How to Use LinkedIn
More and more business professionals are using social
networks to build relationships, meet new contacts, and market
themselves. For the uninitiated, however, diving into the virtual
meet-and-greet can be daunting. Where to begin? For first-time users, the answer is
LinkedIn.
Developed specifically for business, the site doesn't run the risk of
blurring your professional life with your private one; and with more than 25
million users, it serves virtually every industry and profession.
Joining a network like LinkedIn is simple, but turning it into a
powerful networking tool takes a bit of savvy. Here's how to set up a profile,
build a network, and put it all to work — without
social-networking anxiety.
networks to build relationships, meet new contacts, and market
themselves. For the uninitiated, however, diving into the virtual
meet-and-greet can be daunting. Where to begin? For first-time users, the answer is
LinkedIn.
Developed specifically for business, the site doesn't run the risk of
blurring your professional life with your private one; and with more than 25
million users, it serves virtually every industry and profession.
Joining a network like LinkedIn is simple, but turning it into a
powerful networking tool takes a bit of savvy. Here's how to set up a profile,
build a network, and put it all to work — without
social-networking anxiety.
Create a Compelling Profile
Goal: Make it clear what you’ve done in your
career — and what you want to do.
Before you connect to others, you must first set up a profile
page at www.linkedin.com. While your
page will detail your work history, don’t assume you can copy and
paste your resume and be done with it. Your profile page should reflect your
professional interests, passions, and ambitions. The site will walk you through
filling in the blanks, but you’ll want to think ahead about two
areas:
Defining Yourself
Directly underneath your name will be a short headline of four
or five words. More than anything else in your profile, these words are how
people find and define you. Are you seeking to connect mainly with others in
your field and industry? Then a simple, explanatory headline like “Senior
Project Manager at McDonnell-Douglas” is best. Are you seeking to
branch out into other areas? “Leader of High-Performing Aeronautical
Engineering Projects” alerts others quickly to the value you would
bring to an organization. Regardless of how you phrase your headline, make sure
to use keywords that will help others find you.
What You’ve Done, and What You Want to Do
When listing your past job experiences, use verbs as much as
possible. Show what you’re passionate about, and what you’ve
learned from each job. Chris Brogan, a vice president at business-technology
company CrossTech Media and a frequent blogger on the topic of social networks, suggests
listing “non-jobs” you’ve done, like chairing a
conference or leading a panel. “People shouldn’t just think
of this as a resume tool,” he says. “It can be a way to show
color and breadth.”
“LinkedIn is aspirational,” says Mrinal
Desai, a former LinkedIn “evangelist” and currently a vice
president at desktop-sharing software company CrossLoop, Inc. He recommends
including not just what you’ve done but what you want to do in the
future. One place to do this is in the “About” section. “You
can add an area where maybe you don’t have experience but you’re
looking to gain it,” Desai says.
Checklist
Make Sure You Include:
1. A solid headline with keywords relevant to your industry.2. A picture. “People do business with people,” Desai
says.
3. How you prefer to be contacted. At the bottom of your profile, you can
let people know how you want to be contacted — through LinkedIn, by
e-mail, or over the phone.
4. What you want to be contacted about. At the bottom of your profile, you
can select interests like reference requests, consulting offers, or career
opportunities.
Make Sure You Don’t Include:
1. Any contact information you’re not comfortable having yourcontacts see. Your contact information will be visible only to those you are
connected to, but you should decide whether you want that to include things
like phone numbers or personal e-mail.
2. Anything that even begins to stray from the truth. Unlike even a resume,
your profile will be seen by a lot of eyes. Did you really lead that project,
or did you lead it along with several others?
3. Anything you wouldn’t want fellow colleagues —
current, former, or future — to know. LinkedIn is for professional
relationships, and just like at the dinner table, it’s wise to keep
politics and religion politely to yourself.
Build Your Network
Goal: Connect with others who share your professional interests and can help
you meet your goals.
After you’ve created your profile, it’s time
to begin to connect to others. LinkedIn will allow you to search for people you
know to see if they’re already members. But once you connect to
someone, you can also look at the profiles of anyone they know, and in turn
anyone those people know. Because of these three degrees of separation, your
network can grow exponentially. Fewer than fifty direct contacts can translate
to millions of business users.
Before you begin connecting, decide who you want to connect to.
LinkedIn suggests in its FAQ, “Only invite those you know and trust.”
As
href="http://www.anshublog.com/2007/10/beginners-5-step-guide-to-using.html">Anshu
Sharma, a senior director at Force.com, put it in his blog, “If
you receive an invite on LinkedIn, ask yourself if you would take a call from
this person on a busy Monday morning.”
Desai sees who you connect to as a way to ensure quality
control: “My network acts as a filter, and I act as a filter for my
network. My network won’t send me anything that’s spam.”
Also consider your position relative to those you’re
connecting to. “Does my CEO ‘friend’ our
receptionist? Does he ‘friend’ his niece?” Brogan
asks. “I think it depends on how much status matters for you.”
A good rule of thumb is the more traditional your industry, the less you want
to connect to those very far above or below you on the corporate ladder.
But what if you work at Hewlett-Packard? Should you connect with
someone at rival company IBM? Yes, says Brogan: “More than likely,
you’re not always going to be at the same company, and there could
also be some cross-pollination of ideas there.”
Nitty Gritty
How to Not Be Friends
If someone contacts you and you don’t want to form
a connection with them, you don’t need to flatly reject them and
worry about the attendant awkwardness. When looking at the invitation to
connect, simply hit “Archive.” The other person does not
receive a message saying their invitation has been rejected, and you don’t
have to worry about unwanted invitations clogging up your inbox.
Likewise, if you find that an existing contact is blasting
you with too much information or making overly aggressive requests for
introductions and recommendations, LinkedIn will let you remove that person
easily — and without the contact knowing they’re out of
your network. If only it were that easy in real life.
Get the Most From Your Connections
Goal: Now that you’re connected, put all
those people to use.
There are three main things your network can do for you: answer
business-related questions, make recommendations and introductions, and provide
company information. Make sure that you focus on helping others when you first
join. “It’s the idea of bringing wine to the party,”
Brogan says. “If you’re offering up helpful stuff and
services, your reputation will go a lot further than if you’re just
out there for yourself.”
1. Ask and answer questions.
While signed in, you can quickly see a list of open questions
that have been asked by anyone in your extended network. Queries can range from
advice on turning a website into a business to detailed questions about tax
law. Participating in these exchanges is an easy way of gaining trust and
building your reputation. Asking questions will prompt informed sources to
offer their expert advice (which helps everyone in the network), while
providing answers gives you a chance to show off your own expertise to others.
2. Recommend and introduce colleagues.
Recommendations work as a form of currency in a social network.
Those who are happy with your work can write a brief description of their
experience on your LinkedIn profile. By having a broad range of endorsements
attesting to your professional expertise, you show others that you can be
trusted. And make sure to recommend those you’ve had good experiences
with.
Introductions are trickier but also more valuable. This is where
your personal judgment needs to come into play. When someone contacts you for
an introduction, be sure you understand and approve of what they want before
making the handoff. Likewise, make your intentions clear when you are asking
for an introduction.
3. Learn more about your professional network.
You can quickly learn a lot about a potential business partner
or contact by reading their profile. Mrinal Desai uses it before almost every
meeting. “It brings up a lot of things you can discuss and build a
relationship on,” he says. Unlike, for example, someone’s
Google results, everything you find on LinkedIn has been voluntarily placed
there by your contact.
Rachna D. Jain, a psychologist and chief social marketer at
MindShare Corp., a company focusing on the psychology of social networking,
recommends watching to see who your contacts are becoming connected with to
figure out who might be worth getting to know yourself.
Hot Tip
Staying Plugged In
LinkedIn has a number of plug-ins and add-ons that can makeyour social networking even more effective. Here are three you should
make a part of your online life:
href="http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=outlook_toolbar_download">LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar: Build your network from those you e-mail frequently, manage your network from
within Outlook, and see mini LinkedIn profiles for everyone who e-mails you.
Web Browser Toolbar (for
href="http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=browser_toolbar_download">Internet Explorer and Firefox): Quickly search LinkedIn for any name you come across while surfing. Read about
an interesting person in the Journal? Click on their name and see how
closely you’re connected.
LinkedIn E-mail Signature: Create a custom e-mail signature in Outlook, Outlook Express, and Mozilla
Thunderbird with a brief version of your LinkedIn profile and a link to your
full profile.
Manage Your Social Network
Goal: Continue to gain benefits from your social
network — without making it your full-time job.
“Don’t expect that you can post something
one time and get ongoing benefits,” Jain says. You’ll need
to continually update and refine your profile and your network. The most
obvious way to do this is to add new contacts. When Jain comes home from a
conference, for example, she goes through the business cards she collected to
see who’s on LinkedIn. Adding new contacts, sometimes from outside
your immediate field or industry, is also a subtly persuasive way to sell
yourself by letting others see how far your professional sphere extends.
Brogan advises checking up on your profile about once a month
and making sure your job description is still accurate. He also recommends
reaching out to contacts even when you don’t have a business concern.
He tries to touch base with a few contacts every week for no other reason than
to check in and see how things are going. “The thing I think people
do a little wrong in social networking is they reach out only when they have an
issue — when they’ve lost their job, or they need you out
of the blue.”
Danger! Danger! Danger!
Five things you should never do on a social network, according to Dr.
Rachna D. Jain:
1. Leave negative feedback. “It stays around for a verylong time, so even if you have a change of heart, it can be very difficult to
retract it.”
2. Lie. “Give a truthful account of where you’ve
worked and what you’ve done. Be real. Be honest.”
3. Spam. “It’s not a push marketing strategy.
Avoid drowning others in your promotional material.”
4. Gossip. “Don’t send forth news that may not
be yours to share.”
5. Oversell yourself. “Stay away from arrogance or
over-hyping what you do.”
Top 5 LinkedIn Tips and Tricks
LinkedIn, unlike Twitter and Facebook, is normally used only for businesses and job seekers to connect with customers, partners, colleagues and more. Some people have made errors with LinkedIn that could cost them a job opportunity. When you need help getting started or utilizing LinkedIn a more effective manner, you can use these top 5 tips and tricks for LinkedIn. If you think I have missed something, kindly let me know in the comments below
#1 – The Importance of Photos:
For a typical LinkedIn user, photos can be helpful. Some people may not want to disclose their ethnicity and some may feel that they are not very photogenic, but a photo can be useful as long as it is tasteful. Using a photo can show that you are comfortable with who you are and it makes your profile personable as well.Rather than choosing a snapshot of you in front of a mountain or a lake, a professional headshot is recommended for LinkedIn. It’s also important to make sure that your photo is up to date as well in case you are using LinkedIn as a job seeker and plan on having interviews.
#2- Create a Professional and Descriptive Headline:
You want to make sure that you create a headline that is not only descriptive of yourself, but is also personable as well. Don’t just list off your qualifications, but rather use sentences with proper grammar, spelling and punctuation. This will make you look more professional no matter what your qualifications are.You will also want to use keywords that relates to your qualifications so that you employers and potential customers can find your profile page more easily, even without knowing your name.
#3- Label websites that display your blog or work properly:
You are able to list websites that display your work on LinkedIn. This can be a personal website, a blog or even a commercial website. When you edit the website descriptions, it is important to, rather than labeling it as “my blog”, use a descriptive title instead, such as the name of your actual blog and a small description of it.#4- Using a vanity URL:
LinkedIn provides all of its users with the option to create a vanity URL. Those without vanity URLs will have a profile link that contains many numbers and letters after the LinkedIn address. Rather than making it difficult for people to find you on LinkedIn, you can create your own vanity URL by changing those numbers and letters to your name or your company name. This way you are able to put it on your business card, on your resume or even just tell someone and they would be able to remember it more easily.This process takes about 20 seconds and it can make your profile much more personal, more professional and make it look like you really mean business. You can make this change by going to edit your LinkedIn profile, click on “public profile” and then create the vanity URL you choose.
#5- Create an SEO-Friendly Summary:
Every LinkedIn user is allowed a summary section. If this is passed over, you could be missing out on some very real opportunities. If you aren’t aware of what SEO is, you should definitely do some research so that you can create content that is Search Engine Optimized and that people will be able to find you much more easily based, not only on your name and location, but also on your qualifications, your niche and/or your company.It is recommended that you use all of the 2000 characters available so that you can get the most out of your summary. Just as if you apply for a job with a major corporation that everyone wants, you are one in millions of profiles to be found on LinkedIn, the more concise and SEO-friendly your summary, the better chances you have of being found.
4 Easy Ways to Spring Clean Your LinkedIn Presence
If you’re like me, that first whiff of warm air also gives you the decluttering bug. That’s right — it’s spring cleaning season.
While most of us do some spring cleaning in our homes and offices, today I’m going to talk about spring cleaning online. These days, our computers and databases and social networking profiles can become just as cluttered and musty as our closets and garages and desk drawers.
If you feel as if your LinkedIn experience could use some sprucing up this spring, try implementing these 5 tips:
1. Kick-start your keywords. If you’re not attracting a lot of interest to your LinkedIn profile, take a look at what words you use to describe yourself. They might be doing more harm than good. Last month, LinkedIn released a list of the top 10 LinkedIn profile terms that are most overused by professionals based in the United States. According to LinkedIn data, those terms are:
- Extensive experience
- Innovative
- Motivated
- Results-oriented
- Dynamic
- Proven track record
- Team player
- Fast-paced
- Problem solver
- Entrepreneurial
2. Feature a new photo. One of the first things people see when they click on your LinkedIn profile is your headshot. Could yours use some improvement? Your LinkedIn photo accompanies all of your status updates, group discussion comments and any other activity on the site, so you want it to be a positive reflection of you. I like LinkedIn photos that are high quality (not blurry or grainy), professional (not casual snapshots or screen grabs of wedding photos with the spouse cut out) and those that feature a smile or positive expression.
One recent trend I’ve noticed is taking one’s photo in career context. For instance, if you work in the sports industry, take a photo in a stadium. If you work for a university, take a photo in front of the school’s main building or statue. This immediately places you in context and makes you memorable. (Note: It’s okay if you don’t want to include a photo for privacy reasons, but if you’re going to post a picture, make sure it’s a good one.)
3. Add a few apps. Another smart way to perk up your profile is to add some LinkedIn Applications. If you travel frequently, try TripIt, which enables you to share your travel itineraries and potentially set up appointments and build deeper relationships with LinkedIn connections in the cities you visit. If you’re a visual type, consider SlideShare or Google Presentation, which allow you to add presentations to your profile. I also love the Reading List by Amazon, which invites you to post books you’re reading and share your reviews with your LinkedIn connections. The overall goal of adding more applications is to give people as many reasons as possible to find something in common with you.
4. Get active in groups. As the manager of a LinkedIn group, I’ve noticed that my group has some “stars” — people who consistently post thoughtful, engaging comments and draw the attention and admiration of other group members. There’s no reason you can’t be one of those stars. All it takes is a commitment to share interesting and relevant articles, to comment on popular discussions, to help people when they ask for advice or ideas and to respond to group who comment on any discussions you begin. Think of posting a discussion in a LinkedIn group as the online version of hosting a table at a conference luncheon. When you’re the host, you get to know everyone and you gain the credibility and respect of being a leader.
7 Tips and Tricks to Using LinkedIn for Your Small Business
Are you looking for a business tool that can increase productivity, cut costs and expand your client base? Do you want a platform where you can share ideas, find information, and locate who or what you need without spending even a single penny? If yes, you can check out LinkedIn, which can be used as a social media marketing tool. Running small business doesn’t mean you have to develop a website and wait for business to run itself.Whether you are looking for job or doing your own business, you will get the benefit of the connections in your network. Networking has always been important for business and today with the growth of the internet and the many social websites it has become a lot easier to promote your business and make contacts. One of the most popular sites for many entrepreneurs and business owners today is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is a social networking site especially for business that enables you to promote your profile and your business. It makes it possible for you to build a professional network of contacts and stay up to date with the latest information from your connections.
With 116 million user, it gives you an opportunity to make business connections that can help you to promote and increase your business. With so much potential, it is important for small business owners to be able to utilize and leverage the concept in order to use it to their advantage.
Here are some tips on how to use LinkedIn effectively:
1. Profile: Your profile in LinkedIn is your online business card so it is important to use it correctly in order to connect with potential clients and partners. Having a photo of yourself and a small intro text is important to look professional and also it will enable you to be found using a search engine. You can also add your skills and experience to your profile and it is also a good idea to keep it up to date.
2. Make a page for your company: You can also make a profile page for your company. You can add the details of your company which will help to promote it and you can add your location and a feed from your blog if you like.
3. Expand your network: You can also import your contacts list from your email to LinkedIn and the site will automatically find the contacts that have a profile so you can connect with them on the site for daily updates. It also recommends people for you to connect with based on your profile. This is also a good way to keep in touch with customers.
4. Try to get recommended: Getting recommendations from other people is a great way to enhance your profile. Having a lot of recommendations from satisfied customers will help you attract new customers more easily.
5. Join groups: You can find a lot of groups related to your line of business or groups especially for small business which can help you expand your network.
6. Use LinkedIn to recruit people: You can also use it when looking for employees and find someone related to your business.
7. LinkedIn Mobile: You can access LinkedIn from your smart phone and stay up to date with your clients.
3 Ways to Reinvent Yourself on LinkedIn
Over the years I’ve observed the ways that people use LinkedIn to change career direction or perk up a slumping job search. Here are my three favorite reinvention tips:
1. Focus. Do you belong to LinkedIn groups in 23 industries, list 41 skills on your profile and display a profile heading with 7 slash marks between each of the different descriptors of what you can do? I often come across LinkedIn users like this, who seem to believe that more is more. While I absolutely encourage you to cast a wide net in your job search and express all of your talents, you don’t want to confuse people.
A quick way to determine if your LinkedIn profile is too unfocused is to ask a few trusted friends to review your profile for 60 seconds each. After that minute has passed, ask each person to describe you (or the job you want) in just one sentence. If you don’t like the answers you hear, then go back and revise your profile to be more clear and focused.
“But, wait,” you might be thinking. “I’m trying to show employers that I’m open to a wide variety of possible jobs.” I understand the rationale, but this is a mistake. As a general rule, employers like certainty. For instance, if your LinkedIn profile says that you are interested in a job as a nonprofit fundraiser or a public relations coordinator, you’ll likely be less appealing to employers in each industry than those candidates who are passionately focused on just that field.
If you really can’t focus on just one path, then my best advice is to try to turn your lack of focus into an asset. Using the example above, you might begin your Summary with a sentence something like this: “I offer extensive experience as both a nonprofit fundraiser and a public relations coordinator. I am eager to serve an organization in either of these functions, and I believe that my unique combination of experience – raising money and promoting clients to the media — makes me more creative and resourceful in either activity.”
2. Rewrite. Most people, even the focused ones, are pretty terrible at describing themselves and promoting their unique talents. So, another great way to reinvent yourself is to reinvent the way you describe yourself. Why not ask those same trusted friends to go one step further and edit your LinkedIn profile for you? (You can show your gratitude by offering to rewrite theirs in return.)
While you may not use every word your friends suggest, other people’s input may help you discover a valuable new way to explain your capabilities or a strength you never realized you possess, such as resourcefulness or natural leadership ability.
You’ll also glean insight from what your friends leave out of their descriptions of you. Perhaps you’ve been promoting an unimportant credential or outdated skillset (e.g., profiles no longer need to promote knowledge of Microsoft Word or Internet Explorer) that you’re better off omitting.
You can also measure your profile’s effectiveness and impressiveness against the LinkedIn profiles of successful people in your field. Use Advanced Search and Company Pages to review the profiles of professionals working at the organizations where you’d most like a job. While you don’t want to copy sentences verbatim from other people’s profiles, there’s no reason you can’t borrow a fabulous phrase or two.
3. Give. My final recommendation for reinventing yourself on LinkedIn is to change the way you interact with your LinkedIn network. The majority of job seekers log in to the site each day with the goal of getting something — a piece of information, a job lead, a networking referral, etc. There is certainly nothing wrong with this, but what if you approached LinkedIn with the goal of giving something instead?
You might give by recommending an article in your status update, congratulating someone on a success, answering a question in a LinkedIn group or thanking someone for a helpful meeting. Beyond the good feeling of helping people, being a giver will positively influence your job hunt and long-term career prospects. When people consistently encounter you as a generous person, they see you as someone who has a lot of value to provide — to them and anyone they know who is hiring.
These small daily goods also will help you stay top of mind with your network and encourage reciprocity. And, by seeing how much you have to give, you’ll continually see yourself as highly valuable, too — a confidence that will serve you well during a job search.
How do I import a contact list into LinkedIn?
I have a spreadsheet of names, addresses, email and phone numbers and would like to invite all of them to join LinkedIn and link to me. Can you tell me how to do this as I haven't been able to figure it out
The first step is the easiest: go into Excel or whatever spreadsheet you're using, select the records you want to export, then choose File --> Save As... and specify the data format CSV (Windows) rather than the default spreadsheet XLS format. Now you should have a data file that contains those records in a file with the suffix "csv".
Time to flip to LinkedIn and start the process of importing the new data file. To do this, click on the "Add Connections" button on the top right of the main window, then look for the "Import Contacts" box on the subsequent page:
Tip: If you have a contact manager, by the way, click on "Find out more about creating a contacts file" where there are helpful tips on exporting data from various contact management systems, both Mac and Windows. It works a lot better than using Excel.
In a second or three, your data file will be uploaded and LinkedIn will parse it and hopefully show you names and addresses, but my experimentation only ever got it to recognize email addresses:
Select those contacts you actually want to invite or click on the "Select all on this page" option in the grey column title row as a shortcut, then click on "Invite" to proceed. If you have more than one page of contacts, step through all the pages until you have your entire set of contacts selected.
Now you'll have a chance to fill in any missing data:
This is a critical step that many people miss with LinkedIn, and it makes a world of difference in your success rate working with LinkedIn. I look at it this way: if you can't even spend the 90 seconds adding something that shows you know who I am and really want to connect to me then I'm darn unlikely to approve our link.
Anyway, create a custom invite, then click on "Send Invitations" and you'll get some useful feedback like:
Also, if you're new to LinkedIn, you'll find that I have an extensive set of tutorials on how to work with the site. Please see:
LinkedIn Help
And if you'd like to consider linking to me, please see my public LinkedIn profile.
Top 10 mistakes people make on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is such a wonderful tool to sell yourself to prospects and potential customers, clients and employers. Unfortunately, a lot of people make a lot of mistakes and don't fully utilize LinkedIn to its full potential. Here are the top 10 mistakes that I see people make:- Unprofessional photo. LinkedIn is not Facebook. This is not a place where you should have on a baseball cap or be dressed inappropriately for your position. You should be represented exactly as people see you in your day-to-day work environment. If you're a police officer, you should be in uniform, and a banker better be in a suit and tie.
- Not using a custom URL. You can change your URL where it says Public Profile/edit. Use your name, because this is a public link that you can use in marketing materials. Do this now before somebody else takes it.
- Incomplete employment history. Your employment history is a powerful tool for people to find you. It is common for people to search employees of companies they worked for in the past to reconnect with old friends and associates. If you're not there, you can't be found as easily.
- Not listing your specific URLs. Don't be satisfied with the default, "My Company," or "My Blog." By simply dropping down to "Other," you can customize these links to read your company's name. IE, "Grow My Company."
- Using your company email address as your contact email. Unless you own the company, you should use a personal email address. If you ever leave the company, and no longer have access to that email address, you will lose everything that you've built on LinkedIn.
- Not adding your LinkedIn profile address to your email signature. You've done all this work, flaunt it. Let everybody you email have easy access to the most complete info they could possibly find about you.
- No recommendations. This makes people wonder why nobody has recommended you. Let friends, co-workers, clients, and employers sing your praises. These recommendations are extremely valuable insight for anyone considering hiring you for any reason.
- Incomplete educational information. Like former employment, this is a strategy to be found. People search for people they went to school with. It's an instant bond and common ground.
- Neglecting your connections. A critical key to your network is a robust and diverse list of connections. LinkedIn is built around establishing connections, so you are of little value to the LinkedIn community as a whole if you don't actively and consistently mine connections. This is not something that just happens. They won't come just because you built it. Work it, work it!
- Not monitoring the answers component. Answering and asking intelligent questions provides an opportunity of you to raise awareness of yourself.
