I always hear of people bashing LinkedIn open networkers or LIONs. Some people characterize LIONs as people who “amass connections as if they’re Beanie Babies”. Others think that the intention of open networkers is just to spam you. For all of those who doubt the intention of open networkers, I want you to see things from my perspective as a LION, and for a moment consider this question: Why are you on LinkedIn? And, more importantly, If you are only connecting with people that you know, what is the value in LinkedIn? You see, social media and social networking sites …
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You may have missed it, but there has been a recent uproar in the freelance translator community regarding a request that they saw from LinkedIn asking them, in essence, to work for LinkedIn for free. In some ways, LinkedIn has always been asking its users to volunteer their time, asking its users to report spam, flag profile pictures, report on “Questions” that should not be on the Answers board, flag groups, etc. It makes one wonder how much the average LinkedIn user should work for free on behalf of a for-profit company. Let’s take a closer look at the …
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When Barack Obama was elected President, many in Web 2.0 circles saw it as the beginning of a new era in Social Media. After all, President Obama was able to get tremendous support via $5 and $10 donations from more than a million Americans through the use of Social Media and constant communication. According to TwitterCounter.com, Barack Obama now is #6 in terms of Twitter “followers” with more than 1.5 million people. President Obama is also the #28 connected person on LinkedIn with 24,000 connections according to TopLinked.com. How this influenced his campaign has yet to be documented, but President …
read moreLinkedIn Branding Tips: Should I Indicate on My LinkedIn Profile Status Update That I am Unemployed?
Before I event start answering this question, I will tell you that I am going out on a limb on this one. I am going against what a lot of people are actually doing. You may think that I am crazy or just wrong, but my intention is only to help those that are unemployed with the best advice possible. You can take my advice or leave it. I welcome all opinions, but I do hope you will continue reading to the very end of this blog post to better understand me. This question came recently from a LinkedIn/Twitter friend, …
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We wake up and visit LinkedIn after booting up our computers. And before we turn them off at night we are again checking in with LinkedIn. For the many of us who consider ourselves “Power Users” of LinkedIn, the social networking site for professionals is an integral part of our professional lives. And because of that, there are particular things about LinkedIn that may annoy us in a peculiar way more than others. I thought that I would write about this as it came up for discussion the other day at a networking group meeting. These particular attendees pointed out …
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I always talk about how much value there is in joining LinkedIn Groups, and I will repeat that I recommend that you join the maximum 50 that you are allowed if you can find enough groups of value for you. The specific value I have seen in Groups is being able to meet, connect, and discuss things with similar-minded people, all unified around the theme of the Group. One area that I specifically thought lacked value in Groups was the News section. And I could be biased because I am a heavy Twitter user and that is where I go …
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I hope the title of this blog post did not shock you. No, I am not trying to sell you anything. But this is the question I have been asked twice now in the last month from a gentleman who is apparently living in Bulgaria. I was first contacted on May 22 and offered a database of 50,000 LinkedIn members willing to connect, and I was promised that “all 50K members are open for invitations and business offers.” The email went on to say that, with these connections, I could save “hundreds of dollars” by avoiding costly InMails. Furthermore, with …
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Yesterday I wrote my own definition concerning what a social media expert is, so today I wanted to look specifically at what I feel makes a LinkedIn expert. Recently I was named a LinkedIn expert on the site of the LinkedIn and Social Media Training Company Integrated Alliance’s blog post. And on that same post there was recently a comment by a reader that debated those guidelines on qualifying a LinkedIn expert. I appreciate that Integrated Alliances, for the first time that I know of, actually started discussing what the potential guidelines could be in qualifying a LinkedIn expert, and …
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There’s been a lot of buzz recently in the twittersphere and world of blogging about the explosion of so-called “social media experts.” Everyone seems to be branding themselves an “expert” in something, and it leads to the question of just what it all means, especially in this blog with regards to the context of what a “LinkedIn Expert” is. Today I will cover “Social Media Experts” in general while my next blog post will look at “LinkedIn Experts” in particular. First of all, if you missed it, there was an excellent article yesterday on “6 Reasons You Shouldn’t Brand Yourself …
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Since I posted about the topic of who owns what in social media from the perspective of an employee’s LinkedIn profile, I have been humbled by both the number of people visiting my blog as well as others that have re-tweeted about my blog on Twitter and elsewhere. Based on the comments I have received and other developments, I wanted to offer additional insight into this topic of who owns our social media profiles. First of all, if you haven’t read my previous blog post on LinkedIn Profiles: Who Owns It, Me or My Employer?, please go ahead and do …
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On an average day, I receive an invite or two to join a LinkedIn Group. It is only natural since I have so many connections as a LinkedIn Open Networker (= LION). Since you can easily send out invites to join a group when you create it, it’s obvious that I am a common target to be the recipient of so many new group invites. I don’t mind receiving so many, especially because every once in awhile there is one (like the We are Orange County group I blogged about yesterday) that causes me to cancel a different group membership …
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Are you happy with how the city you live in is displayed on your LinkedIn profile? I’m not. Let me explain further. When you enter your zip code into your profile, LinkedIn will display your city based on its own algorithm and database of metropolitan areas. Let’s take a look at how these locations are defined. If you go to your “Connections” screen on LinkedIn and choose the “Advanced Options” to “Filter by Location”, it is interesting what geographies of your connections show up on LinkedIn and which do not. These are the same locations that will appear when viewing …
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