LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the social media space, with over 400 million subscribers and a goal of reaching the approximately 3.3 billion people in the global workforce. For those new to LinkedIn or looking to improve their profile, here are some tips. [Read more…]
Highlights of the New LinkedIn Contacts Format
The new LinkedIn contacts format offers a number of useful features. LinkedIn is making an effort to keep users on the platform as long as possible by providing additional functionality.
While LinkedIn is not intended to replace CRM systems, it is making it easier to organize your contacts and your interactions with these individuals.
In order to get the most use from the new features you need to give LinkedIn permission to access information from your email address books and calendars. You can do this simply by following the instructions that they provide.
The new look of the Contacts section is pictured below.
The new and revised features that are now under the Contacts tab include:
1. It is not clearly marked, but a drop down menu in the upper right section (next to search box with By name) enables you to search contacts by name, company, title, location or email.
2. Your Day – brings up a reminder to “Start your day by staying in touch with your contacts”. It highlights your connections who have updated their Profile with a new position, are celebrating a birthday, and with whom you have recently met (based on your calendar). You can also select the Calendar icon to see your schedule for the day.
3. All Contacts – shows all of your contacts, even those in your address books but not on LinkedIn. They are listed in reverse chronological order based on when you are last in contact with them through LinkedIn.
Connections – shows all of your LinkedIn 1st degree connections in reverse chronological order based on when you are last in contact with them through LinkedIn.
Saved – shows connections you have saved.
Tags – shows all of the tags that you have set up.
Companies – shows which companies your connections are employed by.
Titles – lists the current titles appearing in the Profiles of your connections.
Locations – shows all of the locations for your connections.
Sources – shows where you have imported information from, e.g., Outlook, Gmail, iPhone address book, etc.
Potential Merges – helps you clean up your connections by showing possible duplicate records.
Hidden – this includes contacts imported from your email address books both individuals and companies, websites
Other Features
You have the ability to take notes (Relationship section), record how you met contacts, and schedule additional contacts. For me, the Note feature has been particularly useful.
Tagging contacts is simple, when you mouse over a contact you have the options to Tag, Message, Hide or Remove a Connection.
In addition, your emails with each contact to are reflected under the Relationship tab.
How are you using LinkedIn’s new Contact features?
4 Reasons Why Twitter is Useful
Like many people, when I first heard of Twitter, my reaction was “What in the world can you do in 140 characters that has any value?” Well, now we know…
There are currently over 500 million Twitter profiles and about 340 million tweets a day were sent in 2012. Here are some of the reasons why Twitter has emerged as a useful social media tool.
Convenience
Twitter was originally designed for use on mobile devices and this is one of the factors fueling its growth as it rides the waves of growth in both social and mobile technologies. The fact that Twitter makes it convenient to send, receive and share messages while users are on the go has helped to contribute to its rise in popularity.
Real time reporting
Twitter gives eyewitnesses the opportunity to share their take on what they are watching as it happens. Messages can be easily viewed, shared and searched all of which are essential to making it a useful platform. Twitter has become so wide spread that journalists now use it as a source of breaking news.
Current trends
If you want to find out what is catching people’s attention right now, Twitter provides an easy way to find out with Trends. Granted, not everyone is on Twitter and many of these trends are very short term. However, as data mining becomes increasingly sophisticated, this type of information will be combined with other data to provide valuable insights for researchers of all kinds.
Raising your visibility
You can build a large following on Twitter if you work at it consistently. In addition, since you can follow someone and view their public conversations, Twitter is a great tool for connecting with people you would not ordinarily be able to reach. You can actually pop up on the radar of a CEO, celebrity or decision maker by commenting on their tweets and retweeting their content. In most cases, this is virtually impossible through traditional channels of communication.
Let us know how Twitter has worked for you in your business.
LinkedIn Endorsements – How Do They Work?
LinkedIn has added a number of new features since September of 2012. The Influencers blog, real-time notifications, Endorsements, enhancements to the mobile application and Company Page improvements are recent additions. These new features are apart from the changes to the personal Profile page.
The new Endorsements feature has probably raised the most questions among the user community. Is it replacing Recommendations? How do others endorse you and what exactly are they endorsing? Should you endorse someone that you have not worked with directly? [Read more…]
Facebook vs. LinkedIn Company Pages
Facebook and LinkedIn both offer Company Pages designed for businesses, brands and organizations to showcase what they offer. One of the principles behind Company Pages is making it convenient for your audience to find you on their preferred platform. If you have prospects that never close Facebook, why not engage with them there rather than forcing them to visit your website to learn about you? [Read more…]