tore Steen, vice president of business development for Janrain.&lt;i&gt; &amp;quot;Through Janrain technology Silverpop customers now can collect verified emails and other permission-based profile data only available from LinkedIn for use in their email and marketing campaigns.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=21254" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/email/default.aspx">email</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/silverpop/default.aspx">silverpop</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/Janrain/default.aspx">Janrain</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-socialmedia/default.aspx">wm-socialmedia</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-email/default.aspx">wm-email</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/social+sign+in/default.aspx">social sign in</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/b2b+marketers/default.aspx">b2b marketers</category></item><item><title>Rep Management for Beginners</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/08/23/rep-management-for-beginners.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:30:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:20923</guid><dc:creator>Amberly Dressler</dc:creator><slash:comments>4</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=20923</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/08/23/rep-management-for-beginners.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:bold;"&gt;Chances are your company&amp;rsquo;s website and where it ranks on Google is top of mind for your company&amp;rsquo;s marketers. What about your own Google search results?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A growing number of entrepreneurs and small business owners are taking their online reputation into their own hands with BrandYourself.com. Launched in March 2012, this personal, do-it-yourself SEO platform makes it easier for individuals to control their Google results. Professionals make up a good portion of BrandYourself.com&amp;rsquo;s user base, which is 120,000 strong thanks to quite a bit of press and viral features.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With the millions of names Googled every day, it&amp;rsquo;s no wonder why these individuals put a premium on their search results. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Just like a brown-bagged lunch, your name goes to work with you too.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Bad results hurt you and good results help you,&amp;rdquo; says Patrick Ambron, CEO and co-founder of BrandYourself.com. &amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s not just negative stuff either; it&amp;rsquo;s about a more relevant and accurate representation of themselves on the Web.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By using Ambron&amp;rsquo;s service, professionals can push up relevant material in search results, while pushing down inaccurate, irrelevant or unflattering returns.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Take the case of a Harvard professor who came to BrandYourself.com after being falsely accused of stealing T-shirts from the Gap. From then on, every time he was Googled that incident topped the results. By using this product, he was able to push up relevant material.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ambron says it&amp;rsquo;s a case of, &amp;ldquo;bad results happening to good people,&amp;rdquo; which is how the company began in the first place.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Co-founder Pete Kistler couldn&amp;rsquo;t get an internship in college because he was being mistaken for a drug dealer in Google. Not all cases are as extreme. Often it&amp;rsquo;s something like removing someone&amp;rsquo;s highschool volleyball championship from the top result and replacing it with their free, automatically optimized BrandYourself.com profile, LinkedIn page or whatever page meets their objectives.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;ve always believed we are solving a mainstream problem, and we are a mainstream product, with no price or technical barriers,&amp;rdquo; says Ambron.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;People understand the concept of putting their best foot forward, as the website converts 30-40% of traffic. Ninety-eight percent of these conversions utilize the free product features.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We make money on the 2% who pay,&amp;rdquo; says Ambron. &amp;ldquo;We don&amp;rsquo;t monetize our free users other than we think they eventually may pay us.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The main difference between the free and premium membership is that a free users can submit up to three links they&amp;rsquo;d like to top search results, while paid members can submit unlimited links (for about $9 a month).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#39;s two tips to make your LinkedIn profile higher in your search results. First, make sure you are using your first and last name, not a nickname. Second, look at your profile&amp;rsquo;s URL. You can modify your URL so it&amp;rsquo;s not like Linkedin.com/afjdljflsj, instead, includes your name, like Linkedin.com/PattySmith.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;BrandYourself.com will walk you through the process, and new features can also inform you when a specific company Googles them, plus how they found you, where they&amp;rsquo;re located and where they work.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=20923" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/google/default.aspx">google</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wmfeature/default.aspx">wmfeature</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-searchmarketing/default.aspx">wm-searchmarketing</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/Patrick+Ambron/default.aspx">Patrick Ambron</category></item><item><title>AARP Launches Job Board for 50+</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/08/15/aarp-launches-job-board-for-50.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 15 Aug 2012 20:30:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:20764</guid><dc:creator>Allison Howen</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=20764</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/08/15/aarp-launches-job-board-for-50.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Finding a job can prove to be a difficult task, especially in today&amp;rsquo;s economy.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And although most media stories focus on how the economy is affecting the job search for recent grads, many have overlooked how previous generations are dealing with unemployment &amp;ndash; until now.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.aarp.org/"&gt;AARP&lt;/a&gt; recently launched &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://workreimagined.aarp.org/"&gt;Work Reimagined&lt;/a&gt;, which is a social networking site that is powered by LinkedIn. The site connects professionals, who are on the job hunt and at least 50 years old, with employers who are currently hiring.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The site launched with job openings from almost 120 employers who have agreed to the Work Reimagined pledge &amp;ndash; a commitment to treat all employees equally, regardless of their age.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;ldquo;Work Reimagined enables experienced workers to come together in a vibrant online community to share your views and help move through &amp;lsquo;what&amp;rsquo;s next&amp;rsquo; career moments,&amp;rdquo; &lt;/i&gt;says Rob Romasco, President of AARP. &lt;i&gt;&amp;ldquo;It opens the way for access to workforce resources, as well as the opportunity to connect with other experienced workers in a peer-to-peer environment.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Work Reimagined also offers job listings that are independent of LinkedIn, as well as features tips and advice to help people land a job or start a business. According to AARP, many top companies, including Toys R Us, Lowe&amp;rsquo;s and AT&amp;amp;T, have already taken the Work Reimagined pledge.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=20764" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/social+media/default.aspx">social media</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/jobs/default.aspx">jobs</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/wm-socialmedia/default.aspx">wm-socialmedia</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/work+reimagined/default.aspx">work reimagined</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/aarp/default.aspx">aarp</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/50_2B00_/default.aspx">50+</category></item><item><title>Simplicity Rules the Day for LinkedIn Design Change</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/05/17/linkedin-the-latest-to-state-the-case-for-simplicity.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 17 May 2012 19:30:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:19770</guid><dc:creator>Linc Wonham</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=19770</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/05/17/linkedin-the-latest-to-state-the-case-for-simplicity.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/wmicon-mini.jpg" style="float:left;margin:10px;" height="73" width="73" alt="" /&gt;&lt;b&gt;I suppose you could chalk it up to a crazy coincidence or merely to the fact that I was in a newsletter-reading frame of mind for a change, but for the first time since I&amp;rsquo;d begun receiving them some time ago, I read this morning&amp;rsquo;s edition of LinkedIn Today that appeared in my inbox.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;LinkedIn Today is the professional network&amp;rsquo;s social news product which, in my case, appears quite randomly and usually receives a quick glance if it&amp;rsquo;s not getting altogether ignored. But that wasn&amp;rsquo;t the case this morning.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In fact, I opened the email, clicked onto the site, consumed several news items and, obediently completing all of the tasks a newsletter is supposed to invite me to do, poked around the site a little while longer and read some more content from the LinkedIn blog. If we were grading newsletters on their individual results, this morning&amp;rsquo;s LinkedIn Today that landed in my mailbox would easily get an A+.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Imagine my surprise then, when I clicked on yesterday&amp;rsquo;s post from the LinkedIn blog and began reading about the new redesign of LinkedIn Today. Senior user experience designer Joann Wu writes that the goal was to &amp;ldquo;not only make the product easier to navigate, we&amp;rsquo;ve completely re-imagined the look and feel so you can get quicker access and customized ways to consume the news that matters most to you.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;She continued to say that, &amp;ldquo;One of the key design principles that drove the approach for the visual change was to simplify the experience; creating an elegant, delightful and customized experience for news consumption.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The simpler user interface shown below perfectly combines images and text to create a blocky grid-like layout and makes it exceptionally easy to scan content. The new interface also emphasizes the user experience by making it easy to share articles with your connections throughout the LinkedIn network, and to see which connections are following and sharing certain items. Users can also customize what kinds of stories they will see with the Customize Your 
News tab, also shown below.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/linkedindesign.gif" style="vertical-align:bottom;margin:10px;" height="662" width="492" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/linkedinpartII.gif" style="vertical-align:bottom;margin:10px;" height="456" width="502" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But come on, that seems like a pretty big coincidence to me. The first time I choose to engage with the product happens to be the first day I receive the completely overhauled, redesigned version. And I didn&amp;rsquo;t just skim it, either &amp;ndash; you could say that I vigorously consumed the darned thing before spending 30 more minutes of my morning on the LinkedIn site.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And there&amp;rsquo;s that word again: simple; or, in this case, &amp;ldquo;simplify the experience.&amp;rdquo; Clearly, that&amp;rsquo;s what my subconscious mind was waiting for, a simplified social news experience from LinkedIn. And, really, that&amp;rsquo;s what all of us as Web users demand today, simplified experiences in the form of simpler, user-friendly designs. &lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/05/03/Bing-Redesigning-for-Better-Results.aspx"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Bing&amp;rsquo;s de-cluttering&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; of its search results pages is just one of thousands of examples in the very recent past.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whether my experience this morning was a coincidence or not, it is definitely not a coincidence that LinkedIn Today received its new look barely two weeks after the launch of the professional network&amp;rsquo;s iPad application. The app is simple and sleek, which is the look the news feed now has, &amp;ldquo;creating an elegant, delightful and customized experience for news consumption.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So, for LinkedIn, a smart move on their redesign that, if I am any indication, should serve the company well in the future. For the Web design community, just more irrefutable evidence that simpler design is the course we are on and the direction in which we are headed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=19770" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/web+design/default.aspx">web design</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/bing/default.aspx">bing</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/redesign/default.aspx">redesign</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin+today/default.aspx">linkedin today</category></item><item><title>Facebook App Has Business Pros Branching Out </title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/04/19/business-professionals-branching-out.aspx</link><pubDate>Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:00:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:19564</guid><dc:creator>Allison Howen</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=19564</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/04/19/business-professionals-branching-out.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;img style="float:left;margin:10px;" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/branchout.jpg" height="75" width="75" alt="" /&gt;It&amp;#39;s hard to imagine, but could LinkedIn be in trouble? If a newly popular app on Facebook has anything to say about it, the answer is app-solutely.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://branchout.com/user/home" target="_blank"&gt;BranchOut&lt;/a&gt; is an app that enables Facebook users to find jobs and network with other business professionals &amp;ndash; &lt;i&gt;just like LinkedIn.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The app allows users to create profiles where they can upload their resumes, add specialties, tag skills and receive endorsements &amp;ndash; &lt;i&gt;just like LinkedIn.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On the homepage, users can also view network updates, review targeted job opportunities, send messages to connections, as well as search for jobs and people &amp;ndash; &lt;i&gt;just like LinkedIn.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Noticing a trend? Yes, BranchOut offers many similar features to the largest professional-oriented network on the Web. However, unlike LinkedIn, BranchOut users can connect with all of their Facebook friends with just a click of the mouse, making it very easy to grow a large network quickly.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Currently, BranchOut has 25 million registered users, which is a small number compared to LinkedIn&amp;rsquo;s 150 million users. But the app has unlimited potential to raise its user rate, especially since its home is on the largest social network with 850 million users and because it is simple to join and becoming more popular every day.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In fact, within the last week alone, I have received five invitations from Facebook friends in a variety of industries. Look out, LinkedIn ...&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&lt;img style="vertical-align:middle;margin:10px;" src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/branchoutfriends.png" height="100" width="700" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=19564" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/facebook+ads/default.aspx">facebook ads</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/branchout/default.aspx">branchout</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/professional+social+network/default.aspx">professional social network</category></item><item><title>Inspire Consumer Confidence Through Classifieds</title><link>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/04/04/credible-classifieds-inspire-consumer-confidence.aspx</link><pubDate>Wed, 04 Apr 2012 09:00:00 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">1e469e21-c924-44fa-a132-47b5d0a8ad47:19464</guid><dc:creator>Michael Garrity</dc:creator><slash:comments>0</slash:comments><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/rsscomments.aspx?PostID=19464</wfw:commentRss><comments>http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2012/04/04/credible-classifieds-inspire-consumer-confidence.aspx#comments</comments><description>&lt;hr /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/images/blog/noahsclassifieds-mini.gif" style="float:left;margin:10px;" height="75" width="75" alt="" /&gt;&lt;b&gt;The makers of the first
classifieds Web application built for social media want to make the
process a little easier with its new social classifieds engine optimization (SCEO) software.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="http://www.noahsclassifieds.org/"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Noah&amp;rsquo;s Classifieds&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt; gives users the ability to include LinkedIn profiles right in a
posted ad that has been incorporated into the solution. Noah&amp;rsquo;s has also added Skype
call functionality directly in ads.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class="MsoNormal"&gt;The company also strengthened its
existing PayPal partnership to provide users with assurance and confidence in
their purchasing decisions. Now, posters can include PayPal stores in their ads
that allow users to directly link their products and services to PayPal from
within a listing. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;img src="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/aggbug.aspx?PostID=19464" width="1" height="1"&gt;</description><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/social+media/default.aspx">social media</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/paypal/default.aspx">paypal</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/linkedin/default.aspx">linkedin</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/skype/default.aspx">skype</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/classified+sites/default.aspx">classified sites</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/Noah_2700_s+Classifieds/default.aspx">Noah's Classifieds</category><category domain="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/tags/sceo/default.aspx">sceo</category></item></channel></rss>