Randy Weber » social networking

I Was Among The First 13,000 Members On Linkedin

Randy Weber — Mon, 30 May 2011 01:53:02 +0000

Linkedin’s IPO reminded me of this e-mail that they sent out a few months back. Turns out I was one of the first people to join Linkedin. I was member number 12,889. I use it a lot and really like what they’ve done over the years.

Negotiated Partnerships Do Matter

Randy Weber — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:40:36 +0000

This is installment number 3 of why you shouldn’t build your business around another company’s product for which you have no contractual relationship. For prior posts on this subject, see:

This time, Twitter provides the example. From Tech Crunch, Twitter releases Blackberry app and acquires Tweetie.

Way back in February the writing was on the wall: Twitter would compete directly with third party developers who were creating Twitter apps. Twitter investor Fred Wilsonreiterated that threat just a few days ago when he said most of the apps that third party developers had created were merely “filling holes,” not truly creating “something entirely new on top of Twitter.”

That sure sounds ominous. And then, BOOM. Twitter released its own Blackberry app and acquired Tweetie, which has a popular iPhone and desktop app. The threats are over, Twitter fired missiles at its developers.

Way back in February the writing was on the wall: Twitter would compete directly with third party developers who were creating Twitter apps. Twitter investor Fred Wilson reiterated that threat just a few days ago when he said most of the apps that third party developers had created were merely “filling holes,” not truly creating “something entirely new on top of Twitter.”

You cannot build a business by simply adding a feature to someone else’s product without a partnership with that other company. While it’s possible to make some money this way in the short run, if you are OK with staying small, or perhaps (and this is a very long shot) by getting bought by the larger company, in general this strategy is not going to work for you. They will copy you and crush you. Every company is going to do this. It would be dumb of them not to. That’s how business works. Never forget this.

The Sad Truth About Online Personals Sites

Randy Weber — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:56:17 +0000

Having spent some time working in the online personals biz and having used most all of the sites both personally and professionally, I can tell you that the following joke ad from College Humor is dead on. It’s especially true for the smaller sites like the ones that have the racy ads on Facebook.

Your best best is sticking with the major players like Yahoo, Match, and eHarmony (personally I dislike eHarmony, but it works for a lot of people). Some of the niche sites are OK too, like JDate.

Who Uses Twitter?

Randy Weber — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:58:17 +0000

I ran across this on Gizmodo – If Only 100 People Were in Twitter. I made a few modifications to the picture just to “keep it real.”

This pretty much demonstrates what I’ve always figured. There aren’t really that many people actually using Twitter on a regular basis. But it’s nice to have confirmation.

I still don’t get Twitter.

I Received My Google Profiles Business Cards

Randy Weber — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:29:02 +0000

These look pretty good, but I think the URL is too small. Never-the-less, not bad for free.

The Fat Wizard is Showing Up on Linkedin Again

Randy Weber — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 05:09:07 +0000

The fat wizard shows up on Linkedin whenever the site is down. I’ve been seeing this a lot over the years. A lot more than on other sites. I really love Linkedin. I wish they could keep their site up more during waking hours.

Update: Since Linkedin came back up, I have lost 3 million people from my network while my 1st degree contacts stayed the same. Also, 2 new cities have taken over as the leading regions. How does this happen? Was it broken before and fixed now or working before and broken now?

Update 2: Since my last update, I ran across this. It seems that Linkedin is taking a more aggressive stance against users with lots of links. Many of these users have seen their networks mysteriously shrink. There’s a conflict between Linkedin’s philosophy of only linking to people that you know and the philosophy of “open networkers” that link to as many people as possible. Looks like my shrinking network was deliberate and not an error.

Social Networking and the Grumpy Old Man

Randy Weber — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:08:52 +0000

John Mariotti posted a guest article on Small Business Trends on Ten Reasons I Won’t Use Social Media Sites. In it he comes off as a stubborn, grumpy old man. Note to John – not everyone gets to spend all their time going from conference to conference shaking hands.

While I’ve founds sites like MySpace and FaceBook to be useless for business networking purposes, Linkedin has proven to be very useful. I’ve gotten many interviews through invitations to link up and through introductions. In my past role at Match.com, I reached multiple leads via Linkedin that I otherwise would not have been able to locate. So my experience is that social networking can be very effective both in finding a job and in finding a lead.

Cold Calling in NOT Dead

Randy Weber — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:39:05 +0000

Alex Iskold on ReadWriteWeb posted “A Guide to Business Development 2.0.” Of course I have a complaint or I wouldn’t be writing this. Alex thinks that “cold calling is dead.” He discusses Linkedin, APIs, and Twitter as alternatives.

Yep, Linkedin is great. APIs are nice if you have them, but biz dev folks aren’t in charge of such things. And outside of the early adopters and tech saavy folks of the Bay Area, not everyone uses Twitter.

Sometimes you have to cold call. No one ever answers their phone, so you’ve got 30 seconds to make your pitch. Most folks get far fewer voicemails than e-mails, so the likelihood that your message will be received is much higher. Even if you’re using Linkedin, you still have to rely on e-mail. In reality I almost always end up calling and e-mailing and that’s what most folks do to me. If their e-mail doesn’t interest me, then I don’t respond. I always return voicemail. If my employers took away the phone, I wouldn’t be able to do my job using nothing but Web 2.0 technology.

Corollary to September Post on Web 2.0 Business Development

Randy Weber — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:36:17 +0000

Collaboradate.com posted about businesses building themselves up using MySpace. He suggests that “they should continue to phase out competing widgets, or charge companies to have their widgets be compatible with the site.” I’d do this if I were MySpace. So I’ll say it again – be careful when attaching your fortunes to other businesses without some kind of contractual relationship.

Offline Behavior Drives Online Usage – Lessons for Business Development

Randy Weber — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 15:15:29 +0000

Startup Review wrote a great case study on Facebook. The main takeaway for me is that offline behavior drives online usage. Other examples of community sites that fit this bill are Gay.com, BlackPlanet.com, and iVillage, all of which are successful sites that were created to serve an existing community. They were not communities created online from within another site. Looking at sites like Linkedin, which is on it’s own a very successful site and one that I like very much, has tried to create communities from within its site as exempliefied by university and professional affiliations. This has not worked nearly as well external sites serving these same groups. If you’re a mainstream service trying to create niche communities, you would be better served trying to partner with existing sites that serve these niche groups than to try building the community yourself.