SlideShare is a business media site for managing and sharing presentations and documents and currently boasts of having over 23 million visitors that view over 60 million pages every month. Going ahead in this post, I will be giving you a low down about SlideShare and why it becomes a critical element of the Professional Social Media Channels

1. SlideShare: A Professional Social Media Channel
-Royston Olivera
A lot has been said and written about how businesses are using the stalwarts of social
media like Facebook, Twitter and You Tube to build their brand name and connect with
the masses. All these channels being consumer facing portals have proven to be the best
for businesses that directly serve individual consumers with products and services. When
it comes to the Business to Business angle, it is the more professional network LinkedIn
that has helped businesses leverage on its social graph of professionals. But it seems like
there is a new player on the block in the form of SlideShare.
SlideShare is a business media site for managing and sharing presentations and
documents and currently boasts of having over 23 million visitors that view over 60
million pages every month. Going ahead in this post, I will be giving you a low down
about SlideShare and why it becomes a critical element of the Professional Social Media
Channels
Storing and Sharing…
SlideShare allows you to upload and share presentations, documents and spreadsheets
of a wide variety of formats whether its from Microsoft Office or OpenOffice. It even
supports upload via email and import from Google docs. Your files can be shared publicly
to all on the web or privately to some SlideShare users. You or the people your sharing
the file with can even download your file in the same format as uploaded. Each
presentation also comes with and embed code which can be used to embed it on blogs or
other websites.
Accounts…
SlideShare started of with accounts for individuals but has recently launched 7 new
account types for Companies, Non-Profits, Universities etc. So unlike before when
companies created accounts and had to even specify DOB and gender of the company,
now they can switch to the company account type where their profile page will have
company specific options. Very soon SlideShare would be launching custom features for
different account.
Networking…
SlideShare has a decent set of networking tools that you can leverage upon to build your
social graph. You can follow like minded people to get their latest updates. You can
favorite a presentation for future reference. You can create or join groups of users that
share similar interests as you and interact with them by posting on the profile wall.
Widgets and Applications…
SlideShare has an simple interface to create Widgets and Presentation Packs that can be
embedded on your blog or website to provide a feed of your presentations to your
visitors. The Facebook and LinkedIn Applications allow you add a presentation gallery
box on your profile and can be viewed by your connections.
Slidecasting…
Slidecasts are nothing but mashups of SlideShare presentations and streaming MP3.On
SlideShare, in a few simple steps you can create a Slidecast thus making your slides
more meaning full and sending the right message to the viewers.
SlideShare Business…
SlideShare recently launched SlideShare Business that provides a new way to reach
professional audience, connect with more and the right people by advertising your
content to them. With AdShare you can promote your content to a community of

2. professionals, by displaying your document next to documents on SlideShare that are
from the same category or of similar content. LeadShare converts your content visitors
into leads by enabling you to add a lead form within your presentations. This is more like
a replacement of the traditional white paper and micro site campaigns.
You may find many file storing/sharing applications online, but the wide variety of
features and the huge open community that you can share your content with makes
SlideShare a great social media channel to try out.