Ever since LinkedIn opened up its application programming interface (API) platform to developers in November 2009, 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.

Twitter Feed

As far as integration goes, these 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 revealed 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 keep 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?

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.