Are you hurting your business relationships by syncing Twitter and LinkedIn?

Quick Update: Chris Brogan just posted his tips on using LinkedIn effectively. Sheds light on best practices he follows, some of which I’ve outlined below. Read more on Chris’ blog. And, here’s another on how to use LinkedIn status updates. Priceless.
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I noticed my good friend, Chris Brogan, seems to have come down with a case of Twitter overkill, on LinkedIn. Let me explain. Recently, we started letting our users sync up their LinkedIn and Twitter accounts. That lets you stream your status updates from LinkedIn to Twitter and vice-versa. You do have the option to selectively update your LinkedIn account with only those tweets tagged #in or you could let the whole fire-hose of your twitter imagination run riot on LinkedIn.

Would you take your vacation pictures and paste it in your cubicle. No, you wouldn’t. So, why does it seem ok to let in your entire twitter stream directly to LinkedIn. That said, I’m sure you’d love to show off a picture of you standing next to a business celebrity you may have stumbled upon and paparazzi’d while on vacation. The problem with these auto twitter streams is that folks like Chris start seeing a relentless twitter stream when they log into their LI homepage.

Of course, this is dependent on the # of friends you’re connected to on LinkedIn, as well as how twitter friendly they are. In Chris’ case, since he’s both a best selling author and marketing expert he probably has a ton of connection invites (most of which he accepts – more on that later) who also have a lot to say on Twitter. Unfortunately, some of them chose to stream all that Twitter to their LinkedIn accounts.

Chris Brogan's LinkedIn page with Tweets

So, here are three quick tips for those of you who are interested in nurturing your business relationships on LinkedIn via network updates but would like to avoid annoying your business connections with a meaningless interfering Twitter stream:

1. Control the flow of tweets in your stream:

As Chris recommends, go to your LinkedIn-Twitter sync Accounts and Settings and turn down the Twitter faucet. Secondly, make sure the tweets you bring in to your professional LinkedIn ecosystem are hashtagged #in and have a business context.

For e.g.
or

vs. the random LOST tweet that popped in to my LinkedIn stream today.

2. Hide the noisy twitterers in your stream:

Secondly, increase the quality of your connections (keeping it business) and spring clean your LinkedIn accounts every once in a while. Many times when I see persistent, random tweets come in from people I don’t very well recognize I use that as an opportunity to weed out the connections that may have sprung up inconsequentially.

When you see someone spam you with their tweets, all you’ve to do is mouseover the right of each status update, which will pop up the HIDE button. Click on that and you won’t receive updates from that user no more. You can also do this on your Facebook feed, if you’ve a noisy friend, for e.g.

For a more granular control of the updates you see on the homepage, click through to this Update Settings page where you can then tweak updates by either connections or Type.

Let’s not forget, LinkedIn is a business focused networking site, so letting in all your tweets – all personal and business – will have the exact opposite effect you were hoping to achieve by using the site. And, by that, I mean it’d end up hurting the same business relationships you were hoping to nurture.

Plus, be thoughtful while you send out those LinkedIn connection invites. My rule of thumb is to invite folks I’ve met a few times, talked to and who can recognize my personalized invite right away. What is yours?

3. Time your status updates for maximum effect:

Now that you’re no longer that noisy neighbor everyone’s calling the cops on. Learn how to use your LinkedIn-Twitter sync to maximum effect for your business. Time your relevant, most impressive tweets or status updates for maximum effect. By that I mean scheduled updates at the most effective timings. Here are some tips on what’s the best time to tweet. There are a slew of services that allow you to tweet information to select services. Three that come to mind – Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, and Seesmic – all of which allow scheduling your tweets.

Tweetdeck’s new update in particular has me wowed since it allows me to not only shorten and track the effectiveness of links through my bit.ly account, but it also let’s me schedule tweets across LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

One last tip: If you’re a small business owner or the social media manager who runs your company’s official Twitter account (like I do here), I’d recommend tying that to your Twitter account. If your company does not have a Twitter account but you’d still like to share the latest happening at your company with your LinkedIn network, then consider adding your company’s blog to LinkedIn. More on that here.

These tips are just the beginning. I’ll continue to blog on ways you can use social media effectively at work and for your business, right here on this blog. Please consider subscribing to my blog or following me on Twitter.

Original Article

Our First Twitter Job Search Experiment Tweet

NOTE: This post is referring to our ongoing Twitter Job Search Experiment… Learn about it here.)

This morning, I posted our first tweet. It was as follows:

Looking 4 a secretary/admin/asst office job. Location: anywhere! She just divorced & is looking 2 start fresh somewhere new @mydetroitdining

Tonight, I got in touch with @mydetroitdining to see how it went. Below is a partial transcript of our email conversation:

I logged in at lunch and there were already 6-7 messages. (…)

By the end of the day I had a bit over a dozen. Some of them were just words of encouragement, but literally all of them were valuable. Several people gave me advice as to which job market might be the best to move to. (…)

I’d say about half were solid job leads. These were job openings I wasn’t aware of, and probably never would have run across. The person I’ve selected as “the best” message literally gave me the tip to something that I would consider a dream job.

She was impressed. And I am too, frankly. We have over 200 followers, so to get a dozen messages out of that is not bad.

But imagine if we had 400? Or 4000? I dream of someone logging on at lunch with 50 messages full of job leads.

We can only do that if we get more followers. So, again, I implore you to get the word out. Tweet, retweet, and Facebook!

(If anyone knows any bloggers that might help us out with a friendly post, drop me a direct message)

Original Article

20 Simple Twitter Tips for Your Job Search

Whether you're starting your career or looking for a change, if you're on a job search, you may have heard that Twitter is a great resource. You've heard right. Twitter offers a great way to ramp up your job search, and we've highlighted 20 great tips that can help make it work for you.

1. Use your real name: You use your real name when searching for a job, so make sure you do the same on Twitter. Set up your first and last name in your profile, and if you can, use your name as your Twitter username.
2. Tweet before you follow: Be sure to share useful content before you start following friends, colleagues, and industry professionals. This way, you'll give people a reason to follow you back.
3. Search for opportunities: Don't just expect an opportunity to fall into your lap — seek it out! Use Twitter's search to look for jobs in your niche.
4. Use a Hire Me! ribbon: Put a ribbon that advertises your desire for work, so even when you're not tweeting about your job search, followers know that you're looking.
5. Keep a web copy of your resume online: If you get in contact with someone who would like to see your resume, it's handy to have one that you can just send in a tweet. A tool like VisualCV comes in handy.
6. Follow your target companies: If the company or companies you'd really like to work for are on Twitter, follow them, and any employees that are on as well. You'll be able to connect better than before and stand out among candidates.
7. Share on multiple networks: Integrate Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn so that contacts on all networks hear your message. If you can, use tools that can push updates from one service to another.
8. Follow industry leaders: Follow the leaders in your industry to learn more about it and benefit from their network.
9. Toot your own horn: Put yourself in the Twitter stream by describing your specific skill set. Be descriptive — if your specialty is selling phone systems to food service companies in South Florida, say so!
10. Use hashtags: Find hashtags for upcoming conferences in your industry, hot topics, and more to become part of the conversation as well as identify people that you need to be following on Twitter.
11. Look for a job posting account: If there's a certain company or industry you'd like to work in, try to find specific Twitter accounts that offer updates on new job postings available.
12. Ask for help to close the deal: If friends or contacts work where you'd like to get a job, ask them for a recommendation to increase your likelihood of getting hired.
13. Give good karma: Don't blatantly self-promote. Take some time to retweet and interact with others.
14. Make your presence employer friendly: Use your bio as a job pitch, use a professional-looking avatar, and tweet about your job search. You can even link to your online resume.
15. Be worth following: Don't be rude or boring — share interesting and useful updates with your followers, and focus on interacting with them as well.
16. Always keep SEO in mind: Your Twitter profile and tweets are indexed by Google and other search engines, so any time you put information out there, think about how you can better make it found.
17. Retweet industry news: Pass on news and tweets that are important, and you're one step closer to being found.
18. Have a "Twitter pitch" ready: Much like the elevator speech, you need to be ready with a pitch you can deliver in 140 characters or less.
19. Don't tweet about unemployment: You don't want to come off as whiny-keep your complaints about unemployment to yourself.
20. Look for job search advice: Find posts from career gurus and other people who can help you find a job on Twitter

Original Article

6 Reasons Why LinkedIn Is So Critical In A Job Search

A candidate recently asked me, “How do I find a hiring manager in a large company like Microsoft?” There are a lot of ways to do this but one of the easiest and best is using LinkedIn. When I recommended this to the candidate he completely agreed, however, the problem was he only had about 60 connections. Too few to be effective.

So often I speak with candidates that just don’t understand the value of LinkedIn as a job search tool. We constantly are sent invitations to join someone’s network only to find after months of searching they are just now starting build a LinkedIn network. You should consider building your LinkedIn networking all the time. NOT JUST WHEN IN A JOB SEARCH.

Some benefits to a large LinkedIn database of contacts:

People can find you. The more people at the second and third degrees of separation the more times you will show up in a search. For example, I have around 500 contacts. However, I am linked to over 5 million people on LinkedIn. When I search for a candidate that is a huge database. LinkedIn will eliminate the need for resume databases on Ladders, Monster, Careerbuilder and other job boards. This is because it costs on average between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars to have access to these resume databases. LinkedIn is free. Why would a recruiter or any company pay that when we can use LinkedIn for free. Resumes databases by the job boards are not pick up by Google or any search engine. These are the ones you want to make sure you show up on. LinkedIn is and you can even improve your search results for as little as $25 a month. (See prior blog article SEO Your Search On Google) It helps you find the people you want an introduction to. This is very powerful. I have helped numerous people with introductions as a result of LinkedIn. On a weekly basis I receive requests indicating they found a person in my connections and would I make an introduction. I always agree. Even when working this is a great tool for resources, customer contacts and introductions, references, service providers and even potential hires for you or your company. On a personal basis it is a great way to stay in-touch with friends, colleagues, prior employees and networking contacts. When you update your profile they will get a notice and likewise when they update theirs.

Work hard at building your connections. Make every effort to reach that magic 500+. If you use Outlook download the LinkedIn tool bar. It makes inviting people very easy.

There are many more positives to building your LinkedIn network than there are negatives. Many have resisted. I believe this recession has proven to be good thing for everyone’s network.

If you have other ideas share them by adding a comment. Lets help everyone build a strong network.

A good way to start is building a network is making sure your profile is complete. If it isn’t start there and then begin expanding your contacts. Don’t miss the opportunity to get a high ranking on Google.

You can download for free our “8 Matrix LinkedIn Profile Assessment” tool.

Our complete job search home study course the, “Career Success Factor Methodology” is a comprehensive resource that covers all 5 steps in an effective job search. You can review the complete system for just $14.95. We will even pay the shipping and to ensure your success include in a copy of our job search workbook. To review the Career Success Factor Methodology CLICK HERE.

Original Post

Ten Top Secret Job Search Tips

By Barbara Safani

One of the reasons why so many people get frustrated searching for a new job is that they spend all their time on the job boards. While posting for jobs online is one method of search, it's what everyone else is doing too. And it's hard to get noticed when you are one of hundreds of candidates vying for the same position. More people find their jobs through the hidden job market; the jobs that are not posted to the masses, but are uncovered through research and relationship building.

Here are some of the best kept secrets for finding those hidden jobs:

1. Eat.

No, I'm not talking about pity eating and downing a bag of chips and a pint of ice cream in front of the TV. But meeting a friend for coffee, a drink, or lunch is a great way to combine something pleasant and fun with some power networking. Meeting with friends keeps you top of mind and increases the likelihood of them recommending you to others.

2. Write.

Journaling is a great way to record how you are feeling during your search and examine the trends that could be indicators of what is working in your search and what is not. Some even turn their journals into blogs to create a following and make new friends and contacts as they chronicle their unemployment experience.

3. Study.

Did you know that The Department of Labor funds job training programs? You may qualify for training in a specific skill or funding to return to school to complete a degree program. And an advanced degree or certification may make you more marketable in the long run.

4. Volunteer.

Find a cause you are passionate about and volunteer for a role that allows you to create visibility in front of the decision makers in this volunteer community. You never know who these people may know and what types of introductions they may be able to make for you. And volunteering helps you feel needed and reminds you of all you have to be grateful for. (See How Volunteering Landed Me a Job.)

5. Exercise.

Aerobic conditioning and weight workouts can help you feel better and burn calories more efficiently during the day. Pilates can help reduce the muscle aches often associated with hours of sitting at a desk hunched over a computer, and many people find that a regular yoga practice is a great way to reduce stress. Plus an exercise class or gym can serve as a great affinity group and connector to people who may be able to make valuable introductions for you.

6. Do Someone a Favor.

When you were working you probably didn't have the time to watch someone else's kids or pet or help someone with a home improvement project. Now that you have some free time, offer to help make someone's life easier. Your efforts will be remembered and that help may be reciprocated in the form of an important introduction or job lead.

7. Primp and Pamper.

This is not an indulgence. The little details like your hair and nails count during a job search. And it can be rejuvenating to get a new hairstyle or experiment with a new nail color.

8. Shop.

I'm not suggesting a totally new wardrobe. But a new scarf, tie, hair piece, or handkerchief can change up the interview suit you are tired of wearing and give you a renewed sense of confidence.

9. Read. Books by Harvey Mackay and Keith Ferrazi have provided inspiration for millions of job seekers over the years. Check out some of their titles at your local library.

10. Reconnect. Get over your concerns about reconnecting with past colleagues and friends. Social media tools like LinkedIn and Facebook have made it fun, easy (and less creepy) to get back in touch with people from your past. Rekindle past relationships and you are bound to find a friend or two that can help you with some aspect of your search.

Original Article

7 Ways to Get a Job Using LinkedIn

A more comprehensive job search strategy for LinkedIn

Most of the recruiters and employers have quit traditional methods of searching for a perfect candidate. No longer do they spend all their time going through job portals but they also search for interesting candidates on social media sites, blogs, forums and professional networking sites.

LinkedIn is one great way of letting recruiters know about your talents, testimonials, profession, friends, business networks and much more. LinkedIn has over 35 million members in over 200 countries and territories around the world. A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second, and about half of LinkedIn members are outside the U.S. Executives from all Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn members and have listed their entire profile including roles, responsibilities, previous experiences, education and their business network details.

1. Edit Opportunity Preferences: Edit your profile and change your contact settings > Opportunity Preferences. Select Job Inquiries and any other opportunities you prefer.

2. Get Recommendations: More recommendations in your profile means that your profile gets a higher the trust and reliability. Send a request for recommendation to your co-workers, clients or immediate managers. If you are in a management position, it is great to get a feedback on your leadership qualities. Make a practice also to recommend others whom you think deserve. This is another way to get a feedback from them.

3. Find where the Opportunity Is: Search for people in similar job profiles and find out where they work. Search on Google about those companies and find out if there are openings.

4. Find out the skill sets required: After you find out the companies where similar profession people work, it’s good to find out the skill sets they posses.

5. Find out how your colleague got that nice offer: Not many colleagues share all that they know or all that they do to get a job. Search with their names on LinkedIn and find out their background. Where they are employed now, what are their roles and responsibilities and more importantly what are their skill sets.

6. Contact the HR: Did you finally trace out the company which is still hiring your kind of job? Great! Now, find out who among your network is working there. How are they linked to you? Are they a first degree contact or second or third? Get in touch with them through your friend or a person in your network and pass on your resume. Usually, a resume from a coworker is paid more attention.

7. Grow your network first: Well this should have been done the first and foremost. Grow your network. How do you grow?

1. Have a complete LinkedIn profile.
2. Get as many co-workers, ex-colleagues and friends into your network
3. Start Groups
4. Join Groups
5. Create Polls
6. Join Discussions
7. Interact through Questions & Answers
8. Find out who on your GTalk, Yahoo Messenger or MSN Messenger may be on Linked In and add them up.
9. Get testimonials
10. Add your blog to Applications

Don’ts in Linked In

1. Some friends or blogs can give you a tip to update your LinkedIn “Status Update” mentioning that you are searching for a job. DON’T DO THAT!!. Remember, most of your bosses and fellow workers are already on LinkedIn and do you want them to know you are not pleased with your current company and want to move out? You decide!!

2. Do not try to contact people in LinkedIn mentioning about your friend who is their first degree contact unless you get an approval from your friend.

The list is endless. Your network can grow as much as your mind can think. And there is no limit to your thoughts.

Original Article

5 Must-Have LinkedIn Apps: Pump Up Your Profile

LinkedIn has introduced several new updates to their site recently, including the "Company Follow" tool, another that matches users to job openings and a number of new sharing options. But if you're looking to add a bit of pizzazz to your profile, or hope to catch the eye of a hiring manager, consider exploring LinkedIn's Applications. These add-ons make your profile dynamic and interesting, says Nathan Kievman, owner of the LinkedIn group Linked Strategies and host of weekly LinkedIn webinars. "Profiles [can be] otherwise boring and static without applications," he says.

Kievman recommends that every LinkedIn user should add at least one application to their profile--he suggests Amazon's reading list--, but keep the total to no more than five to avoid cluttering your space.

To access LinkedIn's applications, select "More..." from LinkedIn's navigation bar and choose "Application Directory." Note that for each application you choose, you're able to control the privacy settings, so be sure you update them appropriately.

Here's a look at five applications worth exploring.

1. Reading List by Amazon

With Amazon's Reading List application, you use a search tool to build a collection of books you're planning to read, are reading right now and have read. You have three lists of books you can view with this application: one from people in your network, one from connections in your industry and one detailing updates from across LinkedIn.

If you like a particular person's reading list, you can follow it. Likewise, others can follow your reading list. This application is great for discovering books recommended by people in your field, as well as finding out which books should be on your radar.

2. WordPress

If you maintain a blog on WordPress, this application synchs your posts automatically with your LinkedIn profile. This app displays your avatar and also lets you filter your posts--if you don't want to share every entry with your LinkedIn connections--by using a special LinkedIn tag. As with sharing your tweets on LinkedIn, be wary of which posts you share and how often you do it.

3. SlideShare Presentations

If you have a SlideShare.net account, you can post your presentations and documents directly to your LinkedIn profile to share with your connections. (You can also sign up for an account via LinkedIn's website). With this app, you can view "Featured" presentations, search webinars and click through the most downloaded presentations. You can also check out a list of the presentations that your connections have uploaded.

4. Events

The Events application, via a box that's added to your profile, shows what events people your network are attending and helps you find events recommended for you based on your industry and job function. You can also view the most popular events, search for events and create new ones. This application is great for making connections prior to attending a conference, or following up.

5. Company Buzz

The Company Buzz tool aggregates mentions of a company from Twitter, helping you discover relevant trends and comments about your current employer or a target employer. You can customize and modify the topics to watch, monitor trends and display charts that track activity.

Staff Writer Kristin Burnham covers consumer Web and social technologies for CIO.com. She writes frequently on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google. You can follow her on Twitter: @kmburnham.

Original Article

How a Contract Recruiter Made $19,000 with Just 30 Minutes in LinkedIn

A common misconception of Social Media sites is that you have to spend a lot of time to get anything out of them. But according to some contract recruiters we’ve spoken to, you can really get a lot of value for a very small investment of time.

According to Mike McDonough of General Search and Recruitment, spending as little as 30 minutes every other day on the site is more than enough.

“Don’t put more into it,” McDonough said. “You’ll get lost chasing a lot of stuff that’s not valuable.”

In fact, just 30 minutes in LinkedIn resulted in one particularly lucrative placement for McDonough. He mentioned to a newer client that he was able to do contract placements. The client eventually grew to the point that they needed contract help and turned to McDonough. Once he had the job order, he used the Advance Search feature of LinkedIn to look for people with specific skills in the insurance industry and within a specific zip code area. He then used the InMail feature to contact seven people who had relevant experience, asking if they or someone they knew might be interested in a contract assignment. Five people contacted him back, and one ended up being the person he placed. He had the candidate on contract for five months and then converted the position to a direct placement.

“I earned $19,000 off 30 minutes in LinkedIn,” McDonough said. ”To me, that’s a pretty good investment.”

Here are a few of McDonough’s tips from the trenches:

• Schedule time to spend on LinkedIn, but not too much time. Again, he only recommends spending 30 minutes every other day.
• Join Groups – That’s where the best candidates are.
• Activate saved searches within LinkedIn. This will yield 15-20 candidates per day.
• Don’t let your LinkedIn time take up phone time.

Original Article

Top 10 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Blog Using LinkedIn

Whether you just created your first blog, or you are considered one of the top bloggers in the world like Darren Rowse, Chris Brogan, or Tim Ferriss, you are always looking for ways to generate more traffic to your site. Even more so, you are looking for qualified traffic to your site, (i.e people who are interested in the content you produce).

LinkedIn is a great way to generate free, organic, traffic to your blog.

“But Lewis, isn’t LinkedIn just a site to post my resume when I am looking for a job?”

No, wake up people! Although LinkedIn has been great for job seekers during the most recent economic cycle, it is much much more than that. Individuals and companies are achieving more professional goals than imaginable on LinkedIn. For example, LinkedIn can help you:

• Sell products
• Find new clients or employees
• Generate leads
• Receive funding for your company
• Obtain sponsorships
• Sell hundreds of tickets to your professional event
• Get national and local press coverage
• And last but not least, drive massive traffic to your blog

Achieving these goals on LinkedIn don’t come naturally. You’ve gotta work the system on LinkedIn and experiment with different methods. I’ve come up with the best ways to achieve those goals. Here are my top 10 ways to drive traffic to your blog using LinkedIn:

1. Complete Your Profile:

Numerous individuals have told me LinkedIn doesn’t work for them. I always ask them how much time they have put into using LinkedIn, their response – very little. If your profile is weak people will lose interest quickly and may never click on your website links.

If you want people to read your profile and click on your websites then make your profile concise, compelling and value driven throughout. Complete your profile 100%, add a great picture of yourself, and take the entire process very seriously. The more complete and compelling your profile is, the more people will read and visit links you have posted.

This advice goes beyond driving traffic to your blog. If someone were to Google your name (which most people do when they are researching you) your LinkedIn profile is one of the first things that pop up. Personally, my LinkedIn profile is the third result, and for Darren Rowse it comes up seventh (before Facebook or Twitter). Google your own name and check out what position your LinkedIn profile shows up. You must make your profile compelling.

2. Increase Your Connections:

The more connections you have, the more people will have access to your profile. Every time you take an action on LinkedIn (i.e. update your profile, join a group, recommend someone, RSVP to an event, etc… this shows up on the home page of your 1st degree connections). If you only have 100 connections, this limits the amount of potential clicks on your profile and website links per day. Constantly be updating and adding new connections.

3. Customize Your Website Links:

When you first create your profile your website links will look like this:

However this is not a “call to action” and you are missing potential traffic because of it. No one actually cares what your blog is unless it is relevant to them or solves a problem. Instead, customize your website links to attract more clicks and drive more traffic to your blog. If I were Darren, I would insert this:

The second image is more compelling and explains exactly what the viewer will see on the next page when they click on each link. In order to change your websites with a custom headline, click on the “edit” button next to one of the websites. View the image below for further details:

4. Answer Questions:

This is a great way to drive traffic to your blog. The more questions you answer, the better the chances are of that person asking the question to click on your blog to learn more about you. Not only will that one person be more interested in learning more about you, but also others answering that question. Additionally, when someone rates your answer as “The Best” of the mix, it will improve your thought leadership status. It moves you up the rankings as a “featured expert” in the category you answered in. When you are a featured expert people become more aware of your profile, and the chance they will click on your link to learn more about what you have to offer improves.

5. Update Status:

For you Twitter lovers out there, this should be an easy step to take. LinkedIn also has a status update feature that is a lot like Twitter, only it gives you 148 characters to work with instead of 140. Why is it so important to constantly update your status? Because it is the first thing that pops up the home profile for all of your connections. Check out your home page on LinkedIn and you will see a few status updates of those your are connected to. If they are smart, they will include some compelling copy with a call to action and a link back to their blog (something I do that drives traffic to mine).

6. Join Niche Groups:

Whatever your blog is about, there is an audience of people on LinkedIn that share interest with. To make it easy to find these people click on the “Group Search” tab and type in some key words that relate to your blog. I have a sports industry blog that focuses mostly on social media with an audience of professionals who work in the sports. I joined all of the professional sports groups I could find:

Some of these niche groups have thousands of members who are actively involved in connect with other members. If you are not in the groups where your audience for your blog is hanging out, then you are missing out on the opportunity for new readers, and organic traffic to your site. Join as many groups as you can after doing a key word search that relates to your blog.

For starters – check out the Professional Bloggers Group.

7. Post Comments In Groups:

Some larger groups are receiving hundreds of new discussion topics every few days (think of it as a forum). People are sharing points of discussion, commenting and giving further feedback and suggestions on those comments. Every time someone creates a new discussion topic, it shows up on the home profile of everyone in that group. If there are 100,000 people in the group, then you are potentially getting the attention of 100,000 other individuals for your comment.

8. Add RSS Feed to Groups:

Each group has a section that allows you to add a link to a website with the latest news you think is relevant to that group. It also allows you to add your own RSS feed or website link so it will automatically update the group every time you post a new article on your blog. This creates an automated flow of organic traffic that will show up on the home profile of everyone connected in the group. Again, this gives you more opportunities for people to view your blog.

9. Create a Group:

This may be one of the most powerful things you can do on LinkedIn. I won’t go into all of the amazing details on how this has helped me, but I will tell you that owning a group drives a lot of traffic to your site. I own several niche related groups on LinkedIn. For example, I created the Sports Industry Network group on LinkedIn and there are currently over 19,500 members. When a new person joins the group, they see a brief description of the group, my name as the owner of the group, plus my website url www.sportsnetworker.com. Since my group gets over 100 new members each week, that’s additional traffic from new members alone. That’s not even including the close to 20,000 members who are actively engaging in the group, and clicking on my blog links.

10. Add the Blog Application to Your Profile:

This might be the most obvious suggestion, but I still see some of the top pro bloggers leaving this feature out. This application posts the title and first paragraph for your most recent articles you have published on your LinkedIn profile. It is a way to give viewers of your profile a sneak peak of what they will read on your blog.

Go to “applications” and download either the WordPress or Blog Link application and add your URL for your blog.

LinkedIn continues to be one of the top sites that drives traffic to my blog, thanks to these 10 examples, but the power of LinkedIn doesn’t stop here. What other tips have you found through using LinkedIn to increase traffic to your blog?

Original Article

*****

Establishing a blog is a good step to enhancing your visibility as an expert in your field.