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.