LinkedIn Endorsements

On LinkedIn, you have many smart, talented, and skilled professional connections. In September 2012, Endorsements made their debut onto the LinkedIn platform. Endorsements are a new feature that makes it easier to recognize LinkedIn users for their skills and expertise. With just one click, you can now endorse your connections for a skill they have listed on their profile or recommend one they have not added yet.

Do you think your connection is great at programming or project management or selling? Let them know!

More importantly, let them know with an Endorsement, so everyone else will know too!

This is how you can make a LinkedIn Endorsement. This is truly easy!

• Scroll down a LinkedIn connection’s profile, you will see the Skills & Expertise section for that LinkedIn user.
• To endorse, simply click on the skill (shaded in gray) you intend to endorse. That's it!
• You can suggest additional skills as well, and LinkedIn will often suggest one or two skills for which you can be the first to offer an Endorsement.

Here is what my Endorsement section looks like. This shows me--and more importantly shows any LinkedIn viewers--a quick snapshot of what OTHERS think I am good at. When a recruiter or hiring manager stumbles by this page, I have a ready-to-go assembly of networked contacts confirming my skills.

This is powerful stuff!

Do you need or want practice? Just click on the image and you will be at my profile.

Want to see who has endorsed you? LinkedIn will notify you via email and on LinkedIn whenever you are endorsed. You can scroll to the bottom of your profile page under Skills & Expertise to see the faces of people who think you are great at what you do. You can also accept any new skills recommended by your peers that you may not have thought to include on your profile.

Here is a fantastic video explaining how to endorse your LinkedIn connections from Marc Miller at Career Pivot. Marc knows the value of this LinkedIn feature. Stop by his website at www.careerpivot.com or send him a thank you tweet at @careerpivot. I know he will appreciate it.

So go Endorse, my friends. It will improve your connectivity to your network, and unquestionably help out others too.

Your Password shouldn't be password

How important is your password?

In the wake of what happened a little while back at LinkedIn, pretty important. In case you missed it, about 6.5 million passwords were hacked and released on-line about 10 days ago.

The problem is not so much that someone can access your LinkedIn account. Yes, I suppose they could do dastardly things like change your work experience or write a funny recommendation for someone else. But truth is, LinkedIn passwords themselves are not that valuable.

And now there is a value attributed to those stolen LinkedIn passwords: $1. With $1, a criminal can grab a large Diet Coke from McDonalds or your LinkedIn password.

If someone has your LinkedIn password, it is quite likely they have much more. The trick is that you probably use your password over and over and over again...

...for LinkedIn.

...for Facebook.

...for your on-line banking.

...for your company e-mail.

Getting nervous yet?

A few ideas for making your passwords more secure:

• Keeping your passwords varied, and not re-using them for at least one year.
• Avoid Querty-based patterns (for example, 12345 or asdfghjkl).
• Mix capital and lower-case letter formats.
• Substitute letters and mix in numbers whenever possible.
• Switch word orders.
• and PLEASE don't use the word password

There was a time when I could very often guess passwords. There were three tricks:

1. Use the word password 
2. Use the name of a child or pet
3. Flip over the mousepad.

Using just those techniques, I could break in about half the time. Seriously. Don't be that easy.

Secure those passwords, mix them up, and PLEASE CHANGE THEM every so often. I realize password changes are a pain.  But then so is fighting fraud and explaining that nasty-gram from your e-mail account didn't really come from you.

Social Media 101

Do you use different social networks for different reasons? Here is a great infographic on when to use each social network.


Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Google+


Toss around one or two of these factoids and you will be the smartest one at the party! (I know this photo gets a little unwieldy on the blog. Just click the graphic or the link immediately to read it more clearly.)

http://mashable.com/2012/04/16/social-networks-tips-infographic/

Social Media Explained...with donuts!

All you need to know about social media, explained by donuts.

How People View You on Facebook...Literally

Here is a curious article about how people look at your Facebook profile...literally. Researchers used eye-tracking technology to determine how viewers literally looked at social media pages.

If you ever consider using social media for business or to attract more interest, you should know that...


...on Facebook, Klout and StumbleUpon, the profile picture matters, big-time. So put a nice photo of yourself in there instead of your pet.


...on LinkedIn, the situation shifts...the job profile got more attention than the picture.


...good content at the top of the page rules the day. The further something is down the page, the fewer people view it.


Nice article...go check it out here...

http://mashable.com/2011/11/30/social-profile-eye-tracking/#36361LinkedIn

What's a GMail?

A blog reader recently said to me, "I like your blog because I am learning quite a bit. You write a lot about GMail. I don't even know if I have a GMail, so I better go get one right away."


My lightbulb popped on...I often write about topics by jumping in mid-stream and assuming you have been privy to the thoughts in my head all along. So here I answer the question: "What's a GMail?"

GMail is a Internet-based email program, and in my opinion, one of the best. It is free, and allows you to send or receive email anywhere you have an Internet connection. It follows the SaaS model, or Software as a Service. Don't let that vocabulary startle you; SaaS essentially means there is nothing to install onto your computer. You find a computer, laptop, smart phone, iPad, etc and login.  That's it; end of story. No more CDs, disks and things to install onto your computer.

(Just think how brilliant you are now...you know what SaaS is. Impress your friends this weekend by talking about how GMail is a SaaS service. So are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  They are all SaaS applications. No software to install; you just login.  That's SaaS.)


So remember, GMail is not something you buy off a shelf at the store. It is a service you login to from anywhere you have an Internet connection.


So, what makes GMail so special?


It is all searchable. If you have a message you want to look up, you do not necessarily have to spend have your day hunting through dozens of folders in search of where you placed that one elusive message. (It's probably with that lone sock you lost in last week's wash.)  Instead, just search for the message. Type any word in the message in the search box at the top of GMail and GMail automatically returns all messages with that word.


So if you are trying to find the message from Aunt Kathy with the funny story and photo about her trip to Orlando, just type Kathy Orlando in the search box and you will probably have it.


You get a lot of storage. Typically you do not have to delete any messages from your GMail. You can leave them in there forever and typically not run out of space (more on this in a future post.)


You get a conversation view of messages. Huh? What does that mean? GMail does something novel with your messages: GMail groups all replies together into one message that it calls a conversation. So if you send out a message to 10 people asking for help planning your dad's birthday party, all 10 replies will be grouped into the same conversation instead of coming back as individual messages.  This helps me organize my messages into conversations instead of each message being on its own.


Some folks do not like the conversation view of messages, and you might not either. It can be turned off.


And some folks have some some serious concerns about GMail, how it works, and some of the privacy (or lack thereof) afforded to people who use it. So stay tuned; I will cover some of the GMail turn-offs in my next post.

Making Social Networks Social

With the tip of a hat to my friend Swaroop, I bring you a fantastic article about being engaged in social media.  Though aimed at a more business and commerce audience, the same principles apply to individuals too.


The quick highlights:

1. Post links to outside resources. Show that you can provide some value by sharing resources you have found with your audience.
2. Retweet worthy tweets. When you find a gem in the Twitt-o-sphere, share it. You bring value to your followers and honor the original tweeter.
3. Have a conversation. When people leave comments on your Facebook wall, respond.
4. Jump into conversations. Find a place to have make regular input, like a particular group in LinkedIn.
5. Say something interesting. Don't be a me-former, who talks only about themselves.  Be an in-former, who elevates the conversation.

Read the entire article here.  It's a nice quick read.


http://www.startupnation.com/business-blogs/index.php/2011/11/03/social-media/

Your thoughts? Throw a comment in here, and we will have a conversation (See Point #3).

5 Ways To Improve Your LinkedIn Profile

Here is a FANTASTIC article about using LinkedIn to its fullest.


If you are a professional of any sort, you need to be on LinkedIn building your network and garnering some visibility.

• Know your goal for your LinkedIn profile. Are you building a network, finding a job, trying to attract recruiters, establishing yourself as an expert?   Knowing your goal helps you craft every section of your LinkedIn profile.
• Write an informative and compelling headline.  The term Manager appears on 20 million LinkedIn profiles.  Write something that helps you stand out from the crowd.
• Get your own LinkedIn URL.  Convert that silly string of random numbers and letters on your LinkedIn profile to something that is your very own.  This enhances your personal brand.
• Customize your website links.  Those fields into which you can place weblinks are potent.  Customize them to show all the resources you can offer.
• Use a great photo.  Again, enhance your personal brand by using the right picture.  That awesome shot of you dancing the Macarena at a wedding may not further your LinkedIn goals.

Read about this all in more detail here:


http://jasonseiden.com/5-obvious-linkedin-mistakes/

Now excuse me for a moment while I do some LinkedIn updating!

Reducing the E-Mails from LinkedIn Groups

Another question from a blog reader today...

How do I reduce the amount of e-mail LinkedIn sends me related to my group memberships?

Awesome question!  I find groups to be among the most powerful features of LinkedIn. Groups allow you to connect with large numbers of people quickly.  If you share a membership in a group, you can see the other LinkedIn member's profile even if you do not have a 1st, 2nd or 3rd level connection to them.  This is very powerful to building a network.

However, the e-mail burden can be a bit much if LinkedIn is messaging you for all the activity in the group.  Or occasionally a group becomes less relevant to you than it once was, and therefore you want to maintain membership, but limit the email notifications.  Good news: You do not need to leave a group to reduce or turn off the e-mails from a group.  Just reconfigure your e-mail settings.

This solution is fairly easy, although buried just a bit in the LinkedIn menus.  Here are the steps to tune your e-mail settings for your groups.

• Login to your LinkedIn account.
• Using the menu bar across the top, click on Groups, then Your Groups.

• You will see a list of the groups to which you belong.
• Click on the name of the group for which you want to change the e-mail settings.
• Below the name of the group, click on More..., then Your Settings.

• Look for the Contact Settings section.
• Here you can determine which e-mail address receives notifications, what e-mails you receive and how often.  Uncheck the boxes to lessen the amount of e-mail you receive for your groups.

• You do need to change the settings for each group individually.  I do not see a clear path to changing the settings for all of your groups simultaneously.  (But if you know how, leave a comment!)

LinkedIn Groups....what an awesome feature.  Tune the amount of e-mail you receive to what works best for you to take full advantage of this great tool.