Tag Archives: LinkedIn

How do you use Networking?

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I’ve written about networking in the past. But it bears repeating.  As much as I LOVE social networkingmedia and especially LinkedIn, I realize that you cannot ignore face to face networking.

Recently, I met with a gentleman that called me based on a referral from one of his connections. When I walked into my office away from office, a Panera, I immediately recognized the man with whom I was about to meet.  We had both been at a local chamber networking event. He had been drawn to my booth display and wanted to find out more, but was pulled in several directions and we never were able to connect.

As we chatted, we discovered that our goals and desires to further our business were similar and that we could become excellent referral partners for each other.

The following article was written with job seekers in mind, but from my point of view, everyone could benefit from the suggestions that it makes. 6 Ways To Beat The Ugly Networking Stigma

Here are my questions to you -

  1. Do you network face-to-face?
  2. What do you gain from your networking?
  3. Do you look at networking as a chore or a pleasure?
  4. When you network, do you enter into the arena with the pay-it-forward philosophy?
  5. If you can’t do business with someone, can you become a power partner or referral partner with them?
  6. Do you expect immediate results from your networking activities?

 

Personal Policy for Social Networking

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What is your personal social media policy?Policy - to connect or not to connect, that is the question!

According to Joshua Waldman, who wrote the inspiration article for this post, said that he was a “Facebook prude and a LinkedIn w- – - -.” The article focused on following up with LinkedIn invitations, but it made me think about how you personally handle your day to day activities with social media.  

The biggest questions are:

  • To whom will you connect?
  • What is your connection criteria?
  • What platforms are reserved for which connections?

My personal Facebook is reserved for people that I see regularly and don’t care that I post about my dogs and golf. The other networks are more professional connections.  Where will you draw the line? Will you be my business connection but not a Facebook friend? I have met people at networking events that will not connect with someone on LinkedIn until they have had a coffee meeting. Who do you invite to connect on LinkedIn?  Read a previous article on invitations.

Your level and degree of connecting is your personal preference. Similarly to a business page, you may want to have a personal social media policy that includes how frequently you will post.  On social media, posting too often can get your posts muted by your connections. The type of information you share might cause someone to turn off your posts OR could keep them from recommending you to a new client contact.  

People in job search mode need to be especially careful of what they post and the photos in which they are tagged. You never know who knows one of your connections and what they can see. This is a good time to check your settings to allow only close friends to see specific items.  

All in all, social media is meant to be social, to engage with your friends and connections. In the grand scheme of things you will ultimately decide how much of an open book you want your life to be.  Remember, if you don’t want the world to know something, don’t post it on the world wide web.

Share your thoughts!

 

Learn LinkedIn

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If you have ever wanted to learn the power of LinkedIn you have two options coming up.

March 5 & 6 is a FREE 1 hour webinar session with Illinois workNet

This Free one hour webinar will be packed with information on how to maximize your personal LinkedIn profile. It is sponsored by Illinois workNet.  Register here.

March 28 is a live hands-on workshop

This hands-on workshop will teach you how to optimize your profile, use the best functions of LI-workshopLinkedIn and show you how to develop your company profile. Come armed with a laptop, images (you will receive dimensions after you complete the registration) and you imagination.

Location: QCI Restoration, 1155 Bowes Rd. , Elgin, IL 60123
Time: 8AM-11AM

Continental breakfast will be provided. Check-in begins at 7:30AM.
$30 per person – Register here  Only $25 with the Early Bird discount until March 20.

QCI

 

LinkedIn Endorsements

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I am sure by now that you have seen the “Endorsements” on your LinkedIn profile.  This is a relatively new feature from LinkedIn that allows you to perform a quick click and let your connections and the other person’s connections see that you feel your connection exhibits those skills.

The YouTube how-to video below explains:

  • Endorsement Monday’s – similar to Twitter’s #FollowFriday or #FF, take a few moments every Monday to endorse some of your connections.
  • Endorse someone from your home page - Something similiar to the image above will appear on your home page in LinkedIn so it becomes quite simple perform the “endorsement” action.
  • Endorsing someone from their profile – you can also go directly to a connections profile, find the “Skills and Expertise”, and then choose to endorse one or a number of skills they have listed.
  • Managing Endorsements – not everyone wants to show the endorsements for the skills they have listed OR they prefer not to have a particular person listed as having endorsed them.  I show you how to manage those endorsements.

Thanks for reading, and if you would like to endorse me for any skills, here is the link – Dee Reinhardt

Share this post with your connections to help them understand the Endorsement process.

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Tag your LinkedIn Connections

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I was ecstatic when I found the option to tag my LinkedIn connections.  This feature wasn’t available until after I had over 300 connections and I didn’t take advantage of the feature until I had over 500 connections.  If you start early in your connecting career, you will have a robust search pattern available to help you find your contacts quickly and easily.

Tagging helps you sort and organize your contacts with labels that you create to help you remember where or why you might know someone.  Personally I remember faces forever, but names tend to elude my memory.  Once I have someone tagged, I can search by industry or geographic area to try to find the face. (Another reason why photos on your profile are so important)

With the new profiles that LinkedIn has been rolling out, it is an extra step from how you could tag profiles in the old profile view.  I thought I would share a quick how-to in this blog post.  If you have questions, reach out to me.  If you need to optimize your profile, I can help with that as well.

Happy Tagging!