Share what you know with millions of people
Focus is the best place to turn what you know into remarkable content
0
What are the most useful secrets in LinkedIn?
Events
- Dos and Don'ts of Small Business Marketing May 29 @ 11 am PT
- Lead Nurturing 202: The Next Generation May 31 @ 11 am PT
- The Tricks to Paid Media June 6 @ 11 am PT
- Display Advertising for Brand Awareness June 20 @ 11 am PT
Related Activity
12 Answers
The biggest secret is pro-activity. It is why recruiters are some of the most successful users of LinkedIn... and so few people do it. (hint: I'm not talking about broadcasting information)
The vast majority of people on LinkedIn, who are less than satisfied with it or want more success from it, just want to set their profile up (perhaps not even well, but lets say 'well enough') & then maybe broadcast some self promotion & other outgoing activity like status updates, group self promotions, polls and the like - and wait for opportunity to come to them in response to them having a presence on LinkedIn.
They 'post & hope'. They do the bare min. of step one, fudge step 2 (self promotion), then stop.
The biggest secret to LinkedIn and to a lesser degree the social web at large, is that so few people use it proactively to actually build a network of real people, with real relationships, and ideally an in-person level of engagement, and do so with exactly the sort of people they want to.
I totally agree with getting the basics of profile right, more than that, I agree with personal branding that delivers value, but you can knock the former over in an afternoon and get the latter going in months if not weeks. Do that, definitely - and then get to it.
Start your detailed research of industries, companies, roles in companies and the people in them, then start contacting people, one on one, personalized & focus first on how you can help them. Know what you want and communicate that clearly 20%, and then 80% is all about your networks & the other persons needs.
Contact people because you're 'networking'. Build rapport (focus on sameness, things you have in common, what attracted you to their profile etc.) and get good at drawing out of people exactly how you can help them and then set about doing that.
Get good at using LinkedIn search, filtering and browsing peoples profiles, connections, groups - everything.
Don't just connect with people a few times a month, or 10-20 times, do it 100-200 times, more - massive action. Do this on an ongoing basis.
Do this and whatever it is you joined LinkedIn for and why this question was interesting enough for you to read, and you'll have a growing, strong & professional network of just the type of people you want to meet. Do it right and your network will respect you and be out there talking about you, because you have helped them, helped people they know and because they respect you.
Secret two?
The reason you want a large, active network of people in the ballpark of what you're interested in (and ideally in your local area, unless that's not relevant to your reason for being on LinkedIn), is because it's the people they know, that will probably be the ones you'll later get a job working for/with, or that will engage you in some work, or meet you to talk about your products & services - whatever it is you are on LinkedIn for.
Secret three, I'm guessing.
When you're good at the above, becoming very knowledgeable about personal branding, professionalizing yours & integrating it more into your LinkedIn presence and into your visibility on the social web, would likely be very helpful.
LinkedIn Member since 2004 (#247,228), main admin of Business In Japan group (25,000+ members, active, on topic. Group#54,168), founder of others.
Useful secrets??
1.Join the max number of groups allowed (50) that are of course applicable to your industry/goals. More groups you join the quicker your network will grow and if using for recruiting the quicker your candidate pool will grow.
2. Look at profiles carefully as many time an individuals contact info is listed in the profile saving you an InMail or unnecessary time and effort.
3.LI is an excellent recruiting site. If mined properly hires are there for the taking. I have hired 6 folks from LI so far in 2011.
4. Did you know you can follow companies on LI just as you can on Facebook. Many companies have profiles on LI that you can follow and which enable you to keep abreast of comings and goings!
5. An excellent way to improve employee engagement is for your company to creat a company group page/site on LI!
Hope this is a good start!
my best use of LinkedIn is to feed all my LinkedIn status updates to my RSS reader. this way, i can monitor what most of my connections are doing, saying, and needing.
i rarely go into LinkedIn, but can keep in touch and communicate with my connections utilizing the RSS reader.
and, i've landed business this way...
"Signal" (found under "News") which allows me to see what my contacts are up to and perform customized searches to see who is up to things that are of interest to me. Then I can reply in a more timely, relevant manner to individuals.
Several of you have posted wonderful "secrets" but this is what I teach in my workshops:
1. It is not who you know, but who they know - connect to a minimum of 150 ppl.
2. Tags - help you remember that person with whom you don't stay in contact.
3. Profile must be 100% complete with multiple uses of the keywords that you want to pursue. For the typical user who only searches 1 word and gets the top 100 results, you won't show up at all if you aren't 100% complete.
4. Post updates, connect, participate, answer - the more you use the network, the more frequently your name appears in the status feed. People will remember that they have seen your name after 5-7 times seeing it, then typically won't take any action until they have seen it 21 times or more.
I agree with Alan Bishop in general, there are no secrets. :/ I was going to post about utilizing 50 groups, starting your own, but Ron Kubitz got that covered too. So digging deep in my bag of secrets, to try to come up with one most of you have not yet thought of results in ...
"Build the best group of the 50." You join 50 groups of your interest, target, expertise then not what topics, questions and discussions get the most comments out of all the groups. Then start a discussion on your own group about said topic. So your group becomes the best of the best. You group will be more in tune with what your peers are currently interested in, as opposed to being only what you think they are interested in, or only what you are interested in.
Hop this helps.
(See my profile to connect with me on social media sites like LinkedIn)
Don
The best book I've read on the subject is by Wayne Breitbarth, The Power Formula for Linkedin Success. You can follow him on linkedin and I would suggest signing up for his daily e-mail tips and tricks. The first and most important step is to complete your profile 100%....not always easy, but worth the time and thought you put into it. I downloaded his book from Amazon for the kindle and refer to it often, and his daily e-mails are awesome!
I do not believe there are any secrets in LI. It is a powerful tool that enables you to express yourself to others in many ways. You can be as creative as you like.
I agree with Jason, it is all about pro-activity. Join active group discussions, provide constructive input. If people like what you say they will let you know. Eventually start your own discussions, share your blogs etc., You will begin to find more people are looking at your profile and you receive requests to connect.
I offer advice and ideas, based upon my career experience in supply chain operations, to people in professional groups. I enjoy receiving messages of thanks when the advice is deemed useful. I stay in touch with these people.
I am developing a keen interest in sustainability and I am writing a blog on this subject and share this with the Green Business group. I am making new connections as a result and I am learning a great deal. For instance, did you know that the amount of water used to produce the energy required to drive from New York City to Washington, D.C. is 32 gallons when the fuel source is traditional oil and 33 gallons when the fuel is unconventional fracked natural gas That volume is reduced to just 5 gallons when the fuel source is natural gas from conventional land extraction. I learned this fact from an expert and I want to know more since water supply in some US States is becoming a major issue.
In summary I believe LI is a university, we can gain and share knowledge, gain and provide ideas, engage in lively conversation and meet really interesting people. The more you proactively use the more you get out of it.
If you would like to discuss in more detail please connect with me on LI http://www.linkedin.com/in/greatresults
These are really very useful Ron!!!!!
Thank you for all the tips. I find Linked in informative, a fantastic source of information, a great way to keep in touch with colleagues past and present and to keep up to date with clients.
It should always be a two-way thing and helping others along is always rewarding.
I have passing on "your" collective wisdom to those just starting their careers so please keep posting!
Great question and valuable advice. Thanks to all. Since I'm somewhat of a newbie on Linkedin, I will definitely put some of this actionable information into practice.
I think that the most important about LinkedIn is a great networking connection for serious people.
Answer This Question