The Blog at 1SocialMediaManager.com | 1SocialMediaManager.com

12 Favorite and Little Known Tips for LinkedIn

Most business professionals are on LinkedIn at this point.

LinkedIn tells us that:

To me that states clearly that if you have almost ANY kind of business and are prospecting, LI will be a good resource for you. But just setting up a profile and dabbling once a week or so is not going to do much for your prospecting efforts. Below are a few tips that not many folks know about, but are powerful techniques for increasing your visibility and maximizing that “inbound marketing” that Social Media is known for.

1. Create 3 saved searches. If you are doing a search on a company, person, industry or whatever, save your searches. At the top where you see the number of records in your search you’ll see a “save this search” button – you get 3 if you are at the basic level. LI will send you a weekly email, if you want, to get updates to your search.

2. Recommendations are important, so ask for them. But make it easy. I first call or email my contact and ask if they will recommend me. If so, write the recommendation yourself – so you are sure that you are sending the right message. Be sure to talk about the problems you solved – that’s really the point, isn’t it?

3. Use the Question and Answer area to gain more visibility on the Internet. On the question that you answer you will see a “share this” with a drop down menu. You can email your network, Digg it, Bookmark the question on Delicious, or use the link provided in your answer and link to one of your blog posts, or somewhere else on your site to pull in traffic.

4. Join groups that are in line with your business, your objectives or your hoped for job. Fish where the fish are. The more “on target” the group, the more valuable the content they provide, and the networking opportunities will be.

5. Use groups to expand your network, but be selective. In the groups tabs, you will see “Groups Directory”. Select that and on the next page use Search Groups, selecting “other” from the drop down categories menu. Join the groups that interest you. Once you are a member, you will have access to the members in that group. Offer to connect with the ones that make sense. You might evaluate based on the size of their network, the type of company or industry they are in or how much interaction they have had with the group.

6. Did you know you can export your connections? Go to “Contacts.” Then “Connections. ” At the bottom of your Connections box is “Export Connections. ” Export the connections and import them into your preferred address book. Do this frequently so you are consolidating all of your contacts in one spot (might be Outlook, Act, Salesforce)

7. Refer to both the LinkedIn Learning Center and their blog. The Learning Center is full of great tutorials and the blog has info on updated and new features with full explanations.

8. For better and more valued networking, when you invite someone to join your network, don’t use the canned LinkedIn message. Say something about who you are and why you want to connect with that person.

9. To really maximize your profile, find one or two LinkedIn specialists (Google that phrase, or check Amazon for authors) and look up their profile. Study carefully and learn by example.

10. Be creative about how you use the Answers section. It can be used to ask for solutions to problems, for resources, for vendors, for processes. But it can also be used to find good connections, or find other groups you may want to join, to deliver information on your products or services, IF it provides an answer to the question. Sometimes you’ve got the perfect solution!

11. You can share a group with your connections – more value added to your community. When you are in a specific group, on the Overview tab you will see an option to “share group” and you can send an email to 50 of your connections.

12. Don’t hop over the “People You May Know” suggestions that appears in the upper right corner of your home page. Expand the box and start connecting with people on an ongoing basis. This is a great way to widen your circle.

LinkedIn is a powerful tool for almost any social media objective – branding, lead generation, or job searching. Invest some time in learning the finer points – you will be glad you did.

Elyse Tager is a social media strategist and founder of Elymedia. Elyse develops effective marketing strategies to help the small business grow significantly. Want to learn more about growing your business with Social Media? Sign up for Elyse’s free introductory teleseminar available at => http://www.elymedia.com

This article courtesy of SiteProNews.com

How To Find A New Job Using LinkedIn

© 2010 – 2011, 1SocialMediaManager.com. All rights reserved. The format and presentations here are creations by this Website owner: ©1984 - Leanne C Boyd. All people and products reviewed here own their respective copyrights.

Technorati Tags: LinkedIn, linkedin tips

[view academic citations]

Typing Classes

I’m thinking about skills and how important some skills are for the rest of our lives.

In the summer of my eighth grade year, my parents sent me to typing school. We were going to get our first Macintosh computer (*the* first Macintosh), and my folks had the foresight to say that they wanted me to learn typing before having it. My brother was told the same thing, but he kind of blew off the classes, and spent the entire summer typing the funniest possible things to me while I struggled to keep my fingers on the F and the J keys. Without my brother, I wouldn’t have made it through the tedium of typing, so even though he didn’t learn the skill, his sacrifice got me to where I am.

I type really fast. In the rare times when I’m at an office space for a while, cubicle mates almost always swing by to see if I’m pretending or something. I guess when you type fast, you type loudly. I never hear it, because when I’m typing fast, I’m concentrating.

The thing is: this has gone on to give me a huge advantage over those who can only peck out a few letters at a time and have to stare down at the keys to do so. I am far more proficient, which means that I can get my ideas across much faster. In the real-time web world, that’s obviously a win. But even in the “slow web” world, it’s still a powerful thing to be able to type.

What other skills could I learn that would help me for the rest of my life? Journalists learn how to tell balanced and detailed stories. They learn how to edit down their ideas to tight, concise pieces. Lawyers learn how to weigh potential risks and outcomes. Athletes learn perseverance.

What other skills do you wish that YOU had when considering the rest of your life?

(Oh, and thanks Mom and Dad for insisting that I take typing, and thanks, Thom, for screwing off and making me laugh instead.)

Photo credit wiertz