"Intelligent Information Systmes" Our Professional LinkedIn Group

Having updated our company profile, created my own personal profile as a member of the Intelligent Information Systems team, joined and begun to interact with groups the next step on the LinkedIn Platform, as advised by the SAP social media support team.

Having created a facebook company page, blog and dedicated youtube channel I wasn't sure about what additional benefits a LinkedIn business group could offer.

LinkedIn is seen as a business-oriented social networking site and people tend to act more professional in this network than they would in Facebook or MySpace. Plus, many professionals tend to visit this site more frequently than they would other social media sites as they use LinkedIn to research companies and potential contacts.

There are seemingly many great benefits for having a LinkedIn Group for your business.

•Individual Visibility — when someone joins your group, they can elect to have a small badge representing the group display in their profile (and people generally opt in for displaying the badge). This badge signifies that someone has a particular affinity with your company and brand.

•Corporate Visibility — the group gives your company additional visibility. When someone sees the group badge in your profile or the profiles of others, they may click on it to see what the group is all about. If a customer joins your group, it shows that they are committed to what you are doing and makes them ‘stickier’ and less likely to take their business to another company.

•Corporate Announcements — you can use the Groups feature to contact your group members with an announcement or other news. While you can only use this feature once per week, it is a low cost way to keep members informed about new programs, offers or company news. The alternative would be to use an email or newsletter solution that could cost you from $25 to $100 per month or more.

•Job Postings — you can also use your group to post job openings for your company or affiliates. Only members of the group can see the postings, so this is another reason for people to join your group.

•Better Connections – even if you are not directly connected to another group member, you can still send that member a message or invite them to connect with you because you share the group affiliation.

•Group Newsfeed — any activity in the group is reported in the news feed for anyone who has joined the group. For example, I can easily see if there are any new posts or news added to the group site by reviewing my newsfeed. Users can also opt to get daily or weekly email updates of new activity.

We look forward to utilising our new group presence on LinkedIn and would love for anyone interest in SAP Business One, Intelligent Information Systems or Intelligent Essentials to come join the Intelligent Information Systems Group on LinkedIn. It may also be of interest or use to anyone involved with or working for an SME regardless of whether you have implementated SAP Business One or any ERP software solution within your business as we endeavour to enlighten you and keep you informed and up to date on the latest developments and benefits until you feel the time is right to take the plunge!

LinkedIn For the SME

LinkedIn is geared towards professionals and has become one of the world’s largest virtual networking platforms. It

For a small business it is seemingly not what you know but who you know. It’s all about the contacts, building relationships and taking advantage of the dimensions of your business relative to your larger competitors!

LinkedIn’s mission is to connect the world’s professionals supporting increased productivity and success.

Set up 6 years ago it has achieved continuous monumental success by linking over 70 million professionals worldwide across 180 countries and 157 industries with approximately 3 million new professionals joining every month which is the equivalent to 1 joining every second!

There are now over 675,000 groups, with 1,500 new groups being formed every day and 1million status updates every week. The UK has the largest membership in comparison to its European counterparts with over 4 million professionals signed up to the network.

When you sign up you build a profile, add you C.V and information about your experience, expertise, interests, accomplishments and qualifications. From there you can begin to construct your network, searching for people you know first and foremost and from their connecting with additional professionals through invitations, introductions and links.

When searching for people you know consult your outlook contacts or business cards and carry out a quick search for them as well as anybody you may have worked for or with, in the past or that you are seeking to work with in the future.

The whole point of LinkedIn is to network, get to know people in your vertical, advertise job posts or seek out employment, offer your services or advice, create discussions and gain insight that you may otherwise remain oblivious too.

For small businesses it removes obstacles such as geographical isolation and time constraints creating a level playing field with larger competitors. Everything is done online which means that networking can be done almost anywhere and anytime whenever the time is available.

Through making valuable connections professionals can build their brand and find new opportunities.