Peace, Love & LinkedIn - Be a LinkedIn Groupie

The 70’s are gone but being a groupie is definitely in-especially on LinkedIn.  So, today I’m asking you to be a groupie.

Here’s why: LinkedIn, unlike Facebook, requires that you clarify your relationship with a person before you can invite them to connect.  In other words, you have to have an existing relationship and prove it by indicating where you worked or attended school with the person.  If you simply claim to be a friend,  you will need to provide the person’s email address. You won’t be allowed to connect if you say you don’t know the person.   Growing your network with new contacts-people you don’t know-can be complicated on LinkedIn.

There is a solution become a LinkedIn Groupie!

Search LinkedIn Groups and identify which ones would position you with people you can build business with (prospects, existing clients, referral partners, colleagues, etc.)  In these groups, you can get to know people by joining and participating in Discussion, a feature of LinkedIn groups. In addition, once you are in a group, LinkedIn allows you to invite your fellow group members to connect. This opens up a brand new avenue for network growth.  I highly recommend that you engage in the group and offer value to its members. The more you do that, the more likely it is that group members will accept your connection requests when you make them and become valuable business connections.

Growing your network to 500 strategic connections (connections within your target market or industry) is one of the first steps to seeing ROI from your LinkedIn time investments. Using groups can help you get the job done!

If you want to learn more about how to develop business on LinkedIn, contact me on LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellecullison or at  michelle@daystarnewmedia.

I’m a proud LinkedIn groupie. I want you to be. Peace.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a merge feature yet!

So, you will need to decide which profile to keep and which to delete.  Decide based on number of connections and/or how developed your profile is.

Tip: I would keep the one with the most connections and move the profile data.

Here are some steps to help you successfully move to a single profile:

1. Login to the Account you want to delete.
2. Export the Connections to an csv or excel file. (See link at bottom of Connections)
3. Save all profile info into a Word Document.
4. Delete the account.(Go to Account & Settings and Close the account.)
5. Login to the account you want to keep.
6. Import the Connections stored in file from deleted account and re-invite them to connect on the correct profile. Offer an explanation since they were already connections on the other profile.
7. Update your profile as needed.
8. Associate multiple email addresses with your LinkedIn account so that people can find you by any of your email addresses. (Go to Account & Settings and Add Email under Personal Info.)

I hope this helps!  For more social media tips or to ask your questions, become a Fan on Facebook.com/SocialMediaExplained

To complete a LinkedIn profile, users must add the following information:

• Current employment position
• Two past employment positions
• Education info
• Profile summary
• Profile photo 
• Specialties Info
• At least three recommendations

1. Present Yourself with a Professional Profile
Creating a profile only takes a few minutes but creating a profile that gets you the job you want will require a significant investment of time and energy. Like a resume, your profile should highlight your greatest accomplishments so employers who view your profile can quickly see why they should hire you.

2. Get Solid Recommendations On Your Profile
Get in touch with former managers and request a LinkedIn recommendation from them. Next, if you work directly with clients, you may want recommendations that highlight your strengths from a client perspective. Tip: If you have received complimentary emails in the past from bosses or clients, repurpose those emails by replying back to the author asking if they would be willing to post their words of recommendation on your LinkedIn profile.

3. Use Job Search to Identify Available Positions of Interest
The Job Search tool on LinkedIn is unique from other Job databases because you can see who in your network is connected to someone in the company that has posted the job. Tip: Request a personal introduction to the job poster by someone in your network who is connected to the person posting the job.

4. Use People Search To Identify Hiring Personnel
On LinkedIn, you can search people by various information such as keywords, titles and location. For example, if you are a CPA moving to Atlanta and need to begin your job search. Here is what you could do: Search people by
Industry: Accounting Industry
Location: Near 30303 (an Atlanta zip code)
Title: HR
Your search results will show who fits these criteria in your network and in the greater LinkedIn network.

5. Answer Questions in Your Area of Expertise to Increase Your Exposure
To gain greater exposure and put a spotlight on your areas of expertise, search Answers on LinkedIn for questions related to your expertise. Answer as many as you can to the best of your ability. By entering the conversation, you will be exposed to new contacts many of whom may be recruiters or employers who are looking for an expert in your industry.

If you have specific questions regarding how to use LinkedIn for Job searches, please post them as comments and I will answer them in a future post! Thanks for joining the conversation.

Michelle Cullison, New Media Strategist

Here’s how:

• Click on the ‘Edit Your Profile’ link found on the left hand side of the home page.
• Click on ‘Edit’ next to the ‘Public Profile’ area.
• Click on ‘Edit’ next to the ‘Your Public Profile URL’ area at the top of the page.
• Enter your new custom URL. All custom URL’s must start with www.linkedin.com/in/ and must contain 5-30 alphanumeric characters. Do not use spaces, symbols, or special characters.
• Click on ‘Set Address’.