Surya Yalamanchili Jul 02, 2008
I'm excited to announce the "launch" of the Learning Center at learn.linkedin.com. Here you'll find descriptions of different sections of the site, "how-to" tips, and user guides.
I think my favorite page is the "What is LinkedIn?" page that features the video I blogged about a few days back. It's the perfect page to send to those friends who are still struggling to grasp why you're always raving about LinkedIn.
A close second is the New User Starter Guide. Once my friends sign-up, usually they'll immediately ask me for tips on what they should do next. Now I can send them a link to this page :)
I hope that the Learning Center will be a great place for you to learn about how to get the most out of LinkedIn and serve as a resource for when you get hit-up for tips on using LinkedIn. We started with a small section of User Guides (Entrepreneur, Journalist, Venture Capital, Business Development, Attorney, Consultant, & Non-Profits) but we'll be adding more periodically. Which professions and industries do you want to see, and what tips & uses should we feature?
Send me a message on LinkedIn with what you want to see next or leave a comment here. See you around the Learning Center!
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Surya Yalamanchili Jun 30, 2008
How would you describe LinkedIn to a friend or family member? That’s exactly the question we wanted to answer when we started working with the fine folks at CommonCraft to make a video explaining LinkedIn. Yes, the same folks who brought you "Social Networking in Plain English"!
Since our video is actually ready, I won’t bog down this post by reiterating what LinkedIn is and why I think it’s so great. I’ll just let you watch the video that explains simply what value LinkedIn adds to your professional life.
Note, that we’ve also split the video into two parts so that you can just share a specific section if you want— the first part is an overview of what LinkedIn is and the second video is all about how LinkedIn works (see below).
Feel free to embed the videos on your blog and share them with your network!
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Mario Sundar Oct 09, 2007
I understand that this is a question that has been very well answered a million times before and I'm sure you're thinking to yourself, why not just check Wikipedia for the definition (which is not necessarily a bad idea).
But for those of you who would like to watch a succinct, yet fun way of looking at the very definition of social networking here's a simple presentation created by Common Craft that has been doing the rounds of the blogosphere.
What's also fascinating is how the video draws the distinction in simple terms, between the two prominent reasons behind why we network - social and professional.
You can share this video using embed code from one of these hosts:
You Tube | MetaCafe | Daily Motion | DotSub | Blip.tv
The above video has been created by Lee LeFever and his team at Common Craft, who have also worked on other similar gems, helping users understand the complex world of RSS, Wikis, etc... in plain english. Care for more:
* RSS in Plain English (3:43)
* Social Bookmarking in Plain English (3:25)
* Wikis in Plain English (3:52)
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Mike Lin Aug 02, 2007
One of the key features of LinkedIn, is the ability to leverage the "wisdom of the professional crowd" by using a popular feature called LinkedIn Answers. Mike Lin, our senior UI designer, outlines the first five steps one should follow when using LinkedIn Answers for the first time:
1. Post your own question to a website or blog:
LinkedIn Answers now has a ’share this’ link which appears at
the lower right hand corner under each question. Click on ‘Share This’
to e-mail the question to a friend, add it to del.icio.us or digg, or
grab a permalink to a publicly viewable URL.
2. View all your Questions & Answers:
From the homepage of LinkedIn Answers you can click on the ‘View all
your questions & answers’ link in the My Q&A module (located in
the upper left hand corner), or on the ‘My Q&A’ link (located in
the global navigation pane)
3. Managing your Questions:
By clicking on your question within My Q&A (see above), you have a
few options for managing your question depending on whether or not it’s
open or closed.
For open questions, you can:
• Extend the closing date
• Forward this question to people who might be able to help answer it
• Close the Question
For closed questions, you can:
• Choose a different best answer
• Completely hide question
• Re-open this question to answers
4. Subscribe to categories via RSS:
Have a favorite category that you like to answer in? You can subscribe
to RSS feeds via several blog aggregators (such as Bloglines) or copy
the RSS link to subscribe to an aggregator that’s not listed.
Simply use the ‘Browse’ module in the left hand column to navigate
to the category you’re interested in subscribing to, and you should see
a link to that category’s feed.
5. Search Answers:
There’s a great depth of knowledge that’s already been collected within
LinkedIn Answers. You can use the pull-down in the search box to search
LinkedIn Answers from most pages on the site.
Besides working and blogging at LinkedIn, Mike also manages one of the few community blogs on a San Francisco neighborhood called Potrero Hill. Check out other Mike Lin posts on our LinkedIn blog, here and here.
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Mario Sundar Jul 09, 2007
This is the first in a series of posts that'll outline best practices for using LinkedIn from the point-of-view of our diverse groups of users. As many of you know, LinkedIn continues to provide value to consultants in different industry segments by helping them accomplish two of their most pressing needs:
(1) Winning new business
(2) Strengthening existing business
So, let's see what are the ways in which LinkedIn can help facilitate the above two goals and also some immediate steps you can follow, to effect some results.
How
Here are 5 ways that LinkedIn can help consultants win and strengthen their business relationships
Potential clients find you when your LinkedIn profile matches a keyword
they use for their search. With millions of searches done on LinkedIn
per month, odds are someone has already searched LinkedIn for a person
with your expertise. Include the right keywords in your profile, so you
show up in the search results of potential clients.
LinkedIn not only allows you to find hiring managers in your industry
and region, but also enables you to identify new prospects in the
networks of your former clients or colleagues. The most valuable information for your clients is rarely on a Web page:
it is usually in the minds of influencers and potential
customers. LinkedIn helps you find these people and reach them through
introductions made by your trusted contacts.
Most consultants get the majority of their clients through
word-of-mouth referrals. When you connect on LinkedIn with
professionals who have referred business to you in the past, you
strengthen your relationship with them by helping them reach people you
know. Also, once connected on LinkedIn, you can see who they or their
contacts know and proactively reach out to potential new clients via
referrals from past clients or former co-workers. If you have more
business than you can handle, you can also use LinkedIn to find
qualified staff and subcontractors.
One of the first steps in establishing your reputation within LinkedIn is to get endorsed by your former clients and colleagues whom you've impressed with your work ethic. This not only offers examples of consulting work you've done in the past on your LinkedIn profile, but may seem mandatory given the competitive consulting environment in different fields today. Also, don't forget to recommend your co-workers (past and present) and fellow consultants whose work you admire.
Another effective way to substantiate your expertise in a given field is offering solutions and answers to specific questions being posed by your trusted network through LinkedIn Answers. Besides helping other professionals; this is a great way to further solidify your expertise in your related field of work. We have a slew of categories and sub-groups within LinkedIn Answers that cover a broad swath of possible consulting work.
Now
If you're a consultant who has just joined LinkedIn, here are four action items to help you get started:
Now, this is just a starting point. If you've used LinkedIn in unique and effective ways as a consultant, feel free to leave a comment or contact me at msundar@linkedin.com.
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Mike Lin Jul 03, 2007
Your professional network is only as good as your continually evolving list of business contacts comprising your colleagues (current and former), business associates, your professional acquaintances; both online (e.g. blogosphere) or offline (e.g. events). I get asked this question all the time: "I've signed up for LinkedIn...Now, what?". Well, there are three initial steps to follow -- establish, build and participate:
1. Establish your online identity
2. Build your network
3. Participate within the network
Here's a quick and easy primer on how to establish your online identity with your LinkedIn profile. When you join LinkedIn you create a profile that summarizes your
professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found
by former colleagues, clients and partners, so be sure to fill out
your profile with your full employment and education history.
Your LinkedIn profile has more depth than a traditional static resume, by allowing you to also display:
• Recommendations you’ve received
• Recommendations you’ve written
• Your Questions and Answer on LinkedIn Answers
• Links to your website, portfolio, company, etc.,
Public Profile
After you’ve created your LinkedIn profile, you can control what parts of it are publicly viewable on the web by clicking on ‘Edit My Public Profile‘.
Your public profile will appear in search engine results for Google,
Yahoo!, etc., and you can opt to show just the basics, a full view, or
show nothing.
Promote Your Public Profile
You can easily create a link to your public profile from your blog or website, by grabbing the code for a variety of buttons. If you’re a Typepad user, there’s also a widget to quickly add a button to your blog.
Come back next week for my post on building your network. In the meanwhile, feel free to leave a comment on innovative ways you've used to build and promote your network.
Other than extreme LinkedIn makeovers that he's known for (just ask Guy Kawasaki), Mike also manages a neighborhood guide for Potrero Hill, San Francisco in his spare time.
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