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).
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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.
read moreAs 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.
read moreI 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?
read moreWe 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 …
read moreYesterday 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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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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There are so many features on LinkedIn, and so many ways to utilize them, that it always surprises me when people just don’t see the same value in features, like LinkedIn Answers, that I do. I always hope, through this blog, that you will get more tips for not only being more effective with LinkedIn but with social networking as well. If we all get better at social networking, it helps out everyone in all of our networks. For this post, I am glad to announce that it will be featured on the blog of my new friend, Jonathan Milligan. …
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