LinkedIn looks to premium services for profit

Social-networking site LinkedIn is getting a face-lift.

The site, which focuses on connecting business professionals, plans to upgrade its interface as well as offer a set of paid services next year. Possible premium options include a better tool for finding job candidates and a more efficient way to find people who can comment on a potential hire or business partner, according to the company.

For example, LinkedIn may enhance its search function to make it easier to find site members with a certain minimum number of years of experience. Recruiters should appreciate that feature, said LinkedIn co-founder Konstantin Guericke. "They're the people who are looking for the needle in the haystack," he said.

LinkedIn and brethren social-networking sites are changing the way job hunts happen by helping businesspeople give or get word-of-mouth recommendations. In a sense, LinkedIn and others offer an alternative to massive online job boards like Monster.com.

Job seekers at LinkedIn can find both openings and insiders who may be able to help them land a position. And recruiters can discover promising job candidates along with people who might be able to provide an assessment of the candidate. "I think all business should happen through trusted referral," LinkedIn Chief Executive Reid Hoffman said.

LinkedIn's built-in trust played a key role in the way Kathleen Hayes got a job earlier this year at software company BlueRoads.

Hayes, BlueRoads' vice president of marketing, accepted an invitation from the company that arrived through a friend of a friend. "The message came to me through someone I trusted," Hayes said. "If (BlueRoads) had called me out of the blue, I'm not sure I would have entertained their request."

Other companies offering online communities or tools for keeping track of personal contacts include Ryze, Open Business Club (OpenBC) and The Ecademy.

LinkedIn differs from the pack by being a no-frills site, said Dan Keldsen, chief technology officer at research firm Delphi Group. Keldsen notes that LinkedIn doesn't provide discussion forums like European site OpenBC. OpenBC also gives users an event manager tool. Still, LinkedIn is effective, Keldsen said. "It's incredibly powerful to have this collection of contacts together on the Web for access from anywhere," he said.

Others are apparently finding LinkedIn useful as well. The growing site has 1.4 million users and claims that a new professional joins every 5 seconds during business hours. LinkedIn allows you to post a profile of yourself and establish connections to other members. Through a network of contacts, LinkedIn aims to let people request introductions to job candidates, industry experts and business partners.

[brothe]

It's already been done!

This has already been done... there is a company called Hotgigs.com that has skill search and networking capability built into their network of employers, staffing firms and users. If you go to the site, you can see gigs, search for other people to network, and find a job if you are an independent! Look at their employer list too! Dell, Microsoft, IBM...

[Ubber geek]

find a job

http://www.analogstereo.com/mitsubishi_eclipse_owners_manual.htm

[arnneisp]

LinkedIn networking and LICM tool

You can't talk about LinkedIn without mentioning the LinkedIn Contacts Management tool.

This tool is a freeware to all MyLinkedInPowerForum members and LinkedIn users.

The tools give you the edge in using LinkedIn for business purposes. It downloads all your LinkedIn contacts details/requests/outstanding invitations to a personal database on your PC.

Then, with an easy to use GUI you can make smart selections and manipulations of the data and Email the selected group of contacts. You can do multi accept/reject of requests; you can resend multiple outstanding invitations or withdraw them and much more.

To download the LICM application:

Go to: www.megaas.co.nz
Select the Demos/Downloads page
Scroll down to the LinkedIn icon
Download the installation ZIP file.

Read the Readme file and register at the support forum:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MngLinkedIn/

Remember - there is a "payment" involved - you have to let at least 10 of your LinkedIn contacts know about the system....