It has been very interesting to see the progress that so many of you have made over this past year that we have been communicating together about LinkedIn. It is exciting to see that once you start to make LinkedIn a habit and not something you consider an “extra” in your day, results seem to come much easier and more consistently. I hope you are all at that point.
Here are my Volume 53 helps for this week that may just bring you along in that process.
Profile Tips
I know I have talked a lot about performing a keyword search test on your own individual profile, but what about doing the same thing on your company profile in the Companies section of LinkedIn? For sure, this is a “gotta do.”
Here is how you do it. Go to “More” on the top toolbar and select “Companies,” and that will take you to the company’s home page. In the keyword box, put keywords that you want to be found with, and then select the region that is appropriate for you. Next, hit the Search button and make sure you come up. Unlike the people search, if you have those words in your company profile, you will come up first. It has nothing to do with the number of times that word appears or where it appears that puts you at the top. Repeat this step for other words that you want to be found with. For example, my keywords are: office furniture, interior design, space planning, moving, raised floors, moveable walls, Haworth, etc.
The other thing you want to do when you look at each of these search results is see who else comes up. You might just be surprised who is on the list and just who isn’t on the list.
Continue to think about other keywords that you should include on your profile and add them. These are added by clicking on “Edit” on the top right of your company overview page, but you can only make changes to your company’s profile if you are the person who has the edit capabilities on your LinkedIn company profile.
Connection Tips
Here is a question I get all the time: “I found someone on LinkedIn, and I am not connected to him at the first level, but I would like to contact him. What are my options?” Since this comes up so often and since it is the next step you are going to take after using LinkedIn’s most popular tool, “people searching,” let me take you through your options. These are not in any order of best to worst since each situation and goal may be different.
· Send a message. You will see this option listed on the top right of someone’s profile if you have the rights to send a message, which means you are either connected at the first degree or are in a group together.
· Send InMail. This will be at the top right of a person’s profile if you don’t have the rights to connect with him through a free message. Most of us who are not on the paid account have blown through our five free InMails, maybe not even realizing that they are worth $10 apiece. Yes, you can buy more InMails one at a time by going to Settings, and you will see a category that is called InMails. This will show you how many you have left and allow you to click the Purchase button to buy more. If you find yourself doing this often, you may want to upgrade your account for $24.95 a month, which gets you three more every month. This in turn allows you to get all the other features of a paid account for nada.
· Get introduced through a connection. This is a great way to have your connection (friend) not only introduce you to that person, which always has a higher effectiveness, but also allows your connection to write something nice about you, your services or the products you offer (assuming you pick the right connection). I would always suggest calling or emailing your friend and finding out about the strength of the connection. At the same time you will want to remind your friend about how an introduction works on Linkedin so it doesn’t get stuck in the Linkedin introduction pipe!
· Join a group that person is in. This may not dawn on you right away, but if the person is a member of a group that you are not a part of but it is an open group, i.e., Green Bay Packer Group, Wisconsin Networking Group, etc., you could join the group and then have the ability to send him a message simply by becoming a member. You not only saved $10, but you have increased your chances of having that email opened since the email states that you and that person you wanted to contact are now in a group together and thus have something more in common than just the fact that you would like to help him with his upcoming office furniture needs.
· Call the company and ask for him. Duh! Believe it or not, this still works.
· Send him something by snail mail. Don’t be surprised that this may have an increased effectiveness since we don’t’ seem to get as much of this anymore. If handwritten, it will probably at least get opened.
· Stop at his place of business and drop off some “goodies.” That will sure surprise him. We drop off a bag of M&M’s, plain or peanut.
Wildcard Tip or Question
Linkedin just added a pretty cool beta feature for those of you posting or considering posting a job on the Linkedin job board or site. By the way, the cost of posting for 30 days for one job is $195, but you can get that price down by buying advance credits. What this feature does is to give you up to 24 highly qualified matches for your posting in a business card style format. Check it out at: http://blog.linkedin.com/
I gotta believe this feature is here to stay.
Miscellaneous News and Notes
Some of the other resources I provide are:
• Customized corporate training classes
• Keynote and workshop presentations for conventions and association meetings
• Corporate social media strategy consulting
• For Sale: LinkedIn training DVDs for beginners and intermediate users
• For daily tips, follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/WayneBreitbarth
Here is my upcoming schedule for teaching/speaking so you can share with friends, relatives and business associates. Follow link or paste into your browser for additional details and registration information.
Sat Oct 16, 2010 Wayne's Power Formula Training for Beginners
M&M Office Interiors; 8:30 AM - 11:00 AM
http://budurl.com/kkat
Mon Oct 25, 2010 Intermediate LinkedIn Power Formula Training
M&M Office Interiors; 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM
http://budurl.com/xq2a
Thurs Nov 11, 2011 Wayne's Power Formula Training for Beginners
M&M Office Interiors; 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM
http://budurl.com/2ert
I hope you have a super week contacting new people using whatever method you choose. Be confident in the contact since you are the best at what you do, aren’t you?
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
Hi Wayne,
Thank you for your LinkedIn postings. You give so useful tips.
I have one question for you. I would be very grateful if you could answer me.
I have created my company’s profile into LinkedIn. So I have the right to update it. How or where can I give this right to someone else? It would be safer if there were more than one person who is allowed to update company’s profile. Or what you think?
Best regards
-Eve
ps. I again linked your blog to mine, thanks
Hi Eve
Thanks for the kind words.
I don’t think more than one person can have the ability to update a Company profile so I always recommend to people that the highest ranking official/owner of the company have this “power”.
Wayne
Great tips Wayne! I especially like the reminder that it’s okay to pick up the phone and call… or go to the company website to find the person’s email address. Why be limited by what LinkedIn says is possible?
Thanks Brenda. It is interesting as I teach LinkedIn to those of us in the baby boomer generation that sometimes they are so focused on the new tool that I feel I should remind them of the great tools and techniques that they have mastered over the years still work.
By the way I read your post in the Social Media Advisors Group and thought it was brillant. Keep sharing great information like that.