Tag Archives: LinkedIn

LinkedIn Check List

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I have been fan of LinkedIn for quite some time but have to remind myself about how powerful it can be when you use it they way it was designed. Originally people seemed to use it as a way of creating a digital presence so they would apppear in search engine queries for themselves. As with all social media there is a reasonable investment of time needed both in building your contact base/community, developing content and using it as a networking tool (participing in the community). Having a lot of people linking to you and not actively managing it is only vanity.
Following on from the previous mail on Twitter here are some checklist items for LinkedIn.

Beginner.

  • Set up a profile, including detailed biographical details and photo.
  • Find friends/potential contacts and add people to your network.
  • Allow LinkedIn access to your contacts (via webmail) to speed up process by seeing who is on LinkedIn. 
  • Use search facility to additional people and customise mail invites to them.
  • Ask someone to recommend you.
  • Add any blogs or website information.
  • Analysise other people connections to see if any could be relevant to your company/industry.
  • Ensure LinkedIn details on are your business card and email signature.

Intermediate.

  • Look for relevant groups related to your industry and join them.
  • Recommend someone for their work if appropriate.
  • Allow access to your contacts book and see who else is in LinkedIn.
  • Comment and participate in groups you have joined.
  • Decide on schedule of regularly checking LinkedIn and updating status.
  • Monitor and vet LinkedIn requests.
  • Forward a profile and share connections/recommended contacts with others in your network.
  • Create extra links with people when you receive their busines card by checking to see if they are on LinkedIn.
  • Watch the status updates to see who is linking to who. 
  • Use LinkedIn as a research tool to gain insight into a company before presenting to them.

Advanced

  • Use applications including:
  • - Incorporate your blog feed with wordpress.
  • - Post presentations you have done using SlideShare.
  • - Collaborate online using the Hubble Work spaces application.
  • - Monitor company reputation through Twitter feed with Company Buzz.
  • Spot an opportunity and set up a special interest group. Invite contacts and potential contacts. Keep alive with content & events.
  • If appropriate use LinkedIn as platform for company news.
  • Upgrade free account and utilise InMail and directly contacting prospects.
     

Joy Redmond from Flexitimers did an excellent post on how Karina Heavey set up the 121 Business Network on the IIA website.

Let me know what hints, tips, steps I have left out!!

Online giving new life to business cards

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Conferences, Business After Hours and networking events usually result in the collection of a large selection of business cards.  In the not so distant past they were collated alphabetically and neatly arranged into rollerdecks before gathered dust.  The proactive ones followed up with a DM piece and letter before email made that process easier.  The result rate from these was generally poor as you rarely created any particular link with the person.

Now I notice that after I attend these events that I receive a large number of online requests from LinkedIn, Facebook and an increase in people following me on Twitter.  Aside from the ease these open up real opportunities to connect with people.  Rather than an uninformed cold callesque DM piece you have the real potential to uncover much more about their interest, business model before engaging in real value add conversations.  It also increases traffic to the blog (which is modest at the best of times) but gives people something more concrete to view and help them form a more informed opinion of you and your offerings.

Tip for the day: dont let business card lie on your desk.  Give them more life by

  • Immediately loading onto you contacts database
  • Search using Spock, Wink or search engines
  • Find and read their blogs if any
  • Link with them through LinkedIn, Facebook and follow them on Twitter
  • Have a look at their networks and areas of interest
  • Create a conversation using these tools before blindly pitching your wares

  I have only received a few business cards with the full set of contact details outside of the normal phone, address etc.  There is lots of debate on the merits of too much detail on cards but Hoax Slayer has one peril I never thought of.

What you were doing yesterday might damage what you are doing today

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Trevor Holmes kindly pointed out to me that my ‘What I’m doing’ message on Linked In was out of date.  My message was that I was busy pitching, which was true at the time, but looked very odd when I had not changed for over a week.  It got me thinking that I have a number of these from IM, to Facebook to LinkedIn and they are something that people do notice.  Normally they are very general but as rightly pointed out they are a good  opportunity to promote and keep your profile fresh or can be damaging if out dated or worse if negative.  Easy thing to pass over as your view of social media is different to other people.

Building on this I have spotted many messages on peoples SuperWall on Facebook where they obviously realise halfway through a conversation that its a public and not a private conversation. 

Time I logged in to see how my different profiles look from someone elses computer.