Strategies, tools and tactics to help the people just getting started with Social Networking

The new LinkedIn’s user interface is far different from the previous one. I recently received a request from one of my clients on how to edit a recommendation they had previously given. I went to my LinkedIn account and spent about 15 minutes trying to find out where/how to do it. Below is a video that will show you (and save you a lot of time and frustration) how to do it.

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LinkedIn keeps changing its UI (user interface) claiming that it makes the experience better for its members. I find it to be the opposite. Please read my post where I compare LinkedIn and Costco.

Anyway, if you happen to have the new LinkedIn interface and you’re wanting to create a Company Page, please watch the short video below:

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Let’s say that you connected with someone on LinkedIn who turns out to be somewhat of a nuisance. How do you disconnect from them?

LinkedIn makes it very easy to remove one of your connections – and best of all, they won’t be notified that you removed them. To learn how to do this, please watch the short video tutorial below:

How to Remove a LinkedIn Connection

If your LinkedIn user interface looks different than the one shown in the video, you probably still have the old interface. LinkedIn rolls out things in phases and they may not have changed yours. Please click on the link below to see how to remove a connection using a different interface:

How to Remove a LinkedIn Connection – Old Interface

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Quality LinkedIn recommendations are worth a lot. They greatly enhance your Credibility – especially with people who don’t know you.

The short video below shows you the mechanics of asking for a recommendation.

A few suggestions:

• Always send a personal message when requesting a recommendation
• Only ask for recommendations from people you’re certain will recommend you.
• You need both quality and quantity.
• Always thank the person after they have recommended you

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Since LinkedIn is all about networking and connecting with people, your profile acts as your electronic business card. Therefore, your LinkedIn profile should have the same info you have on your business card – i.e. phone, email address, website, etc.

I for one no longer collect business cards from people. I rely on using the LinkedIn mobile app on my Android phone to find people on LinkedIn and communicate with them that way. Therefore if you don’t list your phone number on your LinkedIn account you’re going to make it very hard for me to phone you. Several people have lost referrals from me because of this.

Please watch the short video below to learn the mechanics of adding personal info to your profile.

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Today I reached a milestone with my 4,000 LinkedIn connection.

4000 connections

While the number of connections by itself is just a number, fact is that having more connections gives you more POSSIBILITIES for getting introductions to the people you -or for the people in your network – want to meet. This makes your LinkedIn account more valuable. And this makes YOU more valuable to YOUR NETWORK – since you can facilitate more introductions, share more resources and add more value.

Another thing of interest here is that LinkedIn only gives you 3,000 invitations to build your network – you can request additional invitations once you’ve used them and LinkedIn may or may not grant you additional ones. So how can I have 4,000 connections? Simple, people are INVITING ME.

Getting invitations to connect on LinkedIn is the beginning of a possible relationship. You never know where things might go with people. Plus you never know who they know.

In order to get invited on a consistent basis by quality connections you must have a COMPLETE and EFFECTIVE profile. Make sure your picture is professional, your summary explains why it would be of benefit to connect with you and have plenty of recommendations for the work you do.

There are three critical success factors on LinkedIn:

1. Your profile
2. Your network
3. Your activities

Building your network on LinkedIn is one of the best things you can do for your future.

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If you invite people by mistake and/or you change your mind about inviting someone to join your LinkedIn network, you might be able to withdraw the invitation. The following video shows you how to do this plus a few other things you need to be aware of.

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Where did they go?

I received an email this morning from one of my clients asking me my suggestions for surveying many professionals regarding a possible book title. My first reaction was “bummer I wish you would have asked me this a few months ago since creating a LinkedIn poll would have been perfect for you.” I thought this because I was under the impression that Polls was another one of the LinkedIn apps that had been removed – together with LinkedIn Q&A and Events.

Alas much to my surprise polls are not dead (yet). To quote a line from one of my favorite movies The Princess Bride: “he’s not really dead, his mostly dead; which means he’s slightly alive.”

So Polls are not dead they are simply hidden. To create a poll, you now need to go to this link: https://polls.linkedin.com/.

Not sure how long they keep the polls feature alive but for now you can still take advantage of them.

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You probably already know that LinkedIn is far from being intuitive or easy to navigate. So finding where things are – especially with all the changes that LinkedIn is going through on a regular basis – can be quite challenging.

One of my clients asked me about adding/editing her website on the new LinkedIn profile. See the video below that shows you where and how to perform this task.

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