Scott Allen

Managing Director at Link to Your World | About.com Entrepreneurs Guide | Coauthor, The Virtual Handshake

Austin, Texas Area

Current
  • Advisory Board Member at StandardAnswer.com, Inc.
  • Managing Partner at Link to Your World
  • Community Leader, Sales & Marketing Channel at Work.com
  • Blogger at Linked Intelligence, a b5media blog
  • Executive Editor, LinkedIn Series at Happy About
  • Coauthor, "The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online" at TheVirtualHandshake.com (Self-employed)
  • About.com Entrepreneurs Guide at About.com
Past
  • VP of Product Management, VP of Professional Services at Mongoose Technology
  • Professional Services Practice Manager at Viador
  • Solution Specialist at Platinum Technology
  • Senior Data Architect & Database Administrator at Harte-Hanks Response Management
  • Senior Programmer at Harte-Hanks Response Management
Education
  • University of Texas
  • Rice University
  • St. John's School
Connections
500+ connections
Industry
Internet
Websites

Scott Allen’s Summary

Five quick facts about Scott Allen:
- Scott Allen is a social media and social networking consultant, author and speaker.
- Scott Allen is uncomfortable writing about himself in the third person,
- But Scott Allen likes coming up at the top of search results for his name,
- And Scott Allen also likes experimenting with LinkedIn and other social networking sites,
- So Scott Allen sometimes does peculiar things with his profile. :-)

Now that I've appeased the search engine...

In a nutshell, I was a social media and social networking guy before they were called that. I taught my first online networking workshop in December 2002!

My great passion is helping people build business relationships online. In that regard, I am:
- Coauthor, "The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online"
- Coauthor, "The Emergence of The Relationship Economy"
- Executive Editor, Happy About LinkedIn Series, including Jason Alba's "I'm on LinkedIn -- Now What??"
- Contributing author, "Blog!: How the Newest Media Revolution Is Changing Politics, Business and Culture"
- Monthly columnist for FastCompany.com.

I also:
- Consult with companies on how to leverage social networking for sales, marketing, and business development
- Teach workshops and teleclasses on the topic
- Deliver keynote addresses or program sessions on the topic

My co-authors and I also provide a wealth of free resources through The Virtual Handshake Blog and our e-newsletter. See TheVirtualHandshake.com for more info.

I also have twenty years of experience as a technology executive, entrepreneur, and consultant and am currently the Entrepreneurs Guide at About.com, a subsidiary of The New York Times Company.

Scott Allen’s Specialties:

Online business networking, entrepreneurship, web publicity, online social networking, social software


Scott Allen’s Experience

  • Advisory Board Member

    StandardAnswer.com, Inc.

    (Internet industry)

    May 2008Present (4 months)

    Social networking application launching Fall 2008. Yes, this really is something different and exciting, and I don't say that lightly. Contact me for more information.

  • Managing Partner

    Link to Your World

    (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Management Consulting industry)

    August 2007Present (1 year 1 month)

    Link to Your World is the foremost collaborative association of professionals specializing in the systemic shifts of the emerging social networking space. Link to Your World Managing Partners are some of the top thinkers in the social media and social networking space. Together we are shaping the future of social media and the medium of social networking.

  • Community Leader, Sales & Marketing Channel

    Work.com

    (Privately Held; Online Media industry)

    August 2006Present (2 years 1 month)

    Work.com is a community-based site for over 1,800 business how-to articles. A content rating system gives the best content the highest visibility. As a community leader, I help encourage participation in the Sales & Marketing Channel at Work.com, leave comments and ratings on articles in the channel and throughout the network, recruit contributing experts to author how-to guides, and contribute ideas for improving the channel and the site to Work.com editorial staff.

  • Blogger

    Linked Intelligence, a b5media blog

    (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Online Media industry)

    August 2006Present (2 years 1 month)

    I write the Linked Intelligence blog, "The smart source for all things LinkedIn™", offering tips on using LinkedIn, announcements and analysis of new LinkedIn features, member success stories, links and commentary to news stories about LinkedIn, and LinkedIn educational events.

  • Executive Editor, LinkedIn Series

    Happy About

    (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Publishing industry)

    February 2006Present (2 years 7 months)

    As Executive Editor at Happy About, I am creating a series of specialty books on the application of LinkedIn to specific business needs. The first book, "LinkedIn for Recruiting", is already in publication and has received rave reviews. Watch soon for Jason Alba's book, "I'm on LinkedIn...Now What???" I am currently seeking authors and interview subjects for the upcoming projects, "LinkedIn for Professional Services Marketing", "LinkedIn for Enterprise Sales" and "LinkedIn for Entrepreneurs".

  • Coauthor, "The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online"

    TheVirtualHandshake.com (Self-employed)

    (Self-Employed; Myself Only; Writing and Editing industry)

    December 2002Present (5 years 9 months)

    Since 2002, I have been researching, practicing, and writing extensively about online business networking. I have numerous success stories of my own, plus dozens I have collected from others.

    I am co-author of "The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online", the first mass-market book that shows business professionals how to leverage social software and online communities to grow their business and advance their career.

    Our weblog, TheVirtualHandshake.com/blog, provides news, tips, and reviews about blogging, social networking sites, and business-oriented online communities.
    I teach teleclasses and web seminars, and coach individuals on using sites like LinkedIn, Ryze, and Ecademy most effectively.

  • About.com Entrepreneurs Guide

    About.com

    (Public Company; 501-1000 employees; PRM; Internet industry)

    November 2002Present (5 years 10 months)

    I provide original & guest articles, how-to guides, book reviews, news commentary, and annotated links to the very best information on the web to help a weekly readership of over 10,000 current and future entrepreneurs find, follow, and fulfill their vision of business ownership.

  • VP of Product Management, VP of Professional Services

    Mongoose Technology

    (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

    November 2000August 2002 (1 year 10 months)

    I started at Mongoose in charge of a growing professional services group, which covered sales engineers and training, as well. In my last few months, to get our 3.0 product on track and out the door, I shifted into product management/marketing, including the product release plan, development of demos, QA, etc.

  • Professional Services Practice Manager

    Viador

    (Public Company; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

    April 1999November 2000 (1 year 8 months)

    I started at Viador, an enterprise portal software company, as a Senior Sales Engineer. Because of my contributions in training and a couple of very successful consulting engagements, I was promoted to Western U.S. Regional Manager for Professional Services, where I managed a highly distributed team of nearly 20 field consultants. Following some reorganization, I shifted to the position of Knowledge Management Practice Manager, focusing on clients for whom knowledge management was their primary purpose for implementing a portal. My group was also responsible for developing internal KM practices in the company.

  • Solution Specialist

    Platinum Technology

    (Public Company; Computer Software industry)

    October 1998April 1999 (7 months)

    I started as a pre-sales Solution Specialist in the application lifecycle product group, focusing on ADvantage and the Process Continuum suite of enterprise project management and process design tools. I ended up working on several post-sales consulting engagements, as well.

  • Senior Data Architect & Database Administrator

    Harte-Hanks Response Management

    (Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; HHS; Marketing and Advertising industry)

    March 1998November 1998 (9 months)

    In this role, I worked with the lead developers to design and implement the client-server database architecture and managed the migration of data from our Foxpro 2.0 system to a client-server system using Visual Foxpro as the front end and a variety of databases as back-end -- customers could choose between DB2, Sybase, Oracle and SQL Server. I wrote and implemented data architecture standards, naming conventions and backup and disaster recovery plans. I managed a team of three other DBA/data architects.

  • Senior Programmer

    Harte-Hanks Response Management

    (Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; HHS; Marketing and Advertising industry)

    March 1997March 1998 (1 year 1 month)

    As senior developer, I led the team of programmers working on the inbound telemarketing system and lead referral and tracking system for Harte-Hanks' client, IBM. Harte-Hanks developed BPOPS, a web-based application for business partner referrals used by both Harte-Hanks and IBM employees and partners. By improving the existing code architecture and training my team, I was able to reduce the team size from a peak of 10 down to 4 when I changed roles (don't worry -- they all went to work on something else within the company!).


Scott Allen’s Education

  • University of Texas

    B.S., Communications, September 1985December 1986

  • Rice University

    Electrical Engineering / Computer Science September 1983May 1985

    Jones College

    Activities and Societies:
    Jazz band
  • St. John's School

    High school, 19771983


Additional Information

Scott Allen’s Websites:

Scott Allen’s Groups:

Linked Innovators, Ryze, MLPF

  •    Executive Suite
  •    World Wildlife Fund
  •    Carnival of the Capitalists
  •    International Networking Speakers and Coaches Assoc
  •    NAI Global Exchange
  •    Relationship Networking Industry Association Supporters' Group
  •    Link To Your Education

Scott Allen’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

  • career opportunities
  • consulting offers
  • new ventures
  • expertise requests
  • business deals
  • reference requests
  • getting back in touch

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