Have a read and let us know what you think!

1. “10 Things You Still Need to Know about Social Media/ Social Business” by Olivier Blanchard (@thebrandbuilder) from The Brand Builder Blog

Olivier Blanchard, author of personal branding blog The Brand Builder, always shares well-written, focused and very interesting posts around the topics of business, social media, and personal branding. This list delivers ten essential aspects of business to implement in order to maintain the social aspect of a company.

Each point magnifies a different area of business that must be addressed when attacking the challenge of social media. With tips on marketing, business blogging, customer relationships and monitoring, this post is a must-read for social business managers.

Sneak peek: “Start with your people, not your tools. They are what makes social either work or fail.”

2. “Make a Good Impression in 30 Seconds” by Ron Ashkenas (@rashkenas ) and Holly Newman from The Harvard Business Review Blogs

The Harvard Business Review Blogs are a great source of thought-provoking and inspiring posts covering a wide range of topics. This week we especially liked this post by Ron Ashkenas and Holly Newman, which examines the importance of making any meeting, business or personal, memorable by truly capturing the attention of your audience.

One of the major talking points of last weekend’s Super Bowl in the US is the series of very short (often 30 seconds) advertisements aired during the sporting event. This post cleverly uses these adverts as a comparison for how to promote your company’s awareness in a short amount of time.

Sneak peek: “Mini-impressions do count.”

3. “Why User-Generated Content is More Important than you Think” by Corey Eridon (@Corey_bos) from HubSpot Marketing Blog

This post from the HubSpot Marketing blog focuses on the importance of incorporating Generation Y into inbound marketing plans. Generation Y, or Milennials, is quickly becoming one of the strongest and most influential consumer groups, especially in the US. As Corey Eridon suggests in the post, it is very likely that if this group is not your target audience they may already directly influence the group that is your target audience.

This detailed and well-written post goes on to specifically address both how to target this powerful consumer group, and how to begin creating more user-generated content. Whether or not Generation Y is a target for your marketing plan, this post is an interesting read. 

Sneak peek: “Enable comment functions, provide star rating systems for your products, and create forums for people to easily discuss what they love about your company.”

4. “Is The Best Digital Marketing Earned, Owned or Bought?” by Jeff Bullas (@jeffbullas) from JeffBullas.com

This interesting post looks at the variety of different options for digital marketing when it comes to promoting a brand and generating interest, dividing the main options into three sections.

Examining the benefits and challenges associated with each option, Bullas describes owned digital marketing as a channel directly owned by a brand, like a company Facebook page for example. He identifies bought media channels as those which companies pay to use and earned media as customers essentially becoming a marketing channel.

Sneak peek: “The optimum approach is to combine all three to provide a synergistic approach that is greater than the sum of its parts.”

5. “Content Marketing in 6 Steps” by Steven Van Belleghem (@Steven_InSites)from Social Media Today  

As content marketing increasingly over-takes traditional methods as the most commonly used strategy, it is useful to know how to effectively generate a content marketing plan. In this post, Steven Van Belleghem shares his six steps to efficient and powerful content marketing based on the finding of several similar studies.

Sneak peek: “Listen to the reactions to your content. Measure how many conversations are generated, what their sentiment is and how much impact they have.”

We hope you enjoyed our pick of the top posts from last week. We’ll be back again on Friday with five more interesting articles so make sure to check back!

We love hearing from you, so if you’ve read something that’s stuck with you all week or if you’d like to share your thoughts on these posts, get in touch and leave us a comment!

Our two events link with this year’s Social Media Week theme of “Empowerment”:

Social Media in Corporations – Empowerment or Surveillance ?

Location: American University of Paris

Date + Time: 7-9pm Wednesday 15^th February

This event addresses the following topic  “As social media use becomes more pervasive in business, it raises questions about the way it is used both by employees and employers” and will look at the following questions:

-          Should employees be empowered to use social media?

-          Should employers use public social media data in their recruitment?

-          How do you decide to draw the boundaries?

Experts from different backgrounds will discuss these and other questions, relevant to anyone in the corporate world.

Supercharging Your Startup

Location:  Le Camping, a famous start up incubator.

Date + Time: 10am-12pm Thursday 16^th February

The conference will discuss the following issues:

-          How are start-ups leveraging social media to get their businesses going?

-          What are the best practices?

-          What are the risks and rewards?

-          How does France fare compared to other countries such as the US/UK?

Various experts will discuss how it is being done today and specific case studies will be shared.

If you’re interested in learning more about these two subjects – and furthering your personal and professional development please do sign up for these two great events – they’re free and highly relevant! Don’t forget, to use #smwparis #viadeo to tweet about the event and when you’re there!

If you’re interested in attending any of the other events at SMW12 in Paris,  click here – we look forward to hearing all about your experiences of our events and SMW12 generally! Which events are you attending? Post below to let us know!

It is important, however, to maximise the potential of your presence on professional social networks by ensuring that your digital identity is as strong as possible. For Viadeo members, it is vital to make your profile as relevant as possible in order to optimise your online presence and really make the most of the Viadeo network.

We’ve compiled a list of simple and effective tips to help you amplify your presence and get even more from your Viadeo experience.

          1. Detail is key

Making your Viadeo profile as detailed and up-to-date as possible is crucial.  The more complete your profile is, the more likely the possibility of getting head-hunted by recruiters.

To ensure your profile is 100% complete, make sure to include a detailed Professional Experience section. Include any relevant positions you have held and outline the role and your specific responsibilities. A great way to enhance this section of your profile is by highlighting your key results and achievements gained. Make sure to include specific job titles in your descriptions.

For example, on our Social Media Manager Rebecca Williams‘ profile, she lists her former job title and employer along with a detailed and concise description of her key responsibilities and achievements:

In the Introduction section of your profile, include a brief description of your current position or the industries you are interested in working in. It’s also not a bad idea to add what you use Viadeo for eg: connecting with people, finding new business partners or searching for a job opportunity.

In the Education section, include schools and universities attended, and include results and qualifications obtained in the “Degrees/qualifications” section. If you’re looking to change careers or if you are searching for your first job, this section is important. Make sure to emphasise transferable skills you gained from your academic career that will easily overlap your professional career.

          2. Add a face to your name: include a profile picture

Do not underestimate the power of a strong Viadeo profile picture. Your picture is instrumental in building your personal brand and digital identity. It also proves that you are a genuine user and adds to your value as a contact. Studies have shown that profiles with a picture are many times more likely to be viewed than those without pictures.

The best profile picture to choose is an up-to-date head shot. Make sure that it looks professional and portrays your personality and energy successfully.

          3. Create your brand slogan: edit your headline

The headline on your Viadeo profile is your chance to give your profile visitors an accurate idea of who you are professionally.  In many ways, your headline is the name or slogan of your personal brand. Include your current position and company name, or your amount of experience. Brand your headline as the most important advertisement of yourself that you can give.

          4. Make yourself find-able: Customise your URL

You have the option of choosing the URL for your Viadeo profile. You can do this by visiting the “complete my profile” section. In the bottom right hand corner, there is a box labelled “my public profile” which allows you to change the URL of your public profile. By changing your URL to your include your own name, your profile will be much easier to access and may increase your connection opportunities. Having a personal URL will increase your professional authority within your network and strengthen your personal brand.

          5. Make it easier for head-hunters: add keywords

Adding keywords to your profile will make you more easily found by potential contacts and recruiters. Add keywords that relate to your experience, areas of expertise and strengths. For example, our Product Manager Andrea Nagel lists the following keywords on her profile:

          6. Back up your profile with a recommendation

Adding a recommendation to your profile is a great way to strengthen your professional image. You can ask for a recommendation by going to your Viadeo profile. Under the “professional experience” section, there will be a green button saying “Request a recommendation” next to each of your jobs. Click the button to ask a former manager or colleague to write a recommendation for you. Make sure that your key accomplishments and strengths are highlighted in the recommendation.

Sharing a powerful recommendation on your Viadeo profile makes a great difference and might even make up a recruiter’s mind. A strong and genuine professional recommendation can do wonders for your digital identity and credibility throughout your network.

          7. Promote your brand: Include links

Give your connections and potential employers a more well-rounded view of who you are by adding links to other profiles or websites. This will also increase the brand awareness of your profile.

The “Introduction” section of your profile is a good place to include links to your profiles on Twitter or other  sites. If you have your own website or if your work is portfolio-based, include links in this section.

Alternatively if you have your own blog, visit the “complete my profile” section and add a link to your blog in the “my blogs” box on the right hand side of the screen.

To help your contacts find you more easily, why not share a link to your Viadeo profile? Add it to your e-mail signature or get a Viadeo profile button for your blog. Not only will you maximise your visibility but it is an opportunity to further expand your network.

We hope that these simple steps to a more dynamic Viadeo profile will help you to make the most out of your network. By combining a strong profile with connections, engagement and interaction, you can insure that you unlock the true power of your professional network.

Is there something else that has improved your Viadeo profile? If so, get in touch or leave us a comment, we’d love to hear what you think! 

Viadeo is a proud sponsor of StartupBus TV 2012 and will also be broadcasting live from the biggest tech event of all, South by Southwest 2012 edition, along with tech star Hermione Way and her Newspepper crew!

StartupBus, founded by young entrepreneur Elias Bizannes, started in Europe a few years ago and is now expanding in America. Entrepreneurs from all over the country are competing to join one of the buses that will ride to South by Southwest 2012 festival. During that 72hours ride, no partying (probably a little) but intense creativity, coding and idea sharing, are required to launch a startup, which will be judged at SXSW for the startup showdown on March 11th. Check out the trailer below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

We decided to go for a redesign to give you, our readers, better functionality and access to exciting posts and news. Across the top of the home page we’ve now got 3 key featured posts, so you can straightaway see the top Viadeo news and product releases. We’ve also added a related posts widget, as well as clearer tagging, so that if you’re interested in a particular subject or post, it’s easy for you to find more on it!

We’ve also added in a couple of gadgets to make it easier for you to keep on top of what we’re up to and our latest posts – just check out the `Follow Us` box on the right hand side bar. As well as the usual RSS feed you can also see our Twitter feeds, like our page on Facebook to keep abreast of current news and information and look at what we’ve been up to via Flickr.

Finally there’s more detail on us – the team behind the blog – who we are, what we do, what we like and, how to connect with us on Viadeo! We hope you like the new-look blog as much as we do – but we very much welcome any feedback or thoughts. You can leave these in the comments box below or send them to us at blog@viadeo.com and we’ll follow them up.

Cloud computing has had a monumental impact on the world of Information Technology and ultimately the world of business. It has introduced a completely new generation of receptiveness, effectiveness and productivity to IT service delivery.

Cloud computing refers to delivering hosted services over the Internet. Essentially, large networks of systems are linked together in either private or public networks in order to provide IT services to their users.

Following an “anything-as-a-service” business model, the cloud has great benefits for users. As Jamal Mazhar, CEO and Founder of cloud management software service Kaavo explains, “Cloud computing is empowering, as anyone in any part of the world with internet connection and a credit card can run and manage applications in state of the art global datacentres. Companies [using] cloud will be able to innovate cheaper and faster”. 

What are the benefits for businesses?

The cloud is an excellent integration platform, enabling quick and simple interaction and communication across systems and communities. By simplifying processes and enhancing innovation, the cloud has the power to significantly enhance business value.

Could your business use a move to the cloud? Take a look at some of the biggest benefits of cloud computing:

• Reduced costs

Traditional solutions used for integration and hosting can be costly. The cloud, however, requires a much smaller initial investment. Using cloud services lets businesses swerve the large costs of replacing current infrastructure and investing in new specialised software, hardware and additional staff and instead make the process of integration easier.

• Scalability

One of the most attractive benefits of the cloud is that it allows businesses to quickly and easily downscale and upscale whenever and as frequently as required. Additional storage space or licences, for example, can be quickly added. This increased flexibility supports business growth while avoiding the extensive costs of programmes and hardware.  The cloud is also extremely flexible. Companies will find that they will get out of it exactly what they pay for.

• Efficiency

Cloud-based integration erases the need for lots of people to manage connections and interactions and instead allows for streamline business process automation between systems. Additionally, reallocating information management activities to the cloud gives companies the time to focus efforts on innovation, business expansion and product growth. Contrary to what many businesses assume, integrating with the cloud does not lead to reductions in IT staff. Additionally, cloud computing allows employees to access work-related information from anywhere, making business much more mobile.

Over recent years, cloud computing has had a monumental impact on the IT and business worlds. With more and more businesses adopting the cloud it is quickly becoming the preferred solution for professionals, who opt for the cloud for a more seamless, effective and flexible computing method.

Do you use the cloud and have tips for other professionals? Please feel free to leave a comment and share your opinions on cloud computing. Do you think it benefits businesses?

This post was inspired by a previous post on Viadeo’s Spanish language blog written by Carmen Moreno.

On a continent with huge potential – the combined GDP of the African continent has grown at twice the rate of the developed world for the past decade and is in total larger than either Russia’s or India’s – Morocco is playing its part in finding economic success; its 3.1% economic growth rate in 2010 beat France, the UK and the US* and its attraction as a destination for European investors is growing.

Possibly also surprising to outsiders is that Morocco is a good place to be an entrepreneur taking only 12 days to set-up a business compared to the worldwide average of 34 and that over 13% of all businesses there are owned by women  (comparable to the UK at around 15%).

For Viadeo, Morocco is one of our fastest growing countries where our membership has doubled in the last year – now numbering over half a million professionals. With the opening of our Casablanca office, we are excited to continue our commitment to developing our presence in Africa and to building a product that will help Moroccan professionals do business.

Hear from Dan Serfaty, our CEO, on what this means for Viadeo:

Click here to view the embedded video.

* statistics from the World Bank

This week we’re back with another dose of read-worthy posts for everyone. Take a look and tell us what you think! 

1. “5 Things I look for in a Great Job Interview” by Matthew Swyers from Inc. Magazine

We enjoyed reading this 5-point guide to exceeding at a job interview. Written by an experienced CEO, it looks at the essential elements to keep in mind when interviewing for a new job. Sneak Peek: Do not underestimate the power of proofreading

2. “Everything Marketers Need to Do to Measure and Prove Content ROI” by Pamela Vaughan from HubSpot Blog

An important aspect of all marketing is both measuring and analysing content ROI. This post is split into three sections focussing on how to measure and prove ROI with eBooks and whitepapers, webinars and company blogs. Overall, we found this post to be a very useful guide for marketers on finding and sharing content ROI.

3. “Facebook Timeline and What Marketers Need to Know” by Maya Grinberg from Social Media Examiner

This post looks at the recent changes to Facebook, predominantly the introduction of the timeline, and how the changes will affect Facebook marketing and brand presence. Grinberg highlights that an advantage of the new timeline feature is that the news feed has altered so that the most engaging actions by people and brands now appear in the Top Stories section.

4. “5 Content Marketing Ideas Worth Stealing” by Jeff Bullas

This interesting post by Jeff Bullas looks at the best ways to create the most compelling and shareable content to permeate different social networks and blogs. He highlights the importance of staying creative and innovative when creating new content marketing strategies, for example including multimedia.

5. “Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch” by Shawn Parr from Fast Company

Often, people overlook the importance of culture within a brand or business. This well-written and thought-provoking post explores the underlying message that a flawless product and lots of money are not enough to make your business soar. It is in fact the culture that your business cultivates and maintains that will make our strategy either sink or swim.

We hope you enjoyed this week’s aggregator. If you read something great last week please feel free to share it and stay tuned for next week’s round-up of essential reads!

The application, initially available in French, English and Spanish, aims to help you make your professional social networking experience more convenient and user-friendly.

The app permits all BlackBerry users and Viadeo members to:

•       Stay up to date with network news
•       Discover new contacts and grow their professional networks
•       Share interesting news and inspiring articles with their networks

Quick and easy to use, the app will permit users to stay directly connected to their professional networks wherever they are in the world.

Alexandre Jubien, Head of Mobile Development at Viadeo spoke to the blog team about what this development means for Viadeo’s future mobile plans:

“Viadeo recently chose to internalize its mobile developments. Our first significant result is this Viadeo BlackBerry application with SuperApps features. This is a great tool that professionals can use daily to enhance their network – a real business and career companion. And this is just the beginning!”

The Viadeo app for Blackberry is available to download now. To install it on your mobile, simply visit d.viadeo.com from your BlackBerry browser and follow the on-screen instructions. Alternatively, download it directly from BlackBerry App World.

If you’re a BlackBerry user looking for a more effective way of staying connected to your network on the go, download the Viadeo app. We’d love to hear your feedback!

2011 saw Viadeo…

…Grow further in emerging markets

2011 was a year marked by significant growth. Not only did we reach our 40 million member mark, but we also experienced encouraging expansion in emerging markets. We’re especially proud of our achievements in China where Viadeo’s Chinese network, Tianji, is currently the number one professional social network in the Chinese market with eight million members.

For more details, check out our latest infographic released last year showing Viadeo development in all emerging markets including Latin America, Africa and India. There’s also the latest Tianji infographic focusing on our development in China.

…Open our first US office

March saw Viadeo unveil our first US office in San Francisco, California.  We will use this base to build and develop new partnerships as well as to expand the Viadeo user base in the Pacific region.

Read more about the launch in this article on Business Wire.

…Launch in Africa

After opening in SF we were very pleased to announce the opening of our first African office in Dakar, Senegal in May.

We’re busy growing our African market, currently at 2 million members, a market brimming with growth potential.  Chams Diagne, Viadeo’s General Manager for Africa, identified “acquisitions, targeting virtual and real-world associations and career groups while also building partnerships with professional associations” as the main ways in which Viadeo plans to execute expansion into the African market (taken from a Reuters article).

…Launch our API

June saw the launch of our public API, opening up opportunities for other organizations to take advantage of the Viadeo social graph to provide a more relevant user experience for their own site visitors.

As Viadeo CEO Dan Serfatyexplained in an article with The Next Web: “Now with our open API, third party developers can bring a professional social context to websites, applications and services via our globally-focused social graph.”

We’re already starting to see some really exciting applications of the API. If you’ve not seen them already, check out Viadeo Dev Challenge winner AvriGeo or the winner of our Viadeo London Hack Day SocialSafe.

…Acquire Soocial

For us, one of the most exciting bits of news from this year came in November, when we announced the acquisition of the Dutch tech start-up Soocial.

Soocial is a powerful contact synchronisation and management tool. The great news for our members is that in the future they will be able to use the features from Soocial to manage, organise, back up and share their different address books through the Viadeo platform. With the additional possibility for users to synchronise contacts across over 500 different platforms and messaging services as well as over multiple devices like smartphones, laptops and PCs, we think this’ll be a really valuable addition to the Viadeo platform.

To find out more about the Soocial acquisition, see this interview with Soocial co-founder and CEO Stefan Fountain.

…A Viadeo presence in all BRIC markets

Just last month, Viadeo announced a partnership with Russia’s leading publishing house Sanoma Independent Media.

Not only is Viadeo now officially active in Russia with an office now open in Moscow but the Viadeo platform will soon be available in Russian (Cyrillic). Working with our new partner, we’re looking forward to providing our Russian members and other Russian business professionals with tailored business services.

The announcement is particularly exciting because of the great potential of the Russian market and its rapid expansion in recent years.

Overall, 2011 was a year full of noteworthy developments for Viadeo. To support our rapid growth and so we can continue building a better service for our members, the Viadeo team itself also grew considerably last year. We went from 180 staff at the beginning of the year to 400 at the end of the year.

We look forward to sharing even more defining moments with you throughout the coming year– for news and updates watch this space!

We’d also like to take this opportunity to wish all our members, clients and partners a prosperous and Happy New Year.