Category Archives: Advanced LinkedIn

Think when you search on LinkedIn …
or better still, think before you search

March 20, 2017 by ,

LinkedIn SearchNo matter why we are on LinkedIn, using the search functionality effectively is always going to be hugely important. It can save us hours by ensuring that we target those who are going to fit our criteria and near as possible and allow us to focus in on quickly and with greater clarity on whom we want to talk to.

In many ways, it really doesn’t matter whether you are prospecting for new clients and business, identifying new partners or suppliers, using LinkedIn to identify potential candidates for a role you are looking to fill or identifying potential company contacts as a job seeker … in each of these cases, the more effectively we search, the greater our chances of success are.

This is all particularly true with the search options on the new 2017 interface – most of the functionality that we need is still in there but so many people people that because the ‘advanced search’ link has disappeared that you can no longer do complex searches on the free account. Not true! All the searches below are from the free account.

Anyway, before you start to search, take a step back …

… think …

… decide whom you are really looking for …

… what position they might hold or what skills they might possess …

… how might they present these elements themselves …

… then start to search.

The greater the number of “right people” that we can establish a first pool of people who fit our search criteria the better it will be for us and allow us to apply the more targeted criteria to a better set of possible targets. (more…)

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, LinkedIn Search, LinkedIn Strategy, LinkedIn Tips
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Getting Prepared for LinkedIn’s new Interface

November 26, 2016 by ,

surgeonThere’s been a slow drip feed of information since August when LinkedIn announced that they would be making big changes to the interface and it has subsequently turned out, some equally large changes to aspects of the functioning of the site.

Probably.

I say probably because even those with the beta version of this new interface have been experiencing a developing system with multiple changes since it arrived some 4 weeks ago, and no doubt will continue to do so as the process develops.

What we can be sure of is that we do need to be prepared and to make sure that we have our data secured so that we are prepared for whatever awaits.

These are 6 actions, I would therefore encourage you to take:

1) Back up your Profile

The format of the profile (and certain content elements of it too) is changing with the new interface so it’s a good time to make a back up to make sure that you retain all of the information that you have put in there. (more…)

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, B2B Advice for LinkedIn, Businesses using LinkedIn, LinkedIn Advice, LinkedIn Company Pages, LinkedIn Site Changes, LinkedIn Tips
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Create a stronger LinkedIn network with Centres of Influence

August 22, 2016 by ,

Hubs on LinkedInIn all the LinkedIn training sessions I run, whether they are sales, marketing or recruitment focused, we always spend a good amount of time looking at different ways to identify potential prospects or introducers on the site, as well as the differing ways to introduce yourself to them.

However, before tapping into the opportunities on offer from LinkedIn’s Advanced search, I always encourage people to first consider developing their networks further than they have already, in order to facilitate the process. As a first step, logically we start by checking who in our “real life” networks are currently on LinkedIn and also identifying what it really is that they are looking for from their network. This helps to give clarity to where our focus should be.

One area that I encourage then to look at are what I tend to call Centres of Influence – these are people who have networks which are highly focused around their area of expertise, an area which, most critically, coincides with your target audience. (more…)

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, LinkedIn Marketing, LinkedIn Search
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LinkedIn’s drop down menu treasure trove

October 30, 2015 by ,

dreamstime_xs_28255399There’s a veritable hidden treasure trove of functionality that is tucked away on LinkedIn behind a rather innocuous looking arrow head. You may have missed it on your way round LinkedIn, perhaps ignored it as irrelevant or stumbled across it by accident without necessarily taking too much notice of what it contained there.

Of course you may already be an avid user of what’s contained there … though I hope you will still find elements here of interest.

The “arrow head” in question sits on everyone’s Personal Profile page next to the main button (Connect / Send a message / Send Inmail) in the top part of the profile. What it contains will vary, depending on the relationship that you have with that person – so what you see there for your 1st level connections differs from that of your 2nd and 3rd, and certainly from those further removed. You have one on your profile visible just to you as well!

The one below, for instance, is what you will see if you are already to connected to the person.

menu-1

I thought that I’d try to make this quite functional but “skimmable” (or even “dip in-able” if you prefer) so I’ve created a little outline of what they do and what they might offer you. (more…)

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, B2B Advice for LinkedIn, LinkedIn Marketing, LinkedIn Tips
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Get fewer Emails from LinkedIn

August 3, 2015 by ,

Stop LinkedIn emailsLast week LinkedIn made a “big announcement” that they were cutting down on the number of emails they were sending out in response to member feedback. Very admirable.

They also had this as one of the points in their quarterly sales announcement to the Stock Market. Really? Slow news day perhaps.

Why do I find this less than inspiring? I suppose because although they state that they have managed to cut out 4 out of 10 emails that they are sending out, although they decide which ones. Personally I prefer to be in control and decide which emails I receive and which I choose not to … and you can be, in fact you have always been able to be. (more…)

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, LinkedIn Tips, LinkedIn Updates, Using LinkedIn
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Downloading & Backing up Connections – the LinkedIn mini-saga

July 25, 2015 by ,

LinkedIn connections download sagaWell, there’s been a bit of a hoohah over the past week regarding downloading of your connections’ details on LinkedIn … and, in the end, a lot of non changes. Not a good topic for a blog post you might think. Possibly … but I think it’s worth a brief synopsis of what went on and where we are now.

It all relates to our ability to create a download from our LinkedIn account of our connections, the people that we have spent time connecting with and engaging with on LinkedIn. We have always been able to take a download of this information instantly with name details, email, company and job title of the people we are connected to. They are our business connections, so why not?

Anyway, on Wednesday last week LinkedIn, unannounced, closed down that particular option. The “unannounced” part was not a great surprise … LinkedIn often changes things and then waits for people to find out, there is no clear mechanism for announcing them so it relies on people like myself to do so and then it seeps out into general consciousness. In this case, they had in fact replaced it with a mechanism that they introduced at the start of the year where you can download a full archive of all your LinkedIn activity, so there was an alternative.

The issue was that this could take up to 72 hours to arrive since you had to request it from LinkedIn rather than do it yourself.

Result: all hell broke loose! Lots of posts, lots of activity on Twitter (more…)

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, B2B Advice for LinkedIn, LinkedIn Site Changes, LinkedIn Updates
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