Russ: This is the BusinessMakers Show heard hear and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com. Now it's time for a BusinessMakers Flashback where we're gonna roll back just a couple of weeks ago where on the BusinessMakers Small Business Network Show we visited with J.D. Gershbein of Owlish Communications. Check this out. Well let's start by you telling us about Owlish Communications.

J.D.: Well Owlish Communications is a marketing communications firm that I founded in 1984 that has gone through several incarnations and in its present form it is a dedicated, specialized communications firm regarding LinkedIn, the art and science of LinkedIn. I'm a trusted advisor to individuals and companies strictly in the LinkedIn space.

Russ: Wow. Well that's interesting your comment about marketing communications and how long ago you started. Boy, marketing has changed enormously over that period of time, correct?

J.D.: Well branding is the new marketing and branding is essentially marketing plus neuroscience and in the internet era it provides us with tremendous outlets for exposure and opportunities to do our own cost effective, high visibility market.

Russ: What in the world got you focused narrowly on LinkedIn? I mean I love LinkedIn, but I have not come across a specialist marketing communications person that is so narrowly focused.

J.D.: Well what we're seeing today is a lot of people scrambling around for social media careers and you have the era of the social media strategist whereas I like to be involved in all the platforms. What I see in LinkedIn is an opportunity to be a trusted resource for business on a social media website devoted to the pursuit of commerce. LinkedIn, sometimes called Facebook for business or even sometimes aligned with more of a job search portal is in fact the entrepreneur's dream. It is a relationship marketing tool like no other and working with entrepreneurs, business owners, salespeople and executives and professional service providers, I offer a service where I can de-commoditize them in a sea of sameness and give them personal branding that they couldn't achieve on other platforms. And how I came across LinkedIn, Russ, very serendipitously I must say, I basically leaned into a couple of chaps on the computer looking at the site. I just inquired as to what it was. They told me what it was. That evening I went home, created an account and within a very short period of time, a few weeks in fact, I had branded as a go-to guy that people could ask questions about LinkedIn.

Russ: Wow. I love your phrase sea of sameness. That's pretty right on to today's world. That's cool. So you were looking over somebody's shoulder. You saw LinkedIn and you figured out it was the answer. How long ago was that, J.D.?

J.D.: This was right around the end of 2006, beginning of 2007. I was at a networking event. How apropos. I had it explained to me in very skeletal terms. I went home and the way that my brain is hard wired, I'm a bit of a creative type and I saw the upside and the immense potential of this platform right away. I started tweaking and inserting content into my LinkedIn profile and started to kind of have conversations with other people about it. I came in at the 35 million user phase and right now as I sit before this video cam we're at 85 million plus.

Russ: Wow.

J.D.: The difference is now, Russ, people are completely switched on about LinkedIn and what it can do as opposed to back then when it was a bit of a tough sell. A lot of doe eyed stares when I told people I was involved with LinkedIn.

Russ: Right. Well now with all the noise and the movie and the Zuckerberg stuff going on, contrast LinkedIn with Facebook. In case we have somebody that's just all engrossed in Facebook and ignoring LinkedIn.

J.D.: Well more and more we're seeing the social media platforms borrowing from each other. Oh, did I say borrow? I meant outright steal from each other. The LinkedIn home page is looking more like the Facebook wall, looking more like the Twitter feed everyday because now you have this constant streaming of information and real time on LinkedIn and the larger our networks become the more difficult it is to get our voice heard. The shelf life of a status bar update on LinkedIn is very short lived in the bigger networks. We didn't see this about even a year, 18 months ago when I would tell my clients to maybe update their status bar and their network feeds maybe once every couple days, but now you've got to stoke the furnace and you've gotta keep that momentum going about yourself, keep your name top of mind with your network.

Russ: Okay.

J.D.: Facebook is very similar. Facebook obviously a much more social platform, but businesses today are using Facebook to leverage their messaging.

Russ: Now isn't it still accurate that LinkedIn has this neat, full featured free access to it, but isn't there also a professional version that's a monthly charge to it?

J.D.: Yes. One can effectively use and navigate LinkedIn without any type of remittance to LinkedIn, but there is a paid subscription service that does offer enhanced search capabilities and the ability to see who has accessed your profile, which is becoming more and more important and actually a bit of a scale tipper in my opinion. I think people these days want to know who has visited them. It's a more specific metric. It actually tells you who has accessed your profile with a link back to their profile if they have a visibility setting where they can be tracked on the site.

Russ: Okay. So when you advice individuals about how they oughta' use LinkedIn do you most often recommend that they go ahead and upgrade to the paid access?

J.D.: Well again, people have budgets and I always go with the enhanced features, but in my world if I'm getting someone acclimated on the site I want them to learn the site properly before they get into advanced options and the who's been visiting your profile feature is in my opinion an advanced strategy because it can lead to marketing touch points, but most people are more concerned at this stage with content and building a network and diplomatically corresponding with other people to bring people into their network organically. I like the paid subscription feature. Recruiters who are big fans of LinkedIn are going with paid recruiting platforms on LinkedIn. LinkedIn does have revenue streams. They do have paid features that will make life easier on the site, but it does require certain advancing of the learning curve before those really have impact.

Russ: Okay. J.D., I really appreciate you sharing your story and your mission with us. If you've got somebody interested in contacting you how should they do that?

J.D.: Well everything you need to know about me, Russ, is on my LinkedIn profile and -

Russ: What ________?

J.D.: The mere fact that I'm here with you today is a testimonial to the power of LinkedIn because I found you in Search Broadcast Media and obviously I'm delighted to be on the show, but more grateful for the opportunity and that we were able to have this dialogue solely because of activities I performed on LinkedIn. My website is www.owlishcommunications.com and that would be O-W-L-I-S-H Communications, plural, dot com and I always encourage people to access me on LinkedIn. Send me an invitation to connect. I will never IDK anybody. You know what IDK is, Russ?

Russ: No; tell me.

J.D.: I will never I don't know anybody. I will always accept a friendly LinkedIn invitation and I'm happy to help. I would love to be a professional resource to anyone who's serious about leveraging LinkedIn.

Russ: Okay. J.D., thanks a whole lot. I really appreciate your time today.

J.D.: My pleasure, Russ. Thank you.

Russ: Alright. And that wraps up the BusinessMakers Flashback with J.D. Gershbein of Owlish Communications. You've been listening to the BusinessMakers Show heard here and seen online at theBusinessMakers.com.