Have you integrated your LinkedIn and Twitter accounts yet?

Just a few days after I mentioned in my blog post on the new LinkedIn Profile Organizer that it had been a year since LinkedIn released any new significant functionality, we have been bombarded by the social media press over the last few days concerning the new LinkedIn User Interface and now the big news last night on the integration between LinkedIn and Twitter.  And this news has sparked reaction ranging from ReadWriteWeb’s analysis that the potential of opening up all of the cross-platform data between LinkedIn and Twitter has not fully begun to be realized, Mashable’s read on the the “potential for lucrative business intelligence and data exchange”, to CIO.com’s call for the proper etiquette with their “Do’s and Don’ts for Users.” What does this all mean and why is the LinkedIn-Twitter integration big news?

Let’s first of all put this into perspective: There has always been integration options between Facebook and Twitter.  And, with the popularity of Ping.fm, anyone who wanted to simultaneously update their LinkedIn and Twitter statuses is already doing it.  So this is not real news.  Yes, it will make it easier for people to integrate their tweets with their LinkedIn Status Updates, so without the proper etiquette, we could see a lot more irrelevant LinkedIn Status Updates.  But, like I said earlier, I believe these will be the same people that we are already ignoring the Status Updates of in the first place. (Note: The potential, however, for Twitter spammers to create fake “LION” profiles, amass connections, and  flood the Status Updates with their spam does exist.  It should also make it easier for LinkedIn to find them and root them out of the system, should LinkedIn get more serious about deleting out fake profiles.)

On the other hand, for the people that are sharing information on Twitter, there will probably be more of a tendency to share more selective tweets in their LinkedIn Status Update.  And with this, the LinkedIn Platform should receive more valuable status updates that are sharing information from users with various subject matter expertise.

For LinkedIn users who are used to updating their Status Update with a nod to their personal branding, it will make them easier to simply tweet these same messages, and in doing so, meet new people that may respond to them through the @Reply functionality of Twitter.  For those LinkedIn users that aren’t heavy on Twitter yet, this integration could be their bridge to begin truly Windmill Networking on Twitter.

If you are interested in how LinkedIn and Twitter view the integration, here is the official video:

Looking beyond the short-term flood of tweets into LinkedIn, the big news out of this is:

• A New Generation of Twitter Users Will Come from LinkedIn

Many of the professionals that are active on LinkedIn are not so big on Twitter.  They just don’t see the value in Twitter and are still stuck in the “Twitter is all about people writing what they ate for breakfast” mode.  Ideally, with savvy tweeters sharing relevant information in the LinkedIn Status Update, this will be a new way for professionals to realize the treasure trove of information that they can find from Twitter, and in turn foster a new generation of Twitter users.    (Note: There are also a lot of people on Twitter that are not so active on LinkedIn so the reverse effect may also apply here, but I estimate to a lesser degree.)

• LinkedIn Status Update Grows Up

Up until now LinkedIn users had to go to the News sections of each LinkedIn Group to find relevant information concerning their industry or profession.  Now, LinkedIn users can hopefully find more of this information by looking at the Status Updates of people’s profiles with subject matter expertise that we are looking for.  And as this happens, we will no longer need to ask each other “What do you use your LinkedIn Status Update for?” and start sharing more pertinent information with our networks as we are used to doing on Twitter.  It will now be important for LinkedIn to allow us to filter our Status Updates, just like we can with Twitter Lists, so that we can pick and choose who’s Status Updates we want to see.

• Allow for Selective Filtering of Tweets Posted to LinkedIn Status Update

Up until now it was difficult to filter out tweets that you wanted to send to Twitter but not LinkedIn if you were using Ping.fm.  With the new functionality of filtering tweets through the #in or #li hashtags, the ability to send only pertinent tweets to LinkedIn is now available.  Hopefully this will allow for higher quality and more relevant tweets sent to LinkedIn.

• Introduction of More Dynamic Content into the Static LinkedIn Platform

Let’s face it: LinkedIn is a static platform that is almost boring in comparison to Twitter or even Facebook.  LinkedIn will never become a Facebook, but with the Twitter integration, LinkedIn will become a more dynamic platform where users may be checking on their Home Page Status Updates a little more often to see what their LinkedIn connections are tweeting.  It’s easier to do this on LinkedIn than to have to create a Twitter List of all of your LinkedIn connections.  Plus, the Status Update will only show the most recent entry, so it helps filter out some of the “noise” that some professionals associate with Twitter.

• Hashtag to Application Potential is Enormous

The most significant feature by far is the ability to filter a hashtag into a 3rd party application.  This has significant implications for how companies can use Twitter in the future (for instance integrating all tweets from employees using the same hashtag into some enterprise application) or how Twitter can potentially charge money for individuals or businesses to “own” a hashtag that can now be filtered into an API to allow for more specialized monitoring or broadcasting.  Getting back to the Mashable article that I referred to earlier, the ability to harness the business intelligence and data exchange combined with the database that LinkedIn has some significant implications of what lies ahead.  And, agreeing with ReadWriteWeb, I also believe that this is just the beginning and am waiting for what is in store in the future!

If nothing else, this integration proves that 1) Twitter is here to stay, 2) Twitter is positioning themselves as a platform for professionals by aligning themselves with LinkedIn, and 3) the LinkedIn-Twitter integration could further isolate Facebook as the social networking platform where people go to play and not work.  This integration will undoubtedly result in more LinkedIn users trying out Twitter and more Tweeple sharing information on LinkedIn.  Maybe I am too optimistic, but I only see the potential for good coming out of this relationship.

Do you think the LinkedIn-Twitter integration is a good or a bad thing?  Indifferent?  Share your comments with us!

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• 19% of Internet users use Twitter or update status site : Up nearly 100% since April (kevin.lexblog.com)
• Twitter, LinkedIn team up for self-promotion free-for-all (news.cnet.com)
• Twitter, LinkedIn sync status updates to hone in on the professional market (venturebeat.com)
• Posterous and Ping.fm: please use wisely (biztipsblog.com)
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Image by Jeanna Theodd

LinkedIn Profile Tips.  A lot of people tell you what you should be doing, but what about what you shouldn’t be doing?

LinkedIn is the place to not only find others but also to be found.  And that is why you need a profile that not only helps you get found but also will entice people to contact you once they view your profile.  I see many people making fundamental mistakes that actually work against them in this aspect.  If you’re going to spend time putting together a profile, I assume you want to maximize your chances of being contacted by the right people, right?

With that in mind, I have created an easy-to-understand list of a few things to check for with my reasoning.  If it sounds like an exercise in search engine optimization, you are on the right path.  Just like any website owner, you want to stick out and be found!

1. Not Displaying Your Personal Photo

I wrote an entire blog post about why you should include your photo in your LinkedIn profile, but it all comes down to having social media credibility or not.  There are too many fake profiles on LinkedIn, so you want to show that you are real.  If you have taken the time to complete your online presence on the social networking platform, why wouldn’t you display your photo?  It just raises too many potential questions.  And company logos or photos of pets obviously have no value here

2. Headline is Not Branded Enough

See that space underneath your name?  That is your “Professional” or Profile Headline.  It will appear in search results next to your name, as well as next to any questions you ask or answer.  It is, in essence, your elevator speech in a few words.  Are you just putting your title and company name here?  Don’t!  This is the place where you need to appeal to anyone who finds you in a search result to reach out and look at who you are.  Your Profile Headline is the single most important piece of real estate you have, and you need to brand it as such.

3. Status Update is Not Appealing

This is that “What are you working on?” box that I refer to as a “Status Update.”  Assuming someone finds you and looks at your profile, chances are they are going to be looking at what you write here simply because that it appears just underneath your Headline.  What do you write here?  Many people in transition note that they are looking for a job here, and here is my LinkedIn Status Update Advice for the Unemployed.  What do you use your LinkedIn Status Update for?  It is part of your branding exercise, and it should be something appealing that will both inform the reader of your latest activities as well as hopefully add to, not subtract from, your Brand.

4. Don’t List Enough Companies You Worked At Or Schools Attended

One of the ways you are found is through searches on company names or schools.  If you are only listing your current company and/or not even displaying your college, you are missing out on potentially being found.  Check this out: I did my Junior year of college abroad in Beijing nearly 20 years ago.  I had been out of touch with all of the 15 or so Americans that were there that year.  Two of those 15 have found me on LinkedIn!  And another high school friend who I lost touch with found me this week.  They would not have found me had I not listed my Junior year abroad school and high school name on my profile.  Companies are even more important in that there are potentially more colleagues that may be trying to find you or recruiters trying to network with you!  You may be missing out!

5. Not Having Three Recommendations

This is the same as not displaying your personal photo.  Why?  When you sign up for LinkedIn and first fill out your profile, LinkedIn recommends that you write three LinkedIn Recommendations.  You need to do this in order to get your Profile to 100% Completion.  Job postings on LinkedIn similarly require three recommendations.  These recommendations can only work in your favor, so why don’t you have at least three of them?

6. Too Few Connections

This is a topic for debate, but too many people have too few connections on their profile, and thus are not getting found.  The idea is simple: when you do a search you will see results from your network.  And vice-versa.  So the more connections you have the more search results you will appear in pure and simple.  Combining this is the fact that Windmill Networking is about finding value in online networking with people that you don’t know.  So what are you waiting for?  If you don’t know who to invite, here are 15 Ways to Grow Your LinkedIn Network as well as 10 LinkedIn LIONs & Super Connectors You Must Connect With!  Better yet, why don’t you join my Windmill Networking LinkedIn Group and consider connecting with some of the group members?

7. Not Listing Three Websites

LinkedIn gives you the ability to list three websites on your profile.  Are you taking advantage of it?  Do you have a Twitter profile or other social networking profile that you want to advertise?  Company website?  A blog that you enjoy reading?  Anything that you would want associated with yourself should be listed here.  You will be adding to the search engine optimization of your own websites just by the fact that you list them here!

8. Not Claiming Your Personal URL

When you sign up to LinkedIn you are provided a public URL which you can then include on your email signature or wherever else you want to lead people to your profile from.  You can customize this when you edit your profile.  Claiming your name here is one of the first things you should have done on LinkedIn.  For instance, I can memorize my LinkedIn Profile URL, which is www.linkedin.com/in/nealschaffer, because I customized the last text to “nealschaffer.”  If you have a common name, make sure you claim your URL before others do!

9. No Branded Summary Rich with Keywords

Assuming that someone finds you in a search result, likes your Profile Headline, and isn’t scared away by your Status Update, the next most important part of your profile will be your Summary.  This is the chance to fully brand yourself and ensure that any keywords that you want associated with yourself are found here.  You also want to write something compelling, just as you would in the Executive Summary of your resume.  This is your stage to tell the world who you are and what you can do!  Utilize it to your fullest advantage!

10. No Job Descriptions

Even if you’ve listed positions at companies that you previously held, it means nothing if you don’t have any job descriptions.  Job descriptions provide you the perfect opportunity to pepper your profile with keywords that will help you get found.  Why aren’t you taking advantage of this?

Did I miss any that you’d like to share?  Let me know!  And if you didn’t make any of the above mistakes, congratulations!  You’re in good shape

For more advice on how to leverage and maximize your presence on LinkedIn, be sure to check out my book!

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 my very first blog post “15 Ways to Grow Your LinkedIn Network”, you should always be filling out your profile for every company that you have worked for.  The reason being that not only will you find all of your past colleagues, but you will also be found by others looking for you, both people you used to work with as well as recruiters potentially looking for talent from a specific company.  The same goes for your past education.  And you obviously should have a crisp Summary at the top of your profile to introduce to the world who you are.

In terms of a resume, then, you should have the same Summary, Experience, and Education in a LinkedIn Profile that you would also have in that resume that you use when applying for a job.  What makes your LinkedIn Profile more accurate then?

1. Your Profile Reveals More About Your Personality & Passions. Your LinkedIn Profile goes well beyond a resume in terms of giving you the ability to list your interests, associations, as well as display those LinkedIn Groups that hopefully you’ve become a member of.  People interested in learning more about you can glean glimpses of you in these sections.  Furthermore, if you are utilizing the Answers section to answer questions or even taking part in LinkedIn Groups discussions boards, anything that you went out of your way to respond to or help someone on reveals a little something about what makes you tick.  Your Status Update is also revealing something about you depending on what you write, and that is why I urge you not to use it to merely tell people that you are unemployed.
2. Your LinkedIn Profile is More Socially Credible. Come on, anyone can pay someone to draft up a great resume.  But could you pay off all those executives and former managers who are putting their reputations on the line to write you a great Recommendation?  Probably not.  And to those who say you don’t want too many Recommendations, I say the more you have the more credibility you have, so long as your Recommendations are legit.
3. Your LinkedIn Profile is Public Domain. You have connections in your profile that can be researched.  You are advertising yourself to the world, or at least the 40+ million members on LinkedIn.  If you are lying, your trusted connections, co-workers, or friends won’t let you get away with it.  With a resume, no one is checking it except for people on the other end who know nothing about you.  And, believe me, they are checking your LinkedIn Profile to make sure it matches up with your resume!  That’s right: the accuracy of your resume is being confirmed by your LinkedIn Profile.  That in itself should tell you how accurate your LinkedIn Profile is thought of as representing the real you.

So what should all of this mean to you?  You should be utilizing LinkedIn to the fullest to show off your strengths.  If not, it may be working against you if your competitors are doing so and you are still not displaying much of anything.  After all, in this day and age, what professional isn’t on LinkedIn?  And, if you’re on, you need 3 Recommendations in order to get to 100% profile completeness, so why would you avoid getting recommended by your ex-bosses and colleagues?  And don’t you want to show the world that you are at least social media savvy by having a complete LinkedIn Profile?  I heard a true story today of someone who got a $10,000 signing bonus because they were competent in social media.  That’s right, the ability to understand and utilize social media is something that companies who don’t understand it will pay for.

Start thinking about your LinkedIn Profile more seriously.  Brand it with keywords you want to be associated with and show off your interests and passions.  It will all add to a more accurate representation of who you are, and that can only work for your benefit.

Image provided by Olivier Charvel / http://www.flickr.com/photos/oliviercharavel/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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, and it is actually something that I almost put in my post of Favorite LinkedIn Pet Peeves yesterday.  It is also related to my previous post on What Do You Use Your LinkedIn Profile Status Bar For?.  In essence, should I tell the world that I am looking for a job in my Profile Status box?

You will be able to read about my thought process in my upcoming LinkedIn book, which is nearing completion as we speak.  But as a preview of what I plan to discuss in that book, you need to remember that everything that you do and do not include in your LinkedIn profile becomes your brand = how people perceive you.  Is “unemployed” something that you want to include as part of your brand?  My answer is “NO!”  You want positive qualities associated with your brand.  And whenever I see someone with a Status Update that says they are looking for a job, I want to tell them what I am about to tell you.

Now, I am not suggesting that you lie about your status.  Obviously you want to tell your network, and if asked by a recruiter, that you are unemployed.  But what I am saying is that the Status Update should be utilized differently in order to promote your brand.

For just a moment, let’s pretend that we are recruiters looking at LinkedIn profiles.  Now, I am not nor have ever been a recruiter, but I have engaged with enough recruiters that I have a faint idea of how they work.

First of all, do you know how recruiters find you on LinkedIn?  They search for you, of course, and if they are using LinkedIn recruiting solutions they are looking at a screen that looks something like this.  The key to being found?  List as many companies as you can that you have worked for with accurate titles in your profile.  And include those keywords that you want to be associated with in your profile.  Simple enough.

But what happens after they search and find you and start looking at your profile?  Recruiters want to see that you are happily employed.  Why?  Because, in a recent LinkedIn Poll, 60% of Recruiters said that passive candidates are better employees.  And, furthermore, quoting from this same LinkedIn Blog post, “It’s a widely held belief that the best talent is employed,” and “if they are actively looking then maybe they are not as good, or not as loyal.”

I can tell you from the talent that I meet while networking that the above statements are absolutely and totally false.  If you are talented and happen to be unemployed, the above types of comments obviously hurt and fill your heart with anger.  There are so many reasons why someone loses their position or chooses to be unemployed.  How can you lump all of these people together into one category of people and say they “are not as good?”  It’s ridiculous.  And it is discriminatory towards those that deserve better treatment.

Now, the above blog post was not the opinion of LinkedIn; it was merely the results of a LinkedIn Poll.  So do not direct your anger at LinkedIn.  In fact, we should be thanking LinkedIn, because they have provided us a service by telling those who are unemployed what they need to know: DO NOT ADVERTISE THE FACT THAT YOU ARE UNEMPLOYED. We cannot change the way that recruiters think about us.  We can only play up to their expectations.

If you are unemployed, I understand the temptation to put that you are unemployed on your Status Update.  But, just as you can easily waste your time sending out applications to positions that are hiring on the Internet and compete with the several hundred other applicants who saw the same advertisement, letting the world know that you are unemployed by broadcasting that fact in your Status Update is only diluting your brand and making you look like an active, not a passive, candidate.  It is potentially lowering your value in the eyes of 60% of those recruiters in that poll.

What to do then?  If you want to tell your friends and close connections that you are unemployed, do so over the phone or in person.  Don’t use Social Media to broadcast it to 40 million other people.

Now, there may be people out there that have found a job by broadcasting the fact that they are unemployed just like there are always rare people who do find jobs on the Internet.  But, in my opinion, based on the above evidence, it is always best to preserve your LinkedIn Brand and get out and meet new people to network with that may directly or indirectly lead you to your next lead in your job hunt.  In fact, regardless of your employment status, you should always be networking and meeting people: dig your well before you are thirsty.

I rest my case.  Feel free, as always, to comment.

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 to look for news.  But with the addition of the new Action Bar, LinkedIn has definitely created more value for Group members who do read the News that other Group members are providing.

But before I go into discussing this Action Bar, it is interesting to note that this is another example of LinkedIn cleverly “borrowing” ideas from Twitter and customizing them for their own site.  The LinkedIn Application Company Buzz itself is purely based on Twitter, yet LinkedIn has added new functionality on top of Twitter to allow you to easily monitor Twitter keyword trends.  The What are you doing now? Status Bar is obviously influenced by Twitter as well, but LinkedIn cleverly does not archive the history of what you enter here, and only your current status will be shown.

I believe that Action Bar is very much based on similar services that exist for Twitter, most notably Big Tweet and Hoot Suite.  For someone who wants to share an article on Twitter, they simply go to any site on the Internet, launch these applications from the browser toolbar, and then they add their comments, have the URL shortened (to fit Twitter’s 140-character limit), and can post their message to Twitter without having to go on to the site.  After the news is posted, it now becomes easy for people who view the article to not only see who originally posted the news but also to “re-tweet” it and broadcast the same news out to their network.  In this way, news can and does spread very quickly between Twitter members.

With LinkedIn, this sort of shortcut to post news from different websites directly on to your Group News does not exist.  You still have to go to your Group, select “Submit a news article”, and then manually input the URL.  I am awaiting the day that LinkedIn can develop something along the lines of the above Twitter services.

But LinkedIn has actually improved upon the Twitter services in what you can do after the news is posted.  When you view a news post, the new Action Bar is displayed on top of the news.  In addition to seeing the person who posted the news, the following options are now displayed:

• Share – launches an InMail for you to share the news with your LinkedIn contacts
• Add Comment – launches a window allowing you to add a comment to the Group News page
• Follow Comments – allows you to follow future comments on the post
• Read Comments – brings you back into the LinkedIn Groups News discussion board to see the comments
• View Next/Previous Group News Article – will forward to the next/previous Group News article

All of the above functions (with the exception of reading comments) can be done without having to return to the LinkedIn Groups News page like in the past.  This provides a significant increase in performance and usability.

The catch to the above is that all of this information is contained within the world of LinkedIn.  In other words, you can’t “share” the news article with people that are not registered on LinkedIn.  And, of course, your comments will only be displayed on the Groups discussion board.  That being said, although it is a minor tweak to the News functionality, I think LinkedIn should be applauded for providing some unique functionality to enable news to become more “viral” like it is on Twitter.  And it has definitely made it much simpler for us to interact with our LinkedIn Grous news now.

Thank you LinkedIn!  We are noticing even the “minor” tweaks and looking forward to simlar improvements in the future!

Do you ever notice that “What are your working on now?” question on your LinkedIn Home Page?  The one that appears under your Inbox and at the top of your Network Updates section?  Anything you enter here, which I will refer to as a “Status Update”, will not only get broadcasted on your profile right underneath your Profile Headline but will also appear on the Network Updates on the Home Page of all of your connections should you have allowed your updates to be sent and your connections are viewing them.  What on earth do you enter here?

For those who can remember, this is a fairly new feature on LinkedIn, and at the time everyone thought they were basically trying to mimic Twitter.  Facebook has also had this functionality, which will appear on your “Wall”.  But all three of these social networks have a different demographic as well different things that people use them for.  What do you do with your LinkedIn Status Update?

I ask this question today primarily because LinkedIn updated their own official blog with what Craig’s List Founder Craig Newmark uses his own Status Update for.  You can see the blog post here, but in Craig’s case, he utilizes his Status Update to support the causes he believes in and to, in essence, call people to join him in his support. Very cool and respectful.

But what about YOU?  If you update your Wall on Facebook, the subject matter may be a little more playful than LinkedIn.  You may tweet on Twitter a few times a day, but if you update your status in the same way they would only be visible on LinkedIn until you update it.  That’s right, the fundamental difference between LinkedIn vs. Twitter/Facebook is that your Status Updates are not archived and cannot be seen past your most recent one.  Therefore, the first consideration is that whatever you put in your Status Update should be something sticky that can potentially remain on for an extended period of time. 

As for the subject matter of the Status Update, it really comes down to what your LinkedIn Objective is.  Are you trying to show that you are an expert in something?  Talk about your latest presentations, exhibitions attended, etc.  Looking for a job?  I personally wouldn’t advertise the fact that I am looking for a job on my Status Update, but use the space to promote yourself in a way that you can’t do in your more static LinkedIn Profile.  Are you studying something new, trying to obtain a new certificate, networking, flying somewhere for an interview?  These things could definitely add to your brand and add value to boot.  If you are a recruiter, sure, if you have one high value hard-to-find candidate that you are looking for put it in your Status Update.  But, as you can see, putting something creative in your Status Update can help you both reach your LinkedIn objective as well as provide a way of broadcasting something in a timely manner that LinkedIn does not allow for in its rigid format.

As for myself, I use my Status Update to broadcast my newest blog post, which I do a few times a week.  If people want to find out more about my Social Media side that is not apparent in my Profile, which is based on my experience in leading companies in International High Tech Sales, I want them to go to my blog to read more about what I have to say about LinkedIn and Social Networking.  Yes, I do use my blog as one of my three websites in my LinkedIn profile, but the Status Update is displayed in an area of prime real estate and thus will have more impact at leading people to my blog.

Everyone will have a different use for Status Update, but think hard as to what you are trying to achieve with LinkedIn and what your brand is.  I am sure, with a little bit of creative thought, you will be able to think up something that is perfect for you.  If you can’t, do what Craig does and broadcast for a good cause!