Getting from “You” to your goal company, and 11 Tips on maximizing the power that is LinkedIn

Jake Aull | Zen Fires Digital Marketing | GSU Social Media Marketing Instructor 404.259.5550 | ZenFires.com | @jakeaull

LinkedIn for Personal Branding

WHY ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING WORKS

POWER NETWORKING…   {you are here}

U

POWER NETWORKING… {you want to work for, or sell to,

company ACME here}

U

ACME

POWER NETWORKING… {how to get from here…} {to there?}

U ACME

POWER NETWORKING… LinkedIn tells you how many degrees you are away from Kevin Bacon (or company ACME, more to the point)

2nd U ACME

POWER NETWORKING… LinkedIn tells you who’s between you and ACME. It tells you if these are contacts from groups your in, or contacts that friends of yours know – if the contacts are currently at ACME or used to be… if they’re in HR, purchasing, etc.

2nd U ACME

POWER NETWORKING… LinkedIn tells you how to get from “U” to ACME (the more LinkedIn Groups you’re in, and the more connections you have, the more possibilities).

ACME HR #2 U ACME

ACME Purchasing

ACME HR #1

Friend

Group

11 TIPS FOR OPTIMIZING YOUR PERSONAL LINKEDIN PROFILE AND ONLINE BRAND

11 Tips for LinkedIn How can you best use LinkedIn for networking, job-searching, client connections and overall personal, professional branding? It can make or break you as an expert in your industry. Here’s the stuff to know:

1.) WHAT’S A LION?   LinkedIn Open Networkers – attempt to connect to, and accept, any/all

connections.   Traditionally, LinkedIn has structured its platform so people would think more

about who they know before connecting.   For example, LinkedIn won’t display the exact size of one’s network once it

gets above 500 connections. LinkedIn has traditionally also attempted to mitigate the vehicle by which connections are made. For example, only so many connections via a common LinkedIn Group were allowed within a time period, and only so many Introductions were allowed within a time period, etc.

  LinkedIn can be used, via DMs (direct messages), like an email list, but it is purposefully set up to be not completely user friendly.

  So – you may wish to leave LIONs for the realtors, salespeople and recruiters – and maybe connect to them! But otherwise – think about who you are in live, in-person networking functions.

11 Tips for LinkedIn

2.) LINKEDIN & SOCIAL “NETIQUETTE”   How you behave in a real-world networking event is good

guidance for LinkedIn (and social networking) behavior.   You don’t (hopefully) meet someone once and start in with

a hard-sell pitch. You may offer others your business card, but if they don’t counter with their own - take the hint. Don’t assume you can connect to your new acquaintance in LinkedIn without good reason or discussion.

  Don’t assume you can connect to people you’ve never met (unless you’ve gotten to know them already online).

  If you wish to invite someone in LinkedIn after first-time meeting, ask them first. If it’s not comfortable to bring up in conversation, probably shouldn’t connect right away.

11 Tips for LinkedIn

3.) WEB 1.0 WAS YESTERDAY…   For years, LinkedIn has had a good position, serving the

business and job-seeker community.   But compared to other social sites such as Facebook, Twitter

or Tumblr, LinkedIn always looked a bit “Web 1.0.”   In recent months it has been given a dynamic facelift, with

business content for your interests.   With plug-ins more obvious and more used than they were

before (go to your profile “Settings” and then to applications) - take advantage of these to enhance your dynamic LinkedIn “resume+.”

  But don’t forget the basics – such as really fleshing out “Skills & Expertise,” as well as recommendations and Honors and Awards.

11 Tips for LinkedIn

4.) LINKEDIN PLUG-IN FEATURES   LinkedIn actually offers many features most people

aren’t aware of.   For industry presentations, upload slide decks to

SlideShare (for example, see my account at SlideShare.net/JakeAull ), and connect this to display on your LinkedIn profile.

  If you want to highlight your industry expertise, blog regularly – and connect your blog for LinkedIn display.

11 Tips for LinkedIn

5.) TWITTER VS. LINKEDIN

  Twitter and LinkedIn used to have many syncing capabilities. But today they are not seeing eye to eye.

  But if you have good content in other social channels, integrate these as best you can. For example via the RSS feed into LinkedIn (which I believe even Twitter will cooperate with).

  Remember to be careful about personal social content versus professional.

  That is a good thing to keep in mind – there are often stories of peoples’ private Facebook posts being exposed. Whatever social channel you post in – assume that sooner or later the world will see it.

11 Tips for LinkedIn

6.) WHAT YOU’RE READING ON AMAZON   I see many people with this application on their LinkedIn profile. I

don’t use it, because I look at is if: Would you discuss that in an interview? Would you show that with your personal job case studies or portfolio?

  You might discuss personal reading with co-workers, but it could come off as immaterial or snooty to those visiting your LinkedIn profile.

  And if you did discuss it, it’s probably more of a side note.   Is that worth it to gunk up your LinkedIn profile? But – social media

is all about collaboration and connections – if your reading a popular business book right, others just might use that as an opportunity to talk to you about it - you never know.

  But these are all good questions to ask before you add that extra app – the one that changes your page from LinkedIn to mySpace…

11 Tips for LinkedIn

7.) GROUPS & EVENTS   Associations, LinkedIn Groups and business events

could be worth displaying on your profile if targeted to your industry.

  You’d talk about industry associations and major events attended to fellow networkers, so why not on LinkedIn?

  Plus the advantage for your colleagues to see if both of you are attending the same events.

  Just don’t display these if you have nothing to show…

11 Tips for LinkedIn

8.) AND DON’T FORGET THE EXTRA GINSU KNIFE SET…   There are always more applications to connect to LinkedIn than you

thought there were.   If you’re a graphic designer, connect your Behance porfolio, or a

writer, Box.net for file display. Programers may wish to connect GitHub. There are specific apps for realtors, lawyers, and so on.

  There’s a TripIt “My Travel” app – which could be useful for colleagues to see when/where you’re traveling.

  If LinkedIn doesn’t feature an app you want, you may be able to connect it from the outside.

  There’s even a browser app to automatically show you LinkedIn connections’ info, in a side window frame, while bringing up company job listings.

  And how about the fact that 93% of recruiters use LinkedIn for their candidate searches and process?

11 Tips for LinkedIn

9.) HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH CONTACT INFO?   Simple question – do you want others to contact you?

  If you’re a salesperson or a job seeker, you may want as much contact info displayed as possible.

  So let that be your guide - don’t prohibit that next great phone call from coming through.

  Remember, this is LinkedIn – for professionals – it’s not Facebook.

11 Tips for LinkedIn

10.) WHY UPGRADE?   LinkedIn has paid upgrade options (which I don’t highly

recommend).   These give you the ability to send more DMs, and to track

them better.   Also gives the option to send InMails – messages to people

you don’t currently know. But these come through with the tag “InMail,” often suggesting to the reader a sort of spam – or a message/connection “through the back door” of LinkedIn.

  Is it really worth the money?   But upgrading also gives you access to non-connections’ full

profiles, and more statistics. If those can really be helpful to you, then very well.

11 Tips for LinkedIn

11.) DOING MORE WITH LINKEDIN…   Many social media gurus recommend supplying answers to user

industry questions in LinkedIn Answers. Doing the same in various LinkedIn Groups around your specialty is also recommended.

  But you can also take it one step further and create these communities – LinkedIn Groups or Subgroups – and attract those interested. Supply the desired content, and eventual connections, and you can have a captive audience for your content. Not to mention yet another good claim for the resume.

  And again – you can use your LinkedIn posts and Tweets to promote your own LinkedIn Group.

  By providing answers and collaboration in other industry online communities or LinkedIn Groups, members can follow your LinkedIn profile to your own Group (again without the hard sell) – pulled hook, line and sinker…

LINKEDIN PROFILE GOOD EXAMPLES

Good LinkedIn Profile Example

Good LinkedIn Profile Example

Thank You!

Jake Aull | Zen Fires Digital Marketing | GSU Social Media Marketing Instructor 404.259.5550 | ZenFires.com | @jakeaull

Questions?