5 Effective Ways To Use LinkedIn
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Apr 6, 2011
I’ve been a LinkedIn member for a long time now. As a matter of fact, I got an email last week from LinkedIn announcing their just passing 100 million members, and thanking me for being one of not only the first 1 million members, but actually placing being one of the first 685,000 members; not so bad, right? At first I wasn’t sure what to think of LinkedIn, but as time went along, I started to realize that as a business vehicle it’s fairly essential to be listed on the site and participating in some fashion. I’ve met a few people locally through there as well; that never stinks.
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Having said that, as the site has grown I have to say that there are a number of people who don’t get it. I mean, it’s not all that hard to use, yet I see some things that just make me absolutely cringe. Since I figure it’s what I do, I’m going to offer 5 effective ways to use LinkedIn.
1. If you’re inviting someone to accept you as a connection, please write something special other than the standard message given to you by LinkedIn. This is a pet peeve of mine, and it seems to be a pet peeve of man local Syracuse folks based on what I’m reading on Twitter. It takes no time at all to write something a bit more personal, especially when you don’t know the person you’re asking to join, and then if it’s someone you know it’s even more special.
2. If you’re inviting someone to be a connection, don’t list them as someone who has worked with your business or at your business if they never did. This one is common for me, and its irksome. That’s because LinkedIn then believes you actually worked for that company and it starts sending you messages any time someone else from that company signs onto their service. And there’s nothing you can do about it; trust me on this one.
3. Join a group and write something. This was one of the changes LinkedIn made back in 2008 and it was a good one. Their groups are either business related or education related, and they give you a chance to show that you have some knowledge in your field. This is one place where lurking won’t do you any good because no one will know you’re there; why waste your time like that?
4. Every once in awhile, pop in a business update of some kind. I try to get there at least once a week to write something short and sweet that’s happened in my business, though sometimes it’s a couple of weeks. You do this because when LinkedIn sends out its weekly email, your name and what you’ve done might pop up in someone’s inbox, or they may be compelled to follow the link in the email to see what other people they’re connected to have done during the week. People like working with successful people.
5. If you ask for recommendations, only do it for people you know well and who know your work. I get requests all the time from people I barely know or may have met but never worked with. I ignore every single one of them, which of course means I delete them from my inbox, and I never respond to those people at all. Every once in awhile, if I’ve never met them in person, I’ll drop them from my contacts list. That kind of thing is unethical in my opinion, and if you’re unethical and I don’t really know you, how might you treat me when we do get to know each other?
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Mitch Mitchell
SMM Countdown – Why LinkedIn Is Essential If You Want Business Or Work
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jul 20, 2010
I’m two days away from my social media workshop, and I’m spending this week talking about social media aspects. Instead of linking to my sticky post about the workshop, I’ll link to yesterday’s post where I asked how social are you ready for.
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Today I’d like to talk a bit about LinkedIn. I realized in looking back that I’ve never talked about it all that much before, and I think it’s time to rectify that one. After all, I’m of the opinion that if you’re either someone who works for themselves, are looking for work, or already are working and hope to work for some time to come, that it’s essential for you to be on LinkedIn.
Why? Because LinkedIn is the place where true connections can be made with business people from around the world. It’s another opportunity to post something about your business, about your background, no matter what you do. It’s another opportunity for both advertising and networking. It’s another opportunity to talk to business people about topics local and international, talk to people within your industry or people who shares the same interests as you just like direct networking.
It didn’t use to be like that. In the beginning, it was just a place to try to get business links, but it wasn’t overly friendly an application. So I connected to a few people; then what? Then they added things like groups and applications and suddenly it was a more vibrant place.
For instance, something I do at least once a week, if not more often, is to go on LinkedIn and, in the area where I have 120 characters, mention something I’m doing or did earlier in the day. Those messages get out to people who either check in on you from time to time, or through the weekly email that goes out to every person on LinkedIn, but most specifically the people who you’re connected with have the opportunity to see what it is you’re doing. I also belong to a few groups, one for my local chamber of commerce, a couple for consultants in general, and the others having something to do with some of the business ventures I presently do. I have the opportunity to comment on what others have written, as well as create my own topics of discussion.
The best thing, though, are the connections. You can find local people you know and if you know their email address you can connect directly to them if they approve. If you don’t know their email addresses, or those of other people you might seek out for whatever reason, you see people in your network who might be connected to those people, and you can ask for an introduction, of sorts. For instance, according to the site, I have 237 direct connections, which means I have almost 22,000 people I can connect to in within reach via one person, and just under 7.5 million people I could potentially connect with if I branched out to try to meet more people. That’s phenomenal!
The other side of that, however, is that you need balance. That seems to be a theme of mine lately, so let me explain. One, you really only want to connect with people who you either know or who are in industries you’re in; at least initially. That’s because those are the people who will do you the most good. Trying to connect to everyone “just because” not only wastes your time, but if people you try to connect to visit your site and don’t see you connected to enough people who could potentially benefit them later on, they’re going to ignore your request. Like networking in person, you only get one chance to make a good first impression.
And two, even though you can do some minor advertising, you have to watch that you don’t go to far. Not only will people on this site object to being sold to, and trust me they will call you out (I haven’t been called out because I know the game, but others have been lambasted and reported for doing it), but you can get kicked out by LinkedIn for doing it. Since this is business and not pleasure, and it’s the best one around, you don’t want that occurring either.
Of course there are other sites which say they’re all about business, and they probably are, but if you remember yesterday’s post (did you follow the link?), to be effective you shouldn’t overdo it because there’s just not enough time to do it all. Of course, if you’re on LinkedIn, you can hook up with me there; just let me know how I know you if we don’t know each other all that well.
No matter what, if you work in some capacity, you need to be on LinkedIn.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Mitch Mitchell
LinkedIn Loses One Of Its Top Supporters
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on May 26, 2008
Are you a member of LinkedIn? It’s a business networking website that I’ve been a member of for maybe 3 or 4 years now. Not counting the people I already knew from elsewhere, in that entire time I’ve only personally met one of those people, and only once had a second conversation with someone I’d met there. So, it hasn’t really been much of a benefit for me.
However, my friend Vincent Wright has been a major advocate pretty much since he signed up. He’s gone out of his way to set up all sorts of groups for LinkedIn members to participate in. He’s set them up on LinkedIn, then went a step further and set one up on Yahoo. Both groups have had a fantastic response, lots of participation and members, a bunch of great topics.
Yet, even there, one could notice something always seemed to be missing. People were talking, but no one was really doing the kind of business LinkedIn said they could do. Truthfully, LinkedIn has never been set up for open communications; at least not the free version. I don’t know anyone paying to be a member there, so I don’t know if it’s easier for them to communicate with each other or not.
Anyway, back to my friend Vincent. He started noticing some things a while ago, and now it’s gotten to the point where he’s written a post called The Audacity Of Nope that I think anyone who participates in LinkedIn, or may be thinking about participating, should check out, just to make sure they feel it’s what they want to sign up for. I mean, if they can turn off someone like this, someone whose professional life, it seemed, revolved around LinkedIn, then what is there for the rest of us whose only hope has been to make some connections with the type of people we’d like to work with?
And trust me, I’ve really given it the ol’ college try. I’ve asked for connections through people I already knew, but never received a response from the one I wanted to meet. LinkedIn only allows 5 connection requests at a time, so you have to decide later to eliminate some and try again with someone else. For my main career, there’s not a lot of options out there as far as people I’d like to meet to help my business out. If only two of these people had responded, I might feel as though it was a great place to remain. Right now, I have to admit that I’m thinking it just might all be a waste of time. I’m not dropping out just yet, but I am leaning that way.
This brings about an interesting question to ask all of you; how do you really feel about some of these social or business networking sites? How many of them are giving you what you really want or need? Who remembers my post on my thoughts about Facebook? What say you, folks?
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