Informed Podcast by Mark Williams The podcast for LinkedIn™️ users

April 2014
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20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30

Sat, 20 December 2014

Episode 46. It's Christmas!

show notes

News

The top 25 skills that got people hired in 2014.
Bryan Mills (aka Liam Neeson) will endorse your skills if you win a contest! Interesting to see a major film studio using LinkedIn to promote its latest movie release (Taken 3) and even more interesting to that LinkedIn are completely fine with this!
Could Viadeo be a viable acquisition target for LinkedIn?
Tax inspectors in Turkey use LinkedIn to catch tax evaders

Commentary

Do you want to find your 'future self' on LinkedIn? When you think about it you could and LinkedIn could make it even easier if they released tools to make it easier to predict your future based on real data from other profiles.
Where is Jeff Weiner taking LinkedIn? I love this article and agree with the three areas that they believe LinkedIn is focussing its future on.

Thanks to my two wonderful kids James & Anna for 'volunteering' to be interviewed for this show!

Finally may I wish you a very merry and happy Christmas.

2015 is going to be a great year for LinkedIn and I look forward to sharing every moment of it with you.

Thank you so much for listening, I really value your support and interest.

As always I would welcome your feedback and questions. If you want to be on the show you can leave a comment by voicemail (right hand side of this page) or email me at mark@linkedinformed.com.

Help me to promote the podcast

It can be difficult to get noticed in iTunes and one thing that can really make a difference is reviews. If you enjoy the show please take a minute to write an honest review in iTunes, it would be most appreciated.

Direct download: LinkedInformed_046.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00pm UTC

Sat, 13 December 2014

Episode 45. The New LinkedIn Home Page

Question

Why are my status updates getting ignored?

Status updates can be a powerful feature when used correctly, here are my guidelines for effective status updating;

Always use an image by using the paperclip link in the update box. This will make your images larger and that is the most important thing, people have to see an update in the first place so large, eye catching images work. The new homepage (as shown above) makes this even more important.
Posting updates in isolation is unlikely to result in many connections seeing it. The algorithm seems to prefer showing your updates to connections whom you have engaged with on LinkedIn. This means that other activities - comments, likes, views, connecting etc all count.
Avoid posting links in isolation. Make your updates more interesting by making a comment to introduce a subject and support that with a link (rather than just posting a link).
Ask questions and encourage others to comment, this will help to spread your update beyond your first tier connections.
Avoid too many promotional updates (including vacancies). Promoting is OK so long as its not your dominant activity, for every promotional update there should be another three that are providing interesting, useful information.
Timing. Avoid weekends and mornings are better than afternoons. My experience has been that 8.15-9.15 aam works best for me but every market is different so I would advise you to experiment. I use Buffer to help me schedule some updates to ensure I hit the right time.
Consistency. Regular updates spread across a week are better than a 'surge' of updates across one day. This happens because we are all busy and tend to update when we can rather than in a considered, consistent manner. I also use Bufferto help with this.

Direct download: LinkedInformed_045.m4a
Category: -- posted at: 11:58am UTC

Sat, 6 December 2014

Episode 44. The Ingredients of a Great LinkedIn Message

Show notes

News

LinkedIn have changed how we edit our profiles. I have produced a very short video (30 secs) to demonstrate the changes
It would appear that LinkedIn are testing a new way to invite from someone's profile (desktop app), this means that clicking 'connect' will just send a standard message. In order to customise the message you now have to hover over the disclosure triangle and select 'personalise invitation' as below

This has only been seen by a few users so far so is obviously in the early stages of testing.

Nominate your best LinkedIn company Page of 2014
40% of LinkedIn users earn over $100k per year according to Comscore. This fact and many other come from this fantastic and well researched article on DigiDay.com. The article is about Dan Roth the Executive Editor of LinkedIn. I would recommend you read it.

Commentary

A trip down memory lane. In the Digiday article they include an amazing link to a short piece about the start of LinkedIn posted on 7th May 2003 (2 days after LinkedIn's launch). The comments are fascinating and well worth a read.
The ingredients of a Great LinkedIn Sales Message. Inspired by the research and analysis I covered in last week's show I thought I would have another crack at publishing a post on LinkedIn. My aim is to get into the Sales channel in pulse. In this piece I cover the 9 ingredients required in great sales messages on LinkedIn.

Question

Thanks to Carl Whalley for this one; What value do group members see in these "read my blog" posts in groups? Since we don't always have the time to go into each and every one, generally a quick glance to see if it's on topic means it's likely to get approved. But do group members see them differently? ANS= I think if the 'discussion merely says "read my blog" then it isn't a great contribution but if someone makes a point and starts an interesting discussion about their (linked) blog piece then it is just as good as any other discussion. What do you think?

Direct download: LinkedInformed_044.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 2:00pm UTC

Sat, 29 November 2014

Episode 43. The Research Story

Direct download: LinkedInformed_043.m4a
Category: -- posted at: 9:04am UTC

Sat, 22 November 2014

Episode 42. My Multi-millionaire Benefactor!

show notes

News

Jeff Weiner sells a fifth of his shares and nets a cool $10 million! You can read the detail here if you want to get green with envy!
Facebook are rumoured to be planning a new 'Facebook at Work' service which could be a rival to LinkedIn. I'm undecided on whether this would be a good thing or not but I also doubt Facebook will follow through on it.
LinkedIn launch a new 'Course Certifications' feature

Commentary

Following an acceptance of an invitation to connect from a profile that didn't look fake (OK the profile picture is terrible but I've seen much worse!) I then received the following message;

I'm not going to deny it, for a brief second my heart skipped a beat! Then I did a quick check on Google and found plenty of articles about a very similar email scam from a couple of years ago. I also asked a shared connection called Sam Hooper who replied with the following;

So it looks like I will have to wait a bit longer to find my multi millionaire benefactor after all......oh well!

I have reported the profile and message to LinkedIn, it will be interesting to see how long it takes them to take the profile down - the header image of this post is a link to the profile so you can check for yourself!

I have been busy building a new website which is focussed on small to medium businesses and winning new business on LinkedIn. This site will also have its own podcast which will partly be information and guidance on how to use LinkedIn for business development and partly a 'LinkedIn Serial' story every other week. This has been inspired by the awesome chart topping podcast Serial as well as Start-up (both can also be found on iTunes). I have always been a big fan of storytelling as a way to educate and inspire so I am going to be following a journey where I interview, coach and help a team of relatively new LinkedIn users. I am really excited about this project and I will keep you informed.

I can't believe how cheap my course is on Udemy! Offer ends on Black Friday (thankfully!) Click above to get the offer.

Question

This weeks question was on voicemail and from Jennifer Holloway. In summary she wanted to know how to add an image to a status update instead of pulling the image from the website you are linking to. ANS = The secret is to paste in the link first and then delete the image by clicking on the X and then adding the image by clicking on the paperclip (see below)

Thank you so much for listening, I really value your support and interest.

As always I would welcome your feedback and questions. If you want to be on the show you can leave a comment by voicemail (right hand side of this page) or email me at mark@linkedinformed.com.

Help me to promote the podcast

Until next time....

Direct download: LinkedInformed_042.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 9:40am UTC

Sun, 16 November 2014

Episode 41. Google Doesn't acquire LinkedIn!

Direct download: LinkedInformed_041.m4a
Category: -- posted at: 12:23pm UTC

Sat, 8 November 2014

Episode 40. Social Selling with Darrel Griffin Pt2

This week we complete the interview with social selling expert Darrel Griffin (click on his picture below to see his LinkedIn profile).

Darrel's model for success is called SPEND (statistics, purchasing journey, Edelman, next generation & digital disruption);

statistics

92% of B2B buyers start their search online (Salesforce)
B2B buyers complete 57% of the buying decision before they are willing to talk to a sales rep (CEB)
75% of buyers say they use social media as part of the buying process (IBM)
On average decision makers consume 5 pieces of content before being ready to speak to a sales rep (Chief Marketing Officer Council)
82% of our potential customers can be reached via social media (B2B Sales 2.0)

purchasing journey

edelman

Click on the image for more information about Edelman's trust barometer;

next generation

Here come the Millennials...

50% of the global workforce by 2020
75% of the global workforce by 2030

“Social media is by far the dominant way Millennials learn about things online.” (SDL)

digital disruption

Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation

By James McQuivey

Thanks again to Darrel for taking the time and for sharing his knowledge - very interesting stuff! If you want to get in touch with Darrel his website can be found here and on Twitter he is @darrel_griffin.

Thank you so much for listening, I really value your support and interest.

As always I would welcome your feedback and questions. If you want to be on the show you can leave a comment by voicemail (right hand side of this page) or email me at mark@linkedinformed.com.

Help me to promote the podcast

Direct download: LinkedInformed_040.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 7:24am UTC

Sat, 1 November 2014

LinkedInformed 039. The Spooky Halloween One!

show notes

News

Apparently Microsoft attempted to buy LinkedIn for $500m prior to their IPO in 2011 but decided the price was too high. LinkedIn would cost them closer to $35 billion today!

Sony have collaborated with LinkedIn to produce a business card reading app that synchronises with LinkedIn in the way that CardMunch used to. Does anyone know of any other apps that do the same?

LinkedIn have announced their 3rd quarter results.

332 millions users

90 million unique visitors

28 billion page views

45% growth in revenue

Analysts impressed with the results but not the outlook!

Commentary

LinkedIn have really been pushing skills again with this article being just one of many over the last few weeks.

I have been very impressed with Conspire, a new FREE service that allows you to manage your contacts by analysing your email activity.

You can now add attachments to LinkedIn messages. If you want to be notified of such changes by email you can subscribe here

Publishing on LinkedIn. Is it really worth it? As more people obtain publishing rights on LinkedIn, the number of views per post seems to be dropping for everyone and this makes me question whether they are still worth doing?

screenshot2014-10-31_11-07-39_pm.png

Chris Gaborit is just a normal, regular LinkedIn user who started publishing in May and achieved an amazing result with over 300,000 views of the above post (click on it to read the full post) but over the last couple of months he has seen his posts viewed less and less...this seems to be a consistent story for most people.

His average number of views per post has been the following since starting in May;

May 2014 - 54,911

June 2014 - 28,260

July 2014 - 6115

September - 418

October - 2696

Maybe we are better off blogging on our own websites and promoting these articles via status updates?

Your views are welcome.

Question

Why are LinkedIn persisting with Skills & endorsements when everyone knows they are a joke?

This question really got me thinking and my conclusion is that the big data that skills give them is something they intend to monetise. Endorsements are merely a red herring designed to encourage us to add more skills to our profiles!

Direct download: LinkedInformed_039.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 1:32pm UTC

Sat, 25 October 2014

Episode 38. Social Selling With Darrel Griffin

show notes

You can view Darrel's LinkedIn profile here

Darrel's Story

25 years in sales, mainly in the UK. Wine trade, screen printing and signage.

Moved to Perth, Western Australia in July 2012 - knew no-one!

Business Development Manager role for a signage contractor

Threw himself into LinkedIn

Annual target exceeded within 4 months!

50% of sales came via LinkedIn

Decided to aim to become Perth's social selling 'go to' guy

Launched Social4Sales - already fully booked until mid December!

Other links

Gary Vaynerchuck

Gary Vaynerchuck's books (my favourite is Crush it)

Gary's blog

Darrel's next door neighbour...as featured in the podcast!

Thank you so much for listening, I really value your support and interest.

As always I would welcome your feedback and questions. If you want to be on the show you can leave a comment by voicemail (right hand side of this page) or email me at mark@linkedinformed.com.

Help me to promote the podcast

Until next time.....

Direct download: LinkedInformed_038.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00pm UTC

Sat, 18 October 2014

Episode 37. The Data We Give LinkedIn & The Power It Bestows

show notes

No interviews this week but plenty to catch up with following my vacation, I even managed to connect with Santa Claus this week...a very proud moment!

News

Another lawsuit is filed against LinkedIn and this one is just plain ridiculous! Apparently the ability to read someone's background and perform a few checks on LinkedIn when considering recruiting them violates a US law. Read the full story here. Has the world gone mad?!

LinkedIn plans to expand its publishing team. Its becoming increasing clear that publishing is a core focus for LinkedIn as demonstrated by their plans to open a major new office in San Francisco in 2016.

Jeff Weiner interview with Bloomberg

LinkedIn hits back and asks judge to dismiss the lawsuit regarding the email reminders sent to those who do not respond when an invitation to join LinkedIn message is sent to them. As opposed to the other lawsuit, I can't see how LinkedIn can defend this.

It looks like premium accounts may be about to re-vamped, effectively making them more expensive. The Spotlight premium account had a very short life - below is a reply from the help center on this matter.

Lets hope the 'test' fails then!

Tips & Features

You can now see personalised invitation messages in the quick menu by clicking on 'see all' (see below)

'Groups' has now disappeared in the reasons for inviting menu (see below). LinkedIn help center are claiming that this is a fault but I'm not convinced, lets hope so. In the meantime there are a few workarounds. Firstly there is the method using LinkedIn Contacts (2nd tier only) which is my favoured method - see here for a detailed guide on how to do this. Or you can now customise invitations using a mobile app (not tablet) - scroll down to check out the show notes for episode 32 for instructions on how to do that.

Apparently a fault.....lets see!

New 'Actions' feature in the 'Who's viewed your profile' section. I have only just got this feature so have not really been able to understand its benefits but it seems like a good idea. Jo Saunders has published a more detailed post about it.

And finally the best article I read this week about LinkedIn was Data and the Power it Bestows by Raven Jiang. I'm not one of those people that worries about big data and security / privacy but I must admit that Raven puts a very interesting argument that the information we are providing to LinkedIn could be abused and they clearly 'hold the key' to its future access.

Thank you so much for listening, I really value your support and interest.

As always I would welcome your feedback and questions. If you want to be on the show you can leave a comment by voicemail (right hand side of this page) or email me at mark@linkedinformed.com.

Help me to promote the podcast

Until next time.....

Direct download: LinkedInformed_037.m4a
Category:general -- posted at: 7:53pm UTC