What does it do? It allows you to find the right individuals for the right task (not necessarily job) in the right place,  anywhere in the world and to be found as an individual by other people.

You’ll think, LinkedIn right? Well, apparently that’s not the case. While you need to create a profile as with any other platform, the difference relies in a series of factors based on semantic technology, Weedle’s own algorithm, and a very particular way to handle user’s ratings so as to avoid biased/fraudulent little stars

Paraphrasing a little bit here: LinkedIn is more of a white-collar platform while Weedle aims to present you with the right result = the right person.

All this is based around the idea of you finding out the best possible person according to what your contacts have done/recommended in the past, with an element of “no nonsense” in recommendations, backed up by technology.

We were a small group last night and very interesting questions came up regarding content creation, user adoption, even monetization. I would say the main challenge Weedle faces is the adoption and usage of the platform (the “yet another network” problem). However the team has some cool ideas in place to overcome that.

Once this is overcome, I see a lot of potential in the platform in the form of partnerships.

Did I say that all the profiles at Weedle will be indexed by search engines?

I couldn’t stop thinking last night that if the technology is as good as the demo suggests, in time, there is potential for running a search on different services and getting individuals highlighted as “Weedled”, immediately generating trust (think Google, Twitter search, Facebook, even upcoming players in Asia, or Orkut in Brazil). Fred here at the blog was discussing the importance of being found rather than hunt nowadays and Weedle promises to help out with this

Here are a few pics of the event and a little video explanation. In order to try Weedle, grab your Beta here: www.weedle.com

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Best,
Facundo

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The first one was : “How to build your business network with social media” and as promised, we compiled all the relevant info below:

• Full recording of the webinar
• The slides
• The conversation thread under the Twitter tag #sm4biz
• Some questions…

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The slides are already available on our Slideshare account!

My Power Point slides also contributed to the Twitter conversation
Have a look at what was said during the webinar by clicking on the image below:

Thanks very much to everyone that helped us spread the word in the different social networks.
We’re looking forward to have you on our next free monthly webinar:  “Social Media for Sales & Marketing Departments“.

Got questions or comments? Add them to the thread below!

We’d like to share with you an overview of our 2010 social media strategy. It’s a good opportunity to help you start with your own plan, give you some ideas or at least point you in the right direction
We are absolutely open to suggestions so remember to leave your comment at the end of the post!!

Blogging

Focus: Build authority / Expand community /  Increase US & UK readership / spark conversations / *Networking / Improve search engine rankings

* This year we’ll choose to read and comment on 10 blogs: 5 will be to follow trends and stay up to date, the other 5 will be strictly for business networking.

Blog topics (Tip: Define categories first)

Reviews, Video tips, Internet marketing, Social media

Blog’s ideas sandbox:

Ask on LinkedIn Q&A, Read other blogs (listen)/ reblog, Reviews (books, events, apps, etc), Web trends/ Search / video tips

Characteristics

• Frequency: Twice a week
• Posts must offer value
• Must include images and/or video
• Time allocated per post (research, writing, marketing) = 2 to 3 hours

Blog post Marketing

• Include relevant trackbacks in the post
• Send tweets throughout the week to promote the content
• Bookmark: delicious.com, bookmarks.yahoo.com, stumbleupon.com
• Submit post to: Bizsugar.com, Digg.com and Reddit.com
• Send post only to relevant LinkedIn groups and “follow” articles (this way you’ll be notified if someone makes a comment so you can follow up)
• Submit blog feed to 5/10 RSS news feeds weekly

Video & Photo content

Photos will be uploaded to FlickR and Facebook (automatic to Twitter).
Videos will be uploaded to You Tube / Tube Mogul, then Facebook (automatic to Twitter).

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Facebook

Focus: Share engaging photo and video content / Build authority / Expand community /  Increase US & UK fans/ multiply interactions / Networking / Company-Industry communications

Building the community

• Friend relevant contacts from Twitter and LinkedIn (profile)
• Pump good photo and video content
• Listen: reply to any question or comment ASAP. Keep the conversation
• Interact: Make comments / “like” status updates
• Facebook ads campaign: targeted to people in marketing and communications

Time allocated: 4 to 6 hours weekly

Twitter

Focus: Share helpful-engaging links / Listen to random and selected conversations / Build authority / Expand US & UK community/ increase conversations / Networking / Company-Industry communications

Building the community

• Follow contacts from LinkedIn
• Follow back relevant contacts
• Follow people especially traditional marketing and communications
• Proactively do Q&A
• Chit-chat
• Share GOOD stuff! try to always include a link to good content

Time allocated: 6 to 8 hours weekly

LinkedIn

Focus: Share helpful-engaging status updates / Build authority / Expand US & UK network/ increase group interactions / Business networking / Company-Industry communications / Increase business opportunities

Building the community

• Follow contacts also on Twitter
• Join US/UK strategic groups
• Send blog posts only to relevant groups and “follow” the article.
• Read groups’ digest and engage in relevant threads.
• LinkedIn Q&A: offer value answering selected questions. Ask industry questions also.
• Keep personal/business information and LinkedIn apps on profile up to date.

Time allocated: 6 to 8 hours weekly

Email Marketing

Focus: Share helpful-engaging content/ Build authority / Expand US & UK awareness/ increase business opportunities / Company-Industry communications / webinars main promotional tool

• Platform: Mailchimp
• Grow email database using website, webinars and offline networking.
• Segment database!!! (don’t send every single person the same information!)
• Newsletter will contain three topics: best blog post/s, Great tips or social media case study and invitation to monthly webinar
• Frequency: Once a month

Time allocated: 5 to 10 hours monthly (depending on the campaign)

Have you found the strategy useful? Go ahead, and share below what worked for you last year or how can this strategy be improved!!

Best,

Fred

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Facebook copying Twitter

Back in March of this year, Facebook’s redesign offered a new experience… but wait a minute, didn’t that look like Twitter? Yes, so what? Even though that was immediately rejected by 94% of the users, Facebook felt it was the right decision and kept it. Soon, millions of users would get less passionate and forget about this “new design experience” and carry on enjoying the platform. From March ’09 to present, Facebook welcomed close to 100 million new and active users… looks like the Twitter thing worked out…

Facebook have also brought more Twitter stuff to the table: the “@mentions” that now appear as anchor text on the status updates. Great move. I wonder when will Twitter start adding some Facebook spice as “Like” on tweets for example. Blogs have adopted that in comments already. (Twitter and Facebook! what about a “Dislike” button?? Maybe too negative? Over to you…)

LinkedIn copying Twitter

First, they came up with status updates . Then, they made the most obvious change (and a great one I must say) that was including avatars! Recently they implemented the feature “follow” for LinkedIn groups (you can also follow people that you’re not necessarily connected with).
The most obvious one is the integration announced last week (An official partnership) about status updates from Twitter to LinkedIn and vice versa.  Furthermore, a Twitter client functionality (right from your LinkedIn homepage) was just added.

Orkut copying Twitter and Facebook

On October 30th, Orkut (Now owned by Google) relaunched with features very similar to their cousins Facebook and Twitter… Don’t even need to say more. Have a look…

The question is: Will a new trend setter appear or we’ll keep seeing this kind of predictable changes? Would Bebo, My Space and other sites need to integrate with their brothers or launch the same features to retain users or simply to survive?

Come on, tell us… What’s next?

Best,

Fred

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Last Wednesday we finished the last pilot for Up & Connected: Social Media Training for Irish Companies.
We received great feedback and questions about leveraging the different social networking tools available to enhance business opportunities in today’s marketplace.

I’ve worked on three short videos based on some of the main questions:

• Facebook for busisness: How to remove photo tags and how to set up a Facebook ad.
• Linkedin: Is there an “insights” feature available?
• Twitter alerts: How to set up an alert with “Twilert” to track specific keywords/keyphrases.

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Did you enjoy the post? don’t be shy, make a comment below and share it!

Best,

Fred

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Thousands of business owners attend networking events in Ireland. The average is once every 30 days. At that pace, is it possible to remember people’s names, companies and what they do? Also, how long does it take them to know me? What are my chances of being seen as the expert in my field in a very short period of time?
We raised these and more constraints relevant to offline business networking and tried to overcome every single one by explaining the core networking benefits of Twitter and LinkedIn. We also provided actionable advise for companies to put the tips into practice immediately.

Final thoughts on the challenges:

NOTE: Remember, networking in not about SELLING. You don’t want to be the guy on the second slide

When you walk into a networking room, you wonder: Who are these people?
By being active on Twitter and by checking every person’s profile on Linkedin before an event, not only you’ll be optimising your efforts but you will know who is in the room, their contacts and you will be making a connection with many people before you arrive!

How do I position myself as an expert?
Engaging in conversation via Twitter and providing value in your posts is one of the best ways to show immediately your expertise. Also, by having a strong profile on Linkedin, participating in Groups and in Linkedin Answers your chances are even better

How much do I remember from people I met?
Again, share good value in your interactions while using Twitter and naturally, that name, company and expertise will be in front of you every time. The same occurs when you follow other people’s Linkedin updates. Because you see “what’s happening every day”, it’s much easier to remember everything. With the exact same mechanism, also people will get to know you faster.

Check out below the full presentation in Slideshare and a quick testimonial from Kevin O’Brien at Accounting Partners.

Thanks very much everybody for all your kind comments and support.

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We are very glad that you found our presentation helpful.
If you haven’t made a comment yet, don’t be shy and sare your feedback with us below!

Best,

Fred

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Last Wednesday was networking night again and the Channelship team landed at The Mint Bar (Westin Hotel) for the 121 Marketing event, “First Wednesday”, lead by Karina Heavey.
It was our first time joining this group “offline” and I have to say: we enjoyed it!

One of the most important things is that 90% all all the faces were new! That’s a fantastic way to meet more people and refresh the contacts.
We realised that by networking at traditional business networks like Dublin Chamber, SFA, etc, you get to see the same people too often, which is good to build long-term relationships, however Wednesday night, was great for a change

This network has been growing consistently and it’s not just for “Marketing professionals” as you may think. You will find a nice mix of people. We encourage absolutely anybody to join and explore opportunities within this networking group. You can start by adding yourself to the Linkedin group “121 Marketing” by clicking here.
No videos this time but Karina promised us one for the next event. She’s got a very interesting story….More to come.

Find below great pics from the event! (By  Laura Borlea at Level 5 Design)

All the best

Fred

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