Check out this post on Recruiting Blogs by Jim Stroud on how to post to multiple LinkedIn Groups at the same time. (watch on YouTube here)

Can you do this?  Youbetcha.

Should you do this? Um…. well… um… what do you think?

People are funny, aren’t they?  They want to find a posted job, then apply for it, then interview for it, then, accept an awesome job offer, and then move out of “job mode.”

If there is anything you learn from this past recession I hope that it is that you need to take control of your career (hence the JibberJobber tagline: Career Management!).

That means that you use certain tools as they should be used.  For example, let’s say you are looking for marketing jobs in your area.  Here’s one path (of many) I would recommend:

1. Go to a job board to find the openings,
2. Armed with information from a posting (contact name or company name), go to LinkedIn to do research,
3. Figure out how to network into a decision maker or hiring manager at that company,
4. COMMUNICATE WITH THEM.  Ideally, ask for informational interviews… develop a real, professional relationship with them.
5. Put all this information (contact, companies) into JibberJobber, and log your communication with them.  You already know JibberJobber is a job search tool to help you organize your job search… this is the type of information you would put in your JibberJobber account!

Pretty simple, right?  It’s quite different than how most people use a job board.  In that example I show you how to optimize:

1. a job board,
2. LinkedIn,
3. JibberJobber.

Try it out!

As a Group admin I go in and approve members of my Group on a regular basis.

I don’t want spammers in my Group, so I try to very quickly determine who is real and who isn’t.  I wrote about this just a few weeks ago here: Want to Join a LinkedIn Group? Get more than ONE CONNECTION!

I just went in this morning and found I have 3 major criteria that I look at that will keep you from my Group:

1. The warning I get from LinkedIn, as per the post above,
2. NO PICTURE. If you don’t have a picture I don’t approve you, until I look at your Profile.  Guess when I take the time to look at your Profile (hardly ever!),
3. NO CONNECTIONS.  If you have no, or only one, connection, you are either NEW or fake.  I don’t take the time to try and figure it out… I just put you on hold until you look more real.

I’m sharing these off-the-cuff reactions as a Group admin so that you can reevealuate the message you are giving people with your Profile… is it complete?  Does it look real?  Or does it look like spam?

As a LinkedIn Group Administrator I have the power to accept or decline access to my Group.

LinkedIn flags certain profiles as a help… here’s a snapshot of three that are flagged:

I rarely take time to check those Profiles out.  I just uncheck the box on the left (which I already did) and then approve the rest.

One person had ONE connection, but I could tell from her Profile that she was real, so I approved her… but the rest… OUT.

You have to look legitimate.  A picture helps.  A headline helps.  A summary helps… work experience helps.  Recommendations help.  Connections help…

If you want others to not even think “is this a spammer,” get serious about your Profile!

Here’s a quick change I just made on my Profile.

I switched from Constant Contact to iContact (because a friend worked there – he doesn’t anymore), and finally just moved my “newsletter” to my LinkedIn Group (where I can send an “announcement” every 8 days).

So, I had to update the link that I had let sit there for TOO LONG to the new Group URL:

Why am I sharing this?  Because every little tiny thing that we neglect, like changing the URL in my Summary, affects our communication and brand and effectiveness.

What are you neglecting?

This took me all of 50 seconds to fix.

As a Group admin I get to approve requests to join my LinkedIn group.  Every time I do it I always skip a few … usually those that LinkedIn warns me about.

There are two things that jump out at me that make me think the person/account/Profile isn’t a real person… you can easily fix both… check it out:

The first thing is NO PICTURE.  I once heard a recruiter say “if you don’t have your picture up, I wonder what else you are hiding.”  Very interesting.

The second thing, which is something that sets off a LinkedIn alarm, is having 0 or 1 connection.  Get some contacts and you look less like a spammer!  I know many of you are just starting out, but get some contacts

Amber Mac wrote a short article on Fast Company with the five LinkedIn tips you didn’ t know (see list here).

The good news?  If you’ve been reading this blog, my LinkedIn book, or my LinkedIn DVD, you did know about them!  Here they are (see her article for her thoughts on each):

1. Use “Signal” to discover relevant news and information. I kind of like Signal, but I think it just adds to the information overload issue most of us have. Having said that, I’ve found some cool information from Signal/News… so I won’t discount it.  But it’s not my go-to place for anything…
2. Export your connections. You already know about this – I’ve been preaching it for years and years
3. Create a resume. This is from a LinkedIn App, and could be useful, but if you write a Profile the way I like to see one, it will make for a poor resume.  Resumes and LI Profiles, imho, have different purposes, different audiences, and thus have different language.
4. Start and use groups. Yes, definitely!  But you already knew this, right?
5. Customize your URL. Definitely.  It is super easy, and valuable.  Check out a post from Walt Feigensen on customizing your URL here.  I talk about this in my DVD and book, of course, and think it’s low-hanging-fruit-must-do.

So there you go – five supposed secrets, but you already knew some

On a LinkedIn Group I saw a message that indicated LinkedIn is reducing free account services (AGAIN)… this time it’s a really big reduction.

I just tested and there is no change for me, but maybe it just isn’t rolled out in my account yet.  I honestly hope this is just a rumor, though.

Here’s what I know:

If you are NOT a first degree contact with someone and you want to communicate with them with a message, you have to upgrade (it says: “Send an InMail”… which sends you to a page to upgrade).

I’ve always been able to join a Group that that person is in, and the “send Inmail” link changes to “Send a message,” with no upgrade prompt.  This has been a great way to communicate with someone quite fast, without upgrade, and without a limit on how many times I can send a message like this (in other words, you only get X inMails a month, or at a time).

If the rumors are true, LinkedIn is changing it so that it will still say “send an inMail.”  Apparently, based on what the person reporting it wrote, you can still send them a message, but you have to go the “long way” to do it… you’d have to go to the Group, find the person, and then click the link to message them from there. That might take me a few minutes to do, which is a pain.

I’m not sure if this is really the direction LinkedIn is headed.  They’ve reduced the free features a number of times over the last while… I’m guessing they’ve done it as they’ve prepared for their IPO (“hey, look at us, we have a lot of people upgrading!”).  I hope it stops, though… if they keep reducing the free features they’ll really prompt people to look at an alternative.  Even an 800 pound guerrilla can’t keep pushing and pushing (and disrespecting) and expect to get away with it.

I’ve heard a lot of backlash about this type of behaviour over the years… on that one Discussion talking about this the comments include:

Yep… it’s like what IT people said Microsoft called their bugs… “features.”

This is a SHAMEFUL statement… it’s a shame that users are saying this disrespectful move is TYPICAL. If I owned or worked at LinkedIn this would be a stinging statement (I can’t defend it!)

I really can’t say more than that… :s

Like I said, I hope the rumors are UNTRUE!

Less than a year ago I wrote How (and Why) to Leave a LinkedIn Group.

The steps to leave a LinkedIn Group have changed… here’s how you leave a LinkedIn Group (as of right now):

1. Click on Groups and then go to the Group page (you can get there various ways, this is the most straightforward), then
2. Click on the last menu item / tab, which is More… a dropdown will appear, then
3. Click on My Settings.  On the bottom right there is a button (which looks disabled/grayed out), that says Leave Group.
4. Click that …

You should be good now

LinkedIn announced they would allow you to open a group so that people could see your contributions just by searching on Google (or any search engine).

You can read LinkedIn’s announcement about this here. Quoting from that post:

In the new Open Groups, all discussions can be viewed by anyone on the web, found on any search engines, and can be shared on other social networking platforms like Twitter, in addition to LinkedIn.

It sounds pretty cool (kind of)… sharing things out to the entire world.  That’s what the World Wide Web is all about, right?

I think there’s more to it than that, though.  I’m on almost 50 Groups (the limit) and I have seen many of them go “open.” I personally don’t care because I’m not active in the discussion, in general. But I’ve seen a lot of people write in and say they were there with peers, or people of a like mind, and wanted their conversations and contributions protected (not open to the world).

I have chosen to not open my JibberJobber Group. If people want to see what we’re writing, or add to the discussion, they can join the Group.

I think the best way to implement an open Group is to start is as open, not to change it midstream.

That’s just my preference – not necessarily the right or wrong way.  Any thoughts?

(one more thought: if you put ANYTHING online, whether it is a protected place or not, expect ZERO privacy. I’m not saying that sites (like JibberJobber, for example) will exploit or betray or go back on their policy, I’m just saying don’t expect to have your private stuff kept private in an environment like LinkedIn Group, whether it is open or not.)