Did you notice that you can now rearrange your profile modules on LinkedIn?  Look at your profile in edit mode.  You can rearrange, by dragging and dropping, any section that you see a plus sign next to including Summary, Applications & Experience.

Kimberly Yow
MarketingThatsEasy.com

P.S. - I consult & train businesses on how to promote their business on the internet and get found! Subscribe to this blog via RSS Feed or Email so you don't miss any Free Tips! @KimberlyYow

There are currently 50 million LinkedIn account holders. How do you determine which of those 50 million you should connect with?

I recommend that you use LinkedIn to maintain current business & networking relationships and build new ones.  Great people to connect with are:

• customers
• suppliers
• co-workers
• referral partners
• people you meet at chamber mixers and networking events
• anyone that has inquired about your product/service or that you’ve done a proposal for
• people you may want to collaborate with
• influential people in your industry
• people that have taken the time to comment on your blog or other online content
• people who have asked you for advice
• etc…

I would not connect with people just so you can market to them.  Only connect with people if you have a sincere interest in building or maintaining a relationship, collaborating, staying in touch or following them via their status updates, etc…

When you send someone an invitation to connect on LinkedIn, do not send the LinkedIn default message shown below:





Instead send them a personalized message that states at least one of the following:  why you want to connect, who your mutual connections are, which groups you both belong to, how you heard about them, what intrigued you about their profile, what common interests you have, etc…  (See example.)





Reaching out to someone with a personalized invitation shows that you value them or something about them and it is the first step in building a business relationship.  I personally don’t accept invitations from people I don’t know unless they are personalized.

If you strive for quality in your LinkedIn invitations and connections rather than quantity, you will build stronger relationships and have greater success networking on Linkedin.

Please share your LinkedIn networking tips in the comments below…

Kimberly Yow
MarketingThatsEasy.com

In the eyes of a prospect, customer testimonials are the most powerful testimonials you can have!  You should get in the habit of requesting testimonials from your best customers and showcasing them on your website and social networking profiles.  LinkedIn.com makes this very easy by providing a “recommendation” request feature on their website.  Once you approve a recommendation from a LinkedIn connection, it is automatically placed on your profile.   I typically copy recommendations from my LinkedIn profile and paste them onto my website or sales pages.

In this article by Dr. Ivan Misner, he talks about How To Get The Most From Your Written Testimonials.   Keep in mind that you can also collect testimonials via video.   If a written testimonial is powerful, imagine how much more credible and powerful it will be on video!

If you are receiving testimonials on LinkedIn it is best NOT to immediately do a reciprocal testimonial.  The reason being, your LinkedIn connections will see in the Network Updates section that you were recommended by Joe Smith and that you also recommended him.  Many people will question whether the recommendations are genuine or just done out of obligation.  For this reason it is best to let a couple of weeks pass before reciprocating a recommendation AND do so only if you are sincere.

The other thing to avoid on LinkedIn is requesting multiple recommendations at the same time.  If your connections see that you were referred by several people all within a couple of days, they will undoubtedly assume that you “requested” the recommendations.  It is best to let your recommendations trickle in so they are viewed as legitimate.

If you have an interesting story about how you used a customer testimonial, please share it in the comments.

Thank you,

Kimberly
MarketingThatsEasy.com

I previously wrote a blog titled “How To Invite Someone To Connect Online“.  If you click on the link to read it and then come back to this post, this post will make more sense.

I just had to share this invite that I received through LinkedIn:

Hi Kimberly,

I’ve been reading some of your [blog] posts on Biznik and I want to thank you for all of the great information.  Social networking is new to us at ImageWear Solutions and your advice and knowledge have proved to be extremely helpful.  I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

Gary

The person that sent this LinkedIn invite to me is located in another state…I’ve never heard of him.  But you can bet I will accept his invitation!  The main reason is because he told me how he found out about me and then he indirectly told me why he wants to connect.  That is the type of information I like to have when someone I don’t know wants to connect online.  Isn’t that the type of information you would like too?  Is that the type of info you provide in invites that you send?

The bottom line is that Gary’s invite is the best I’ve ever seen and I wanted to share it with you as an example of what to do.

Great invitations may very well lead to great connections!

Kimberly Yow
Marketing That’s Easy.com

Most social networking sites, membership websites and company support departments send “blind” messages to users (or members) through their system.  I’m going to use Facebook as an example to make this easier to explain.  If someone on Facebook logs into their Facebook account and sends you an email, Facebook will send you an email to let you know that you have received a new message in your Facebook inbox.  The email that you get from Facebook will actually show the message that your fellow Facebook user sent to you.

While conducting my workshops on how to use social networking sites, it came to my attention that numerous people are simply clicking “reply” in their email program, typing a response to the email and then clicking send.  What they didn’t realize was that their email response was going into a black hole! And that the intended recipient never sees their response!

The reason these messages go into a black hole is because Facebook sends “blind” messages.  That means that when they send you an email notification of a message a member sent you, they are hiding your email address and the email of the sender and there is no valid email address that you can reply to. This is done to protect your identity from the sender in case they are not a Facebook Friend and you don’t want to have any direct contact with them.

As I mentioned, most social networking sites and membership sites send “blind” messages.  Many companies also send them, especially from their support staff.   You therefore need to know what to look for before simply clicking the reply button.  Whenever you get a message, look to see what shows up in the “from” section of the email.

If it is a “blind” message from Facebook it will say something like:   Facebook [notification+ys_2jftc@facebookmail.com].

If it is a “blind” message from LinkedIn it will most likely say: messages-noreply@bounce.linkedin.com.

When you receive a “blind” message from a website, the only way you can reply to it is by logging into your account on that website and replying to the message through your account inbox.

If an email is truly coming directly from an individual, you should see their email address in the “from” section of the email header.

I hope this helps you get your messages out of the black hole and into your intended recipient’s email inbox.  If you have any questions or comments, please add them as a “comment” to this blog post.

Remember, don’t reply to no-reply!

Kimberly Yow
Marketing That’s Easy.com

Many social networking sites change regularly as new features are added and bugs are fixed.  Some sites seem to change on a weekly basis.  I just noticed something in LinkedIn that I had never noticed before.  I’m not sure if it’s a new feature or has been really well hidden for a long time.

Login to your LinkedIn account and make sure you are on your Home page where all the Network Updates are shown.  Scroll down a bit and you should see a little blue link that says “See More Network Updates”.  I found the link immediately before the section titled “Group Updates”.

When you click the “See More Network Updates” link you will get a chronological list of status updates that your Connections posted.  I was able to see a months worth of updates which included multiple posts from some of my more active LinkedIn Connections.

If you don’t log in to LinkedIn on a daily basis, viewing this “hidden” section is a good way to stay abreast of what your Connections are up to.

Happy Linking,

Kimberly Yow
Marketing That’s Easy – We make social networking & internet marketing EASY for small businesses.

For me, LinkedIn has been great for strengthening and maintaining current referral partner & customer relationships, establishing credibility through recommendations, developing relationships with prospects, establishing an online connection with new people I meet at networking events and generating interest by providing useful information and being active on LinkedIn.

I don’t search for people to connect with. I connect with people that I meet at networking events or people that I receive inquires from.  I guess that means I do not “cold call” on LinkedIn.  Instead, I build relationships with people I’ve met.

Here are my “6 Keys to Success on LinkedIn”:

1. Be professional
2. Be an active member
3. Be consistent
4. Provide useful information
5. Build relationships
6. Help others

I am confident that you will be successful on LinkedIn if you follow my “6 Keys to Success”.

Kimberly Yow
MarketingThatsEasy.com

I recently asked LinkedIn members to share their success stories or results that they’ve achieved because of using LinkedIn.  Reason being, I am working on a recorded webinar on How To Use LinkedIn for Business and I want to use examples of success other than my own.

Here are some of the results and success stories shared by other LinkedIn members:

• Increased website traffic as a direct result from increased activity on LinkedIn
• Better brand awareness
• New customers (for services, product & live entertainment gigs)
• Personally recommending a service provider when a friend needed that particular service.
• Establishing & maintaining Top of Mind awareness
• Obtained market research info
• Received recommendations for needed business resources
• Used LinkedIn profile to obtain new contact info for a connection that had changed employers.

I too have experienced most of the above.

Just FYI, I posed my question to LinkedIn members through the LinkedIn Question & Answer feature and I also posed it to many of my LinkedIn Connections.  I received responses from a large number of people…many of whom I’ve never met, nor am I connected with.  That’s just one of the beauties of LinkedIn!

Here’s to Business Networking That Gets Results!

Kimberly Yow
MarketingThatsEasy.com

Have you utilized the “Question & Answer” feature on LinkedIn?  If you haven’t, you are missing out on a great resource.  Just click on “Answers” in the top left corner of your screen after you log in to your LinkedIn account.

Using this feature, you can:

• Answer questions that were posed by other LinkedIn members.  (This generates extra exposure and visibility for you and can position you as an expert in your field.)
• Ask the entire LinkedIn network a question.
• Send your question to specific Connections in your personal network.

I have used this feature to obtain market research information and recommendations on business resources that I needed.  Most of the responses I get do actually come from my own Connections but I occasionally get a response from someone I don’t know.   (When I do, I check out their profile and typically send them a request to Connect thereby growing my network.)

Just yesterday I posed the following question using the LinkedIn Q & A feature:

Question: What success or results have you had by using LinkedIn?

Detail: I am working on an outline for a webinar on “How To Use LinkedIn To Grow Your Network & Your Business”. In the webinar I’d like to give real-world examples (other than my own) of business success or results that came about because of using LinkedIn. If you have a success story or results you’d like to share, please let me know.

I received numerous responses that I am now incorporating into my webinar.  (I will share the responses in a future blog post.)

Whether you are looking for answers or just want to help others by answering their business questions, the LinkedIn “Question & Answer” feature is a great tool that you should utilize.  And oh, by the way, I think I mentioned that utilizing this feature gives you greater visibility on LinkedIn, right?

What burning questions do you have?

Kimberly Yow
MarketingThatsEasy.com

If you are reading this blog, I’m sure you would like to use sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Biznik and other social networking sites to grow your business.  If you are on these sites, have you ever received an invitation from someone that says, “I’d like to add you to my professional network on _______”?  OMG!  That drives me crazy!

Have you ever sent that type of invitation?  If you have, please don’t send any more.  Please don’t use the default invitation.  Instead, take a few extra seconds to personalize the invitation.  If you are sending the invitation to someone you know, you could say:

1. “Hi (person’s name), I just found your profile on xyzSite and I’d like to connect with you.  Take care, (your name)”
2. “Hi (person’s name), I can’t believe we aren’t already connected on xyzSite.  Hope all is well.  Take care, (your name)”

If you are sending an invitation to someone you don’t know, you could use the first option and elaborate a little about “why” you want to connect. If you have a common friend or business contact, say so in your invitation.

This advice may seem silly and unimportant.  But trust me, taking a few extra seconds to personalize your online invitations will leave a better impression of you with the recipient!  It’s also the very first step you need to take to establish a business relationship or referral partnership.

Happy Online Networking!

Kimberly
Marketing That’s Easy