The world's all a-twitter about social media — but there's a lot of hype out there.

Actor Ashton Kutcher say he's broadcasting to more people than CNN. Hey Kutch, not quite.

But there's one social networking site in particular that software execs can gain a lot from: LinkedIn.

With 40+ million business people for members, you can use LinkedIn to find employees, contractors, business partners, prospects, and clients.

And can work at it gradually, without it swallowing your entire week. Read on for 15 tips on how to get started.

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Software is built on crazy ideas and impossible dreams.

And our annual Software Innovation Awards acknowledge the people creating the breakthrough ideas that drive our industry.

Two trends we noted: five of our eight winners are doing SaaS. And five are from California.

This week, we shine the spotlight on our award-winning software firms, the "crazy ideas" they pioneered, and the lessons we can learn from them.

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“Being a reseller or distributor is the world’s worst job.”

That’s the opinion that guest instructor Harald Horgen of The York Group expressed during Software University’s May 2009 seminar. What makes Horgen think this way?

Resellers, he says, must take on three levels of risk when selling your product. For starters, they’ll have to spend a chunk of their own money upfront to market and sell your product.

Second, if your product proves to be a money maker for the reseller, you the vendor, might be tempted to cancel the reseller contract, hire direct sales reps, and keep more of the profits.

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