LinkedIn strikes a deal with Twitter

According to the Bits Blog at the New York Times, Twitter has struck a deal with LinkedIn. The professional networking site will soon feature incoming tweets.

According to Allen Blue, LinkedIn’s co-founder and vice president of product strategy, "Twitter is not only a massively open platform, but also it’s a place where there’s a tremendous amount of professional information already being shared, and we wanted to be sure that was coming to our LinkedIn user base.” By integrating Twitter into LinkedIn, the professional networking site can enable more conversation, as they aspire to be the hub for all professional conversation.

We've seen Twitter be used for marketing, but there's no real spotlight on how many business conversations are taking place. What will the partnership do for the business world? Will Twitter become a more integrated part of communication and business plans?

LinkedIn's Profile Bookmarking

According to Read Write Web, LinkedIn is now offering a way for it users to bookmark the profiles in a manageable way while browsing profiles. Users can bookmark important profiles, store them in folders, and add notes about why they've bookmarked the contact. The video below explains this tool.

LinkedIn Launches “Enterprise” Applications

Larry Dignan posted today on ZDNet that LinkedIn has recently unveiled its application platform where it allows developers to offer business-oriented software. But unlike Facebook that provides many time-wasting apps and games, LinkedIn will provide a bigger focus on business essentials.

LinkedIn will be handpicking the applications that will be available on the platform. For now, some of the developers include Amazon, Box.net, Google, Huddle, Six Apart, SlideShare, Tripit and WordPress. Although a lot of these applications are not completely focused on the enterprise, it’s off to a better start. I’m interested to see what the next couple of months will hold in store for apps on LinkedIn.

Small Business Owners and Social Media

This afternoon I came across this post on ZDNet which discusses the findings of a recent survey conducted by online payroll service SurePayroll. According to this survey, 55 percent of 120 small businesses surveyed believe that online social networking like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are extremely beneficial to their business. One of out 5 businesses surveyed even mentioned that they have gained at least one new customer because of social media. Interesting stats…

Even smaller companies are beginning to discover that social media is not just only for personal use; it is a must for business success. The survey provides information on small businesses reaching a customer base through online communities, but where are the stats for benefits for small businesses on using social media internally? Does anyone have any input on the usage of enterprise 2.0 in small companies?

LinkedIn joins forces with CNBC

Recently, CNBC announced its alliance with LinkedIn. This new partnership will allow networking functions to be integrated into CNBC and news and information shared on LinkedIn to create a forum for people to discuss current news with their professional contacts. LinkedIn will remain independent and look to grow their current user base beyond 27 million. LinkedIn will contribute consumer generated content to CNBC such as polls, and LinkedIn will have access to CNBC’s programming, articles, blogs, financial data and video content according to this article at eWeek.

Xobni Adds yet another tool

In an article at EWeek, we find out that Xobni has added yet another way to turn your Microsoft Outlook inbox into a social networking tool. We’ve already reported on their desire to make the inbox 2.0 worthy, and now, they’ve added LinkedIn tools to the inbox. They will now host LinkedIn public profiles in the left hand tool bar. The information detailed will be the person’s current employer, job title and it will link to their LinkedIn public profile. This announcement came a month after they ended testing their tool with beta.

Could a New Social Software Suite Knock Out Facebook and LinkedIn?

According to this latest article on paidContent.org Jeff Dachis, former CEO of Razorfish, has teamed up with Austin Ventures to roll out a corporate social software service that will be tailored to the enterprise. AV mentions that it will focus on “creating an industry leading strategic consulting practice and an enterprise class Social Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) suite.” But how successful will this SAAS suite be with competition coming from all corners, and a lack of involvement in social software from the enterprise.

This post on A VC, describes how social software include certain characteristics like open API’s, customizable services, and the ability to upload different media. All of these characteristics are an enterprise nightmare. IT departments will have a field day trying to limit access to these sites, for security reasons.

The real benefit from social networking sites is the input gathered from the community, but how will a brand new start-up instantly gain millions of users? How will this new venture compete with LinkedIn and Xing since they already have a majority of the enterprise social networking market, and let’s not forget that Facebook is slowly closing in with enterprise tailored apps and restrictions. AV and Dachis will have to bring about new innovative concept within enterprise networking to really stray away people from Facebook and LinkedIn. Can they do it? We’ll have to wait and see.

Enterprise Social Networking Goes Mobile

Tailored applications of Myspace and Facebook has been available on mobile phones like the iPhone, Blackberry, and Treo for months, but LinkedIn was still missing from the picture. The latest article on eWeek announces the launch of LinkedIn Mobile apps that is now available for the iPhone; versions for the Treo and Blackberry will soon follow.

What took LinkedIn so long to tap into mobile networking? Clearly, the majority of business executives live with their smartphones, and yet the social networking site tailored to the enterprise trailed Myspace and Facebook in the race to create mobile versions. The iPhone can no longer be considered a consumer gadget, but an enterprise mobile device. It’s making collaboration that much easier within organizations again…

There are a few things that come to mind when thinking about what is next for the enterprise in regards to mobile devices:

1. How long will it take for other enterprise apps to join the bandwagon and create tailored mobile versions?
2. How will this affect the usage of enterprise apps in the corporate office as more and more enterprise apps go mobile?

Access to information has been made that much simpler while on the go. This is an exciting time for enterprise 2.0…