Welcome to episode 123, I’m back in my office this week with plenty to talk about.

Interesting stuff I saw this week

LinkedIn are in the process of rolling out a new feature that automatically makes you a follower of someone when you invite them to connect. If that member subsequently rejects your invitation by selecting ‘ignore’ then you will cease to be a follower.

Also

• Interview with Jeff Weiner where he refers to some skills endorsements having a greater value than others.
• New profile views limit warning. Does this mean that LinkedIn are now tracking views by the IP address used? This could be a problem to those using Google searching as a workaround to the commercial use limit.
  
  
  

Welcome to episode 122, the weather has been amazing this week so I thought I would venture out and record the show in one of my favourite spots in Delamere forest…I think the BBC call these things an ‘outside broadcast (OB)’!

I tend do this once or twice a year as I’m really unproductive when I try to stick behind my desk in hot weather!

Using LinkedIn with Empathy

Some people are naturally empathetic and some find it more of a challenge, I believe it is a great strength to have when using LinkedIn.

Definition

The ability to share someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person's situation (Cambridge dictionary)

Some people just have an instinct to know how someone else would feel whereas others need to stop, take a step back and think about it. Whichever you are, it pays to practice empathy in social media and especially on LinkedIn.

In this episode I talk about some examples of where empathy can be important on LinkedIn;

• Invitations to connect
• Liking or commenting on someones post or update
• Reaction to profile viewers
• Group conversations
• Introductions

Quote

“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others succeed”

Napoleon Hill

Other interesting stuff I saw this week:

Koka Sexton announces he is leaving LinkedIn
Millennials are Thriving in the Workplace, According to LinkedIn Data
LinkedIn enhances Sales Navigator, adds CRM, email, mobile
The enforcement of the 30k connection limit probably means you have lost some connections and as a result some visibility.

Welcome to episode 121, we are back after a break last week which was due to work commitments requiring me to be out of the office every day in Ireland.

Interesting stuff I saw this week

• Google, LinkedIn strike stunning 'grand bargain' for property swap in Mountain View, Sunnyvale
• LinkedIn Top Attractors - UK list
• It would appear that the 3 most subscribed Pulse channels are now all Chinese language channels

I was interviewed for another podcast this week. Andy Paul interviewed me for his Accelerate podcast which is a show for sales professionals;

How to Use LinkedIn to Grow Sales. With Mark Williams. #198

LinkedIn profiles are just too boring!

I want to encourage everyone to realise just how important your profile is and that, by just listing boring facts you are doing nothing to impress the reader…on the contrary, you might be sending them to sleep!

Why not take a look at your summary and try to write something more interesting about yourself, something about you in a professional context but something that authentically shows how interesting you are.

I think Gareth Burton does a great job with his profile

It also occurred to me recently that profiles are going to become even more important soon as Microsoft start to integrate them into Outlook email, the 365 dashboard and Skype profiles.

Interesting things I saw this week

Following on from the news that LinkedIn are now in forcing the 30,000 connections limit it has now been announced that all connection above the limit will be converted to followers

This interesting thing is that for the first time LinkedIn have admitted that large networks cause them problems.

Microsoft takeover. I was at a TEDx Event over the weekend and one of the speakers was Steve Clayton  from Microsoft. It was interesting to hear him say that Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella is much more collaborative than his predecessors.

Perhaps this could be a positive sign for LinkedIn?

LinkedIn published posts and Pulse. It seems that the new format for published posts has now been rolled out to everyone with many people contacting me to ask about the new format.

The Pulse page no longer shows under the Interests menu so you have to go to your home page feed and change is the order to recent

Alternatively you could do what I did which is to create a bookmark for the Pulse page.

If you want to find the Pulse channels you have to scroll down this page until you find some recommendations to personalise your news. Click on "Discover more to follow" and you will find the channels.

It's been a very difficult week for those of us based in the UK following the ‘Brexit’ vote. I have never seen this country so divided and this has inevitably spilled onto LinkedIn.

Whilst you may have strong views on the subject I would recommend avoid discussing such an emotive topic as this on LinkedIn.  At least for now and, perhaps in time it will become and easier subjects to discuss.

Working with Ali

Ali is short for Algorithm, in this case LinkedIn’s algorithm.

Whether we like it or not LinkedIn is constantly collating data about us. Which groups we join and which conversations we get involved in, what skills we have and how often they are endorsed (and by whom), which companies we follow, who we connect with and how much we interact with them.

Ali also measures which status updates and publish posts we click, like or comment on.

It may sound creepy but that's just how things are in social media and the wider Internet.

Understanding this and understanding how to use it to our advantage is one of the key aspects to been successful on LinkedIn

LinkedIn can only react to actions, it can’t (as yet) interpret feelings or opinions - just actions.

I was reminded of this recently when someone contacted me to complain about the amount of inappropriate posts and status updates they were seen on their homepage. When I asked them what they were doing about it, their answer was that they were commenting in order to show the person that posted that they disapproved….BIG MISTAKE!

Not only does this ensure that the post is distributed further it also teaches Ali that you are interested in this type of content….no wonder they were seeing more and more inappropriate content!

In the links below you will find a link to a fascinating list of patents that LinkedIn have filed over the years, the most recent one relates to this very issue - i.e. how LinkedIn decides what to show you on your feed.

The Microsoft Acquisition

 Welcome to episode 118 of the LinkedInformed podcast at the end of a truly historic week for LinkedIn.

As you would expect I am going to concentrate all of this episode on evaluating Microsoft's acquisition of LinkedIn.

Advantages for Microsoft

• Entry into the social media space. An area they have neglected to get involved with previously which was beginning to look like a serious weakness.
• An opportunity to increase sales of Office 365 via extensive integration with LinkedIn’s functionality.
• Dynamics (Their CRM solution) will benefit the most from this acquisition and potentially allow it to become the market leader (currently Salesforce).
• Content from LinkedIn publishing allowing greater advertising opportunities.
• Big data. Rich information about people and their online behaviour.

Advantages for LinkedIn

• $26 billion!
• Greater resources to enable new products such as Profinder to be launched and rapidly expanded.
• $26 billion!
• Use of Microsoft’s massive cloud infrastructure.
• A way out of their stock-based compensation conundrum.
• $2.3 billion into Reid Hoffman’s bank account!

Advantages for Members

• I expect the under-resourced help centre to improve significantly
• Skype integration
• Integration with Outlook 365 & Dynamics.
• Better distribution of published posts

Disadvantages for Members

• Less Google optimisation
• Another secretive ‘closed’ culture
• Focus on corporates at the expense of SMB’s
• And …..

LinkedIn : Too many to-do’s to do

Very interesting document outlining why LinkedIn are a bad investment from an Equity Research firm. Here are their main 5 reasons;

(1) Lack of key functionality in its flagship Voyager app.

(2) Relevance of proposed job openings or “Sponsored Updates” hasn’t improved.

(3) A slow ramp to get the right content on lynda.com to make it more attractive to Enterprises.

(4) High penetration of Hiring Solutions – translating into slowing growth in FY16.

(5) The technical immaturity of Sales Navigator.

Other highlights;

• New company pages will provide salary data and allow for anonymous employee reviews (similar to Glassdoor). This could provide LinkedIn with a "Tricky balance” to find as many of these organisations are their biggest clients!

• The SMB Recruiter product will be slow growth and likely to have a high cost of sales.

• 20% of LinkedIn members are students.

• Advertising solutions will be opening up their API to third-party operators.

• New members are less engaged.

• Less than 2% of members upgrade to a premium account.

LinkedIn Changes

• New Company Page insights.

• More information on job postings.

Other interesting stuff I saw this week

• Is LinkedIn disconnecting us?

• Contrary to rumours LinkedIn has not removed the connections download feature.

• Some people are reporting a 403 error which may be due to LinkedIn being hyper sensitive

about suspicious activity following the recent sale of passwords. It may be good advice to

reduce activity in the short term until things die down.

• The return of the Galek! The interview with our beloved infamous swimwear entrepreneur!

• Exaggerated LinkedIn profile question.

Hey! We have a new website! The url is still the same www.linkedinformed.com. Let me know what you think. It's Linkedinformed Episode 116.

News

• Changes to LinkedIn
• How big should your network be?
• You Want More Business? So Get on the Phone!

Interesting Stuff I saw this week

•  How LinkedIn Is Able to Consistently          Increase Pricing                                        
• 'Social worth' and creditworthiness: Need                  loans? Just raise your popularity level on                    LinkedIN

Question:

"Recently, I have noticed my profile views are not good as they used to be. My target keywords are "Engineering Manager" and "Engineering Director". In the past when I search for those phrases my profile was always number one listed. Lately is buried deep down in the list.

Welcome to this weeks episode where we continue the discussion with Rosie O'Hara we started in in episode 110 regarding 'Words that change minds'.

In this show we talk about;

• How to reply to accepted invitations
• What sort of message to send to someone who has viewed your profile
• The dangers of commenting without taking time out to calm down!
• The recent 'Gracegate' issue where a senior banking executive causes a storm by posting a screenshot of a comment made that she found offensive.

Vote for the podcast

I would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes out of your busy day to vote for me in the UK podcast awards.

This is a Facebook poll, click here and scroll down until you find LinkedInformed (and Winbusinessin if possible) and vote.

As always you can find links, images and everything else mentioned in this episode at LinkedInformed.com

Thanks

Until next week....

Welcome to Episode 114

Would you like to buy someone’s login details for LinkedIn? How do you feel about someone else's buying your login details for LinkedIn? This week’s 114 episode we talk about security.

LinkedIn Security

• Millions of hacked LinkedIn IDs advertised 'for sale’
• LinkedIn’s statement about the issue
• Test your email address here

I would really appreciate it if you took a few secs to vote for the podcast by clicking on the link below and scrolling down until you find LinkedInformed  and also Winbusinessin.

Click here to vote for the show: http://bit.ly/voteforLinkedinformed

Interesting stuff I saw this week

•  LinkedIn Buys Run Hop, Seeks to Make Feeds More Engaging
•  LinkedIn help refugees find jobs in Sweden
• Why I Write On LinkedIn - And It’s Probably Not Why You Think I Do

Cool Thing

This week’s cool things are 1Password and Dashlane. Store all your passwords, PIN codes, documents, credit cards and more. Automatically log in on every website and every device.

AFQ

This week’s question comes from Paul Copcutt via voicemail who’s asking if there’s an issue with the formatting of a published post on LinkedIn.

Here are the images Paul sent me of the issue:

How it looks when editing.