Archive | LinkedIn RSS feed for this section

Are You Choosing Your LinkedIn Groups For Maximum Effectiveness?

By on March 30, 2009 in Business, LinkedIn

I have certainly been trying to. Maybe I can help you out with some of my methods. I have been adding and deleting groups over the last few days. I now have distinctly more groups focused on the categories of animation, cinema and entertainment. This is intentionally to attract that crowd for job offers and project collaboration offers while in school and after graduation. Many of the rest represent other interests.

The marketing and open networking groups aren’t as relevant to me now as when building up my contact list. I still keep a couple of groups related to those areas because a good contact can come from anywhere. However now that I have a critical mass of contacts I can probably do O.K. without a couple of those original groups. So I got rid of a few of those types and added more of the direct career related variety.

Now I’m at a point where I can put some much needed time into perusing each group in detail for members who’s goals seem closely aligned to my own. I’m bound to find some interesting discussions to comment on as well. I’m counting on this tack to be an effective strategy to mutual benefit to myself and potential contacts. It early indications of my prospecting are an indication then this should work out great for business opportunities relatively quickly.

My key groups to research further at this point are all animation and illustration specific. I’ll keep you posted on how the strategy works and share with you as time goes on. We’ll see if my speculations are confirmed. In the mean time remember the earlier tips. Max out your fifty groups in what ever categories interest you. Once you start getting the daily or weekly feeds from the groups, that will give you an idea of whether or not you want to continue your membership with a given group. Then let the fine tuning begin.

Click on my profile button to the left for ideas. Then share with the rest of us and tell us how you’re maximizing your LinkedIn strategy.

Comments { 0 }

Leverage facebook and LinkedIn to Expand Your Audience

By on March 23, 2009 in Blogging, facebook, LinkedIn

If you’re looking for more readers for your blog use the captive audience you already have. Facebook (FB) and LinkedIn (LI) already allow you to write in links under your profile so you should be listing your blog sites there at a minimum if you haven’t already.

Facebook allows a seemingly unlimited number of URL’s that you can type in the Information section under the Contact Information tab of the profile section. The “Websites:” text field is at the bottom of the section and you can type away. The sites show up under your profile so your facebook friends can click the links at will. Just click on the little pencil icon in the Information box under your profile picture and that will open up the editing section to enter your site addresses.

You’ll notice that I have three sites listed: MartyBLOGs, my LinkedIn profile and my amazon.com book sellers site.

On a basic LinkedIn account you can list three URLs max. The sequence of mouse clicks is Profile-Edit My Profile-Websites-Additional Information-Edit. You can categorize the type of site from the drop down menu of each URL text box. I only have two sites listed but I’ll probably add my amazon site as the third here and try to get more books moving (smile).

So those are the basics but there are even more effective ways to use each account and that’s the true emphasis of this post. Here’s the advanced class on drawing greater attention to your blog and potentially scaling up your reader numbers.

Use facebook’s “Notes” feature to your advantage. I noticed this recently when one of my facebook friends used it to distribute a meme. Well you can also use Notes to import your external blog. Every time you post something it will also feed into your Notes application so your facebook friends can read your blog entries. If they have never gone to your blog site before, now you can potentially hook them at a glance. Here’s the set up. Settings-Application Settings-click the Notes icon. In the column that displays to the right you’ll see a heading that reads “Notes Settings” and under that is the “Edit import settings >>” link. Clicking that link takes you to the “Import a Blog” tab and that’s where you enter your blog feed address. Voila! Now your FB friends know what a talented writer you are.

On LinkedIn the setup is a little different. I have a WordPress blog so that’s the example I’ll use. Under “Edit My Profile” there’s an “Applications” section. Click on “Add Applications” and pick the WordPress icon. From there complete all the details and voila once again, you’ve got a feed into your LinkedIn profile so all your professional connections can get a sense of your blog writing talents and possibly become regular readers and commenters. I’m not sure if LI offers this feature for other platforms so you may have to research it some or even send them a request to add yours if you don’t find it as an option.

If there’s any part of your virtual arsenal that’s worth loading up on this week it is these two features. Give at least an hour to each. It is well worth the tune up for your profiles so let’s get to it and expand your platform.

Comments { 8 }

How’s Your Personal Google Search Rank Looking?

By on March 13, 2009 in Blogging, facebook, General Interest, LinkedIn, SEO

By that I specifically mean, how close to the top of the search are you when someone Google’s your name? My bloginess and virtualness is improving. As of this day, Friday, March 13, 2009, here’s how I’m looking.

My URL www.martinlindsey.com is #1. Even got somebody specing me a price to work on giving it some updated content in the near future. It’s going to become a practical tool for me once again. I bet there are a bunch of other Martin Lindsey’s out there who were slow purchasing the domain wondering, “Why is this guy blowing a perfectly good URL?!?!”. To that I say, Dr. Evil style, “muwahaha!, whahaha!, muwahahahaaa!!!”

My blog, MartyBLOGs, is #3. Not posting on my own site or commenting on others nearly as much as I should. Maybe when I get back into full time school mode again in the fall I can throw in some more consistent bloggy activity during the school day. Social networking is taking up the majority of my online time these days in prep for the big move of course.

My LinkedIn profile is #4. Not surprising since I’ve been doing a considerable amount of networking with it including building up my contact list to 250+ and making some actual practical contacts. I’ve mostly focused on fellow computer scientists, digi-artists and arts patrons many of whom will comprise my next professional life.

Actually there are a bunch of us Martin Lindsey’s from around the world at that #4 LinkedIn position. So if you want to be sure to nab my profile on a search, it’s the indentation under the general listing. (So does that really make me 4-1/2? O.K. I’m thinking too hard now.)

I assume my facebook account is helping too since we can add web links to it. Hopefully people are clicking those links and finding out what else I’m into. And similarly on my LinkedIn profile. The only link I’ve neglected is my amazon.com seller’s account Legacy Book Sellers so I’m adding that where ever there’s space in all those other spots.

These are just a few ideas that seem to be working for me. Try them out for yourself for practical effect. Network your networks and see if you can’t make all your web ships rise together.

Comments { 7 }

Chris Davis is My 250th LinkedIn Connection

By on March 12, 2009 in Business, LinkedIn, Toastmasters International

O.K. Everybody drop what you’re doing and check out what Chris Davis has going in Columbus, Ohio. He is a fellow Toastmaster who specializes in technology and communication. We’re obviously cut from the same cloth so I can’t think of a better type of person to have helped me reach this milestone in building my virtual professional network. Read more about Chris through the LinkedIn link above and send him an invite request.

So now you see why you should join Toastmasters International and create a LinkedIn profile right? Just look at how Chris has leveraged his communication and leadership skills to become a successful business owner. No reason you can’t do the same or similar, with your particular life objectives.

Chris and I belong to the Public Speaking Network and the Black Data Processing Associates groups on LinkedIn. There are literally hundreds of common interest groups you can join to network with like minded people. LinkedIn is by far the premier forum for the entire world to beat a path to your door and pay you to help improve their lives. It’s all about helping the other guy and this is the perfect way to begin doing that.

No excuses people. Let’s make it happen. And now, on to 500+ connections!

Comments { 1 }

LinkedIn Groups Tips

By on February 11, 2009 in Blogging, Business, General Interest, LinkedIn

I’ve been building up my LinkedIn profile by working on adding lots of groups. It’s a great way to expand your networking reach. Jorge Olson writes about the more effective ways of leveraging LinkedIn in his blog Use LinkedIn for Marketing which covers a wide variety of ways to expand your pool of connections.

I’ve really been using Jorge’s post on How to Close $100,000 In Business With LinkedIn Using 4 Quick Steps. What’s interesting about it is that it has nothing to do with closing a business deal if that’s not your point. What is important is how the four points impact your contact spread.

The keys are to (1) Be An Open Networker (2) Join the Open Network Group on LinkedIn (3) Join 50 Groups (4) Ask Questions. Read Jorge’s post for greater detail on the value of each of key but basically you’re executing everything it takes to be an effective blogger anyway and adding the benefit of volume connections because of the number of groups.

I’m a little more than half way there with my fifty groups. LinkedIn puts a limit on the number of pending groups you can have in the queue so I have to wait for a few more to be accepted and over the next couple of days I ought to have a complete list.

Click on my LinkeIn widget to the left and check out the variety of groups I’ve joined. Once I add the rest I’ll start interacting with the posters and commenters then I’ll really be able to tell you just how effective this strategy is from my own experience. Don’t wait for me to write it about it though. Go ahead and put Jorge’s tips into action today.

Comments { 2 }