This week I want to cover three of the most popular burning questions 

I get about specific functions or features on LinkedIn.  

Burning Question #1

What do you do if you have a great recommendation on company letterhead but the individual who wrote you the recommendation is no longer at the company, is not on LinkedIn, or is not allowed by his/her company to post recommendations on LinkedIn?

There are a couple things I would suggest. First, make a pdf of the recommendation and use the Box.net application to post it on your profile, using a description of the file that clearly shows what the file is. You might say something like, "Letter of praise from president of XYZ Company, talking about my ability to generate business from cold calls." 

You could also extract a quote or two from the letter and put that quote (along with a description of the person who said it) in the Summary section of your profile. Then let the reader know that he/she can scroll down to the Box.net files for a downloadable copy of the complete letter.

Burning Question #2

Wayne, I noticed you have your name misspelled in your Specialties section on your profile. What is that for?

People are always misspelling my last name, and I know why.  It's the "I before E except after C" thing we learned in grade school. To address this issue, I placed my misspelled last name ("Brietbarth" vs. "Breitbarth") in my Specialties section, following an entry that says "KEYWORDS:"  Then if someone searches my name with this misspelling, my profile will come up. 

While consulting with a company recently, I suggested they place a misspelled word strategically in their profiles. This corporate client of mine is in the business of phone services, and there is nothing hotter in their business than voice-over IP or VOIP.  So, of course, we made sure we had both of these prominently placed in all their employees' profiles, but I also suggested they place the misspelling of VIOP in the Specialties section of their profiles followed by an (sp). Then if someone doesn't quite remember which it is, VOIP or VIOP, and they do a search for one of those words, they will probably be the only provider in the area whose profiles will show up in the search.   

Think about words that are important to you and are frequently misspelled. It could be not only proper names but product brand names, processes, addresses, clubs, groups or associations.

Burning Question #3

How can I send a mass LinkedIn message to everyone in my network?

Let me start by sharing that you can only send a mass message to a group of people in the first degree of your network. You cannot communicate en masse with people in the second and third degrees of your network. You can communicate individually with second- and third-degree connections through an individual InMail or Introduction. If you happen to be part of the same group, you can communicate with individuals by using the "Send a Message" option.

There are two different ways to send a mass message to a group of people in your first-degree network, but you can only send your message to groups of 50 people at one time.

1.  From the home page, on the top toolbar select "Inbox," then select "Compose Message," and then begin writing your message and picking a group of up to 50 connections that you want to receive your message. If you have more than 50 connections you want to send the same message to, be sure to copy it before you send it, and then you can paste it into the message for your next group of 50 connections.

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2.  From "My Connections," check the boxes next to the connections you want to send the message to, and then select "Send message." Write your message following the same copy-and-paste procedure so you can use it for the next group of 50.

Another way you can attempt to communicate with your network in its entirety is to use the Status Update box. However, your connections will only see your update if they notice it in the stream of all the status updates they receive. This may not be as effective as the direct message (50 at a time), but it allows you to potentially reach more people.

You will have to decide which of these two options to use based on the urgency of the message and which of your connections you want to target with your message.

Now that the most burning questions have been answered, check out my Miscellaneous News and Notes to sign up for Beginner's LinkedIn Training (only a few seats remaining) and learn about the new class I am offering titled: Using LinkedIn to Generate a Steady Stream of Sales Prospects.