I, like many of you, am an avid LinkedIn user. For me, LinkedIn is an excellent tool that I use on a regular basis to network with people in my industry and occupation, and to research new leads and opportunities. I am also a member of other social networking sites, but given time constraints, I often do not take the time to update my various online profiles. I would imagine that this is a pretty common scenario.
As a product manager of the SAP Community Network (SCN), I am often asked similar questions by our members about making available SCN user profile information on LinkedIn. Because our members develop a reputation over time through their contributions and community involvement, they would like to be able to take that with them to other social networking sites.
To address this very question, today we are launching the SAP Community Bio, an application you install on your LinkedIn profile that pulls data from your SCN business card. Here are the particulars of the application. The SAP Community Bio pulls your SCN membership status which is linked back to your SCN business card, total number of points, areas of expertise, active contributor status, SAP Mentor status, and links to your most recent blogs on SCN. Here is a screenshot of my SAP Community Bio:
This application installs just like other LinkedIn applications. The installation process is simple and will require that you authenticate it on SCN in order to complete the installation. You can learn more about this application and start the installation process by visiting the SAP Community Bio page on SCN.
Once installed, this application appears on your LinkedIn public profile page, the page that other LinkedIn visitors will see. In essence, your contribution to the SCN and your expertise now can be extended to the entire LinkedIn community. So, if for example you are a Business Intelligence (BI) consultant and write blogs on the topic, users who are looking for BI consultants on LinkedIn will see that you are an expert in the field with links to your most recent blogs on SCN. Pretty powerful stuff, eh!?
The next step in the evolution of community and user profile integration is a SCN application which pulls information from LinkedIn, thereby enriching your SCN business card with your LinkedIn profile information and connections. The exact details of this are still under discussion, but I would love to hear from you what you feel are the most important features to include in this next application.
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