Linked in consultant training 100512

making the most of linkedInAPEX Resource Solutions may 2012

a product of

training

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today’s agenda....

1. planning: the basics

2. personal branding: boosting your profile

3. how to grow your network: connecting with people you don’t know

4. connecting with people: the do’s & don’ts

5. ‘tagging’ on LinkedIn

6. how to effectively use updates

7. managing (and maximising) your time on LinkedIn: your activity calendar

reap the power of the world’s biggest professional network

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• stand out from the crowd: improve your personal branding

• have greater influence

• drive more business from your profile: candidates & clients

• grow candidate networks

• build new business pipeline

• deepen knowledge of clients, new business pipeline, people

• how to NOT look like a recruiter on the hunt when head-hunting

1 linkedin for recruitmenttoday’s goals

• growing APEX brand equity and online presence, through a strong, professional and consistent presence of staff and consultants

• greater social media participation confidence & success

• improve LinkedIn networking effectiveness

• ideas to help you do your job better

• connect with people you don’t know

• use Groups effectively

For most industries, LinkedIn is now the de facto career management tool for professionals -- and if you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, you don’t exist

inc.com may 2012

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about.....the platform

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average salary of a LinkedIn member is

$130,000+

Source: jeffbullas.com

3Source: Vincos.it

3Source: Vincos.it

3Source: Vincos.it

3Source: Vincos.it

3Source: Vincos.it

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1 planning #1the basics


Your photo:You have a professional photo that is recent, clear, warm, well-lit, appealing. Too busy to market yourself? Don’t be.

Good photos.....


Average photos.....

Don’t:• Use a photo with someone else,

where the someone else is cut off!• Use a photo where you’re fishing,

cycling, at a party, drinking, or finishing a marathon: CONTEXT

• Cut off your face to look creative• Go full-body. The shot will appear

too small


Profile Completeness:• If it’s not complete, why not?• How is it written (grammar, tone, voice)?

Have you had an ‘outsider’ check it?• written in the first person: without using

‘I’ too much• HONESTY of content (don’t kid yourself)• Your profile is public, right?• Include keyword tags: skills & expertise• Ad ‘sections’: courses, awards,

publications, articles, projects, travel, blog

Do you regularly add connections?Unless you’ve managed to jack off EVERYONE in your career to date - or you’ve been living in a dessert - you should have at least 100 connections

The Summary • Who you are; what you do; how you

help people• Punchy; clear; personable; bullet points

get read• Don’t ramble on: keep it tight• If it’s not clear that you love what you

do, and that you do it better than anyone else, why not?

Headline: • The length of less than 1 Tweet to

describe what you do to get their attention

• Largely used for current position & company

• Compelling keywords will ensure the right professionals will find you

Contact Details:• Are they up to date?• Make sure EVERY detail is recent:

mobile, email, company web address, Twitter handle, blog address

1 planning #1the basics Give Recommendations:

• Request recommendations to be displayed on your profile

• The best way to receive recommendations is to give them first

• HOT HINT: You need at least three recommendations in order for LinkedIn to label your profile ‘complete’

Interests & Groups:• Complete both sections• All nominated terms will be hyper-

linked and will take you to other users in the network who share these interests

Your URL:• Make sure your public URL is meaningful• http://au.linkedin.com/in/jacintacroagh• This optimises it for organic listings on search

engine resultsWeb Listings:• Customise: you can list up to 3 URLs • Describe them with relevant terms eg rather than

using the website URL use (as an example) ‘Talent Resource Solution’

• Not only is this more descriptive, but it also gives you a better opportunity to rank for these keywords in search engines

http://au.linkedin.com/in/jacintacroagh

http://au.linkedin.com/in/jacintacroagh

2 planning #2personal branding


• You guys are all active users of LinkedIn• You’re all high-value individuals, solutions providers• What makes you better than the thousands of other recruiters in the

market? A distinctive personal brand.

Personal branding is a description of the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands. Unlike self-help management techniques which relate to self-improvement, personal branding suggests instead that

success comes from self-packaging wikipedia


Which leaves open a host of opportunities for GETTING ACTIVE....• Contribution to conversations: uploading unique commentary regularly• Look at what your competitors are/aren’t doing: and launch a counter-attack• What value do you add to your contacts, groups, network?• Are you active anywhere else in the social web? Automate your Tweets to

your personal LinkedIn feed; and your slideshare content• Devise your activity strategy (more on that later)• In your summary, include how you HELP people in your role. Are you

outcomes driven? Or do you just talk it?

Consider these facts.....• Only 50% of LinkedIn users have a complete profile• Only 13% have 500+ connections: how many do you have?• Only 10% are on LinkedIn 8 hours or more, per week• Only 50% believe it’s good for building NEW network relationships

with influencers of potential customers


LinkedIn recently acquired Slideshare; the largest presentation sharing platform on the web

If you want your personal brand to stand out:• Sign-up for Slideshare• Optimise LinkedIn so it displays Slideshare presentations on your profile• This will demonstrate thought leadership in your industry

3 growing your networknew connections

3 growing your networknew connections• Import contacts from your email platform

• InMaps: LinkedIn allows you to connect with others by integrating with and importing from your own existing networks, such as:• Facebook• Twitter• Your educational institutes (college,

university, high school)• Past companies you've worked• Groups• Professional affiliations

InMaps provides you with a colour-coded, graph-style representation, so you can see how your unique network groupingsinter-connect. (It literally allows you to visualise your network.)

3 growing your networknew connections• Used Advanced

Search to find specific people or categories of people you want to connect with


Using Search:• Save your people searches: create an alert - LinkedIn will

send you an email every week with new prospects based on the topic of that alert

• With its structured fields and facets, LinkedIn’s search interface is supremely powerful and precise: both organically and within Groups

• If you build your LinkedIn network to a great number of people, this will assist with and show up in the search results within your network: critical tool for sourcers and recruiters

• The contacts of your contacts become a great opportunity for broadening your network: this requires a commitment of time


• Look at the contacts of your contacts: if they’re private, look on the RHS of the screen, at who’s looked at this profile: here you’ll find a wealth of contacts to research & connect with

• Look at the people you want to connect with, and note the Groups they’ve joined: join those Groups - but ONLY if they’re relevant to you, and you have unique & valuable contributions to make: don’t joint them gratuitously


• Follow your network’s updates and your contacts’ interactions; as you watch who your network interacts with, you might notice opportunities for building valuable relationships. If someone mentions someone interesting, ask for an introduction

• Don’t underestimate the ‘Groups’ and ‘Events’ features

• Majority of LinkedIn’s users are more bent on making personal connections via messages and one-on-one interactions. These are great but you are not taking advantage of LinkedIn's full potential if you are limiting yourself to these traditional strategies

• Thus tap into Groups & Events to double or triple the amount of connections you make on the site

• LinkedIn has constantly improved these features to make them accessible to anyone


• First ‘Groups’: like any group - online or offline. It's a bunch of users who share the same interests, skills, experiences or causes

• 2 ways to get involved in a group: create one or join one (you can join a max. of 50 groups); the built-in search function will find you great groups to join

• Creating a group is a powerful way to attract new contacts to your professional network: by starting a Group you can undertake a member search and directly send a message to someone, provided they are using the default setting LinkedIn offers. In other words, by attracting your target demographic to your group, you can directly engage with them regardless of your connectivity status

• If you’re starting a group, remember, this is inbound marketing, it’s not a direct company promotional tool - so no company names: offer something of value and create a #hashtag to cross-promote on Twitter so you have the potential to expand the group even further


Other factors when it comes to groups:

• If you expect a return on your investment, participate

• Observe for a time; then engage

• Don’t jump in without clear goals in mind; don’t insult or cut others down; make sure you listen to & demonstrate respect for opinions & experiences of others

• Run polls in your group

• If you’re running a Group, use the announcement feature of to communicate regularly to your members

• Use announcements with caution: used too frequently and they’re considered spam


LinkedIn Events:

• Events are a proven means for connecting with new LinkedIn members

• Setting up an ‘Event’ is easy: invite your connections to become a part of it; get them to invite connections

• The ‘Events’ feature is used to draw attention & exposure for an upcoming event

• You can make use of external tools like Twitter and Facebook to promote the event: so all 3 platforms are connected for the single purpose

• Whether you are conducting an online webinar, an offline conference, or you just want to let people know that you will be having a booth in a trade show, creating an ‘Event’ on LinkedIn is easy & effective


Promoting an Event on LinkedIn:

• Create an event logo

• Get creative with your title: exciting ways to describe your event

• Promote the event in LinkedIn Groups, on Twitter, Facebook (as relevant)

• Promote your event on your LinkedIn company page

• Send direct & personalised invites to your event

• Find related or relevant events to attend (and get ideas!)

Follow companies:• Company follows make it possible for you to keep your eye

on key activities happening at companies you’re interested in: as prospective clients and prospective talent

• You’ll find information regarding new jobs, new hires and promotions, what it’s like to work there and employee testimonials, average employee tenure, new management, ownership structure and performance (for public companies)


Stay updated: RSS• You can subscribe to a news feed for network updates on the

LinkedIn RSS page• The RSS for your network updates is a personal feed showing the

latest activity from people in your LinkedIn network (similar to what you see on your LinkedIn home page)

• RSS also provides a great opportunity for sourcing new topics to discuss, articles to post on your news feed


4 connecting with othersthe do’s & don’ts


Don’t send out random requests to multitudes of prospects: research them, approach with InMail (paid for) and use your knowledge to cut-through to your candidate & client audience

Look at the types of connections individuals accept

Don’t try to get a response from a group member or prospective contact by hounding them: if you don’t get a response first up, look for smarter, more meaningful ways to engage

Confer recommendations on colleagues & ex-colleagues, with sincerity. Don’t do it to expect something in return.

Don’t be the group nerd: offer your informed opinion & insight regularly and in a timely fashion: not all the time

When you invite people to connect, personalise the message

Don’t expect everyone to network like you do


Be proactive about making new connections: research them first, then go for it in an informed & measured way

Add value - every step of the way

Update your profile with new achievements, awards, education achievements

Make sure LinkedIn is integrated into the host of other communications channels you have in play

Don’t be pushy & salesy: be informative & helpful

Make sure you use your personal voice: be friendly, open, professional. Not arrogant, opinionated, annoying

Embed custom links in your updates & Group contributions so you can see where your leads are coming from


Look at the opinions of like-minded individuals: connect with them irrespective of the immediate business benefit

Don’t list over-personal information that you don’t want past, present or future clients or employers to see

Only add people you don’t know when you feel qualified to do so

Do connect to former employees, suppliers, partners of your business

Don’t sell or spam others with your business proposition: offer relationships of value instead

5 taggingwhat does it mean?

5 taggingwhat does it mean?

• Tags on LinkedIn are keywords you can ‘attach’ to your 1st level connections (ie. the people you are directly connected with) which essentially allow you to put them into categories, a bit like creating different folders to keep their records in

• LinkedIn actually starts the process for you – when you invite people to connect as ‘colleague’, ‘friend’ or as ‘groups’ then, when they accept, they automatically get tagged as such

• You can filter (or segment) your connections in any number of different ways because you can add as many tags as you like to each person

• This gives you the opportunity to send information out to very specific tagged groups of your 1st level connections who you know are going to be interested, whether that’s due to eg. their interests, their location or their job

6 updates

making them effective for you

6 updatesmaking them effective for you

• Review updates of your network regularly - eg twice a day• Comment on updates: be they Tweets, comments, article postings, new

appointments, news• Add Twitter to your LinkedIn profile and when you update your LinkedIn

network by asking a question, sharing a thought or posting an article, you can choose whether to share it on Twitter at the same time. It’s a powerful way to integrate the business side of your tweets

• From your homepage, take three actions on your network’s updates; e.g., like, comment or send a message

• Update with relevant news articles: use a URL shortener (eg bit.ly) to keep the message tight. Post a comment about the article in your update:

• Update with company news, industry insights & snippets (they’re all interesting), research, whitepaper,s slideshare presentations

7 productivitymanaging your time

7 productivitymanaging your time

Your Activity Strategy:Plan your LinkedIn activity with this engagement calendar:

Day Updates Groups Companies Skills

Monday 830am3pm

list groups for activity monitor changes, updates, news

for candidate targets

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

e: [email protected]: @croaghiem: 0404 203 250

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a product of

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Linked in consultant training 100512