I signed up for Facebook several years after I joined LinkedIn. In fact, I even joined Twitter six months before becoming a Facebook member. A year ago you could of said that a Gen X guy on Facebook was not the norm. But now that there are as many Facebook users aged 25 to 54 as there are those that are aged 18 to 24, I would consider my demographic fairly average these days. So you can imagine how surprised I was when I uploaded my LinkedIn contacts to Facebook and found an acceptance rate of only 10 to 15% …
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Today’s blog post has been contributed by Breanne Cooley, the editor of my upcoming book “Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn.” “How’s the job search going?” “Network, network, network!” “Hang in there!” Those are the words every frustrated job seeker hears over and over from their friends and family. In fact, those were the words I kept hearing for these past few months during my own job search in San Francisco. Though the support is, of course, much appreciated, I couldn’t help but think to myself: “How the heck do I ‘network’ when everyone else is busy with their …
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Today’s blog post is influenced by an article I read from the comments made by LinkedIn at the Social Recruiting Summit. Let me further expand the argument for the case of LinkedIn. Like many others who have learned to embrace LinkedIn, I did so when I was in transition. I realized that I had not been digging my well before I was thirsty, and I vowed to not only build up a larger network, but also to both stay in better touch with that network as well as provide more value to those in my network. As I mentioned in …
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There are many resources on the web for finding people to follow on Twitter. Just do a search for any particular type of person you want to follow (student entrepreneurs? job seeker advice? etc.) and chances are you will find a list. But why none for LinkedIn? Well, just as I have been the first to write on other things LinkedIn-related, I think it is important to introduce people on LinkedIn that I think you should invite and/or connect up with. These people are either LIONs or “Super Connectors”, people with lots of connections that are open to receiving new …
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Today’s blog post is one that I created for Bradley Will, a self-proclaimed “gnarly entrepreneur” who is also the leading voice for empowering a new generation of young entrepreneurs. If you haven’t read his blog you need to check it out. The blog post that I did itself you should read on Bradley’s site here. But I wanted to give you some background about the post because it explains two important things about Windmill Networking (which will be detailed further in my book to be published in August). 1) Windmill Networking is About Creating Virtual Networks of Real Pay-It-Forward People …
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After networking with several great people over the last several days, which have in essence been conversations that seem more like a veritable cross-breeding of ideas, I believe that more and more people are starting to see the potential value of meeting new people on LinkedIn. Now, just because you are open to doing this does not mean that you necessarily need to become a LinkedIn Open Networker, or LinkedIn LION. There are many methods to the madness of connecting with new people. My method for connecting with new people is using the vehicle of the LION brand. You can …
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LinkedIn Introductions are an integral part of the social networking platform. After all, LinkedIn has given us the ability to search for someone and see how we are connected to them, and it is with this information that we can request an Introduction from our connection just as we request a referral from a friend in real life. Unfortunately, very few people actually ask for an Introduction on LinkedIn in the same manner that they ask for a introduction in a real-life. And this bothers me. Thus, I blog.
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As more businesses realize the potential for finding new business on LinkedIn, I am amazed as to how companies are starting to look at social media as if it gives them the right to cold call and send what I would consider spam to anyone and everyone in LinkedIn. I wanted to go through some bad examples of what a lot of people are doing before giving you my advice, as it is important to understand some fundamentals regarding social media. First of all, NO ONE LIKES BEING SOLD TO UNLESS THEY HAVE A PRESSING NEED AND YOU CONTACT THEM …
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After I recently wrote about why I am a LinkedIn LION, I have gotten positive response from a lot of the readers of this blog that they are starting to “see the light” despite the negative wrap that LIONs have traditionally received. At the same time, for those that want to slowly venture out and start to become a LinkedIn Open Networker, there is still a worry about keeping their private circle private. Which leads to today’s question: is it right for a truly Open Networker to close up visibility of their connections to others? Why many people keep their …
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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 …
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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