It’s been a while since I wrote about LinkedIn, and the more I use the platform, the more I realize its powerful potential. But also, I get exposed to so many poor practices sometimes I LOL (only if no one is around… OK, I threw in the acronym to see if you were paying attention).
So I thought it was high time for another LinkedIn blog, this time on practices to avoid.
Incomplete information. Regardless of what kind of work you do or what type of career you have, LinkedIn is offering you a free search engine friendly web portal, a resume, a place to show the world what you do and what you’re capable of doing. So why not use it to its fullest capability? The fields that get the most attention are:
- Headline: fill it in as much as you can – the field is much longer than you’d expect.
- Summary and specialties: why do so many people have short summaries? Fill up the area as much as you can with an easily readable format (nobody wants to read a long paragraph – use spaces and bullets).
- Links: not just your company link, but also if you’ve been mentioned in an article, if you have written white papers, or if you have a profile on a company website. Make sure to name them properly by using the “other” option.
- Experience: highlight accomplishments as you would in a resume.
You can always check my profile for some guidelines, although I’d be the first to admit it’s not 100% perfect. And don’t forget about good formatting and especially keywords.
Hiding your profile. I don’t get why people do this. I guess if you’re the CEO of GM, you don’t want your info exposed, but if you’re the CEO of GM you’re probably not reading this blog, so for the rest of you, expose the profile as much as you can. If there’s info you don’t want exposed, just remove it from the profile.
Poor grammar & typos. This is so easy to fix and so many people still have problems with it. Drop all the content into a Microsoft Word to catch the spelling and grammar errors. If you're really bad at writing, there are now professional LinkedIn profile writers who can do this for a fee.
Impersonal connection requests. This is like walking into a bar and immediately asking for people’s phone numbers. If you’re interested in a connection, you should start it with a conversation, even a short one. There’s a “note” section in the connection request. Use it.
Recommendations. There are so many wrong ways to get recommendations it deserves its own blog, but I’ll make it short. Recommendations should come from people who know you or have worked with you AND have something nice to say. Not brain surgery, right? So why is it so many people get it wrong? Here is a list of the wrong ways to get them:
- Recommendations from strangers: this is not a joke, I recently saw a recommendation that said something like “I don’t know Mr. xxx but I’m sure he’d be good at whatever he does.” Oh, that’s really impressive.
- Recommendations from people who either don’t know you well or haven’t worked with you: I talk to a guy once, and the next thing you know I’m getting a recommendation request. Really? Needless to say I ignored it, but if this guy had waited a few weeks, he might have received a good recommendation from me.
- Not checking the recommendation for accuracy: LinkedIn allows you to ask for revisions before you accept the recommendation. Just about all of my recommendations either had typos, grammatical errors, or factual errors in them. Make sure it’s clean and crisp, otherwise it reflects negatively on you too.
Not building a network. Having a good profile is kind of useless on its own. The point is to build a network you can regularly tap into. I wish LinkedIn was around back 20 years ago – I’ve lost so many good college and business contacts along the way. Build the network and stay in touch.
Over-promotion. I cut people a lot of slack but some people overdo the self promotion, the service promotion, etc. Remember there’s a “hide” button on the feeds, and if people get sick of your promotions, they’ll hide all your actions from their feed, or worse yet, they’ll remove you from their connection list.
Unprofessional behavior. Does this need any explanations? With new LinkedIn features, even people beyond your network can see your comments on status updates, groups, etc. Keep it professional.
I can already think of 10-12 other things I can add to the list, but this should do it. Make sure to use all the features LinkedIn offers including the great applications and the groups.
If you have any funny (or not so funny) stories about mistakes people make on LinkedIn, I’d love to hear from you. Put them in the comment section.
Showing posts with label social networking guidelines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social networking guidelines. Show all posts
July 13, 2010
January 19, 2010
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and the social awkwardness around social networking
“8 pounds = 2 belt notches.“
That was my last Facebook update. Here’s another one before that:
“My mom told me last night her dream is to become a race car driver. She's 69. (go mom!)”
With these types of updates, and all the comments that ensue, who do I include into my Facebook circle? And then there are the family photos, the discussions, and the wall notes… you get the picture.
Whether you use social networking for work or personal use, awkward situations often come up that need some level of attention. I’m not talking about the horror stories, this isn’t about that. This is about developing a sense of normalcy for a new way to communicate. And the use of social networking has such high variance in subjectivity, that it sometimes causes social awkwardness instead of social networking.
Last week I had an email conversation with a total stranger that I’m not connected to on Facebook. After a few emails, instead of accepting his Facebook connection request, I sent him a LinkedIn connection request describing that I reserve Facebook for close friends and family (I’m a little more open on LinkedIn). This is where the intricacies show up about how individuals use social networking differently. His response: “I don't see the point in connecting here. I reserve this tool just for professional purposes and with people from my industry.”
Here’s someone who knows what he’s doing on LinkedIn, and his usage is clearly different from mine.
We all have similar stories. From those who make inappropriate comments on your status that hundreds of LinkedIn connections get to see, to the LinkedIn contacts who find you on Facebook and want to connect, to those who use your name in public forums that get picked up by Google search, awkwardness abounds with the use of social networking.
As more and more people join these networking sites, as a community, we’ll eventually develop a code of conduct that’s more universally acceptable. We’re just not there yet. But as an advocate of using social media sites, I don’t buy the idea of reducing their use, quite the contrary.
With that in mind, I thought I’d share some guidelines to keep in mind for use of social networking sites. Please share your own guidelines in the comment section! I, for one, can always learn more about this.
Know your boundaries. Know your boundaries on each site and how you intend to use them. The clearer you are about how you want to use these platforms, the easier it’ll be for you to stick to your own rules and communicate them to others.
It’s public – very public. In a lot of ways, social networking is just like regular networking… on crack! A casual nudge and a giggle at a face to face meeting becomes a full blown announcement at the podium on social sites. Whether on a professional or a social site, keep in mind that all your contacts and all the contacts of the person you’re “talking to” will see your public comments on their status updates, Q/As, and group discussions. All these sites, including Twitter, offer email access for more private discussions.
It’s subjective – very subjective. The way people use social networking sites vary as much as their personalities and their comfort level with these platforms. Accepting connections, communicating, and sharing information vary immensely based on the individual’s personality and preferences. Keeping that factor in mind clears up much of the confusion.
Twitter is on super crack. It’s much easier to establish connections on Twitter than any other site. And now that Google and other search engines are indexing tweets, exposing too much information or bashing others should be off the table – unless you’re a super celebrity, in which case you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog.
Cut everyone some slack. Despite the huge number of profiles on social networking sites, most people are not active users and may not know the little bit of the already established etiquette. Mistakes and faux pas are bound to happen, so let people know how you intend to use the sites, and let it slide.
Warm up before connecting. Just like face to face networking, it’s always nice to warm up to the other person before asking for a connection. Do you walk into a bar and immediately ask for someone’s phone number? Didn’t think so. (if you do, a clear distance from me is highly advised!)
Communicate. Unless you know the person well, a short introductory note with a connection request is basic etiquette. Also, if you’re the recipient of a connection request that you want to deny, it’ll be nice to explain why with a short note.
Writing this blog got me curious about how much information people generally share on social networking sites, so I created the polls below. I’d be very curious to find out the results, so please participate.
That was my last Facebook update. Here’s another one before that:
“My mom told me last night her dream is to become a race car driver. She's 69. (go mom!)”
With these types of updates, and all the comments that ensue, who do I include into my Facebook circle? And then there are the family photos, the discussions, and the wall notes… you get the picture.
Whether you use social networking for work or personal use, awkward situations often come up that need some level of attention. I’m not talking about the horror stories, this isn’t about that. This is about developing a sense of normalcy for a new way to communicate. And the use of social networking has such high variance in subjectivity, that it sometimes causes social awkwardness instead of social networking.
Last week I had an email conversation with a total stranger that I’m not connected to on Facebook. After a few emails, instead of accepting his Facebook connection request, I sent him a LinkedIn connection request describing that I reserve Facebook for close friends and family (I’m a little more open on LinkedIn). This is where the intricacies show up about how individuals use social networking differently. His response: “I don't see the point in connecting here. I reserve this tool just for professional purposes and with people from my industry.”
Here’s someone who knows what he’s doing on LinkedIn, and his usage is clearly different from mine.
We all have similar stories. From those who make inappropriate comments on your status that hundreds of LinkedIn connections get to see, to the LinkedIn contacts who find you on Facebook and want to connect, to those who use your name in public forums that get picked up by Google search, awkwardness abounds with the use of social networking.
As more and more people join these networking sites, as a community, we’ll eventually develop a code of conduct that’s more universally acceptable. We’re just not there yet. But as an advocate of using social media sites, I don’t buy the idea of reducing their use, quite the contrary.
With that in mind, I thought I’d share some guidelines to keep in mind for use of social networking sites. Please share your own guidelines in the comment section! I, for one, can always learn more about this.
Know your boundaries. Know your boundaries on each site and how you intend to use them. The clearer you are about how you want to use these platforms, the easier it’ll be for you to stick to your own rules and communicate them to others.
It’s public – very public. In a lot of ways, social networking is just like regular networking… on crack! A casual nudge and a giggle at a face to face meeting becomes a full blown announcement at the podium on social sites. Whether on a professional or a social site, keep in mind that all your contacts and all the contacts of the person you’re “talking to” will see your public comments on their status updates, Q/As, and group discussions. All these sites, including Twitter, offer email access for more private discussions.
It’s subjective – very subjective. The way people use social networking sites vary as much as their personalities and their comfort level with these platforms. Accepting connections, communicating, and sharing information vary immensely based on the individual’s personality and preferences. Keeping that factor in mind clears up much of the confusion.
Twitter is on super crack. It’s much easier to establish connections on Twitter than any other site. And now that Google and other search engines are indexing tweets, exposing too much information or bashing others should be off the table – unless you’re a super celebrity, in which case you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog.
Cut everyone some slack. Despite the huge number of profiles on social networking sites, most people are not active users and may not know the little bit of the already established etiquette. Mistakes and faux pas are bound to happen, so let people know how you intend to use the sites, and let it slide.
Warm up before connecting. Just like face to face networking, it’s always nice to warm up to the other person before asking for a connection. Do you walk into a bar and immediately ask for someone’s phone number? Didn’t think so. (if you do, a clear distance from me is highly advised!)
Communicate. Unless you know the person well, a short introductory note with a connection request is basic etiquette. Also, if you’re the recipient of a connection request that you want to deny, it’ll be nice to explain why with a short note.
Writing this blog got me curious about how much information people generally share on social networking sites, so I created the polls below. I’d be very curious to find out the results, so please participate.
On a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest, how much information do you share on Facebook?
On a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being the highest, how much information do you share on LinkedIn?
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