Welcome Back, Everyone:

This week I will continue to share with you the results of the 2010 LinkedIn Survey and “My Two Cents” so that you can see how your habits and uses stack up against your peers in hopes of learning new ways to use LinkedIn or become more effective.  Let’s get rolling. 

One of the most asked questions at my training classes is:  What are the advanced users doing with it to make money?  Well, here is the answer, and then the question for you is:  How do your LinkedIn habits stack up?

Top six LinkedIn features people found to be helpful  (% of people who chose this)

  1. People searching                                   87%
  2. Groups                                                 77%
  3. Company searching                               68%
  4. Status Box                                            51%
  5. Review of network updates                      42%
  6. Review who is in 1st degree network         41%

 

My Two Cents - As it was in my past survey, people searching is “The Money” as I have always thought.  If you are not doing searches several times per week, you probably are not thinking LinkedIn is a very effective use of your time.  Try to think of new keywords that would be in the profile of the person you would love to meet this week, and then regionalize the search, if appropriate, and review the profiles that LinkedIn comes up with.  You might just be amazed at how effective that list is for targeting people you want to meet.

Groups continue to be a close second.  If that is the case, why are you not in 50 groups?

Five least used LinkedIn features  (% of people who chose this) 

  1.  Questions & Answers                            18%
  2.  Box.net files                                          14%
  3.  SlideShare                                            10%
  4.  Saved searches                                      8%
  5.  Company Buzz                                       6%

 

My Two Cents - I am really frustrated with three of the items on this list of things people are not using because I think they are extremely powerful.  Both Box.net files and SlideShare are a great way to differentiate yourself and show you are the expert in your space. 

Saved searches is a must for those who love to do people searching; so I can’t figure out why this is not being used more often, especially because the people search is the #1 answer for best feature.  All I can figure out is that people do not know it exists or how to use it. In case that is the reason, this is how you save a search. 

Once you have completed a search that you would like to save, you simply click the words “Save this search” on the top right and tell it how often you want LinkedIn to notify you of any new people in your network who meet that search criteria.  The choices are weekly, monthly or never.  I cannot figure out why you would ever select “never” unless you just hate e-mails.

Wildcard Tip or Question

If you haven’t found this new feature on the new-and-improved LinkedIn, you’ve gotta check it out. 

When you go into your connections, you can now “tag” your connections with tags (words) that you decide you would like to sort them and keep track of them by.  This could be as simple as customer, prospect, name of a group you are in, how you met them, or as unique as favorite rock band, wine selection or important hobbies.  Be as creative as you can be.  This is really a powerful advanced feature that we all have been waiting for.  I will talk more about this in the future as I start to play around with it.

A video about how to use it can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ8d98R7pa8

Miscellaneous News and Notes

Here is my upcoming schedule for teaching/speaking so you can share with friends, relatives and business associates.  Follow link for additional details and registration information.

Thurs Feb 18, 2010    Power Formula for Networking Using Social Media
                                   M&M Office Interiors; 7:30am-8:30am
                                   Waukesha Chamber of Commerce
                                   http://www.waukesha.org/calendar.asp?d=2/1/2010

Tues Feb 23, 2010     Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Be On LinkedIn
                                    Knights of Columbus, 3200 S. 103rd St.; 1:00pm-2:30pm
                                    ABLE South
                                    Call UWM School of Continuing Education 414-227-3098

Thurs Feb 25, 2010    Top 10 “Gotta Do’s” on LinkedIn for Business Development

                                    Jobcamp3; Noon-1:00pm session
                                    Potawatomi Casino; 9am-6pm

                                  http://www.milwaukeejobcamp.org/

Fri Mar 12, 2010        Caffeine & Connections (Free Coffee and LinkedIn Help)

                                 Gravity Marketing; 6:00am-8:30am

                                   http://budurl.com/9e4v

Wed Mar 10, 2010    Marketing Yourself Through Social Media

                                  NARI Remodeler & Supplier Expo 10:45am-12:15pm

                                  Majestic Theater

                                  http://www.milwaukeenari.org/conference-schedule.php

Mon Mar 15, 2010    Wayne's LinkedIn Power Formula Training for Beginners
                                 Gravity Connect 702 S. 2nd St.; 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
                                  http://budurl.com/b7zz

Thurs Mar 18, 2010    Wayne's Intermediate LinkedIn Power Formula Training
                                   M&M Office Interiors; 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
                                   http://budurl.com/5fdy

Have a great week.

Wayne

  Wayne C. Breitbarth President M&M Office Interiors, Inc. W233 N2833 Roundy Circle West Suite 100 Pewaukee, WI  53072   office 262-781-2600 cell 414-313-7785   http://www.mmoffice.com http://www.Linkedin.com/in/waynebreitbarth http://twitter.com/WayneBreitbarth