Linkedin have opened the status updates option for Linkedin. This means that Linkedin company pages are beginning to look more like Facebook company pages.

Check out the video to find out more about how this works.

I wonder if they will open up the option to link your company twitter profile to your company Linkedin profile.

Linkedin adds Company Status Updates [video] originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

Who’s Who on Linkedin in South Africa

Linkedin in South Africa has seen a 83% increase in usership over the last 12 months with agriculture and goverment showing the biggest industry growth. The exciting news is the growth in business decision makers on Linkedin. The age category betwee 35 and 54 years has grown more than double and CEO presence on Linkedin grew 78%.

We hope you enjoy the infographic

Infographic created by DigitLab the social media agency

Copy the embed code to paste into your blog:

<img src=”http://www.digitlab.co.za/files/2011/09/Linkedin-Users-in-South-Africa.png” alt=”Linkedin in South Africa” width=”540″ height=”1026″ align=”center” /> Infographic created by DigitLab the <a href=”http://www.digitlab.co.za”>social media agency</a>

Who uses Linkedin in South Africa [infographic] originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

Linkedin is a social network that focuses on harnessing the power of social technology to improve professional business networking. The website had about 600 000 South African subscribers in 2010 and that figure has almost double in the last year to just over 1.1 million professional business people. The biggest industries represented on the network are from the finance and high tech arenas.

So why all the fuss over a website? I mean, isn’t this just another Facebook where people go to procrastinate doing any “real” work?

If it’s I.P.O wasn’t enough to prove to you its value in business lets take a look at a few elements of business that Linkedin is taking on and how this innovative internet business is changing the way we do business.

A new way of building business networks

You are only six degrees away from every person on the planet. Which means that you are possibly less than three degrees away from the people you need to achieve business success.

Social media allows your network to find you in a faster and more direct fashion. Communicating your message on social media platforms enables your peers to easily share your message with their peers. It is this ’sharing’ that often brings interested parties to the table. Especially when this networking takes place within a business network like Linkedin.

This is why Linkedin is so powerful. You can see the network that your peers in business have. Being able to see your ‘extended network’ you can make strategic decisions about how to leverage your network to meet the right people to grow your business. What’s even better is that you can then ask for a recommendation referral over LinkedIn. In essence, you can take control over who your network promotes your business to.

The number one reason business professional need LinkedIn? It helps you take control of the growth and strength of your business networks!!

Challenging the recruitment industry

As the Internet makes a bigger impact on the recruitment industry we are starting to see recruitment agencies enter into a second state of disruption in South Africa.

The first state of disruption that the recruitment industry experienced due to the internet lead to the creation of Job’s Boards and career websites like Career Junction. Some campaniles struggled,  and still struggle, to make this transition in business as their industry started to take on a very digital approach.

The second state of disruption facing the recruitment industry comes in the form of social technology. Recruitment agencies now find themselves in a stage of their digital evolution that forces them to harness social media websites and online headhunting strategies to find new candidates.

I believe that the biggest shift between these two states is the role that digital technology plays in each stage.

Finding and Processing Applicants

In the first state digital technology allowed recruitment agencies to manage their influx of applications for jobs they had on the market. A strong digital presence would also have increased the number of applications for each job. This data was then processed and matched to the job specification criteria. Once the match was made consultants often took the candidate into the interview stages of the recruitment process.

The biggest challenge in this state was the management of MORE. Job boards and the likes, created huge volumes of online applications and instead of more quality, the truth was was that the value often stopped at quantity of candidates. The second state of disruption offers agencies the opportunity to take the recruitment process further.

Head-hunting and Career Management

Social media channels have opened up the landscape for websites like Linkedin to operate. Currently sitting of just over 1 million South African users Linkedin seems poised to make a huge impact on the South African Recruitment Industry.

Social media website allow companies, agencies and entrepreneurs to head-hunt people online to find the right candidate. Today’s candidate are using websites link Linkedin to manage their business networking, personal branding and career planning. They understand by putting their best step forward (creating great online CV’s, collecting recommendations and networking with new potential business connections) they can set the stage for companies to approach them instead of the other way around. In other words social media, if used correctly by the candidate, could create a more powerful negotiation tool.

The Up and Downside

The plus side for companies and recruitment agencies is that they can research potential candidates from a pool of high quality candidates.

The downside for recruitment agencies, and one of the most important disruptions to address, is that these resources are available directly to your clients. In South Africa I have already heard of big business investing in social media websites to improve recruitment practices. In other words, if not dealt with carefully, this new disruption in the recruitment industry could start taking the money right out of the recruitment industry.

Whats the point of Linkedin? originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

If this seems a little tongue and cheek- it is. I don’t actually believe that a name determines your success. I believe that hard work, wisdom, insight, leadership and guts make you successful. Maybe the Jacks of this world just take a few more calculated risks – if so, lets learn the lesson from him and start getting a few more Mike’s, Jenny’s, and Johan’s into the CEO leader-board. I thought the infographic was fun so here it is:

Want to know more about Linkedin?

I have prepared a Linkedin Workshop that looks at how to use network to build you business profile on Linkedin. The workshop also looks into how to use the network strategically to increase your networks and your personal brand. Read more about Woza Linkedin.

Does your name affect your chance of success [infographic] originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

What are the trends being used that are shifting the way the recruitment industry works? There are two obvious and high impact trends that have risen out of social media and online technology that are worth looking at:

Move Towards Headhunting

Wall Street Journal makes an interesting observation that social media has made headhunting easier and cheaper. Networking websites like Linkedin have opened the door to finding people based on expertise, experience and CV. We are able to see immediate recommendations of people we are thinking about hiring and can make more comprehensive decisions about people before starting the interview process.

On a global scale we see business looking to decrease their job board subscriptions and move towards using social technology like Facebook and Linkedin to find great employees. The general consensus being that jobs boards create too many unqualified leads that waste HR time. Social Media channels however, allow recruiter to check out potential candidates before the invitation is sent. Leaving the power of selection in the hands of the recruiter and not with the job seeker.

Search Tools vs Career Portals

Search based jobs websites

Google has successfully created a search culture. When we need something we search for it – usually in Google. The same happens in recruitment. We find that candidates will turn to Google before they turn to job and career portals, simply because thats what they know.

Search works differently to portals. Portals let people browse though positions and candidates available in the network. Search allows you to scour the internet for exactly what you are looking for without bias to a particular website. This is where Indeed comes in. A South African Jobs Search Engine that searches all job sites, classified and any other source it can find to produce a search result for exactly the job you are looking for, allowing you to apply for the position of your dreams quickly and easily.

The impact of search based tools vs directory tools online to find employment may very well change the way we promote our job openings. An easy example would be that we need to start considering our the Search Engine Optimisation of every single job post and there may even be opportunity in using advertising vehicles like Google Adwords to promote top positions.

Career Portals need to integrate with social technology

Jobs.co.za have recently started using the Linkedin API allowing candidates to update their profiles directly from their Linkedin Profile. They have also opened up the possibility “or its members to register, search for jobs, create job alerts, see who’s hiring and find useful career advice all directly from the Facebook page.” (Bizcommunity) All of this social media integration is simply in aid of making it simpler and easier to recruiters to find candidates.

This level of social media integration is the only way, I believe, that Jobs and Career portals can remain relevant in the recruitment industry. Although we are not seeing these portals opening up headhunting opportunities like Linkedin, this is still a step in the right direction.

–>

Recruitment Shifts from Social Media originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

I have since done some research on the usership of Linkedin by South Africans and found 600 000 South Africans were registered, 94 000 users are in management positions with 50 000 company directors and presidents. The site also has over 75 000 business owners registered along with 26 000 consultants.

So to make things easier I have put a few of the statistics into a presentation (below) and a PDF Download. Please bear in mind that the pdf download is the most detailed.

In the presentation there is mention of our latest presentation called WOZA Linkedin which is designed to explain how Linkedin works and how to use it yourself. The presentation can be done in one-on-one session’s and in team training environments.

SA Linkedin usage report originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

Here’s what Keith had to say:

It wasn’t long into a meeting with Mike (one he had initiated and in which he approached me to do some mentoring with him) that I realized I had more to learn from him than the other way round! What followed has been an amazing journey as Mike has coached, mentored and supported me in exploring the world of social media technologies and most importantly, how to strategically connect the dots in this world. Mike’s skills sit not merely in his undoubted expertise in this area but also in his incredible ability to make sense of it for someone for whom it…well, doesn’t make sense. I have no hesitation in endorsing Mike as a Coach in this area…and have done so repeatedly. I wish more of the leaders with whom I engage would avail themselves of Mike’s expertise. Then again, I suspect many who work with and for these leaders, wish the same!

Taking things further

Keith is still in coaching as we have dived into further Social Media marketing avenues. Keith recently lauched his personal leadership blog called “On the balcony” which looks at leadership from the balcony. Watching and learning instead of busying ourselves with more and more things to do.

This blog has become the center of Keiths social media and internet presence. Keith plans to continue his social media coaching even more as he has found it to be a neccessity to his business.

Coaching the Leadership Coach originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

“Ever stood facing the cold pool water when all that stood before you and the shock of the cold water was the commitment to jump? Of course you have. And your hesitancy was most likely being subjected to the taunting of kids already in the pool. Then you jump and there is a split second of mid-air realization that there is no going back before you are immersed in the ice-cold water.

I have just jumped. I have just had my first coaching session in Social Media.” – Keith Coats, Leadership Expert“

Like Keith many people have recognised that they need to learn and understand this new realm of social media.

You can attend all the courses you like on this topic but nothing will entrench the topic in your mind like one-on-one coaching will. These one-on-one meetings are a an opportunity to have your questions answered while following a predetermined curriculum to ensure that you gain a complete understanding of social media.

So if you would like to know more about facebook, linkedin, twitter, MXit, blogging, websites, mobile media, internet advertising, online marketing and promoting yourself online please contact me for more information.

You can see a few articles about some people who have gone through this type on one-on-one coaching here

One-on-one Social Media Coaching originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

Twitter clients are becoming increasingly useful as they allow you to customise what you see in twitter and most have now extended their service to facebook as well. Making it easier to manage your online social profiles.

To make life easier I have listed a few twitter clients that I recommend with a brief list of highlights:

1. Tweet Deck

• Mobile app suport
• Facebook, Linkedin and Myspace integration
• Works on windows and mac

1. Hootsuite

• Windows and mac compatible
• iPhone app
• Schedule tweets
• Facebook, Linkedin and Ping.fm integration
• Click through statistics

1. Thwirl

• Works on windows and mac
• Video recording capability
• Ping.fm support

1. Seesmic

• Works on windows and mac
• Blackberry and Andriod apps
• Facebook integration

At the end of the day its your choice!

Enjoy

List of Twitter Clients originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach

You are not worth following.

The content your are producing is poor following and therefore you have been found wanting. This could be because you focused on self-promotion rather than interaction with the consumer or it may be because your content was not well thought out.

You are not focused

You posts may be interesting but you lack focus. Focus is what will create loyal followers. You need to give your users something to hold onto. In my own personal experience I gained five times more twitter followers once I found a focus and a plan for my twitter marketing strategy.

You are not social

Social Media demands your attention, or at least the attention of an employee in your company. This is not a one way street where you can shout down the social media channel with your meagphone and expect the masses to come running. Social media is an opportunity to build trust with your public, to make your brand more approachable and likable. This can only happen with a social media strategy that actively pursues a two-way communication strategy.

Three reasons why social media does not work for you originally posted on Mike Saunders - Keynote Speaker and Social Media Coach