5 LinkedIn Features Which Help To Keep Your Profile Alive

Жизнь в нашей группе Vikitravel Connect на LinkedIn потихонечку налаживается:) На сегодняшний день там 122  человека! Участники отлохмачивают свои профайлы и пытаются общаться. И это все очень и очень радует! Ведь для этого вся эта штука и затевалась, чтобы вы получали от всего этого свою выгоду и учились развивать отношения, которые и приведут вас к заветной цели.  Я регулярно просматриваю ваши профайлы и так сказать приглядываю за процессом:) Хотя я тут не спец и кроме как сторонний наблюдатель больше ни на что не гожусь:) Зато Алекс вроде как поддает вам жару и пытается научить чему только можно. Я же хочу остановиться на том, чего поймали мои глаза:) Так недавно я наехала на Рыжика за то, что в его профайле в группе он значится как Марк С., а не с полным именем (про неудачное фото я вообще молчу:), типа мы людям говорим как важно чтобы в профайле было полное имя и фамилия, а ты все это игнорируешь.

На что он заявил, что ничего подобного, когда он открывает свой профайл там все нормально полное имя и фамилия, и никаких проблем. Тогда то мы и выяснили, что не всегда то, что вы видите, создав свой профайл, видят и другие люди, причем вы можете об этом и не догадываться! Так как в настройках есть такие вещи как видимость вашего имени и фамилии. Так вот если у вас там нажата не та кнопочка или не те настройки, то вы так и будете продолжать видеть при открытии своего профайла свои имя и фамилию полностью, а вот все остальные люди будут видеть вас в усеченном варианте!

После копания в настройках профайл Рыжика теперь идет под полным именем и фамилией:) А среди наших членов клуба у половины примерно вместо фамилии всего одна буква. Если вы сделали это не специально и находитесь в полной уверенности что все видят ваши полные данные, то тогда зайдите в свои настройки и проверьте, правильно ли там стоят эти самые настройки , которые открывают доступ к вашей фамилии для всех.Если вы все еще не уверены все ли там правильно, то я или Алекс можем сказать вам, как мы вас там видим:)

Зато после прошлой статьи про фото, фото у наших ребят улучшились, а те у кого его не было, поставили!:) Молодцы, так держать! Вы лучшие, красивые, умные, отличные профи, и вам нечего совершенно стесняться, зато есть чем гордиться! Не прячьтесь за столбом и неполной фамилией!:)

Сегодняшняя большая статья от Алекса будет посвящена некоторым важным функциям LinkedIn: как искать и добавлять людей, что такое Группы,  Приложения и Ответы, ведь эти функции важны для поддержания профайла в рабочем состоянии. Железо надо ковать пока оно горячо:) А дохлый нерабочий профайл, созданный непонятно для чего и забытый… ну кому от него польза?:) Пока таких коматозных профайлов у нас в группе немало, и это очень огорчает.

Может быть люди ждут лучших времен? Но ведь развитие отношений это не процесс одного дня, и бывает занимает месяцы и годы. Потому если вы считаете, что вам еще рано создавать связи, то вы ошибаетесь! Наоборот, судьба дала вам шанс начать все плавно и заранее, и когда придет время Ч и вам понадобятся связи, у вас их уже будет достаточное количество, чтобы сразу получить хорошую поддержку. Так что  очень рекомендую оживить свои профайлы, сделать из них конфетку и заняться созданием своей сети!

Как все это сделать сегодня расскажет Алекс!

For whatever reason you decided to create your LinkedIn profile, you want to make sure it is being updated regularly or as I would say – it is alive. It doesn’t mean that you should post your updates or tweak it like crazy every hour or two or even every day. However, doing this at least 2-3 times a week will indicate that you are there for your connections and for people who might consider connecting with you.

I would identify three main approaches in keeping your profile dynamic: connect, communicate, and engage.

Once you have joined LinkedIn you get instant access to many great features and functions even being a basic (free) profile user. For the reasons mentioned above the following 5 features are included when you have a basic profile:

1. Add Connections

2. Search

3. Applications

4. Answers

5. Groups

I would like to note that if you want to use LinkedIn as a job search tool, I would substitute LinkedIn “Answers” with “Jobs”. But let’s discuss this in more depth later as it is definitely a topic for a separate discussion.

All the features listed above are at your direct access through the dropdown menu which you can see at the top of the page as soon as you log in.

 

1. Add Connections

The main purpose of this feature is to add people to your professional network. Sounds simple right? However, there are some things you need to keep in mind while expanding your network on LinkedIn. We have already talked about making LinkedIn connections but let’s outline some more details on how you can connect to other people and what would be the best way to do this.

LinkedIn allows you to invite people to connect in the following ways:

— You can import your contact list from your e-mail agent (software) like Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo etc. Sending your invitations as a bulk e-mail based on this list is something that should be avoided. Go through the list and edit it excluding any email addresses you don’t want to use for this purpose;

— You can directly contact the people you know such as your friends, colleagues, and class mates;

— You can browse the list of “People You May Know” suggested by LinkedIn which is located on the right top part of the main page or in the Add Connections section of the menu;

— Once you join any LinkedIn Groups, you can connect with fellow group members. Very often there is a special discussion thread which allows you to post your individual invitation to connect with other group members;

— You can use the Search function to find people you would like to connect with;

— You can use LinkedIn Introductions (at least 5 of them for a Basic Profile user). I would recommend using this feature only when you know the person whom you ask to introduce you to someone else, otherwise in most cases your request will be either ignored or declined. Moreover, even if you ask your best friend to introduce you to one of his connections, there is no guarantee that the introduction will be accepted. Don’t be offended as there might be tons of reasons for that.

Regardless, if you decide to use the Introductions feature to connect with somebody through one of your connections, make sure you provide as many reasons as you can to both the introducing person and to the person you want to be introduced to. The “just because” factor doesn’t work here. One more trick with introductions, before sending your request to one of your connections asking to introduce you to someone else, have a look at the profile of that person. Right after the name you will see a number like this: “2nd” or “3rd”.

It means the degree to which this connection belongs in your network. The “2nd” degree indicates that you both have somebody in you network whom you are connected with directly (being a 1st degree connection) and most likely you would be able to communicate your request to that person. As you may guess, “3rd” degree connection means that you do not have any direct connections in your network and I wouldn’t even bother trying to get introduced to that person this way.

In this case examine the profile and figure out if you have anything in common with this person before sending your invitation to connect. Personalize your invitation showing your genuine interest in that connection.

The following are some good practices necessary when using “Add Connections”:

— Use the person’s name in your invitation to connect;

— Provide specific reasons why you want to connect keeping in mind you have a 300 word limit for the message;

— Always send a thank you reply after your invitation is accepted;

— Do not send your invitation to a person more than once within a short period of time. If you do not receive a quick response, it means that your invitation wasn’t received and opened yet or just ignored for whatever reason. Instead you might consider sending a brief message to that person explaining why you wanted to connect.

So the message here is always connect with people wisely and do not bombard people with your multiple invitations and requests for introduction.

2. LinkedIn Search

LinkedIn has a very powerful built-in search engine which works within the network in order to help its users find different kinds of information. You can perform your search in different segments of the network such as people, updates, jobs, companies, answers, and groups.

Also, when typing your request into the search field, there is a dynamic and intuitive function called “suggestions”. It gives you the most relevant results based on the first letters or words you are putting in the search field. You have the option to switch this function off if you want.

By default your search box has been set up to perform a people search which totally makes sense as the whole meaning of LinkedIn is “people are connecting to people”.

Everything is pretty straightforward with a regular search until you get into the advanced search mode which expands search options significantly as there are lots of filters available for you to expand or narrow down your search. Instead of describing each and every filter available, I would suggest that you “play” with it and see how it works. You also have the option to save the search results for future reference.

The results you receive are based on the criteria you choose. It is worth mentioning that the main principle of the search is based on key words you use to index the available information. Understanding this you probably would consider going back and editing your profile enriching it with relevant key words that could be used to find YOU. Got the idea?

Looking at the search filters it is obvious that the most impactful search areas of your profile are:

— Headline;

— Current and first of your previous positions;

— Summary;

— Interests;

— Specialties;

Now let’s do the following: try to search yourself using the key words which apply to your professional expertise and also changing the search filters. Is your profile constantly on the first page of the search results? Yes? Great! No? Then you need to make the necessary changes in your profile which I mentioned earlier about key words.

One more thing about LinkedIn search: once you get to the search results page(s), you have the opportunity to filter the results further using the left-side filters bar or to sort the results by relevance, relationship, relationship + recommendations, connections and key words. The cool thing about this is that LinkedIn allows you to narrow down your search results by instantly switching on and off the filters without going back and performing the search all over again or by going through the numerous pages trying to find what you need.

Also you have the option to switch between the ways the results are being displayed: expanded or basic view.

Again, play with it and you will see how powerful LinkedIn search is.

3. Applications

While browsing other peoples’ profiles you probably noticed that many of them look a bit different. Not in terms of the main profile’s sections but by having some additional modules such as events, polls, video presentations, and blog posts etc. These are third-party applications which LinkedIn users can incorporate into their profiles.

Some of them are integrated into LinkedIn quite deep (like Twitter) even having a dedicated option to adjust settings the same way as the settings of LinkedIn original functions and features.

Currently there are about 20 of those applications but basic profile users have a certain limit in the number of simultaneously used applications.

In this article we are not going to discuss all the applications in detail as there will be a separate post about it very soon.

But speaking about the main functions of LinkedIn it should be mentioned that using Applications is the great way to connect by providing more information about yourself in the form of video or Power Point presentations, to communicate to other people (for example, using Twitter) and to engage with your network.

4. LinkedIn Answers

LinkedIn Answers is definitely another great feature you want to consider using regularly if you want to leverage the whole power of this network. This is the part of LinkedIn where you can ask other users your questions on different topics (just have a look at the directory of Answers – it is impressive) and also you can be an expert answering other users’ questions.

By participating in LinkedIn Answers you will have an amazing opportunity to CONNECT and to COMMUNICATE to professionals in different fields. After all, this is what we want to use LinkedIn for isn`t it?

So, ask your questions and show your genuine interest to get to know something new or answer other users’ questions to show off your professional expertise.

There are some tips about using LinkedIn Answers:

—           You have an option to ask your questions openly or privately sending it to a specific connection.

—           Never use Answers for a job search or recruiting purposes as this is against the LinkedIn policies. The same also applies to advertisements – you cannot advertise anything in Answers.

—           Keep in mind that your open questions and answers will be displayed in your profile by default. Otherwise don’t forget to adjust the settings accordingly.

—           There is a point system in LinkedIn Answers. Your best answer picked by a person who asked a question will be rewarded by points of expertise. The more points you get the higher you are in the experts lists. This is a great place to be at the top.

5. LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups is one of the most useful and powerful networking tools available in this professional network. To me, the meaning of a LinkedIn Group is a community of LinkedIn users united by a common area(s) of their interests. There are 6 main types of groups: alumni groups, corporate groups, conference groups, networking groups (where Vikitravel Connect group belongs), non-profit groups, and professional groups. I would say if you want to connect, communicate, and engage on LinkedIn you simply can’t ignore participating in LinkedIn Groups. This is a BIG mistake if you created and completed your profile properly but missed joining LinkedIn Groups of your interests.

Why? Once you have joined group(s), it is an instant expansion of your active accessible network on LinkedIn by the number of group members in addition to your existing 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree connections. All members of the shared groups become a significant part of your active network which you can directly connect to. The cool thing about it is that it is mutual!

Just imagine: you have joined a group with 100 members. In doing this, your active network has got instantly increased by the number of people actively connected to those 100 group members. Now multiply that number by 50 (maximum groups you can join on LinkedIn). Imagine the possibilities if a group has 1000+ users. The number would be really huge and there are numerous opportunities to connect, to communicate, and to engage on LinkedIn.

There are quite a few rules, tips and tricks about LinkedIn Groups that I would like to talk about but I have decided to write a separate post about it and it is almost ready. So stay tuned.

In conclusion, can you do me a favour? Whether you have been using LinkedIn for a while or just joined it, can you share your thoughts on which functions and features of LinkedIn YOU found very useful and why?

Otherwise, let’s keep in touch and CONNECT, COMMUNICATE, and ENGAGE on LinkedIn using its powerful tools and functions.

 

To be continued…