The Top 5 Tactical Mistakes on LinkedIn
Last week I wrote about the top 5 mistakes on LinkedIn. The list was made up of mistakes that were strategic in nature, and dealt with mistakes that affected your ability to monetize LinkedIn. Today we take a look at the Top 5 mistakes from a tactical perspective. These mistakes affect your credibility, success in connecting, and ability to generate success.
1. Typos, Grammatical Errors, Pointless Info
If I had to choose one area that I am guilty of violating my own advice it would be this one. Typos just happen. I write most of my posts now in Word to avoid misspellings, yet I constantly get caught by misspelled words that are simply the wrong word spelled correctly. ”Your” instead of “you”. ”Can” is “an”. And many others.
Its always fun to write a post that talks about typos only to receive emails from my readers correcting errors. I still feel strongly about the subject, but I’ve come to terms that for me they will periodically occur. In the end its a function of time and with the growth of the blog and the need to continuously add content (and run my two other companies), I’ve chosen to rely on help from my readers. Hopefully the content is valuable and can overcome a typo here or there.
Also make sure that you are providing relevant content. Pointless information wastes time and adds no value.
What to do:
Write online posts in a word editor. Go back and read it after an hour or two. You’ll see things you missed. Review your information to confirm that it is relevant to the conversation.
2. Canned Invitations…not personalizing your invitations
This one seems to be a topic I write about often and yet immediately after writing this post I will receive invitations using the canned LinkedIn text. LinkedIn could resolve this issue by simply changing the included text to “Add your invitation information”.
Until then you have a choice. Personalize the invitation and have close to a 100% positive reaction or use the canned text and have a 50/50 chance of your invitation being viewed positively. Given the potential for someone indicating “That they don’t know you”, personalization is as much a defensive action.
Personalization can be telling the invited how you know them, referencing common connections or groups, telling the person why you want to connect, and the value you bring to the table.
What to do:
Personalize the invitation.
3. Requesting Recommendations that haven’t been earned
Even worse is requesting an invitation from someone you don’t know. Its not your connections job to build your credibility.
I received a request to recommend a connections work this weekend. The problem is that I don’t know this person and have never used their services. I connect to others I don’t know because it increases the chances of unexpected opportunities finding me. I’m willing to help as much as possible, but writing a false recommendation isn’t one of those ways.
What to do:
Request recommendations only when earned from people you know. Give recommendation to only those who you know and who have earned them.
4. Keeping Your Public Profile Hidden
The people that you are connected to can view your complete profile. But what about people outside of your network who want to know more about you? If you have set your profile to be accessible to all members no problem.
If you haven’t you may be limiting your opportunities. There may be reasons to keep your profile hidden, but these are few and far between. If you want to attract opportunity you have to provide information that is viewable to all LinkedIn members.
What to do:
Make your profile viewable to the public. ”Click on the “Edit Profile” tab and at the top right click on the “Edit Public Profile Settings” text link. Then click in the check boxes to allow all of your profile to be viewable and then save your settings. There is a link at the bottom of the page to view your Public Profile. Click on this to see how it looks.
5. Taking Negative Actions
Everything you do either adds or subtracts from your online brand (I’ve said this over and over…its that important) so act prudently. If you disagree with someone do so in a professional manner. If you answer a question provide a well thought out answer that adds value (answering 300 question in a week may get you on LinkedIn’s weekly expert list, but what it really says is that somethings wrong with your business if you have this much time on your hands)
If you don’t want to connect Archive the invitation rather than choosing the “I don’t know this person” option.(when you choose IDK the person sending the invitation can see that you did so. That may not matter but it creates a negative perspective about you that may not affect you but is better not existing.)
I could write for hours on this one topic but if you use common business sense you can avoid most of these.
What to do:
Use common sense. I don’t know how many times I’ve typed up a response only to delete it once I thought about what it said about me.
Wrap Up:
This is just a small sample of tactical errors. Most are easy to avoid if you think about your actions before executing them. If you wouldn’t do or say it in person don’t do it on LinkedIn.
Bonus Mistake: Unsolicited Sales Pitches
I really don’t need to explain this any further. If you want success on LinkedIn provide value and communicate your messages indirectly. Direct sales pitches are more likely to have a negative impact on your efforts.
If you would like to build a solid foundation on LinkedIn my “LinkedIn MBA” guide is a great resource. Its currently priced low at $4.97 for two reasons:
1. I want as many people as possible to build a solid foundation on LinkedIn. This leads to more activity and helps every other member; and
2. I want to create a desire in as many members as possible to get to the point that they want to go from using LinkedIn from a networking perspective to a money making perspective. I call it going from “Connecting to collecting”.
That’s where the “LinkedIn MBA Workbook” ($7.97) and the “LinkedIn Marketing Secret Formula” ($39.97 but only $29.98 using discount code: x25rdr) come in to play.
These two resources will help you take the next step. They do cost money but if you compare the cost to the time it would take to discover and learn the information included they are a cost effective way to learn LinkedIn.
Buy the books or simply continue reading the blog. Either way you’ll likely know more about LinkedIn today than you did yesterday.
Warm Regards,
Sean Nelson
**Don’t keep the blog a secret. Twitter, Digg, and other social sites are a great way to share with your friends and others.
Tags: how to use linkedin, LinkedIn, linkedin marketing secret formula, linkedin mba, LinkedIn Mistakes, sean nelson, Social Media
June 22nd, 2009 at 6:47 am
Hi, Sean!
I already ReTwitted up-mentioned article
All the best,
Plamen Mihov
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:33 am
Hello Sean,
I agree with you on each point, and I have made many of these mistakes when I first started out. Some months ago I even wrote a poem/article about this. The name of it is “What Kind of Networker Am I? A Journey to Self-Evaluation.” You can view it at http://tinyurl.com/c62xt6
M. Graham
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Sean – Thanks for your helpful information. I do have a question…what about when you answer a question or post in a discussion group and end your post with your name, title and contact information? Is that considered overt solicitation?
Some feel that if people want to know more, they can get it from one’s profile.
Others say make it easiest to find you.
What do you think?
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
M. Graham,
Thanks for the comments. Your poem hit the nail on the had quicker and more direct than my lengthy post. That’s networking whether online or in person.
Sean
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Melanie,
Including your contact info in a post makes sense to me. There may be some who disagree but if you’ve put your time and effort in to answering with value you should definitely let others learn more about you.
Sean
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Again, great advice Sean. Thank you.
Uploading to all my groups now
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Thank you, Sean, for making the first point about typos, grammatical errors, and pointless information. It seems that people forget their English classes much too often. I have worked with other writers (or they claim to be) who have no understanding of proofreading, editing, or grammar. If we writers cannot write well, how can we expect non-writers to emulate us?
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Eileen,
Thank you. I’ve worked to grow the blog but it’s readers who help that make the real difference.
Sean
June 22nd, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Lauri,
I cringe knowing their are professional writers and editors reading what I write. I’m a small business person who happens to write about what I know and learn on LinkedIn. The information is good; the writing and the technical aspects probably leave some room for improvement.
Thanks for the comments.
Sean
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:56 pm
Greetings Sean!
I agree with point one regarding the importance of editing to eliminate errors. In terms of writing in general, I support reviewing your writing yourself in addition to spell check because of the examples of typos (an instead of can) you gave. I also know even with deligience we have errors so forgiving ourselves is important.
I am excited that as a newbie, I have already implemented the Archive instead of IDK as you have suggested. I felt it was a kinder approach. It looks like common sense and considering other’s feelings prevails! Once again I will be implementing your suggestions. With much gratitude!
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:36 am
Hi Sean,
Excellent “common sense” post. It can go a long way in improving everyone’s experience on LinkedIn.
Just a suggestion, you mentioned about your “top 5 strategic mistakes on LinkedIn” article… it might be a good idea to link the phrase to that article itself.
Jitesh
June 23rd, 2009 at 11:38 am
Jitesh,
Thanks for the comments and the note to link to other articles a I mention.
Sean
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Sean-
I can understand your point on the IDK button. It is a more positive approach to Archive, which I don’t argue. However, what about individuals who work at or have done contract work for Fortune 100 companies that are difficult to get into? Sometimes they receive unsolicited requests from individuals with no connection to their network at all.
I have had individuals contact me asking to be added to my network and truly didn’t know them in addition to not being in my network, plus they didn’t personalize the message. I felt like they were just trying to use me or take advantage of my connections. I understand the idea of LinkedIn is to grow your network but to have somone ping me that isn’t even a connection of someone I know is a bit odd. Maybe I am old fashioned but I like to choose my associations carefully. Many times people judge you by those you are associated with and that’s how you build a reputation, good or bad. I know I’m not alone in this thought process as many of my connections feel the same way. They don’t accept invites from people they don’t work with or haven’t worked with on a regular basis. I do understand sales, or business development positions are the exception since a significant portion of their role is about networking and generating leads.
As a professional gatekeeper of sorts, I find it important to be respectful of those people I am connected with to be careful which invites I accept.
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Laurie,
You may be more attractive to folks hunting business than I based on where you work. Unsolicited invitations are somewhat like cold calls, but it depends upon the perspective of the recipient. I periodically invite people I don’t know to connect because I think they can be of value to my network or business. In return though I make sure that I tell them how I can add value to their network.
If you think of unsolicited invitations like a cold call than archiving the invitation would be like ending the call. Choosing IDK is like reporting them to the police for harassing you. Likely if you Archive or don’t respond to the invitation the person will not send another one. There is nothing you personally can gain from choosing IDK other than being able to say to yourself “That will teach that person to not send unsolicited invitations”.
My quick thought is that if there is no benefit why do it. It won’t stop the next person from sending you a connection invitation.
As far as keeping your networking somewhat closed that is neither right nor wrong. It’s simply your choice. If you’re looking to monetize LinkedIn then its not good. But if you want to strictly communicate with those you know and build a reference network then its fine. As long as your profile is public though you will periodically get those connection invitations.
As far as being a gatekeeper do you specifically know that all of your connections are not interested in connecting to people they don’t know? Connecting to another doesn’t expose your current connections anymore than them simply being in the LinkedIn database. People can still find them through keyword searches, their other connections, etc. I think that the perspective of protecting a network is a fallacy that people use to explain why they don’t connect to others they don’t know.
In the end however you choose to control your network and interact is your decision. Do what works best for you.
Warm Regards,
Sean
June 24th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Great content. The more LinkedIn is used, the greater the need to put into writting the social rules that have developed.
June 24th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
JR,
Thanks for the comment.
Sean
July 26th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Sean,
I’m really sorry to say this, but there are spelling and punctuation errors in the article you wrote. Otherwise, it is right on point.
July 26th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Andrew,
No apology needed on the spelling and punctuation errors. It’s a thorn in my side. I try to proof each article yet they still bite me. It’s hard to see things clearly after you’ve just written something. And the time to go back and look at it never seems to happen.
I don’t like them but I’ve grown to accept them. In response to this post I’m going back through the post and when I’m done they’ll probably still be some there. I think I need a personal editor for the blog.
Sean
July 26th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I went back and took a look at the post an I’m amazed what I missed the 2nd and 3rd time editing the post. Makes me wonder if I made changes and the clicked of the page without saving the corrections. Some were that blatant that either that happened or its time to rethink the glasses issue.