Show notes

News

• LinkedIn imposes a limit of the number of group messages that can be sent.
• Confirmation that the commercial use limit on search is not just the amount of searches but also the number of profile views.
• Groups lose stats feature but gain a new 'about' page which includes the members section.
• 27,000 US intelligence staff on LinkedIn revealed in a recent report.
• LinkedIn introduce 'who's viewed your posts' feature.
• LinkedIn celebrate their 12th anniversary by featuring members stories, I especially enjoyed this one.
• India surpasses 30 million LinkedIn members
• LinkedIn's share priced dropped below $200 last week and still remains weak.

Commentary

• This new web product claims to assess someone's personality from their LinkedIn profile. It sounds crazy but my experience is that it is amazingly accurate! Here are the results for me;

If you haven't done so already, check out my new Winbusinessin podcast, this week I interview 'The Headshot Guy' John Cassidy about profile pictures.

Question

Why do some people put their name in their professional headline?

ANS= This allows people to be able to see your full profile even if they are outside of your network. When you search for anyone by name you can always see their profile but when you search by keywords you can only see up to your 3rd tier.

News

• The LinkedIn advertising hack that gained a company $100,000 funding for a penny!
• LinkedIn Announce their Q1 results. Financial analysts are OK with the results but hate the revised prediction for Q2 and shares plummet!
• Sponsored update advertising grows by 40% and the number page views grows at impressive rate again.
• LinkedIn hints that the Lynda.com acquisition will result in 'cross selling models and integration'. What exactly will this mean?
• So this is why LinkedIn bought all those copies of Reid Hoffman's new book

  Commentary

  • LinkedIn published posts desperately need a 'read it later' feature. We all lead busy lives so the chances of having the time to read a long form post when we see it are limited. Perhaps a feature similar to Twitter's 'favorite' link would be the easiest option. At the moment I suspect we are kidding ourselves if we believe the 'read' numbers as people who have actually read the post. What do you think? Drop me a line at mark@linkedinformed.com.

  Question.

  This week's question comes from Carl, it's more of a point/commentary than a question but a really interesting one;

  • Hiya Mark,
    
    I was just thinking about LI buying Lynda, and the imminent arrival of
    Facebook at Work.
    If LI wanted to go mega they'd be tackling this by looking at systems
    like Slack https://slack.com. This would really get them into companies
    by becoming an actual part of the employees daily workflow, which is
    what I'm betting the FB at work thing will aim for. Right now, LI is
    still broadly seen as the thing you use when changing jobs (rightly or
    wrongly).
    We all know how big mobile is now, and how it's just getting bigger each
    day.
    Slack has massive take up and is really well respected. The need for LI
    to get a better collaboration tool will come soon anyway, 4G is here now
    with rich services growing daily.  We're about to be hit by the wave of
    "realtime videoisation" - all apps will be able to use it (its in the
    next Android SDK) - think Twitters Periscope, which I know you love, but
    for any app. And obviously phone/video calls. Right now, how can a LI
    user call another LI user? Use their phone number. That's 3G and earlier
    - old style GSM. This next IP-only system allows username to username
    calls within a closed system, such as LI, FB etc - and its much more
    than a traditional phone call.
    • ANS = I totally agree with this. LinkedIn challenge is to combine moving with the times and giving users a really valuable tool with protecting members from spam - unwanted messages and calls. To be honest though I suspect this is way beyond their capabilities at the moment. I have unofficially heard that they are already really struggling with mobile as it is so this seems a bit of a stretch for them! Perhaps this is inevitable outcome of rejecting partnerships with 3rd party developers? Opening up the API provides so much opportunity for innovation but LinkedIn are closing down their API and trying to do everything themselves.

  ---

Show notes

News

•  LinkedIn applies for a patent to check the accuracy of facts and statements in profiles.
•  LinkedIn spends $500,000 on buying Reid Hoffman's new book.
•  $115,000 are donated to a local teen centre
•  America's three most hated companies;  Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn!
•  This Chinese article about fake accounts is a timely reminder to us all.

• Are you frustrated with the commercial use limit on search?The following searches are all "free" and do not count against your monthly allowance
  • Alumni search
  • Fieldof study search
  • Connections network search
  • Tagging
•  Are InMail responserates dropping?

Questions

How do I post a job on LinkedIn for free?

ANS = There are four ways in which this can be done;

•  A job discussion in a relevant group
•  A personal status update
•  A published post
•  Company page update (pinned to the top)

News

• Yahoo Mail Contact cards
• Key senior executive leaves LinkedIn
• Update on the Lynda.com deal
• LinkedIn launch their new corporate Elevate product
• LinkedIn are top payers!

Commentary

• Check out my new podcast Winbusinessin
• • Tip - This is what to do if you can't save a 2nd tier to contacts
  • Keywords in name fields. It works from an optimisation perspective but it is still against the rules. What are your thoughts? Drop me a line at mark@linkedinformed.com

  Question

  • How many different type of emails do LinkedIn send you and how can you stop them?
    • ANS = There are 20 different types of emails (excluding group emails) which can all be controlled from within your settings. Go to Communications> Set the frequency of emails.

News

• Character from Ex-Machina film has a LinkedIn profile - even though she is a robot! Update since recording - it looks as though this profile has been taken down.
• If you have a really good post that you believe should be featured in a channel on Pulse then you can try tweeting @linkedinpulse to ask if they can help to get it promoted.
•  Lynda.com is acquired by LinkedIn for $1.5billion!
• The Mashable article about LinkedIn's acquisition of Lynda.com
• Jeff Weiners post about the deal
• Lynda Weinmans post
• Viveka Von Rosen's profile

Commentary

• Sponsored updates appear to be an attractive option as opposed to normal adverts on LinkedIn but there is a downside!

Show notes

News

• I had a reply from the person whose published post achieved over 3 million views and she doesn't know why it was so successful!
• LinkedIn acquire Refresh
• LinkedIn's April fool joke
• University offer premium accounts to 1000 students
• The latest big thing in social media? Periscope is a live video streaming app from Twitter and it is amazing!

Commentary

• Interesting article that lists 10 LinkedIn invitation templates. Some are pretty cheesy and I would always suggest writing your own but these may help get you started.
• Tip: Consider contacting some people who have viewed your profile. I saw a potential prospect had viewed my profile and as a result of contacting him I have generated some new business.

Questions

• I keep seeing this nonsense on my LI feed. This and various other mathematical questions  trying to get a million 'likes'. I generally only see them because one of my contacts comments. To me they have no place on LI. But why do people do it and is there a way to stop it?

  • ANS = I think they create them to gain a high number of views but to what end? More damaging though is the people who participate, not realising that they are annoying their connections who may well hide their future updates as a result. My advice - if you enjoy quizzes, do them but don't post your answer on LinkedIn, no-one will think you are clever - quite the opposite!

• I am an employee of a company which has changed  its name and email domain.  I was requested by a colleague to join LinkedIn over a year ago and so I did the email I registered was my old one.
  Anyhow I keep getting emails from prospective employees linked to my profile and when I click on it from my work email is says access denied. So we have been blocked off.  I now don't know how to get back in I don't know which email to use and when I try both domain & opal email is says invalid email.  I want to now log in my same profile by setting it up with my personal email can u help with this ?

  • ANS = A real complicated mess isn't it and LinkedIn are partly responsible for this. The simple way to avoid such problems is to list all your email addresses under one LinkedIn account.

Show notes

News

• LinkedIn improve their sponsored InMail service
• The JP Morgan saga continues
• A new study analyses how 'happy' politicians are from their LinkedIn profile pictures

Commentary

• Florist posts an image update that goes viral
• Two ways of searching that are outside of the commercial use limit;
  
  • Alumni search
  • Field of study search
• LinkedIn appear to be testing a new way of customizing invites
• Read this article about social selling and let me know what you think. I think this sort of attitude will lead to sales people getting left behind, the changing nature of sales needs to be embraced.

  Questions

• How do you convert a personal profile which has been created with a company name into a genuine personal profile without losing the connections.
  
  • This is a situation that I have experienced previously and you have to be very careful in how this conversion is handled. Here is my recommended process;
  1. Download the connections of the company account.
  2. Change the name of the company account to the same name of the personal account you wish to transfer the connections to.
  3. Approach LinkedIn (help center) and explain that you have two profiles and you wish to merge the connections into your main account.
• Andy Headworth asks if there are any examples of employees who are currently being forced to hand over their account or change their profile by their employers. If anyone is in this situation please get in touch - confidentiality assured.

News

• An insight into LinkedIn's mobile strategy
• JP Morgan's global Head of Technology has sent out a memo advising staff to make their profiles sparse of information to prevent Recruiters from finding them on LinkedIn.

Commentary

• WHo has the keys to your profile? Add multiple email addresses to your LinkedIn account to prevent your employer from hijacking your account when you leave.
• Two ways to post updates with links and images;
  • Post from a company page where status updates have not changed and like or comment on it from your own account.
  • Paste the link into the normal update box but make sure that there is no gap between it and the previous word, then attach your image.
  • Subscribe to my FREE email updates service to be kept up to speed with changes like this.

Questions

I am in the top 5% of profile views in my network. Is this important?

ANS = Yes, profile views are a form of engagement and engagement will help to get your updates seen by more people.