Detroit's Stik Integrates With LinkedIn To Expand Reach Of Professional Reviews
DETROIT -- Stik, a reviews website for local professionals, said Thursday it had integrated with LinkedIn via its API, bringing together trusted, word of mouth referrals and the world's largest online professional network.
For the first time, local professionals and small business owners are able to capitalize on their LinkedIn network to cultivate authentic, positive reviews and recommendations that are sharable across the Web.
"It's very common for people to use different social media sites to separate professional and personal contacts," said Jay Gierak, co-founder, Stik. "To date, Stik has relied exclusively on Facebook as its trusted source of identity. Now with the integration of LinkedIn, users will have access to their entire professional network to help them build their online reputation through reviews and recommendations."
Local professionals on Stik, including mortgage, insurance, real estate and home service providers, are now able to tap both their personal and professional networks to scale their online reputations and increase customer leads through referrals from past clients. Stik's contact manager automatically identifies an individual's LinkedIn connections allowing users to encourage past clients and supporters to contribute reviews that are then shareable online.
"For most people, buying or selling a home is the biggest financial decision they will make in their lifetime and they want to find a real estate agent that they can trust. Having an excellent reputation both online and in the real world is critical to the success of my business," said Nick Casteel, a real estate agent at Keller Williams. "Adding LinkedIn to my Stik profile allows me to tap into hundreds of business relationships to collect more reviews and bolster my online reputation. Combined with my existing Facebook network, I can now easily access both the personal and professional contacts that drive referrals to my business."
Stik has also added new functionality that allows users to easily share their reviews across multiple channels on the Web. In addition to displaying reviews on their Stik profile, professionals can highlight reviews on their business website, within email signatures and across both personal and professional Facebook pages.
Stik is a reviews website for local professional services that is bringing the traditional word-of-mouth business referral online. The company helps local professionals and small businesses establish their online reputations via authentic reviews and testimonials. With more than 2.5 million recommendations and reviews, the site is a leader for online mortgage, insurance, real estate and home services reviews.
The company was co-founded by Jay Gierak and Nathan Labenz in 2010, and is located in the M@dison Building in downtown Detroit. Stik is backed by North Coast Technology Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Draper Associates, First Step Fund and others.
For more information, please visit www.stik.com.
