LinkedIn

I get asked a lot about LinkedIn for students use-case scenarios, and although this post is originally based on how I would have responded sometime ago, my college-age niece recently asking me this question reminded me that I should have an answer revised for the times. You can find more details in my podcast, which…

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If you’re overlooking LinkedIn, your business is ignoring the second-largest social network. That’s right, some data suggests that LinkedIn actually has more dedicated users than Twitter. Whether you are seeking introductions to decision makers or more clients for your business, LinkedIn can help you get there, but only if you use it right. Overhaul your LinkedIn…

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Of all the underrated tools on the web, Slideshare is one of the biggest examples. For many who are hoping to promote, it is last on the list of helpful social dashboards. Yet, it offers a unique and effective way to increase the power of your social brand. The lack of oversaturation means your chances…

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Do your Slideshare presentations have a Slideshare call-to-action? Everything you put online should have some kind of brand-specific purpose. Even if it didn’t when you created it, it damn well better have it by the time you publish. At first glance, that might sound like cynical advice. It may also appear to fly in the…

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Content repackaging is the number one content strategy that not enough people are using. I know this, because I have too many fellow bloggers, marketers and website owners who have never even tried it. Instead, they constantly beat their heads against the wall as they try to come up with fresh content constantly. But our…

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Slideshare is the largest Powerpoint sharing community on the web, but it is so much more than that. It is also a social network, and a platform for marketing visual content in many different forms – which means Slideshare an essential part of a solid social media strategy. Presentations can be both hosted and noticed there,…

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Last month I was sharing some Slideshare content ideas including re-packaging screenshots, collecting quotes, curating content and re-using your presentations from events you are visiting. This time let’s share some tools that will help you create a SlideShare presentation in a breeze! First of all, a few words about PowerPoint which I am not including…

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Slideshare is a great (content) marketing platform but since it’s mostly about sharing presentations, many people shy away from marketing there. I am starting Slideshare series here, at Maximize Social Business, giving you lots of tips on how to quite easily add Slideshare to your content marketing plan and even become a superstar there. Yes,…

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It’s been a few months since I wrote my popular Professional LinkedIn Profile Tips: A Checklist of 17 Must-Have Items post, and since we have all seen the growing importance of visual social media, I wanted to offer my readers an easy way to compare their own profile with what I call the perfect LinkedIn profile…

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LinkedIn continues to evolve at a fast pace – but is your profile still stuck in pre-2013 times? I’ve blogged about LinkedIn profile mistakes as well as LinkedIn profile inbound marketing tips. It’s time to provide you all an update aligned with all of LinkedIn’s changes to help you create the perfect professional LinkedIn profile. Consider…

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LinkedIn Endorsements. Nothing in the history of LinkedIn has created so much “buzz” in the online community as this newest feature. For those who know me, you’ll appreciate my perspective: 1) I don’t tend to waste time voicing a positive or negative opinion of the changes – they are what they are, and this is LinkedIn…

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Isn’t it time that you update your LinkedIn Profile? Considering that LinkedIn profiles are the most viewed pages on LinkedIn, and your profile page really is every professional’s starting place to claim and create their own professional brand, you should be regularly reviewing your LinkedIn profile to see how you can optimize it with every…

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Due to the professional demographic of LinkedIn, it’s only a matter of time before more businesses leverage the professional opportunities available by searching for products and services through LinkedIn Company Pages.  It is in every business owner’s best interest to ensure that his or her company be found prominently in the Company search results when…

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Once you move beyond the generic “add connections” option that LinkedIn has, you might want to specifically search for and increase your connections with people aligned with whatever connection policy you might have.  The challenge is that restrictions exist within LinkedIn that may prevent you from inviting others you don’t personally know.  You are entitled…

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Your LinkedIn profile is the public-facing summary of who you are, what you represent, what your professional history is, and your area of expertise.  In essence, your profile is a snapshot of the brand you are sharing with the entire world. It’s only natural, then, that increasing the Inbound Marketing potential of our profile can…

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In consulting with businesses on their social media strategy, I often use success stories from LinkedIn’s own blog to illustrate how business can be developed on LinkedIn.  I also talk about my own LinkedIn case study success story, which is included in full detail in my new LinkedIn marketing book, and summarized as follows: As my…

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Want to buy Facebook fans? Why not buy some Twitter followers to boot? There are companies that you can actually pay money to to achieve this. Now there are companies not only selling LinkedIn connections, but also saying if you use them to create a LinkedIn Group, they will make sure it gets filled with…

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LinkedIn, like any other social media channel, is a social networking platform.  This means that people are networking with each other while revealing who they are and what they do.  LinkedIn reminds you to do this when you log in by making sure your profile is 100% complete.  Part of getting to 100% completion is…

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Is your LinkedIn account restricted? You’re not alone – a look through the comments of this post will give you an idea as to the issues that others like you are facing. Feel free to read through this article, then pay close attention to the comments to see if there is someone similar to you…

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As you get more comfortable with using LinkedIn, the day may come when you start connecting with other professionals that you may not know very well.  I am not referring to becoming a LinkedIn LION or open networker, but connecting with people that you may have had a chance to meet at a networking event…

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LinkedIn is a very interesting social networking site.  Many users say they only want to connect with people in their closed network, but unless that network is big enough, the benefits of using LinkedIn to find and be found become minimal.  On the other hand, I find many users who don’t care about acquiring LinkedIn…

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If you looked at 10 different LinkedIn profiles, you might see 10 different ways in which people have entered their details.  For a social networking platform that is trying to standardize the way people depict themselves with their “xxx% profile completeness” status that appears when you edit your profile, the results have been surprisingly across…

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LinkedIn has been around for many years now, and maybe some of you created an account in the early days of 2004 like I did and just forgot about it, including the password.  Then, later on you created a second account.  Or maybe you used your business email as your primary email address and no…

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If it hasn’t happened to you yet, it will soon: the dreaded request for a LinkedIn Recommendation from a former co-worker or employee that you may not want to give one to.  Why?  Well, every time you make a recommendation, it appears on your LinkedIn profile and becomes part of your LinkedIn Brand. Perhaps you…

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I attended a great local networking event last night in my local Orange County, California.  There were many people who I had communicated with on Twitter and finally had the chance to meet…the feeling was almost like seeing long lost friends!  I will save Tweetups for another blog post, because what interested me last night were…

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LinkedIn Profile Tips.  A lot of people tell you what you should be doing, but what about what you shouldn’t be doing? LinkedIn is the place to not only find others but also to be found.  And that is why you need a profile that not only helps you get found but also will entice…

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Writing a LinkedIn recommendation? Will you write me one? Come on, I don’t really want you to write me one, but there has been unprecedented chatter about LinkedIn recommendations in blogging circles these days.  And I want to put everything in perspective to confirm whether or not LinkedIn recommendations really have value. It was Jeremiah Owyang…

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There are many resources on the web for finding people to follow on Twitter.  Just do a search for any particular type of person you want to follow (student entrepreneurs? job seeker advice? etc.) and chances are you will find a list.  But why none for who to connect with on LinkedIn?  Well, just as…

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After networking with several great people over the last several days, which have in essence been conversations that seem more like a veritable cross-breeding of ideas, I believe that more and more people are starting to see the potential value of meeting new people on LinkedIn. Now, just because you are open to doing this…

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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…

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As more businesses realize what is LinkedIn and 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…

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Before I event start answering this question on LinkedIn branding, I will tell you that I am going out on a limb on this one.  I am going against what a lot of people are actually doing.  You may think that I am crazy or just wrong, but my intention is only to help those…

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I have seen a growing interest in LinkedIn Groups from my networking contacts and LinkedIn connections recently, and in addition to the common questions of How to Find Groups on LinkedIn to Join? and How to Use LinkedIn Groups Effectively?, there is a growing interest as to what the proper etiquette and best practices should be…

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The following story of LinkedIn account ownership is a true one, and as with my other blog posts, I am hoping to get your feedback as to what the “right” answer to this question should be. Imagine that you began a job as a recruiter.  Part of your job is, obviously, building out a network….

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LinkedIn, as you already know, is a social networking platform for professionals.  It is no secret, then, that there is business to be found on LinkedIn for companies of many sizes and industries.  If you are a small business owner, you may be confused as to whether you should use your company name or personal…

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I have had the opportunity to engage with many lawyers recently, both in person as well as online through LinkedIn, and the sudden interest in social media that they seem to have has been surprising to me.  I had always envisioned the legal profession as more of an old-school, conservative group of people that would…

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I recently did a Twitter Chat for #smbiz on tips for utilizing LinkedIn for business. Since then I have been contacted by small businesses looking for advice on what is LinkedIn and how to fully utilize the social network. I decided to answer this particular question on my blog because it did not come up…

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On Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, it is very easy to “unfriend” someone. For some reason it is very difficult to figure out how to delete connections on LinkedIn. If you think about it, LinkedIn was originally intended to be a social network for professionals who only connected with people they know and trust….

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Social media changes a lot. Some functionality is here today gone tomorrow. Your LinkedIn account might face restrictions today but I might never. Below is an incident detailing one of those incidents that happened to me several years ago but serves as an example of the never-ending changes that occur in social, and why you…

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The timing of my blog posts concerning monetizing your LinkedIn connections has to be coincidental, but yesterday, for the first time, I received an email (which was probably sent out to all of this person’s LinkedIn connections) which was an offering, in essence, to sell his LinkedIn account. He explained how he was getting out…

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Just got this question from a new member of my LinkedIn network today about how to contact someone on LinkedIn, so I thought I would share my answer with everyone. If you have something you want to tell everyone, or something that you want to sell, it makes sense that you want to go beyond…

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If you are reading this you hopefully already have a presence on LinkedIn, but maybe you are not as active as you should be.  Confused as to why you need to join and use LinkedIn?  Well, if you are a professional, there are many reasons why you at least need to join LinkedIn and should…

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LinkedIn Groups allow you to be virtually connected to a number of people that share the same interest.  The largest groups have membership in the millions. If you join a group, you will be able to directly send a LinkedIn message as well as invite, without knowing the E-Mail address of, anyone in this group, …

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Back in August 4, 2009, LinkedIn for the first time placed a restriction on the number of LinkedIn Groups once can join.  The official E-Mail that I received at the time looked like this: “We are in the process of adding new functionality to enhance the experience of Groups, including the recent release of a searchable…

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I recently got asked this question about how to connect with Barack Obama on LinkedIn, and because I had a little trouble doing so myself, I thought I would let anyone know who wants to get connected with him on LinkedIn how I did so.  Whether you agree with Barack Obama’s policies or not, according…

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Have you had the experience recently where you were asked to enter your email address in order to send a LinkedIn invite to someone? You might have received too many LinkedIn IDKs. So, what is an IDK exactly? When you invite someone to connect with you on LinkedIn or receive an invite from someone, the…

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What is a LinkedIn LION? LION, in the LinkedIn world, stands for Linked In Open Networker. LIONs are basically open to networking with people that they have never met before, and they are important in the fact that they bridge networks of closed people.  If we all follow the standard rule of LinkedIn and say…

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‘ Who to connect with on LinkedIn in order to build a network is a question I often get asked. Every time someone invites me to connect with them, I always send out a reply thanking them and also asking them to contact me should they ever need any help with LinkedIn.  I have had…

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