Ever since LinkedIn opened up its application programming interface (API) platform to developers in November 2009, new social media enhancements have been created to fortify networking connections. One social media partnership in particular is the one between LinkedIn and Twitter. The two platforms have continued to join forces and collaborate on projects to make user interactions even better for the rest of us.

Twitter Feed

As far as integration goes, LinkedIn and Twitter are doing a commendable job on getting things to blend together smoothly and seamlessly. Most LinkedIn users are well-aware of the ability to link Twitter to their LinkedIn profiles. The result is a steady stream of tweets that keep your connections and profile viewers apprised of what you’re up to in the Twitter-verse.

Tweet & Post Control

In addition to joining your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts together, tweeters have the option of selecting which tweets they’d like to feature on their LinkedIn profiles. Filtering tweets is a great way to categorize and control personal and business related tweets instead of flooding your LinkedIn account with all things tweeted. For tweets to LinkedIn, visit your Twitter settings page and select or deselect the option to post tweets that contain the hashtags #in or #li.

Conversely, you can decide what updates to share from LinkedIn to your Twitter account by visiting the ‘Home’ tab on your profile and checking the box next to the Twitter icon in the Network Activity window.

Company Buzz & Tweets Applications

Another new pair of features that LinkedIn has is Company Buzz and Tweets. The Company Buzz is an application that lets you track tweets about companies, products and people from your LinkedIn page, as well as historical data and trends. This could be a good thing to do if you’re keeping tabs on your competition or interested in new career opportunities within your industry.

The Tweets application is kinda like having a mini-version of Twitter built into LinkedIn. Instead of having to login to your Twitter account, you can tweet away from right from your profile.

More Integration Tools With Tweets

Today, LinkedIn and Twitter unveiled their newest feature which is admittedly impressive and long overdue. By installing the Tweets application, LinkedIn users will now be able to find relevant professionals to follow and find and keep track of their LinkedIn connections on Twitter. Install the Tweets application first and then use the ‘More’ link from the menu at the top of the website to find everyone that you’re connected to and start following.

The new module ‘Connections to Follow‘, has also been added to recommend new people for you to follow based on your LinkedIn connections. Furthermore, a ‘Connections‘ tab is visible in the Tweets app that shows you all your LinkedIn connections who have added Twitter accounts to their LinkedIn profiles. From here you can even see who you are and are not following via Twitter and choose whether to follow or unfollow. Hover your mouse over their Twitter ID and get a glimpse of their last tweet.

All of these new additions are fantastic, but the real crème de la crème is being able to save your LinkedIn connections as a dynamic Twitter list. LinkedIn creates a private Twitter list from the connections that you choose to save to it. Visit your Connections tab, look at who has a Twitter account, add to the list and you’re done. Even better, LinkedIn keeps this private list up-to-date by adding and removing accounts based on your LinkedIn connections each day.

Get ‘Er Done

To take advantage of these fantastic features, head over to LinkedIn and install the Tweets application and Company Buzz to your profile. Please let us know what you think of the new features. Happy connecting

Recently, LinkedIn unveiled a new feature that allows users to follow companies on the world’s largest professional networking site. The ‘Follow Company’ button also enables users to keep track of key developments, potential business opportunities job leads. At first glance, this tool appears to be better suited for job seekers, but if you put on your creative marketing caps it can be used for a heck of a lot more.

Here’s how it works. When you’re searching the profiles of your connections, you’ll notice a small Follow Company icon. Hover over the icon and it will open a pop-up window that will allow you to follow that particular company. Simple.

So, now that you know about the button and how to access it, what can you do with it?

1. Competitive Research

You can request that automatic notifications are sent out to you that feature your competitor’s current news and company updates. It’s like a direct feed that loops you into breaking announcements straight from the horse’s mouth. Access to this information gives you the opportunity to adjust your marketing strategies, monitor competitive efforts and apply critical thinking to your existing campaigns. You’ll be just like 007 minus Miss Moneypenny.

2. Pillage Talent

We’re not suggesting that the Follow Company feature is a new plundering scheme. But, using the Follow Company button shows you who your competition is hiring and promoting, plus it reveals what positions are opening and closing. Watching these HR transactions can give you a better understanding of the growth patterns and downsizing trends that your competition may be experiencing. For instance, if you see a mass recruitment for sales executives in Atlanta, then you might want to investigate what’s behind the sudden interest in the South.

3. Reputation Management

If you’re going to follow, you might as well listen. Keeping your ear to the ground is a smart way to stay on top of conversations about your business. Proactive public relations can help you establish effective crisis communication planning, keep you abreast of any acts of libel or slander and create opportunities to promote on positive discoveries.

4. Grow Your Connections

The Follow Company button works both ways. While you may be looking at the competition, potential customers and employees might be looking at you. This provides an excellent way for you to develop a new stream of connections who have a demonstrated interest in your business. Because there isn’t a limit to the amount of companies that a person can follow, many connections can be built. Don’t forget to reach out to your LinkedIn fans and welcome them.

Although this list is small to start, we hope to expand on it in the future as the Follow Company button evolves. It will be interesting to watch how companies begin to utilize it and make it work to their advantage.

We’d love to hear from you. What do you think about the new Linkedin Follow Company button? How will you use it?

Social media overdrive and can cause social media overload. The dizzying speed of communication on social media platforms makes it tough to keep up with. It doesn’t matter if you’re purely a Facebook user, a die-hard Digg fanatic, a LinkedIn addict or someone who uses all three, streamlining your updates and postings through one source can be a liberating experience.

Fortunately, social media aggregation tools are becoming increasingly popular. Through online applications, widgets and desktop software, social media aggregators help condense your live updates and shares by providing a single location to broadcast multiple updates to.

So, give your thumbs a rest and step away from your Twitter account (we’ve heard that Bag Balm is good for calluses). Take a look at some of the social media aggregation tools that are currently available and start freeing up some of your time.

Hootsuite

Not only is this one of the most robust tools available, but Hootsuite is continually improving it’s interface and capabilities. This means that features you wish it had are probably only a month or two away from being implemented. This tool is web-based so there’s no messy installation involved. Online access lets you login to your account from any location to update and monitor – very convenient.

Hootsuite users are able to connect to multiple social media accounts from the application’s dashboard. Presently, there’s support for Twitter, Facebook Pages, Facebook, LinkedIn, Ping.fm, WordPress.com, MySpace and Foursquare – quite a line-up. Hootsuite is packed with features that enable you to customize, track and post in the blink of an eye.

Here’s a rundown on some of what you’ll find inside Hootsuite:

• Scheduling. Choose between live updates or pre-schedule posts and shares in advance.
• Customize URLs. Add custom link parameters for tracking clicks and gathering information on your audience.
• Files. Upload images, video and files right into your messages.
• RSS feed. Connect to your RSS and send your blog to your social media streams.
• Bookmark. Use the Hootsuite Hootlet from your browser toolbar to share pages and information quickly.
• Mobile updates. Handheld integration lets you keep up with Hootsuite from your iPhone.
• Tabbed layout. Create and customize columns that can be dragged and dropped in any order to your liking.
• Multi-column layout. Harness the clutter and organize your social streams into news, keywords, friends and more.
• Embeddable columns. Grab code from Hootsuite to embed search columns directly into your website.

It’s only fair to say that it’s our social media aggregator of choice. For others, Hootsuite is absolutely a tool worth looking into. Visit their site to read up on additional enhancements.

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Tweetdeck

Originally a popular tool for tweeters, Tweetdeck has evolved into a comprehensive platform that services Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace. Built using Adobe Air, it has a blend of rich-technology and customizable features that end users will enjoy using. The Tweetdeck platform is available for desktop, iPhone and iPad. It also plays well with others so you can use it on your Mac, PC or Linux system. Like other social media aggregators, Tweetdeck has a column-style format that silos your information.

Tweetdecks features are extensive:

• Custom colors. Choose how you’d like your interface to appear and make it your own.
• Filters. Set-up your columns to show you only what you want to know.
• Notification. Get alerts for new tweets, mentions and direct messages. Excellent communication management feature.
• Follower. Decide who to follow or unfollow, as well as report spam and mark your favorites.
• URL. The bit.ly auto-shorten URL is incorporated for tweets and image uploads.
• Sync. Set-up Tweetdeck to suit your personal tastes and keep it that way regardless of whether you access it through your laptop or your handheld.
• Lists. Track your favorites and organize them into Twitter lists right from your dashboard.
• Trends. See what’s hot with local trends and Twitscoop.
• Shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts speed up your actions so you can maximize your time with Tweetdeck.

Tweetdeck is a free and powerful tool that has a large following and fantastic support. As the social media universe evolves so has Tweetdeck. People will find this to be an absolutely wonderful tool that will help them get back on track with their social media efforts.

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Netvibes

Netvibes is a web-based personalized dashboard publishing tool. The easiest way to describe Netvibes would be to call it a favorite webpage on steroids. Setting it as your browser’s homepage allows users to create a customized hub that pulls all things digital into one central location. From emails received to weather updates, your Netvibes page becomes command central for everything that matters to you.

Aside from a beautiful interface, Netvibes makes it very simple to position widgets and modules exactly where you want them with built-in drag and drop capabilities. Just grab what you want with your mouse and move it to a location on your Netvibes page and you’re done. Additionally, tabs can be created to further organize and tailor your dashboard. This is a fantastic way to keep all things Facebook in one location and all things Twitter in another.

Here’s a little secret – if your employer has you on social media lock-down, you can use Netvibes to bypass the IT guards by connecting through your personalized tabs. Sneaky, sneaky!

So what can you do with Netvibes? We’ll give you a little taste below:

• Social media. Manage your Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as followers and friends from central location.
• Netvibes Smart Reader. Use this RSS reader to stream all the latest feeds to you in real-time.
• Tracking. Follow dozens of blogs, activity streams and Twitter conversations all at a glance.
• Personalize. Create your own personal dashboard and enjoy the web exactly the way you like it by choosing from 100s of themes and backgrounds.
• Widgets. With one of the largest widget collections available, personalization options with Netvibes are endless. Drag and drop to your heart’s content.
• Email. Pull from web-based or POP email accounts and never miss a new message again.
• Share it. Invite friends, family, clients, co-workers or the general public to interact and view your Netvibes page.
• Infinite publishing. Multiple page publishing, WYSIWYG design tools, free hosting and full HTML support makes web everything a breeze.
• Community. Connect with other Netvibe users to expand your network and build your contact base.

Check out Netvibes and take a tour for a in-depth look at this tool.

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Yoono

Yoono is a social networking feed mashup tool. Mashup means an application or website that uses or combines information or functionality from multiple external sources to create a new service. Yoono is available as a browser add-on for Firefox or as a desktop application for Mac, Windows and Linux.

As far as social media aggregation tools go, Yoono connects you to your social networks and messengers. It unifies your status updates into a single stream of information and lets you update your status across all your social networks at once. Social media sites that are currently supported include, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, FriendFeed and Flickr. Messenger services are available through Google Talk, AIM, Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

Yoono highlights:

• Add-on or stand-alone. You can decide between integrating Yoono into your browser or featuring it on your desktop.
• Browse. Yoono is intuitive and learns what you like based on websites that you’re viewing.
• Widget. Based on the webpage you’re browsing, receive recommendations for other sites, news, videos, products, images and more.
• Social sharing. A bookmarklet allows you to share content, images and video from any site with your social network contacts.

There are similarities to other social media aggregators, like the the types of social networks you can connect to and the interface’s column layout. For someone who doesn’t need all the bells and whistles, Yoono is a great option.

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Flock

What makes Flock completely different from all the other tools reviewed is that it’s a full-fledged browser. It’s even referred to as the browser for social butterflies. Social media integration is what drives the Flock browser.

Instead of having to share login information through separate channels, it can be contained in one spot with Flock. Definitely a thumbs up for preserving online security. On the other hand, because Flock is a web-browser, you might want to consider abandoning FireFox, Safari or whatever browser you’re using, and making a complete switch, otherwise, you’ve got a browser that’s only being used for social media aggregation. That’s kinda like ordering a giant burger with the works and only eating the tomatoes.

Services included with Flock:

• Auto connection. Hook-up automatically with more than 20 of your favorite online services like Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Xanga, YouTube and more.
• Blogging. A blog editor allows you to compose blog posts online or offline for posting.
• Webmail. Instant notification of incoming messages from major webmail providers.
• People sidebar. Collect all your social media pals in one place.
• Web clipboard. Snatch, grab and collect links, images and other bits of info to share later with the clipboard feature.
• Feed reader. Centralizes all your favorite feeds into one reader to keep things organized.
• Customize it. Install your favorite FireFox extension and incorporate backgrounds and images to make Flock your own.
• Media. Quickly find and browse photos and videos from your favorite sites.

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Profilactic

Next in the web-based line-up is Profilactic. Most people have more than one social media profile and that can make it a royal pain to jump from site to site, logging in and checking to see what your friends and contacts are up to. Profilactic has turned this task into a thing of the past. The core of its design is based on bringing everything together, and we do mean everything. You can pull blogs, RSS feeds and more than 185 online social sites into your Profilactic universe!

Users interact with two functions. The first is the user’s update feed and the second is a digest of what’s occurring on all the other platforms. Pretty handy indeed. There’s also an auto-clipping component that is similar to a digital scrapbook. Auto-clipping can be used to identify, tag and track social entries about the you or your friends. Plus, you can control what updates you want to receive based on importance.

Other features that can be found on Profilactic are:

• Badges. You can take your profile information and lifestream and integrate with your website or blog with one of these.
• Clean. Regardless of how many social streams you’re pulling from, the interface is very neat and easy to navigate. Simplicity at its best.
• Lifestreaming. A true example of what lifestreaming is all about. Profilactic is a one-stop-shop that blends the whole process without a flaw.
• Post & update. Let everyone know what you’re up to. Profilactic syncs to more than 10 social sites. One update across many networks.
• Free. Doesn’t cost a penny. All you have to do is register with the site and you’re finished. It’s beyond easy.
• Convenient accessibility. Because it’s online based, you can check-in as long as you have a connection to the internet.

Discover how Profilactic can help you organize your social media habits with a quick visit to their site.

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Socialite

For Mac users who are interested in social media maintenance and aggregation, Realmac Software’s Socialite may be what you’re looking for. You get the perks of having a downloadable application with a Mac-like design, clean and slick, combined with the power of managing your social media accounts from your Mac. There is a catch (isn’t there always) – Socialite isn’t free, however it is reasonably priced at only $20 per license.

You won’t be burdened by columns or multiple windows. What you’ll find is an uncluttered application that is easy to navigate.  So what do you get with Socialite:

• Google Reader. Even if you don’t use GR you can still use the alternative RSS feed with Socialite.
• Social networks. Socialite supports Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Digg.
• HUD option. Known as the Heads Up Display, this pop-up box gives you mini-view of the status for all your peeps.

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Try Socialite out for free before you buy. The trial is a full-version and it lets you explore the functionality without having to purchase first.

What are some of the social media aggregation tools that you’re using? Any hidden gems that you’d like to share? Comment freely.

One of the largest and most popular professional networking sites on the Internet, LinkedIn has more than 62,000,000 users spanning more than 200 countries and territories. Beyond being an excellent place to make business connections and build professional partnerships, you can use LinkedIn for marketing your business too.

1. Don’t Fly the Group

LinkedIn has a directory of more than 557,000 alumni, professional and nonprofit groups. Unfortunately, most people sign-up with a group and do little else afterwards. Avoid dormant group participation levels and get involved, that’s why you joined in the first place. Get involved in discussions, give feedback and start speaking with other like-minded individuals. Positioning yourself as an active member and engaging resource will expose others to your services, products and business.

2. Endorsements Equal Enforcements

One of the best marketing tools on LinkedIn is the ability to request and provide recommendations for connections. You don’t have to write a Tolstoy-sized endorsement. Keep it short and sweet with a few well-crafted sentences that highlight something about your connection. Conversely, third-party support builds credibility and showcases your key features in a positive way.

3. Make Each Word Count

You’ve spent time building your blog, so why not show it off. LinkedIn features two blog integration applications to ‘connect’ your blog to your profile. The first is Blog Link which helps promote your personal brand by posting your current blog entries directly to your profile. It supports TypePad, Movable Type, Vox, WordPress.com, WordPress.org, Blogger, LiveJournal and many more. The second is a WordPress application that’s an ideal solution for anyone who’s already a WordPress blogger. Again, for marketing purposes, joining your blog to your LinkedIn profile is another way to entice connections and profile visitors to visit your website and learn more about what you have to offer.

4. Advertising

A social networking site just wouldn’t be complete without the option of advertising. Users have an average household income greater than $106,000 so advertising is definitely worth considering. Don’t panic about costs. LinkedIn offers both click and impression ad options, as well as campaigns for large corporations ($25k+ budgets) and one for the rest of us. With LinkedIn DirectAds you can also create up to 10 ads variations to see what text and images are producing click throughs. Advertising is always a great marketing strategy, but not a necessary one. With so many other LinkedIn marketing alternatives, you may decide to pocket your cash.

5. A Little Q&A

LinkedIn Answers is an excellent place to market your knowledge of business by sharing advice and answers with people who have questions. There are a multitude of questions classified into categories for easy identification. Contributing to Answers is similar to participating in a group except that you’re able to enhance your reputation as an expert more quickly depending upon how well you answer posted questions. This translates into targeted traffic to your website as you gain exposure through Answers. The RSS feature comes in very handy since not everyone has time to manually comb through all the questions.

6. Promote Freely

Grab a LinkedIn badge to display on your website. This clickable icon serves as a direct link to your LinkedIn profile and is a fast way for people jump on your connection train. Similar to other social networking sites, all profiles come with a badge creator that makes is super simple to use. Click and you’re done. Once you have your LinkedIn badge, post it to your website and other social profiles. Completely free social media marketing just for you.

Visit MindSprout Marketing’s profile on LinkedIn and connect with us today.