Innovators Win

I praise the animation as an example of a creative way to secure an employer’s attention.  Mission accomplished in capturing attention.  Google will like his innovative approach and so might other employers.  He has set himself apart, an important objective for each job seeker.

Job Boards So Last Decade

Job seekers who prefer to focus their search using job boards are knocking on doors to empty offices in a manner of speaking.  Job boards are quickly becoming so last decade. We might peg them now as “old fashioned.”  Still on occasion they add value so job seekers are wise to pay them some attention like the WantAds in the newspaper.  Employers use these media less and less as they utilize Google and LinkedIn as their primary sources for identifying talent.

Why Google and Other Employers Won’t Reach Ted.

Ted has a problem.  He chooses NOT to be contacted via LinkedIn.  While he shares his LinkedIn profile,  his LinkedIn settings prohibit anyone from contacting him.  His LinkedIn settings shun requests for Introductions and LinkedIn InMail, the very means recruiters and employers use to connect with possible candidates for hire.  His preference for privacy protection is an obstacle to his own success.

The Solution in LinkedIn Settings

If Ted wishes to really be contacted by anyone who can help him secure employment at Google, he needs to adjust his LinkedIn Settings.

1. Access the Settings link atop each LinkedIn page in the right hand corner
2. Select “Contact Settings” under “Email Notifications”
3. Choose to accept both Introductions & InMail under “Types of Messages You’ll Accept”
4. Choose Career Opportunities under “Opportunity Preferences”

InMail permits recruiters and others to contact Ted, a privilege they pay for as a premium subscriber.   Subscribers do not get member contact information, just the privilege to reach a member via email.

If Ted’s LinkedIn profile is current, he continues to hope and wish to work for Google.   Here’s hoping he changes his settings and becomes more accessible and wins his next gig being rewarded for his creativity.

I’ll soon post another idea I have for Ted and how he might secure that job with Google by suggesting changes to his profile that is quite well crafted presently.

I assure you that I am not a guru nor expert.  I am a student of LinkedIn and an evangelist.  I learn from others who write about LinkedIn and from other members like you.  I share my thoughts and solicit your feedback.  Hopefully, some of my thoughts will provide ideas that move you to action resulting in an updated LinkedIn profile that has you feeling better and delivers improved results.  Ideally your feedback will prompt me to include your insights into future postings.

WHAT’S THE OBJECTIVE?
So, let’s identify your objective(s) as a LinkedIn member before writing your profile.  Job seekers, consultants, business owners, professionals and retirees will have different objectives seeking the attention of different audiences.  Professionals like accountants, attorneys, doctors and such will craft profiles that define their areas of expertise with an objective of attracting clients and patients.  Sales professionals, consultants and business owners will seek partners, prospects and customers.  Job seekers want to attract employers’ attention.  Consider your audience first.  Understand what they wish to know about you and share the information they desire.  Put yourself in the position of someone seeking your skills and talents.

GENERAL GUIDELINES….almost common sense.

• Write so your audience understands your message.  Use “plain English” routinely and field jargon where appropriate.
• Use a spell checker.  LinkedIn does NOT have a spell checking feature deferring this function to web browsers.
• More robust content and keywords usually enhance better search results than brief and concise. More details in later postings.
• Keep all content relevant to your objective. If your past is irrelevant to your present and future goals,  consider not including it.
• Reveal your personality in your written word.  Let them hear your voice as partner, co-worker.
• Remember that your making a first impression and you only get one chance at that.  Don’t be careless.

Here is a post from Jason Alba of JibberJobber.com and his review of a profile.

Subsequent postings will include insights on various aspects of the profile that you may have overlooked – headline, status, web links, contact settings and more.  C’mon back and offer your comments.

Browse your Rolodex, collection of contacts or your LinkedIn™ contacts.  Identify two people you think would benefit from meeting each other and make arrangements to make the pay-it-forward introduction at an upcoming event.  That’s pretty simple.

3 Simple Steps to Uber-Networking with Uber-ROR using LinkedIn™

1. Identify a LinkedIn event that you’ll attend soon that would be of general professional interest.
2. Browse the list provided by LinkedIn™ of attendees and the “Interested.”  Identify those you’d like to re-connect with at the event.
3. Consider who they’d like to meet from your network.  Forward the LinkedIn™ profiles of each professional to the other person stating that you’d like to facilitate an introduction at the event.

Why wait for event registrants?  Browse your own network and consider an introduction you can make and begin setting it up using the event to make the introduction. I expect you’re seeing the paying-it-forward strategy working here and how it can enhance the ROR with those you are connecting and the value of the event.  Turbo-charge the pay-it-forward philosophy and ask those you will be introducing to follow the same strategy.

Have a need to meet someone yourself?

LinkedIn™ can really accelerate and optimize this process.  Let me explain how. After identifying the desired attendee to meet, use LinkedIn™ to determine who in your network is connected to the desired professional.  Pick up the phone and make a call suggesting that the event would provide a chance to make the connection since the desired contact is already interested or attending the event.

Simply stated in summary come to the event with the purpose of making introductions and watch ROR blossom.  It’s pay-it-forward, the mindset of all great networkers.  Simply showing up at events is only better than not attending.

There are four ways that events are commonly discovered.  Many professionals discover events on their LinkedIn™ home page where the activity of their connections is reported under “Status” and Events updates.  It’s recommended that you check your LinkedIn™ home page briefly twice a day.  Others will note the event in a LinkedIn™ profile that details a member’s activity.  Some may discover an Event which is promoted in a LinkedIn™ group they belong to in a “Discussion” shared in their group.  Finally an event can be found using the LinkedIn™ Event feature in the Applications folder in the left hand menu.  One can search for events by location, timeframe, type and keyword.

Having found the event, you can “share” or “recommend” the event with your connections.  Within the event description at the bottom are links to “share” or “recommend” the event.  You can “share” the event link with your LinkedIn™ connections via a LinkedIn™ message to alert them of the event.  Invite your network connections to meet you there.  It’s networking face-to-face where trust and relationships are enriched.  If you really want to promote the event, ask your connections to model your sharing efforts inviting them to also “share” the event and its link.  To “recommend” the event you simply select the “recommend” link.  You might expect a pop-up window, but none appears.  What happens is your recommendation of the event appears on the home page of all our connections under the Events updates.  It’s that simple creating word of mouth promotion.  Invite others to recommend the event as well.  You can “recommend” the event once a day if you wish.

Consider sharing this post with anyone you know who is responsible for promoting events in organizations who is seeking new ways to promote their events effectively.   Another post will follow soon taking event promotion for networking to the uber level.

LION’s – LinkedIn Open Networkers
LION’s are the most connective members in LinkedIn.  They are totally OPEN to making connections without qualification or discernment.  They also adhere to the policies of LinkedIn as they refrain from inviting those they do not know.   They will ACCEPT ALL INVITATIONS sent to them and will encourage that you invite them to connect.  LION’s often share their email address making them prominent in their profiles, often as their profile headline.  You might also see the use of “LION” in their name or headline.

The LION mindset is connect, connect, connect.  They think about reach and access to others.  It’s about growing large, widespread networks enabling the ability to find most anyone in any professional field.    They enable finding needles in haystacks and “purple squirrel” professionals, those with the most unusual of skill sets.  They do not pretend to “know” their connections, just “knowing of” instead.  They are important for their reach and access.   Frequently recruiters and sales professionals employ such a philosophy.   They do not de-value relationships and are actually masterful in building relationships successfully in a selective manner.

With regard to processing introductions LION’s promise to FORWARD ANY INTRODUCTION.  Since the depth of their relationships in most cases is shallow, their influence in making successful introductions is limited.  That said, their influence is significant when requesting introductions with their connections well-known to them.

Selective Discernment – Exclusive Networks

Counter to LION’s are the most discriminating of connectors.  They connect exclusively with those they know well, trust and are confident to recommend.  If they don’t know you, your invitation will be shunned with the dreaded “Don’t Know” response.  Often and most likely they will connect with you only when they hold you in high regard.  Inviting them to connect is a dicey proposition.  They connect “up” in corporate organizations more readily and only occasionally with those beneath them.  To them “you are the company you keep” rings true.  Their networks are smaller and usually assure a well-written request for an introduction will be forwarded.  Their relationships with their connections are genuine and trusted.  Significant regard is held in the process of making referrals to those within their networks.

I find myself in between.  I prefer to know those I connect with.  I’ve met most that I am connected with and my “knowing” of each connection has a range that is broad.  I have met or conversed with most connections and usually require meeting before connecting.  I have connected with strangers whose connection is more strategic and open in nature.  They extend my reach which can serve all I am connected too, just not all the time.

If you really wish to see the power of LinkedIn, commit to this exercise Monday through Friday for four weeks and see what happens.  Visit your LinkedIn home page daily for 10-15 minutes.  I think your observations will make apparent the power of this exercise and LinkedIn in general.  Your success and observations gleaned in this exercise will be a function of the size of your network.  A tiny network rarely provides sufficient activity to reward you with significant insight.  Grow your network.  These benefits also may not be observed depending upon your account settings.  More about that in another post.

Visit your Home Page!

1 – Update your status. Tell your network what you’re working on.  Here are some ideas.

• Keep it work-related and beyond the mundane.
• Tell us about your achievement or challenge today.
• Offer praise for someone who has helped you in some manner or who has recently been recognized for a professional achievement.
• Share a link of interest and offer some context framing it.  Use a URL shortener.
• Ask a question or request help of your network.
• Invite your network to share what they’re working on.   Nudge ‘em!
• DON’T share personal insignificant details (getting a haircut), don’t whine.

2 – Review Network Updates – Today (Yesterday only if you wish to revisit)

• Review Status Updates -  Who is doing what.  Add comment or reply privately to at least one.
  • Account settings are critical here.
• Examine the Recommendations made by and for those in your network.
  • Note who is worth connecting to or learning more about.
  • Note what makes a compelling recommendation, many aren’t.
  • Consider writing a recommendation for someone you are connected to.
• Examine the Groups joined by your connections.  Should you join them?
• Note who has an updated Profile.  Examine a profile.
  • It may help you improve yours
  • You might note a promotion or an honor worth remarking on.
• Who is attending what LinkedIn Events. Perhaps you might wish to attend as well or meet the presenter.
• Observe the Connections Updates of your connections.  You may note people you know or would like to know.

As this is social media it is important that you first read of others’ doings, then be responsive. Stay in touch sending a brief message!  It’s not an email, but a LinkedIn internal message plunked into their LinkedIn Inbox.

Respond to every update?  Certainly not, but you can make a brief remark to many you’ve not seen in a while whose updates are noteworthy.    You’ll learn and become more active modeling others activities.  If it takes more than the suggested time, it’s because you’re engaged and learning.  Quite naturally I believe that you might undertake this exercise twice a day once in the morning and again later in the day.

Carry on!  Update your status.  Tell your network what you’re doing.  Engage them professionally.   Stay in touch letting them know you are paying attention to their updates. Send them a message.   It’s fast and easy visiting the home page.  Make it a daily habit!

So, as assured as you are, why not check yourself as they say.   Do it lest others soon tell you they’ve found you on LinkedIn twice, three times or more.  Use the People search function and look yourself up.  Sigh, if you’ve found yourself just once.  Read on if you wish to fix the multiple accounts or prevent such from happening.

LinkedIn Rules Regarding Accounts & Email Addresses.
The LinkedIn rules are as follows.  Each member by the terms and conditions is permitted one account.  Each account has a primary email address.  An email address can only be associated with one account.   Multiple email addresses can be linked to an account.

How Do Multiple Accounts Happen?
Let me present a scenario that describes how multiple accounts are unknowingly created by members.   You’re at work and a colleague sends you an invitation to join their LinkedIn network.  The invitation is sent to me@work.com.  LinkedIn recognizes this as a new email address to its database.  It asks your name, your zip code, your schooling and your current employer.  You now are a LinkedIn member.  You’re a passive member reacting to the invitations of others and sending a few invitations from your account.

A family member or friend sends you an invitation to join their LinkedIn network at your personal email address – me@home.com.  LinkedIn determines this is a new email address not yet registered in its database.  Again you are asked your name, zip code, school attended and employer.  You have a deja vu experience but assume you’re verifying your LinkedIn account.  There you are a LinkedIn split personality with two accounts.  It happens innocently.  It can be fixed and prevented.

Deleting Multiple Accounts.
First identify your primary account, the one with the largest network.  Usually the additional accounts are smaller networks with email addresses less used.

In the additional accounts identify those you are connected to and invite them to join your primary account network.   Login to the additional accounts.   Select the Accounts & Settings link atop each page.   Select “Close Your Account” within Personal Information under Settings.  This will close your account.  The email address used as the primary email address of the deleted account should now be added to your primary account.

Adding Email Addresses.
All the email addresses you use should be included in your LinkedIn account.   Add them again using Accounts & Settings – Personal Information – Email Addresses.  Confirm each email address you add.  It is advised that your primary email address be the email address that you check most regularly.   It is ill-advised that you create a “special” email address for your LinkedIn account.   More on that in another posting.

Questions?  Comments?  Feedback?