Apps-olutely marvellous moves on LinkedIn
November 4th, 2008 by Tim Greenhalgh
Nine applications, one space - ding dong! Seems that LinkedIn has hit upon another potentially lucrative ad-related revenue stream with the launch of its applications platform.
The first apps on the platform are pretty robust and add value to your profile. They might even encourage you to spend more time around your own LinkedIn page. As productivity tools, they are useful not crucial. The company is encouraging third-party developers and has also added its own platform launch app to help set the standard – Company Buzz. With this app you can tap into twitter to find comments and follow trends on a company, which I’m finding relevant and useful for PR research into our clients and other companies in our space.
Three of the third-party apps help you present yourself and work in progress online: GoogleDocs to embed presentations, SlideShare – which is wickedly good in delivering research resources from people in my network, and WordPress on LinkedIn you can use to promote your blog and latest posts.
My favourite sharing app is Reading List by Amazon, a mine of great book leads from trusted colleagues and other valued sources.
I’ve not had a chance to fully test the collaborative tools – Box (managing files online) and Huddle (shared online work areas) but kind of assume they would be useful if LinkedIn was my main work space, which it’s not at the moment. Great tools, and I might be encouraged to spend more time around my profile with them there. And MyTravel from TripIt is outside my needs - I no longer globe trot and don’t need to know if anyone in my network is going to be in Hellhole, Arizona next week.
Tags: Amazon Reading List, business tools, Company Buzz, GoogleDocs, Huddle, LinkedIn, open applications, SlideShare, wordpress
December 7th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I liked the reading list app by Amazon. I see lot of potential for Amazon to further enhance this app. I have written my ideas on improving this app further @ Amazon & LinkedIn - Collaborative Prospects. I would like to hear from you if you have any other ideas which you can add to my list…
December 8th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Thanks Rockey - like the idea of widening the app’s focus, linking user data and preferences to more choices on Amazon.