Category Archives: LinkedIn Strategy

Are you James Bond on LinkedIn?

April 2, 2011 by

LinkedIn Anonymous userA question for you.

As you use LinkedIn and look at the profiles of other members, do you consider yourself more like:

a) James Bond on a covert mission to infiltrate enemy lines and weed out enemy spies where stealth and secrecy is paramount and anonymity is your watchword ; or

b) A business networker happy to let people know that you’ve found something of interest on their profile?

While I can see a certain attraction in the James Bond option, I’m not sure that I could quite live up to the billing. So for me, I’m happy for people to see that I have visited their profile – in fact, on a number of occasions, I’ve had people check my profile out in return and then contacted me. Invariably, we have connected up as a result.

There are others, however, who feel more comfortable (more…)

Article Categories: LinkedIn Strategy, Q & A on LinkedIn, Using LinkedIn
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LinkedIn Groups you should join

March 16, 2011 by

LinkedIn Groups - LinkedIn Groups to considerJust to be clear up front, I’m not about to list 10 groups that you just have to join on LinkedIn. But I make no apology for that – this is going to be more useful in your search for good, relevant LinkedIn groups to join and participate in than any list I could have put together for you would have been. Trust me! ;)

The reason I say that a list of 10 groups to join would be as much use as a chocolate teapot is that the ones you decide to join and participate in on LinkedIn need to be aligned with your goals (and / or interests) and so will be specific to you … or to take it a step further … you at this particular moment in time. They have to be, I know that you simply don’t have the time to spend in ones that just might be of interest – this is a business network and we need to focus accordingly.

Sorry, lecture over I promise …

Now it’s true that you are “restricted” to joining only join 50 LinkedIn Groups at the moment, but, let’s be honest, the most you’ll be able to participate (more…)

Article Categories: B2B Advice for LinkedIn, Groups on LinkedIn, LinkedIn Advice, LinkedIn Strategy
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LinkedIn Company Page editors – a word of advice

December 13, 2010 by

LinkedIn Company Pages error[FYI - there's a key bit of advice at the end regarding setting permissions for LinkedIn Company Page administrators so do read on!]

Well, you’ve got to laugh haven’t you?

I’ve been telling clients during training sessions all about the hugely improved new company page set up on LinkedIn – indeed if I wasn’t so firmly set against hyperbole when it comes to Social Media then I’d be tempted to call it awesome. Anyway, suffice to say, between you and me, it really is hugely powerful with some fabulous potential in terms of marketing opportunities, customisation and tapping into the power of recommendations!

But who can edit them?

Anyway, the only thing I didn’t like was the fact that anyone with an email address on the company domain could get in and edit it. Well, no longer the case, as I guess (more…)

Article Categories: Businesses using LinkedIn, LinkedIn Site Changes, LinkedIn Strategy, LinkedIn Tips
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Open Groups on LinkedIn

November 19, 2010 by

LinkedIn Open Groups###Update 2: as of this morning (December 21) it seems that the process of moving to an Open Group is being made available to the group owner as you will be given the option to change across to an Open Group automatically. There should be a yellow band now with a clickable area and it will explain some of the implications and a bit of housekeeping you should do ahead of it. Also in the “Group settings” area of the “Manage” menu in the group you should find a button at the top which guides you through the process! Decide carefully though – no undoing the process once you’ve elected to make it Open! :) ###

### Quick update: I’ve had a number of people ask how to make their groups open – as of end November 2010, LinkedIn are still testing and rolling out and, if you are interested in enabling this feature for your group, they recommend emailing them at opengroups@linkedin.com or visit an update page at lnkd.in/opengroups. ###

In yet another departure from their current setup, LinkedIn has announced that it is introducing Open Groups onto the site – indeed, this will be the default format of all new LinkedIn Groups going forward, once it is fully rolled out.

So what’s an Open Group? Well, this isn’t, as you might think, one that anyone on LinkedIn can join – those already exist as “open access groups” – but rather one where the content will be visible to everyone on LinkedIn (group member of not) and externally to LinkedIn as well, therefore making it accessible to Google.

Currently, most of the content on LinkedIn, including in this instance that in the Groups, is essentially hidden from Google because they are locked away behind the password and login. The main exceptions to this are (more…)

Article Categories: Groups on LinkedIn, LinkedIn News, LinkedIn Site Changes, LinkedIn Strategy
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Why having a LinkedIn strategy is important

November 11, 2010 by

LinkedIn Strategy & PlanningI think that most people will agree that it’s important to have goals, both in terms of your business and indeed your personal life. Without them, it can be all too easy just to meander along without any clear direction or impetus – as the old adage goes, “if you don’t know where you’re going , any road will take you there”. [Aside: we had a slightly different turn of phrase for that where I grew up in Suffolk, but I’ll save that for another day!]

Certainly in business, planning is important if you want it to be as successful as it should be, particularly given the effort that you are putting into it. This doesn’t have to be a strategic 12 month or 3 year plan (though they do help … allegedly!), it can simply be setting a few key targets at the start of each month or year. Likewise, I feel that any marketing or business development actions that I take should also be designed with their specific goals in mind.

Does this apply to LinkedIn?

For me, planning your participation on LinkedIn falls fairly and squarely into this category. Particularly within a B2B environment, it is likely to be a key component of your online marketing strategy. It is therefore necessary to ensure (more…)

Article Categories: LinkedIn Strategy, LinkedIn Tips
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10 focus areas on your LinkedIn profile

July 28, 2010 by

LinkedIn Profiles - 10 focus pointsThe old adage states that “All roads lead to Rome” and, for me, on most social networking sites the same is true when it comes to your profile page – no matter where you come across someone, you will automatically gravitate back to their profile page soon afterwards to find out more about them. This makes your profile page an essential element to get right and one that is worth spending the time on to make sure it works for you and not against you.

This is particularly true on LinkedIn where you now have an increasing number of ways to communicate what you do, allowing you to both state and demonstrate your experience and your knowledge. However, it isn’t a CV (Resume) so don’t just take your “normal” CV and copy (more…)

Article Categories: LinkedIn Advice, LinkedIn Strategy, LinkedIn Tips, Optimise your Profile
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