Will LinkedIn Sponsored Updates Be On Your Marketing Menu?

The impetus behind LinkedIn's move to Sponsored Updates is obvious. Users are far more engaged with their news feeds than they are with junk cluttering up the sidebar, and better engagement means higher click-through rates. It also means LinkedIn can charge a lot more for these ad placements than it does for its matchbook-sized standard ads. Where does this leave businesses looking to use LinkedIn organically to make profitable contacts? In the field picking daisies it seems. Following Facebook's playbook of gaming its newsfeed to force businesses to buy ads to be seen by their customers, LinkedIn are doing the same. No pricing information was immediately available, but LinkedIn says the service will be available on both a CPC and CPM basis and analytics will be available for Sponsored Posts in real time.
So, for now, we wait to see what the price of admission is to LinkedIn's VIP lounge.In the meantime, here's a look at four things you need to know about Sponsored Updates:
1. You Can't Opt Out Of Sponsored UpdatesSponsored Updates will look like any other update you see in your activity stream. Also, you can take the same actions on a Sponsored Update as you can any other piece of content you see. That includes following the company, liking the update, and commenting on or sharing the post.
2. You Will See Sponsored Updates On Any DeviceThe medium you use to visit LinkedIn doesn't matter. You'll see Sponsored Updates in your activity stream whether you're using LinkedIn from your desktop, smartphone or tablet, LinkedIn said.3. Your Profile Will Determine The Ads You See Advertisers can target their ads based on a number of criteria: the company you work for, your title, job function, seniority level and location. While the targeting options vary, and are customizable by the advertiser, LinkedIn said the businesses aim to target the communities that will benefit most from their message.4. You Can Hide Individual Sponsored UpdatesWhile you can't blanket-remove all Sponsored Updates, you can easily hide individual ones from your feed if the content is irrelevant to you. To do so, hover over the Sponsored Update you want to remove. Read More
Socl, Where Creativity MeetsWe are beta testing this new social media platform right now for you and will share with you its pros and cons and how we can leverage it to further your influence in the social media arena. So here is a taste of this product from the minds over at Microsoft:
Have you heard of Socl?Â
Pronounced "social", this rather innovative social networking platform lets you create, collect and share whatever you fancy. Created by Microsoft Research's FUSE Labs, it is a free online community. While still in its beta phase, you can create instant collages of your favourite images, along with animated media. The engagement and sharing that Socl, makes easy have lured an enthusiastic audience of super-engaged users who want to create things and find it fun to make something beautiful, something that looks complex and deep but doesn't require a lot of expertise or time. Not only can you share it on Socl but it can be tossed onto to your Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter streams.  This short video shows how simple it is to use Socl: http://youtu.be/X_t6a3xiV-E  How do I find my friends on Socl? Socl is an open social network where people connect around posts and choose to follow people, collections, or both. While you may discover some of your Facebook friends on Socl, you will more likely discover new people or topics you'd like to follow. How do I share a post I've made to another social network? It's easy to share posts on Socl. Just click "share" at the base of the post and choose the network you'd like to share to (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Tumblr). Or, share the post via email. Read MoreÂ