Great Opportunities Are Hidden on LinkedIN

Often times I am asked by executives why they should spend any time in social media, and specifically LinkedIN. Many have this (outdated) impression that LinkedIN is a place to post your resume if you're looking for a job.

Granted, that might be why some have gone there - the reality is that LinkedIN is a treasure trove of opportunities to do business.

A couple months ago I was searching for "social media" in the Q&A section of the site and there was a post by some guy named Lon Safko..I hadn't heard of him at the time.

Of course, there were a handful of responses below identifying candidates, but there were slim in value and either self-promoting or without detail. I immediately contacted Lon through a private message and gave him a synopsis of MediaSauce, a quick background on why I was intrigued by his need and a request for a conference call.

Lon was quick to make a call, and a matter of days later I was in Phoenix chatting up the opportunity The Social Media Bible provided for MediaSauce, Lon and his business partner Steven Groves.

They needed a partner to build the digital presence to mark the book, but what intrigued me most was the discussion of contributing to the content to ensure this anthology of all things social media would truly be a "Bible" for business executives around the globe.

I'm excited to see where this partnership takes us. The book will be published by J. Wiley & Sons, one of the countries top book publishers. Over the course of the coming weeks we'll be working through a strategy plan for marketing the book, and I'll have an opportunity to lead a technical edit of several sections of the book to ensure accuracy.

This would be my first contribution to a published book - I'm ecstatic about the opportunity and to be able to bring such an important project to MediaSauce (thanks to social media!).