I’m On LinkedIn – Now What???

LinkedIn DVD: Version 2 is Coming Soon

LinkedIn made some big interface changes, and I have to change the LinkedIn for Job Seekers. I was going to start recording the next version in March but I think it’s time to start it now.

Starting today I’m cutting the DVD price in half (if you purchased it for full price in the last 30 days you can take advantage of any of the specials below).

The new price for the Version I LinkedIn DVD is $25 + S&H.

Here are the bundle options:

• and/or  Add the book for $19.95 (no additional S&H)
• and/or  Add the Version II LinkedIn DVD (should ship in April) for $25 (no additional S&H)
• and/or  Add 6 months of premium JibberJobber ($25)

Or get all of this, which has a list price of $175 for only $89.  If you do all of the options above it would be $95 + S&H, so the complete bundle is a good savings.

Click here to purchase, and please tell your networks about this.  This offer is good while the Version I DVDs last.

Posted in LinkedIn Training, Using LinkedIn | No Comments »

LinkedIn and Social Marketing Training?

I recently announced a new monthly program I’m doing to share what I’ve learned about social marketing.

Each month I’ll focus on a different thing – LinkedIn, video, Yahoo and Google Groups, articles, Twitter, etc.

We’ll go in-depth… and address your needs (as well as we can).

For more information, and the monthly schedule, check out the announcement on my Jason Alba blog.

If you have any questions, contact me.

Posted in Using LinkedIn, social networking | No Comments »

LinkedIn Says: Don’t Upgrade

Check out this blog post by Barbara Safani… it is notes she took from a presentation in NYC by Brian Tietje (Sales Manager for LinkedIn).  The post is titled LinkedIn Job Search Tips From the Pros.

#7 is:

Don’t worry about upgrading to the paid level of service. This level is designed for recruiters and marketers, not job seekers. LinkedIn has an enormous amount of utility for job seekers at the free level of service.

Interesting… I tell job seekers to not upgrade, however, about a year ago I was comped an upgrade and fell in love with the upgrade features. Why? Because I started doing more prospecting on LinkedIn, and the features were right for me.

When I wasn’t using the searching and communication as much (which I do when I prospect), these upgrade features weren’t as important.

If you are a savvy senior-level professional who is really going to use LinkedIn, I bet you’d get good value out of the upgrade.  If you aren’t ready to really use it yet, you probably won’t.

I’ll be renewing my upgrade…. but I might try an experiment first (going to free to see if I can find any pain that makes me want to upgrade).

By the way, if you are still trying to figure out what the heck you should do on LinkedIn, get my LinkedIn DVD.  You’ll know what you can and should do after watching it.

Posted in Using LinkedIn | 4 Comments »

LinkedIn Help

For a few years I had owned LinkedInHelp.com and LinkedInHelp.net.

Today I finished transferring them to LinkedIn, the company.  If you want LinkedIn help you’ll have to go to their help resources.  I hope that someone there jumps on it and redirects the link instead of letting it drop (especially since it’s been live for a while and some people might have been using it).

I didn’t transfer them because I wanted to… I did it because (a) it was the right thing to do, and (b) they sent me a nasty, cold letter (email) telling me I better transfer it to them or else.

I don’t care for “or else,” so I transferred it.

In the course of transferring and communicating with them I actually got a real communication from a real LinkedIn employee – so I took advantage of the opportunity and asked “what’s with being a “relationship company” but sending that really cold, impersonal, and even threatening email to me?”

I’m nobody special to them, but I do think I’ve helped them increase visibility and credibility.  Not a reason to give me special treatment, but man, that letter was disturbing.

This was not-a-fun process, but it ended nicely since I got to spend some time on the phone with the LinkedIn guy – I asked him why it was such a cold letter and he said “let’s get on the phone and talk about this.”

Very classy… thank you Mr. ____ from LinkedIn, for making that a pleasant experience.

To read the letter, and some very passionate thoughts (on both sides of the fence) on this issue, you can read LinkedStrategies.com post titled: LinkedIn: Are You Crazy! referring to LinkedIn dude Sean Nelson. Luckily mine didn’t end like that

Posted in LinkedIn News | 8 Comments »

LinkedIn Resolutions

I was reading The Daily Machete’s blog post titled Networking Resoultions for 2010 and saw that my buddy included one resolution about LinkedIn:

I resolve to update my LinkedIn status once per day and, if I’m not on LinkedIn.com yet, I will sign up immediately.

There are five resolutions on that post – you should be able to come up with your own five.  I’ll share five of mine specifically for LinkedIn:

1. Submit questions in LinkedIn Answers more frequently. At least once a month.
2. Answer questions in LinkedIn Answers more frequently. I do this when I have down time, like in a hotel, at conferences, or when working on a brainless project… but I don’t do it enough. I won’t do it with lame, short, meaningless answers, though.
3. Change my status at least every other week. I think Machete’s suggestion to do it daily is too much… I don’t want to hit my network that often (if they want to get more frequent updates they can follow me on Twitter).
4. Review and update my LinkedIn Profile. I know there are areas that can be beefed up.  Disregard the 100% complete measurement and make your Profile compelling and strong for humans, not for LinkedIn’s algorithm.
5. Figure out how to get more value out of Groups. I’m disappointed and excited about the power of Groups… this year I’m going to wrap my brain around it and really figure out how to harness the power.

What about you – what might your LinkedIn Resolutions be for this year?

Posted in Using LinkedIn | 2 Comments »

Is LinkedIn for Blue Collar Job Seekers or Workers?

I’ve been thinking about prospective users of LinkedIn for a while and continue to ask myself how’d I’d answer the question:

Jon is a line worker at a manufacturing plant.  Or a miner.  Or a ________. It’s a blue collar job.  You find blue collar jobs differently than you find white collar jobs… why should Jon get on LinkedIn?  Isn’t that overkill?

So what do you think?  If you have a cousin (Jon) who just got laid off from a blue collar job, do you think LinkedIn would be a great resource for him?

Posted in LinkedIn for Job Seekers, Using LinkedIn | 6 Comments »

2009: Out With The Old (LinkedIn Interface)

A few weeks ago I started to get emails from people asking me what I thought about the new LinkedIn interface.

Huh?

I didn’t have a new LinkedIn interface.

Now I do, though.

Two thumbs up. I like everything about it. It feels cleaner, it seems there’s more room, and it focuses on my data, as opposed to navigation.  Good stuff.

Oh wait, there is one thing I’m surprised at.

My two favorite features, Answers and Companies, are NOT in the main menu.  I’m amazed, actually, as I think these are two of the first things you need to interact with, and they are in a secondary menu.

Weird.

Oh well… overall, two thumbs up.

(How does this affect the LinkedIn DVD?  I’ll update it sometime but for the most part all the stuff I share is current… just some menu stuff is moved around)

Posted in Using LinkedIn | 4 Comments »

LinkedIn: An IPO Candidate for 2010?

TechCrunch has a post on The Top Ten IPO Candidates For 2010.  LinkedIn is one of the suggestions (it is #3 on the list, although I’m not sure that the list is in any order).

Erick Schonfeld (@erickschonfeld) writes:

>> The other social network,

Very interesting that this is “the other one.”  There are hundreds of thousands of social networks, if you count all the Ning sites.  But I agree, when I think of social networks I’m interested in, LinkedIn and Facebook are the two most important.

>> LinkedIn is like the enterprise version of Facebook.

Interesting description.  Makes it sounds more important and more boring at the same time.   But “enterprise” means MONEY.  Not sexy, fun, flashy, college money, but corporate bucks.  Not a bad positioning.

>> It is where business gets done

YES, YES, YES.  Too many people assume LinkedIn is just a big job seeker and recruiter environment.  I know that it is much more than that.  If it isn’t more than that for you, you aren’t using it right.

>> and people find jobs.

Definitely true.  Have you ordered my LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD yet?

>> LAst year alone it raised about $75 million at a $1 billion valuation.

It says the total raised is $103 million.  And their staff has really grown in the last 2 years!

>> And in the Founder Reid Hoffman has spoken repeatedly about LinkedIn’s ability  to IPO.  Earlier this year, he recruited former Yahoo exec Jeff Weiner to be CEO and is spending more time himself as a venture capitalist, which has always been his sideline.

Interesting, huh?

Posted in LinkedIn News | 1 Comment »

Thank You

I know, it isn’t Thanksgiving … but I wanted to write and thank each of you for your support, your readership, and your evangelism.

Many of you know my journey here (and on JibberJobber) started from a miserable job search.  There have been tough times – tough financially, socially, etc.  But we have made it through quite a bit, and have big plans for the future.

I realize, though, that none of this could have happened without your support – and believe me, we’ve felt your support!

So, with that, a heartfelt THANK YOU!

Posted in Using LinkedIn | 1 Comment »

Why Reach Out To Someone Outside of LinkedIn?

Last week I wrote Think Like a Recruiter while on LinkedIn, and Bill Kerschbaum asked:

So what are the advantages to contacting someone outside of LinkedIn, in your opinion?

Well, thanks for asking Bill :p

I remember seeing things in LinkedIn where they suggest that sending messages THROUGH LinkedIn will get you better results.  Check this image out (found somewhere in the account comparison pages):

I personally don’t buy that… 30x more likely?  I don’t know… if that’s true then why do people even try with cold calls?  And, I’ve had LinkedIn messages go into my spam filters… spam filters suck, and are quite unintelligent, and I think that claim is not something they can ensure.

Back to the question… why do I recommend contacting people OUTSIDE of LinkedIn?

For one simple reason: People are used to this little thing we call “email.”

It’s natural, it’s common, it’s acceptable.

Many people don’t know what LinkedIn is, even if they have an account there.

Many people associate LinkedIn with Facebook and MySpace (I hear it all the time as I speak across the country).

LinkedIn messaging does not have the same clout at a regular email.

Maybe, to some, it has MORE.  But I’ll venture, I’ll assume, to most, it might be one of those “what’s that?? Is it spam?  IS it something I should pay attention to?”

So that’s my bias.

I use Introductions, and I use InMail… but if I can, I use regular email.

I’m not saying this is the only right answer, but it is part of my strategy.  What do you think?

Posted in Using LinkedIn | 2 Comments »