12 Hacks you’ll love on LinkedIn

July 24, 2017 by ,


Okay, you’ve already sussed me out, I don’t really know what a hack is … it always used to be something negative when I was growing up but now it just seems to be used in place of “ways to do things”.

So, anyway, here are 12 great hacks that you might find of value on LinkedIn, that’s to say some “really useful things you can do and find on LinkedIn that you may not have previously known about”.

Okay … “LinkedIn hacks” is shorter, I’ll grant you that.

Now, these aren’t going to make or break whether LinkedIn is a success for you – having an unfocused profile, blindly connecting, not engaging and pitching when you should be listening will all make a much better job of that – but perhaps they may add a little to your experience on the site and open up some of the options you have available to you.

1. Connect Date

The date when you first connected with someone on LinkedIn can be remarkably useful, particularly as you start Continue reading →

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, B2B Advice for LinkedIn, Content Marketing, LinkedIn Search, LinkedIn Site Changes, LinkedIn Tips
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The Marmite nature of LinkedIn Notifications

June 15, 2017 by ,

Well, as the phrase goes, you either love them or hate them but one thing that you’ll find it difficult to do is simply miss notifications on LinkedIn … and that’s probably a good thing, given what they are trying to achieve. 🙂

As with so many things on LinkedIn, the issue arises because people want to use the site in different ways and so something which one person finds of value, another might consider to be a waste of time or better suited to a site like Facebook. And so it is with LinkedIn Notifications. So the challenge we face is how to get the best out of them and to avoid the annoyance that people feel that they are in some way irrelevant and intrusive.

Luckily, and again like so much on LinkedIn, you can customise this section allowing you to see the ones that you are interested in and hide those that for you are simply irrelevant noise.

So what are Notifications?

Notifications do very much what they say on the tin – they simply notify you when something which is deemed of interest or importance to you happens. You’ll find them in the main menu and they appear for a number of very different reasons.

Some of the main ones are when Continue reading →

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, LinkedIn Advice, LinkedIn Strategy, LinkedIn Tips
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Don’t connect on LinkedIn!

May 30, 2017 by ,

caution-pleaseIf you are not going to connect properly on LinkedIn then in many respects, it’s better not to do so at all – okay, that’s all a might harsh really, but as I mentioned in my post entitled Personalise your LinkedIn Invite, I really would encourage you to always, always write a message to the person you are contacting rather than just send out the generic “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”.

Think about it – someone walks up to you at a networking event or a Conference. They don’t say a word … they just look you squarely in the eye and force their business card into your hand … then they walk off again. How would you react? Cherish that business card and resolve to call the person at the first opportunity … or bin it?

Surely that’s just the same thing isn’t it?

I do understand why some people are doing it though … because there are so many places on LinkedIn where we are essentially being ushered into sending the generic invite because of an inviting and highly visible “CONNECT” button tempting us in.

So where does this happen so I can avoid it?

Well, I’m glad you asked – this happens in the following places: Continue reading →

Article Categories: Advanced LinkedIn, B2B Advice for LinkedIn, Business Development on LinkedIn
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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. Continue reading →

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. Continue reading →

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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Communicating your career intentions on LinkedIn
(aka – it’s not you it’s me)

September 30, 2016 by ,

Jobs on LinkedInHere’s a situation for you, one that perhaps you or someone you know might be in. You’re looking for a job – you don’t necessarily want your boss to know but you would like to make recruiters aware via LinkedIn that you … just might … be available and interested.

There have always been some very obvious methods open to us – adding “currently looking” in your professional headline or prominently in the main body of your profile would be one such way. That’s a little bit in your face though and certainly something that could be seen by your current employer.

Now, however, we have another – one that is only visible to users of the full Recruiter package on LinkedIn it’s true, but one that I’d recommend adding in any case to any active job seeker on LinkedIn.

So what does it do?

Essentially it allows us to add and share certain pieces of specific information and makes them available via one of the advanced search filters in the LinkedIn Recruiter package.

To tap into this, you’ll need to head over to Continue reading →

Article Categories: Jobseekers using LinkedIn, LinkedIn News, LinkedIn Site Changes
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