I’m a huge fan of LinkedIn. In addition to being the biggest business social network with some 135 million+ users worldwide, it is a social networking platform that delivers business leads to me and to my clients on a regular basis. Without question, LinkedIn proves itself worthy of the time we invest there – in spades.
The fact that LinkedIn keeps adding new functionality on a regular basis, all with a view toward making the site better, the experience more beneficial and the interface easier — well, those are all things we like, too.
And speaking of adding things, according to a recent conversation onstage at the IGNITION conference in New York, Deep Nishar, LinkedIn’s Senior VP of Product Development admitted to Business Insider’s Henry Blodget, that LinkedIn adds 10 new members every 5 seconds. That’s a lot of users.
LinkedIn’s newly revamped version of CardMunch, the app that’s pretty much a digital rolodex, is another example of improved functionality. CardMunch takes all those business cards that you collect that invariably end up in the bottom of your backpack or back pocket and turns them into LinkedIn contacts.
All you need do is open the app and take a picture of a business card with it. CardMunch turns that business card into a contact and shows you that individual’s LinkedIn profile, their credentials, as well as the contacts that you have in common. You can also add notes as the card processes, which I think might come in handy.
If you’re one of those folks that still hasn’t figured out why LinkedIn is worth paying attention to consider this. LinkedIn is, for a huge number of business professionals, a way to assess how savvy a person is with regard to the web and the way business is conducted today. When you either don’t have a LinkedIn profile, or have a crummy one, it tells a story all its own.
And when you’re meeting prospects at trade shows, conferences or industry functions and handing over your business cards, realize that people have the ability to almost instantaneously check you out via your LinkedIn profile. This is yet another example of the real time world in which we live – and personifies business networking at the speed of light. Or business and capabilities vetting – or a combination of the three!
What does your LinkedIn profile look like? Does it do a good job of telling your story, your capabilities, provide a compelling reason as to why someone should hire you, consider partnering with the company you work for, etc.? Are you ready to have your business card scanned by CardMunch and your capabilities assessed? If not, maybe spending some time on your LinkedIn profile might not be such a bad idea.
Download the CardMunch app now and experiment. And if you’re not yet sold, click here to see how CardMunch works. After that, if you can resist downloading the app well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. (That corny line was just a test to see if you actually read all the way to the bottom. Did you pass?)
PS If we’re not yet connected on LinkedIn, why the heck not?
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years’ experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging develoment, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly’s coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”
