LinkedIn Corp (LNKD)’s New Competitor, Facebook Inc (FB) & Yelp Inc (YELP) Help

Editor’s Note: LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP)

8th Stage Launches In Beta To Offer A LinkedIn For Musicians With Built-In Talent Development (TechCrunch)
Chicago-based startup 8th Stage is launching in beta form today, offering independent music artists a way to push forward and track their career online. The idea is to give artists more tools to help them deal with the changing nature of the music industry, which no longer takes big risks on unproven acts with expensive record contracts the way it has in the past. What’s changed about the music industry? According to 8th Stage co-founder Paul Jorgensen, a lot. For one, record labels don’t have the big budgets to spend on discovering and developing talent based on the old methods of demo tapes and one-off auditions, and for another, it doesn’t really make good financial sense to use those methods when everyone has YouTube accounts, Twitter and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and many often try to build followings on those channels independently.

Proven, The Job Search App For Those LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) Forgets, Opens To Employers (TechCrunch)
Proven, the Andreessen Horowitz-backed mobile app that allows job seekers to search and apply to postings on Craigslist, Simply Hired, and Beyond.com, is today launching a version of its mobile app for employers. With the new Proven Employer App for iOS and Android, companies can post their jobs to Craigslist, as well as search, sort through, and contact job applicants directly, via either a smartphone or tablet. Previously, these features were available to employers on the web in a beta test, but the company’s native applications for iOS and Android had only been targeted toward job candidates, not businesses.

Riffing on LinkedIn’s global recruiting trends survey (Diginomica)
Last month, LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) issued one of the most self-serving studies ever created – their third annual global recruiting trends survey. Nutshell? It’s a rough time for a LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) curmudgeon like myself (please send flowers). Not only do LinkedIn’s revenue numbers continue to trend up, to the tune of a 32% increase in profit and a 59% increase in sales from 2nd quarter 2012, but talent management software is on the up-and-up as well, particularly of the SaaS variety. Cornerstone OnDemand is the latest to issue glowing earnings news, with sales up 66 percent from the previous year.

How did you fare vs. Facebook insiders? (MarketWatch)
It’s been nearly a year since Mark Zuckerberg publicly pledged fealty to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shares — and shareholders — in his first public appearance since the social network’s dismal debut. With the benefit of a little hindsight it’s worth reviewing a key lesson from the largest tech IPO ever. The lesson is that buying lots of shares low is even more important to earning investment riches than selling any number of shares high. The long list of early investors and employees who’ve made big money selling Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stock during the past 12 months shows that even among insiders, the second part of the equation — that is, when to sell — can vary greatly.

Yelp Help: Writing a better restaurant review (The Seattle Times)
Everyone’s a critic, thanks to online review sites like Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP). That makes criticism worth reading even harder to find. Enter Hanna Raskin, until recently the restaurant critic for Seattle Weekly, known for her thorough research, an eye for out-of-the-way restaurant gems, an engaging style, and unapologetic honesty. She’s doing her part to teach the secrets of well-crafted, useful, online restaurant reviews in her new e-book, “Yelp Help” (available on Amazon.com for $2.99, or in print form for $5.99 in selected bookstores.) In the book, Raskin goes through the basic workings of a restaurant kitchen (for those who have wondered what the ‘expediter’ does or when the prep cooks go home,) gives a brief history of restaurant criticism, then gets into the meat of things – where most online reviews go bad and how to avoid the most common errors.