It’s always more believable when you hear praise from someone else. It’s no wonder that recommendation marketing is booming, and is being used more and more for acquiring new clients. When looking for a job, references are a big plus, too: they attest to the quality of your work, and are less formal than official letters of recommendation from your boss.

Turn your XING contacts into your references

As a XING Premium Member, you can now ask your contacts to act as references for you, and display these references in a separate area on your profile (you’ll find it when you click on the link under “References and Awards”. So go ahead and ask your contacts to tell your network what they think of you. A satisfied client or boss can make a big difference on how others see you. (more…)

Not long to go now until XING celebrates its 6th birthday in November.

We’d love members to join in the celebrations over the coming weeks – and you’re all very welcome to take part in our birthday sweepstake.

There are 72 great prizes to be won:

• 1 x MacBook Air
• 1 x Jura automatic coffee machine
• 2 x BlackBerry Curve 8900
• 3 x BlackBerry Curve 8520
• 5 x iPod shuffle
• 60 x 12-month Premium Membership

For a chance to win just answer the question on our sweepstake page! (more…)

Small patches such as the new shiny tabs in the profile, a new OpenSocial application and some new functions: The changes made to the platform today will both increase your level of security as a XING member and better integrate OpenSocial applications with member profiles.

Security: Reporting contact requests as spam

You now have a more direct way of marking contact requests as spam. Instead of going to a member’s profile to mark a contact request as inappropriate, you can do this directly under the Contacts to confirm tab. (more…)

Company Profiles now with industry listing.

You asked for it, and today we’re shipping it: Now you can now add clickable links to your status messages.

Share interesting sites and finds with your contacts, now without having to copy and paste the URL. When your contact clicks on the status message, it will open in a new tab. (Please also see Keeping your network in the know.) (more…)

To return to a much-used metaphor, whilst we often tinker around with the nuts and bolts under the bonnet of our platform, today’s release updates are more like a new lick of paint for the bodywork: We have changed our icons so that they’re more easily recognizable and work better with the overall look and feel of the platform. We have given the profile tabs a fresh new makeover too [update: the redesign this week was of a rather technical nature, the graphics update will follow]. (more…)

“Keep it brief” – how often have we heard that before?  With the expansion of digital communications, the urge to be succinct still remains very much in fashion. It seems as though the trend is moving towards shorter communiqués in media of all types, from a quick, 160-character text message to a tweet, curbed at 140 characters. XING contact requests, while never quite that short for Premium members, have nevertheless required brevity, limiting networkers to 300 characters. That is, up until now. (more…)

Since the middle of July, all Premium Members have the ability to add attachments to their profile to share even more of themselves and their work with the XING community. Providing work samples or references makes sense for graphic designers, for example, who can uploads samples of print-ready work they’ve done, or management consultants uploading a letter of reference from a well-known client. It’s up to each member, though: you can also upload a complete CV or your diploma, for example. You can use the upload area to introduce your company to clients or investors.

Upload files to profile

To upload a file, just go to your profile, then to the “References & awards” area. You can choose separately for each file whether it will be visible only to your contacts, or to the entire XING network. Uploads are not visible to XING non-members. (more…)

Our current special offer for invitations comes with double the usual benefits for users for a limited time only! Anyone successfully inviting their business partners and acquaintances to XING by September 29, 2009, will get free Premium months from XING while extending the size of their professional network at the same time.

For every third new member who signs up in response to your invitation, we’ll give you one month of Premium Membership for free. And there’s more: Those people you invite will also receive a Premium month free of charge – the ideal way to start networking with one another!

If you’re tempted by the idea of inviting lots of your email contacts at once, you can use the “Invite contacts from your address book” option. Or you can also integrate your own personal invitation link into your email signature, homepage or blog.

Why not go straight to the XING Invitation Special Offer and start inviting right now!

Editor’s note: This article by Doodle-VP PR & Communications Tilman Eberle is part of a series following the launch of the XING Partner Ecosystem where the developers of the OpenSocial apps get the opportunity to present their applications.

Doodle is the world’s leading online scheduling tool with more than three million users a month – most of whom come from Germany, Switzerland and North America. The service takes the pain out of finding the right date and time for a group of busy people to meet. With three simple steps you can create a poll and find a suitable date. (more…)

When the sun can’t always be counted on to shine and clouds appear in the sky any time of year: It’s summertime at XING nonstop from now until August 25! And for a limited time, members who sign up for a XING Premium Membership will receive an additional Premium Month for free. Plus, there are great prizes to be won. If you sign up by August 25, you’ll be in a drawing for a MacBook, an iPod touch or one of ten one-year Premium Memberships. (more…)