LinkedIn, The World, France, Germany, India and China

OK, LinkedIn is the 1st worldwide and in Europe BUT not in Germany and France.

Germany and France are still important markets and still love to speak their respective national language. Actually they not only love to speak it, but a sizeable part of french and german people do not speak any other language and they live and work very happily.

That's why, it is my feeling that whatever the size LinkedIn will reach, both Xing and Viadeo will keep an advantage in France and Germany.

By the way, I think there is definetely a place for a chinese speaking social networking site, and that's why Viadeo made an alliance with one of them... No place though for an indian speaking social networking site as many languages are spoken in India and english is the common language. India is using LinkedIn!

Read also my previous post Are French and German not interested in "social networking"?

By the way, I'm an open networker and welcome all invitations on LinkedIn, Viadeo and Xing.

I use Viadeo for France (4000+ 1st level contacts), LinkedIn for the world (12000+ 1st level contacts) and Xing for german speaking countries (1000+ 1st level contacts). I am not speaking chinese fluently enough to invite you to connect on a chinese social networking site :-(

Social Networking for Jobs

Should Monster be scared?

Read this article about employers and job seekers using LinkedIn. Viadeo is missing in this comparisons between different websites.

How to use Linkedin and Viadeo to find a new position in 4 steps

Step 1 connect with as many people as possible

The main goal is to maximize the chances to see and be seen on LinkedIn and Viadeo. An additional goal is to minimize the path for reaching people you want to contact.

Connect with 3 different kinds of profile in addition to your near colleagues:

• Connect to people who share your professional goals.

• Connect with recruiters. There is a huge number of these people on LinkedIn and Viadeo.

• Connect with people having a lot of contacts (several thousands) on Viadeo and LinkedIn like eric.mariacher@gmail.com.

To add me as your LinkedIn connection:

0. register on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com

1. copy/paste eric.mariacher@gmail.com

2. click on http://www.linkedin.com/addContacts?displayAddByHand=

3. paste eric.mariacher@gmail.com in the email field

4. click on "search"

5. click on "send invitation"

To add me as your Viadeo connection: Invite Eric Mariacher on Viadeo

As a general rule do not use standard boiler plate invitation (3rd advice). People with more than 1000 1st level connections usually accept every invitation provided it is not too standard.

To find the most connected people on LinkedIn: click on http://www.linkedin.com/search and sort results by number of connections.

To find the most connected people on Viadeo: ask me

Step 2 get recommendations

One of the real plus of tools such as LinkedIn and Viadeo is the recommendation feature. You get feedback from former colleagues in real time. people looking for those recommendations can contact those former people to get additional information.

Step 3 use Q & A feature on LinkedIn

Another plus of LinkedIn (and to a lesser extent of Viadeo and Xing) is the Q & A feature where you can show your expertise concretely.

Step 4 read my "My 2 cents about Online Business Networking"

http://eric-mariacher.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-2-cents-about-online-business.html

“Grow your network while you don’t need it”

Technorati tag this: mariacher, linkedin

Are French and German not interested in “social networking”?

I have several thousands of 1^st level LinkedIn connections who gave me access to about 55% of the total LinkedIn users. Like you, I can see the top 5 locations where my network is the most developed.

In my network, the top 5 locations are: UK 8%, Bay area 7%, NY 6%, France 4% and Netherland 4%. Germany does not even appear.

UK, Germany and France have roughly the same population around 60 millions. Netherland have less than 20 millions inhabitants a third of the population of the above countries.

So are are french and german not interested in “social networking”?

The truth is that germans and frenchs are as much interested in social networking as other western countries, but they are using other networking social sites than LinkedIn.

Germans use Xing (ex-OpenBC) and frenchs use Viadeo (ex-Viaduc).

750 000 french people are on Viadeo whether 300 000 are on LinkedIn.

If you want to reach french and german people today, you also have to be present on Xing and Viadeo.

To have a good start-up on Viadeo, I invite you as an open networker with thousands of Viadeo 1^st level connections to connect with me by clicking http://www.viadeo.com/contacts/invitationsimple/?from=adressbook&lastname=Mariacher&firstname=Eric&email=eric.mariacher@gmail.com&isMember=true

Read also: LinkedIn, The World, France, Germany and China

Technorati tag this: mariacher, linkedin

My 2 cents about Online Business Networking

1^st advice “Grow your network while you don’t need it”

Perhaps you don’t need to network today, but what about tomorrow?

How do you know that you can’t have any better opportunity than today?

This “Grow your network while you don’t need it” statement may sound weird but it is essential as, to make your network grow, you need to dare inviting people who might decline your invitation. The people you sometimes “blindly” invite may consider you as a spammer. By extension you will also be seen as a spammer by LinkedIn administrators.

If you are in an urgent need of growing your network, for instance looking for your next job, you don’t want to be considered as a spammer, so you want to grow your network before you really need it.

2^nd advice “know why you want to network”

As an example, Here are my goals:

I have 3 types of connections corresponding to 3 different networking styles:

• connections (about 100) with people who really know me
• connections where we do not know each others but we have something in common
• connections for seeing, being visible and help people connecting.
• When I'll be aware of some opportunity on Linkedin, I'll hope to be one connection closer as I have many 1st level connections, 2 millions 2nd level and 15 millions 3rd level. Plus thousands on other networking sites (Viadeo for France and Xing for Switzerland).

I am networking applying concurrently these 3 networking styles.

The number of people that I really or better know is growing thanks to GLE face to face meetings for instance or to email exchange I have with several people through LinkedIn.

Regarding “weak” connections meant “for seeing and being visible”, I spend about half an hour per day helping people to connect by forwarding requests, giving advices. I once forwarded a request between people of the same company (I am not part of this company).

These “weak” connections are also a way to rediscover people I really know from school or previous jobs.

Read more on this subject at HOW DOES QUANTITY BRING QUALITY?

3^rd advice "get recommendations from current and past colleagues posted on your profile"

That is one of the top Linkedin or Viadeo feature that does not exists when simply posting your resume on the web.

4th advice "make heavy use of the Q&A feature (on Linkedin) or post on forums"

Show your competencies and what you stand for by using one of the top "LinkedIn plus" feature. By browsing through your questions and answers people wanting to know you better will get a better feeling of who you are. If not registered on LinkedIn use the web groups features (especially on Yahoo). (read also What will be the successor of the current user profile in online networks?, Finding a $250K contract on LinkedIn Answers - Steven Shimek, Ruder Finn PR ).

5th advice “never use standard boiler plate templates” when inviting people to connect

In your invitations be specific, explain clearly and honestly why YOU want to connect with them.

6^th advice/fact “The more connections you have, the more time you must spend”

With 1000’s of connections, I spend at least half an hour a day to keep my network alive.

I forward requests, answer questions, give and read advices, Update some various wikis, participate to various Yahoo and Google groups.

By answering questions, forwarding requests, I give a little bit of my time to many people, I hope that a small portion of them will also spend some time when I'll need it.

7^th advice “join yahoo networking groups. You will learn a lot”

http://www.gle.ch, MyLinkedinPowerForum, LinkedInnovators, linkedinlions and LICM.

8^th advice “Read other 2 cents advices”

LinkedIn: Reading Between the Lines

how does quantity can bring quality to a social network

The 8 Basic Styles of High-Performance Social Networking

six tips for networking in 2007

A Guide to Social Networking: Tip Sheet

The Art of Self-Promotion

Understanding the Law of Successful Giving and Successful Receiving

The Unofficial LinkedIn User's Guide for Executives and Professionals

Becoming a Promiscuous Linker on LinkedIn

The (unofficial) source for information about business (social) networking online

Helping Friends Career Network

‘Ten ways to get LinkedIn to work for you‘ written by Ajay Jain.

Interview of the "biggest" networker: Ron Bates

9^th advice “Do not forget other ways of networking”

• participate to face to face business networking in your region as GLE meetings.
• publish white papers
• participate to usenet groups.

 

After 6 years of networking, I still have 4 specifics reasons for getting as many contacts as possible on LinkedIn. Read more...