Last week, I wrote about an online business-networking Web site I planned to review called LinkedIn.com. First off, I want to thank those of you who joined linkedin.com and linked to me.
For those of you who have yet to check it out, please go to www.linkedin.com. Or better yet, go to my profile page and link to me: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimwgilbert .
While I’m not ready to write a full review just yet (that’ll come next week), I can tell you the following:
1. I met two contacts in the catalog business in Europe who were looking for products to sell via catalog in their respective homelands—an intriguing premise.
2. I’ve received some great ideas for articles, which I’ll share with you over the next couple of months.
3. I’ve reconnected with people I haven’t spoken to in years, always a nice thing to do.
So the whole goal of business networking is to meet people of influence in your industry. The goal of LinkedIn.com is to provide access to people you may not have been able to connect with ordinarily.
When I started looking into the contacts that are linked to my contacts, I immediately noticed it was a veritable who’s who of catalog/multichannel and direct marketing industry folks, both executive and staff.
Many recruiters who service our industry also are linked in. There’s also a whole jobsite within the network.
Your comments are welcome. If you use the site and want to have your comments heard, click the submit link below or e-mail me “offline,” and I may use them for next week’s review (jimdirect@aol.com).
What Shameless Self-promotion Can Do
Awhile back, I was working in an industry that shifted and became troubled. There were lots of rumblings and whispers about layoffs coming in my company due to market conditions. I started to notice some scrutiny being placed on me and my work product. Nothing major, but enough to make my antennae go up.
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Shameless Self-promotion For Dummies (in the Catalog/Multichannel Business), Part 1
Last week, I wrote about an online business-networking Web site I planned to review called LinkedIn.com. First off, I want to thank those of you who joined linkedin.com and linked to me.
For those of you who have yet to check it out, please go to www.linkedin.com. Or better yet, go to my profile page and link to me: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimwgilbert .
While I’m not ready to write a full review just yet (that’ll come next week), I can tell you the following:
1. I met two contacts in the catalog business in Europe who were looking for products to sell via catalog in their respective homelands—an intriguing premise.
2. I’ve received some great ideas for articles, which I’ll share with you over the next couple of months.
3. I’ve reconnected with people I haven’t spoken to in years, always a nice thing to do.
So the whole goal of business networking is to meet people of influence in your industry. The goal of LinkedIn.com is to provide access to people you may not have been able to connect with ordinarily.
When I started looking into the contacts that are linked to my contacts, I immediately noticed it was a veritable who’s who of catalog/multichannel and direct marketing industry folks, both executive and staff.
Many recruiters who service our industry also are linked in. There’s also a whole jobsite within the network.
Your comments are welcome. If you use the site and want to have your comments heard, click the submit link below or e-mail me “offline,” and I may use them for next week’s review (jimdirect@aol.com).
What Shameless Self-promotion Can Do
Awhile back, I was working in an industry that shifted and became troubled. There were lots of rumblings and whispers about layoffs coming in my company due to market conditions. I started to notice some scrutiny being placed on me and my work product. Nothing major, but enough to make my antennae go up.
Jim Gilbert has had a storied career in direct and digital marketing resulting in a burning desire to tell stories that educate, inform, and inspire marketers to new heights of success.
After years of marketing consulting, Jim decided it was time to “put his money where his mouth was" and build his own e-commerce company, Premo Natural Products, with its flagship product, Premo Guard Bed Bug & Mite Sprays. Premo in its second year is poised to eclipse 100 percent growth.
Jim has been writing for Target Marketing Group since 2006, first on the pages of Catalog Success Magazine, then as the first blogger for its online division. Jim continues to write for Total Retail.
Along the way, Jim has led the Florida Direct Marketing Association as their Marketing Chair and then three-term President, been an Adjunct Professor of Direct and Digital marketing for Miami International University, and created a lecture series, “The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing,” which he has presented across the country at conferences and universities.