networking

13 LinkedIn Action Steps

May 26, 2009 By Sean Nelson 11 Comments

In writing this blog I’ve discovered one of the secrets of blogging…People love lists. So here we go with another list showing 13 Action Steps you can take on LinkedIn. This is likely one of the last lists for a while so I hope you enjoy it and it provides some value.

1. Optimize Your Profile

When most people hear the word optimize they think of optimizing a website to be found in more relevant web searches. This is much the same thing. You want to optimize your profile so that you increase your chances of being found, and once found, are found credible. You want a “Sticky Profile”.

You want to make sure that your profile is detailed with as much information so that your viewer isn’t left to wonder and fill in the gaps. Your Photo, summary, past work experience are important. Add applications to share information via presentations, white papers, or video.

The keywords you use in your profile will help you be found in more relevant earches based on your industry, product, or service. Use a keyword search tool to see what terms people are searching and then populate your profile with these words.

Finally, your Title/Tag line could have an impact on your ability to consistently communicate your message. I would recommend using the Tag Line to create a message. You can use up to 140 characters.

2. Build Credibility

Without credibility you may be well known and well liked, but you won’t be in business long. On LinkedIn if you want to develop potential opportunities you will have to be judged credible. Credibility is built on how you interact, the information you share, and what other’s say about you.

You can take control by presenting a detailed profile, participating in Answers, securing recommendations, and providing value to your networks. A blog is a great way to build awareness and build credibility. My success on LinkedIn has in a large part been supported by my blog.

3. Grow Your Connections

The more connections you have the more likely you are to encounter “Unexpected Opportunities”. There are those who argue that a large network, with people you don’t know or don’t know well, will have a negative effect. While I respect that they can choose how they want to utilize LinkedIn, I couldn’t disagree more. I’ve experienced the difference in opportunities that occurred after I switched to a more open networking philosophy.

If you’ve been limiting your connections and have not found more success, maybe it’s time to open things up. [Read more...]

Filed Under: LinkedIn Tagged With: how to use linkedin, LI Groups, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Answers, linkedin applications, LinkedIn Credibility, LinkedIn profile, linkedin recommendations, networking, sean nelson, Social Media

9 Ways to Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile

May 18, 2009 By Sean Nelson 23 Comments

Your goal on LinkedIn is to first “be found”, and second “be found credible”. With that in mind, you want to do everything possible to enhance your profile. This includes the content you place on your profile page and the ways that people find your profile.

Here are 9 ways to create an effective profile moving from the top of the profile page to the bottom. These simple changes can make a difference in the effectiveness of your profile.

1. Replace your Title with a Tag Line

At the top of the profile page just under the member name most people include their title…project manager, insurance agent, president. While I guess your title says something about you it likely doesn’t say anything about how you can help others.

My job is to help people find the best health insurance plan for them in terms of coverage and price. It’s what I do that provides value. My title is Insurance Broker. It’s what I am but doesn’t necessarily catch anyone’s attention. Each time I answer a questions, post a discussion question, or add a news article in a group a mini profile is displayed including usually my name and title/tag line.

Let’s take a look at using a title verses using a tag line. Which is more likely to be noticed:

Sean Nelson
Insurance Broker

Sean Nelson
Helping individuals and small businesses in Atlanta save up to 60% on their health insurance and employee benefits

Using a tag line is a great way to communicate a quick message to anyone viewing your profile.

2. Personalize Your Web URL’s

If you look at many profiles you will see that many people add a link to their website to their profile. Most often you see this listed as My Company, My Website, or My Blog. You want to make sure if you list your websites that you personalize the name

To personalize your web URL’s click on the [ Edit ] link next to your websites. On the drop down box for type of link there is an option for “Other”. Choose this option and you will be able to add a customized name for each link.

3. Personalize your LinkedIn profile URL

The first thing to do is to update your profile URL. The default URL consists of random numbers and letters. Change this so that it incorporates your name. There are many people with the same name so you may find that your name is not available. Use your middle initial or some other variation. [Read more...]

9 Ways to Enhance Your LinkedIn Profile

Filed Under: LinkedIn Tagged With: Can LinkedIn work for you, how to use linkedin, LI Groups, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Answers, LinkedIn Credibility, LinkedIn profile, linkedin recommendations, networking, Online Branding, sean nelson, Social Media

10 Part Series: Can LinkedIn Work for You?

May 4, 2009 By Sean Nelson 5 Comments

In November I wrote a post about the ways you can use LinkedIn. From that post I followed up with a post on 9 areas of using LinkedIn. Part 10 was released last week. Even though all 10 post are on the blog I still tend to get a couple of requests for links to the other articles.

Here are all 10 parts of the series. LinkedIn has changed since this series started, but most of the articles should still be very relevant. Enjoy.

LinkedIn Part 1: Can LinkedIn Work For You? – November 29th, 2008

LinkedIn Part 2: Enhancing Your Networking – December 14th, 2008

LinkedIn Part 3: Establishing Credibility – January 15th, 2009

LinkedIn Part 5: I Highly Recommend Recommendations – February 17th, 2009

LinkedIn Part 4: Connecting Your Offline and Online Brand – February 2nd, 2009

LinkedIn Part 6: A Stage to Engage Your Audience – March 3rd, 2009

LinkedIn Part 7: Research Potential Partners and Alliances – March 8th, 2009

LinkedIn Part 8: Find a New Job – March 10th, 2009

LinkedIn Part 9: Be found – April 20th, 2009

LinkedIn Part 10: Providing Value to Your Network – April 27th, 2009

10 Part Series: Can LinkedIn Work for You?

Filed Under: LinkedIn Tagged With: Can LinkedIn work for you, how to use linkedin, LI Groups, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Answers, linkedin applications, LinkedIn Credibility, LinkedIn profile, linkedin recommendations, networking, sean nelson, Social Media

On LinkedIn Mean People Suck

April 24, 2009 By Sean Nelson 18 Comments

With that title I probably violated several things that I recommend doing (act professional, be careful of what you say and how you say it, etc.).

I stumbled on a blog that was titled “The Stupid Things People Do on LinkedIn”. The poster then proceeded to lash in to people that violated his perception of what LinkedIn should be and how people should behave on it. My first thought was relax it’s not your site. You’re just another member. The second was that did this person realize that their post was part of their online brand.

So there are two points to discuss. The first is about your online brand. The second is about unwritten protocols on LinkedIn that many people may not be aware of.

Your Online Brand
Remember this: Everything you do on LinkedIn (and within the Social Web) either “adds to” or “subtracts from” your online brand. This isn’t some college football board where you can denigrate and abuse fellow posters if you don’t like their view or comment. There are no cute user names to hide behind. On LinkedIn your comments are easily associated with the person behind them, YOU.

I don’t know the person behind the “stupid LinkedIn” post, but I already have an opinion of him. Want to guess whether it’s positive or negative? If this were a person that I was considering connecting to, partnering with, or engaging in their service, I would walk away. There is enough negativity in the world without having to knowingly engage in it or with it.

This may not matter to him. But it should to the average LI user. When you ask or answer a question, post a discussion or news article in a group, add a blog to your profile, and how you respond to those who attempt to connect all contribute to your brand.

Consider this. You receive a connection invitation from John who works for an advertising agency. You don’t know John so you mark the Invitation “I don’t know this user” (when you could have simply Archived It). A couple of weeks later you connect to Bill who runs a graphics firm that you want to develop as a client. You get an appointment and everything looks good. Later John, who happens to engage Bill’s firm for his advertising agency notices that you are connected to Bill. In their next conversation, John mentions that he saw that you and Bill were connected and mentions that you recently refused his connection invitation. And rather than Archive it you marked it “I don’t know this user”. Now his account has been restricted. Bill thinks “that wasn’t a nice thing to do to John” and calls you to say they’ve decided to go in a different direction.

Is this an extreme story? Yes. Is it a possibility? Yes. Your actions carry implications…some positive and some potentially negative. Act in good faith and in a neighborly fashion and your brand will benefit.

The Unwritten Protocals
Over time acceptable practices evolve as do unacceptable ones. As a member of LinkedIn you should adhere to the acceptable norms. There aren’t to0 many and most are common sense, that often gets overlooked due to lack of time, imagination, or knowledge. Here are some and I’m sure there are others that I have not thought of or encountered (violated) yet.

1. Never send a canned invitation. Always personalize the invitation.

2. Don’t send out mass invitations. It makes it difficult to personalize the email

3. Don’t send out Mass Canned invitations…see #1 and #2

4. When participating in answers or group discussions do not blatently sell. How you phrase a sales pitch can be seen as spam or an interesting question or post. Which of the two following statements is likely to be viewed as spam?

A. Mortgage rates dropped to 4.5%, call me if you are looking to refinance; or
B. With mortgage rates dropping to 4.5%, how do you determine if it’s a good idea to refinance your loan?

5. Respond to all messages in your inbox. If you don’t want to connect send a brief explanation as to why (see my post: http://linkedintuition.com/blog/no-thanks-the-right-way ) . Don’t feel comfortable providing a recommendation or passing on an introduction reply with why.

6. Don’t ask for recommendations from people who don’t know you very well. Recommendations should be appropriate and sincere. It’s rude to ask when there’s no basis for one.

7. Don’t expect everone to have the same approach that you do on LinkedIn. Some are open networkers and some are closed networkers. Each person decides what works best for them. No one has a monopoly on the right way.

8. If you do not want to connect, “Archive” the invitation. Don’t select “I don’t know this user”. Doing so gains you nothing and it can negatively impact another member. Is it such an evil thing to want to connect to another that you do not know. Isn’t that what networking is about.

Not everyone will agree with every point that I made. Each person interacts with LinkedIn based on their expectations and beliefs and that’s a good thing. What we should be able to agree on is that acting in a friendly and respectful manner will always do more good than harm.

What do you think?

Filed Under: LinkedIn Tagged With: connecting, connections, how to use linkedin, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Answers, LinkedIn Credibility, networking, online brand, sean nelson, Social Media

The LinkedIn Light Bulb is Flickering

April 16, 2009 By Sean Nelson 6 Comments

It could be argued that much of your LinkedIn experience derives from your LinkedIn strategy. Do seek to connect with pretty much anyone, like a Lion? Do you only connect with those that you know very well, like a Turtle? Or do you connect with those you know and those you would like to know, like a Hound Dog?

If you read this blog on a regular basis you’ve noticed that I keep coming back to these three strategies. There’s a reason for that. I find my self changing strategies after almost three years on LinkedIn.

Here is what I used to believe. I believed that protecting the value of your network required that you know or have plans to get to know those that you were connected to. I believed that it only made sense to add new connections as I met people within my chamber or other offline networking events. Since my prospects are in Georgia I believed that there was limited value in connecting to others outside of the state.

Here is what I believe now. I believe that opportunities are not constrained by boundaries. I believe that those in my network can benefit from connections that I do not know or have never met with or spoken to. I believe that there are opportunities out there among people that I do not know. And finally, I believe that 99% of the time a larger network will provide more value than a smaller network.

It wasn’t one particular thing that changed my perspective. It was a combination of things and the change occurred fairly quick.

1. I actually started prospecting using the LinkedIn Companies search to prospect. My target was simple; companies in Atlanta with 11 to 50 employees, in creative or technology industries. In my search I identified about 150 companies that fit my profile and realized that I was connected to less than 50% of these opportunities. Clearly with more of the right connections I would have a higher percentage with employees in my network.

2. LinkedIn made significant changes to Groups. Adding the ability to have discussions and post news articles immediately expanded my reach based on the number of members in the groups I belong to. Each group represents a collection of individuals with a common interest. In essence they are a specific target.

The next logical step was to identify the groups that my target market belong to and join these groups. I can now participate in discussions and post news articles to introduce myself. And I can contact these individual and extend connection invitations without having to use InMail (which is only available on paid accounts and the number available is minimal)

Today I connected with three individuals in my target market. One was the President of one of my target companies and the other two are simply connected in the target industries. The first will allow me to have a warm approach to attempt to secure a meeting. The other two help me connect further into my targetted industries.

In my invitation to all three I simply let them know that I was looking to build my network within the creative community in Atlanta. I included the names of some common connections. And I mentioned that I wrote a LinkedIn related blog and that if I could ever help them with LinkedIn to let me know.

The worst thing that can happen is that my connection invitation is ignored. While I know that I will not have success with every connection invitation, there are a couple of things that are working in my favor.

First people want to help where possible. Second, people are looking to build their own networks. Third, the use of common connections established a baseline of credibility. Fourth, by writing a LinkedIn blog and offering to help them I’m providing value.

About a year ago I started a group based around the county that I do most of my networking. Over time this group has grown to about 300 local business professionals. This week I sent an invitation to connect to each member of the group that was not in my direct network.

In this invitation I introduced myself as a fellow member and manager of the group. I simply stated that I started the group to help people connect and in that spirit I was extending an invitation to connect. Then I added the value. I let them know that I was organizing an offline networking meeting for the group and would appreciate any suggestions for a location.

In two days I’ve added over 100 new connections, had several ask me to help them with their health insurance, and received numerous thanks for reaching out to connect. Each of these connections is in Atlanta.

Little by little I’m building a strong local network.

I had lunch with a new connection that I met in another group (I’ll post the story next week) who is an active open networker. He doesn’t post his email in his profile, but he uses groups to actively connect to folks all over. Last week he launched a blog and posted a link to it in each of his groups. He had over 300 unique visitors in the first day and his blog has grown to over 800 visitors a day.

His content is good and that keeps people coming back. But it was the membership and participation in groups that allowed him to gain exposure and the initial visits.

I used to believe that there was no right or wrong strategy on LinkedIn. Now I believe that if you’re not actively growing your network you’re missing the point. The point is that opportunities are out there and the more connections you have the more likely you are to find them. Or have them find you.

Detail your profile, join groups, and expand your connections. A simple strategy to make LinkedIn more effective.

The LinkedIn Light Bulb is Flickering

Filed Under: LinkedIn Tagged With: Can LinkedIn work for you, connecting, connections, groups, how to use linkedin, LinkedIn, networking, sean nelson, Social Media

I’m Growing Fond of LinkedIn Groups

April 6, 2009 By Sean Nelson 4 Comments

It’s been almost a year since I started the North Fulton Business Group on LinkedIn. When I first created the group I looked at the functionality available, and other than a member having the ability to view additional profiles with a common interest, there really wasn’t much else. You couldn’t even search groups. Most people found groups to join by seeing them on other members profiles.

In September of 2008 I was the only member of the NFBG. At that point I decided that If I wanted to create value for potential members then I would have to create an offline site. Thus the NorthFultonBG.com site was created. With it came the ability for members to:

Post Articles
Post Free Ads
Post Events
Add Contact Information
Participate in Forum Discussions
Add their business to the Business Directory

I even wrote a blog post saying in effect that these were the very things that LinkedIn should be providing with their Groups. Fast forward 6 months and much of this is now in place.

Within LinkedIn groups you can post discussion questions (goodbye NFBG forum), you can post news articles (NFBG Articles), You can add advertisements in the form of a question (NFBG Ads), you can view other members profiles and send them a LinkedIn message (almost as good as NFBG), you can post jobs under discussions (NFBG Jobs), I can now send a weekly newsletter, and you can search group members (sort of like looking at a directory).

So I’m left wondering if there is a purpose for the northfultonbg.com site and does it provide enough value to remain. It is a pain to have to register on the LinkedIn Group and the NFBG site. And posting articles and discussion questions is easier on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn could end the discussion by adding a few more features to Groups:

1. Allow all LinkedIn members to add their contact information to their profile. In conjuncture, allow LI members to segment their connections and choose who can access their full contact information – Part of this (the ability to classify connections) is in beta testing taking place. Hopefully once this is launched it will coincide with adding contact inf0…much like Plaxo does.

2. Add calendar and event scheduling to Groups. Currently this would be done through adding a discussion. But it would be nice to have a calendar of events within the Group. Currently LinkedIn has events, but when I look at upcoming events on my home profile it shows event in NY and CA, not my local events. Maybe you can set it up to only show local events but I have not stumbled on the “how to” yet.

I’m sure there are some additional things that would improve groups. For the time being I’m keeping the non-LinkedIn site active, but I am begining to wonder if the time spent on it would be better spent elsewhere.

How about you. What functionality do you think that LinkedIn should add to Groups?

I’m Growing Fond of LinkedIn Groups

Filed Under: LinkedIn Tagged With: groups, how to use linkedin, LI Groups, LinkedIn, networking, sean nelson, Social Media

LinkedIn Benefits Don’t Follow a Straight Line

March 23, 2009 By Sean Nelson Leave a Comment

Most of us joined LinkedIn because we hoped that it would somehow impact our bottom line. That at some point down the road we would be rewarded with some economic return. I’ve been fortunate in that it has generated business for me. Just as important, it has helped me provide value to those that I have connected to.

Straight line benefits include developing new partners or alliances and developing new client’s. Crooked line benefits include introducing connections, writing recommendations, and simply helping others.

Two weeks ago I received a request from Tom Mickell to join my North Fulton Business Group on LinkedIn. This is a group for people that live, work or network in North Fulton County, Georgia. I am pretty strict about only letting local folks in. Tom lives in Detroit, so I promptly sent him a thanks but no-thanks email, but added if he felt there was a compelling reason he should be able to join the group to let me know.

Tom replied that his company was planing to open an office in Alpharetta and he was looking to hire someone in the area. He had just joined LinkedIn and found the group. I’m open to anyone hiring in Alpharetta so I approved his membership, made some suggestions on improving his profile and connecting locally, and sent him a copy of my LinkedIn eBook. I also let him know that if he was going to be in town that the North Fulton Business Expo was coming up. Plus I let him know about the upcoming chamber meetings.

Thom made the trip down and attended the Expo and a chamber alliance meeting. While in town looking to hire a sales person he was introduced to Ross Coleman, a fellow chamber member and a great guy. Ross, as he likes to say, is in transition looking for the next opportunity. Ross and Tom hooked up and at a minimum Ross was able to sit down with Thom and talk about the opportunity.

When Tom and I finally met in person and I learned he talked to Ross, I was able to add my endorsement of Ross as a person and valuable asset to any organization. I don’t know if Ross will end up working for Tom’s company. I do know that a simple offer to help a new LinkedIn member, may in the end help an old friend.

We all want to personally benefit from LinkedIn, but often it’s the crooked line benefits to others in my network that make it a good day. Find ways to help your network and you will prosper.

How about you, have you noticed any crooked line benefits to your network?

LinkedIn Benefits Don’t Follow a Straight Line

Filed Under: LinkedIn Tagged With: Can LinkedIn work for you, connecting, connections, GNFCC, how to use linkedin, Linked In, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Credibility, networking, north fulton business group, North Fulton Chamber of Commerce, sean nelson

LinkedIn Benefits Don’t Follow a Straight Line

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