I was a little confused when I received this question recently from a former colleague. I mean, LinkedIn is really about getting plugged-in to a huge database of professionals. Why would you want to be part of this huge network but not want anyone to see your profile? I suppose that for some, the ability to find far outweighs the benefits of being found, so this may shed some light on his request. Or perhaps it was the reception of “spam” mails like invitations to connect, join this group, take this poll, etc. that caused my colleague to want to …
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I recently received this question and realized that there weren’t a lot of resources out there for soon-to-be-professionals to look for in terms of creating an optimal LinkedIn profile. I also believe that any college student that is on LinkedIn is to be commended for staying “ahead of the curve”, so here is my advice to you all:
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It is amazing how often I not only get asked this question of how to disconnect from someone and remove LinkedIn connections from my own personal network but also how frequently it appears on LinkedIn Answers. If you think of connecting to someone as their joining your virtual world, if the relationship does not work out because you feel you are being spammed or for another reason, you do have the option of disconnecting from them and removing them as a connection. Connecting with someone is not a marriage by any means! Hopefully this gives those who want to build …
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If you’ve been reading my blog or my tweets, you should realize that a lot of people are upset about the changes in LinkedIn Group and Inbox functionality that occurred last week. From the average user perspective the changes may seem minimal, but for those power users and LinkedIn Group Managers who are the best evangelizers for LinkedIn (I love you LinkedIn!) the changes are quite significant. I am already feeling the pinch. My next Windmill Networking in Southern California So Cal Sushi LinkedIn Group event is tomorrow. I used to be able to easily send an email to the …
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This will be the fourth and last look at the recent changes made by LinkedIn in the Groups and Inbox functionality. Now that Inbox is positioned, literally, in the top center of your Home Page and as the central location for your online communications on the professional networking site, it raises the question of how do you actually utilize the Inbox. I actually created a question on Answers to ask others how they utilize Inbox in comparison to all of the other email, web, and social media applications that exist. You can see all of the answers here: http://budurl.com/neal6.
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If you are on LinkedIn for a specific objective, start a LinkedIn Group. Period. There is no better way to start your own community and add your own brand to the LinkedIn community. I have already posted information on how to promote your LinkedIn Group, and am working on new material as to why you should have a Group and how to best utilize it, but if you have not started your own LinkedIn Group or have not joined and participated in many of the communities that exist, you may be missing out on one of LinkedIn’s greatest features. It …
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This is going to be the first part of a few blog posts analyzing the new LinkedIn Group functionality as well as changes to the LinkedIn Inbox and the Groups that were enacted last week. There are some LinkedIn Groups that I know that are actually thinking of accelerating activity OFF of LinkedIn and instead creating their own Ning.com platform. The changes are that fundamental that they warrant multiple blog posts.
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On March 19, 2009, without prior notice (at least not to its free members), the entire navigation scheme for the LinkedIn Inbox was changed. If you are on LinkedIn, you will see how simplified the categories for the Inbox on the left-hand navigation bar are now: “Compose Message”, “Received”, “Sent”, and “Archived”. Before, there used to be a category for each type of communication that existed, like “Invitations”, “Group Messages”, etc. So is this a change for the better? And where do I find all of my old categorized mail?
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I have a habit of going to my User Groups screen on LinkedIn pretty often. Because I manage a few different LinkedIn Windmill Networking Groups (including The Izakaya Club for Japan LinkedIn users and So Cal Sushi for Southern California LinkedIn users), I am always checking for new member requests. Because I am always optimizing my group membership I am constantly maxxed out at the 50 groups that LinkedIn allows us to join. The other day it happened again: I was cut down to 49 groups again. If you read my previous post on what to do if you get …
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I have seen many people complain about the existence of fake profiles on LinkedIn. Well, I had always found profiles that seemed fishy in their lack of detail, but I am always of the “innocent until proven guilty” type and could not cry foul without absolute proof. Today I have that proof.
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I have been blogging about LinkedIn for several months now, and I just couldn’t help but notice the increased attention there is about LinkedIn in the media. In essence, all of the media are saying that you need to be on LinkedIn to find a job. Is this really the case? I will be honest with you that I found my last job through The Ladders despite five busy months of ramping up on social networking sites. LinkedIn itself is merely a database. You signed up for it, so what? Did you fill out your profile? Invite people? Join groups? …
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The timing of my blog posts concerning monetizing your LinkedIn connections has to be coincidental, but yesterday, for the first time, I received an email (which was probably sent out to all of this person’s LinkedIn connections) which was an offering, in essence, to sell his LinkedIn account.
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Today I received a LinkedIn invite from someone who had the wording “TRUE LION” with a trademark symbol in their profile headline. I was definitely confused about what this could mean, but after doing a little research on the issue, it is apparent that there is now a three-way fight for the heart of the LinkedIn Open Networker. In order to fully understand the background, please make sure you read my previous posts on What is a LinkedIn LION? – A 2009 Revision, Are There People Monetizing Their LinkedIn Connections?, and Other Ways to Monetize your LinkedIn Connections.
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Yesterday I wrote about the emergence of OpenNetworker.com and their attempt to utilize their LinkedIn network to help advertise their group and offer a way for people with lots of LinkedIn connections to monetize them. Later, in the same day, another site, NuLinked.com, announced an extremely similar program.
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I hope I got your attention with this title, but I believe we are entering a new era of social networking where people with large networks are now attempting to monetize their LinkedIn connections. And the events of today will certainly accelerate this. As you probably know from my other posts, I am a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) and I have almost 13,000 direct connections on LinkedIn, which ranked me about #150 worldwide the last time I could confirm this on LinkedIn (since they changed the search application several weeks ago it is now impossible to check this easily). However, …
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