Marketing Me: Using Linked In For Job Search

With the economy in the hopper, more job seekers are turning the Internet for their job search.

Now some will go to Monster or Dice, fill out a form, and start submitting their pared down resume to whoever is hiring and whatever company has an opening.

Against my past advice, sometimes this may work - but it is not that effective, especially when competing against thousands of other workers.

Web 2.0 social networks are one way to expand your personal network and employment visibility. The problem is job seekers are often reaching out to others online they have no prior relationship with.

Linked In is a great resource because it has thousands of members with thousands of companies. However, too many job seekers jump on the Linked In bandwagon after they have been let go or when they are desperate to leave their current company.

By using Linked In and other social networks, job seekers won't have to do the Linked In shuffle at the last minute.

Use Linked In for your job search, but use it wisely.

Unless you have an advanced membership, it is next to impossible to join networks with persons you do not know. However, there are ways to get to know others with whom you do not have a network connection.

Use Linked In Answers - If you find a contact on Linked In who is associated with an opportunity you are interested in, follow their profile and see if they are placing any answers in Linked In Answers. Do the same and attempt to build a relationship.

Use Linked In Groups - Regardless of contacts, job seekers should always join Linked In groups which focus on their specialty or professional interests. Join groups, communicate and reach out to fellow members.

Use Profile - Your Linked In Profile has features which helps others find you. Fill out the keywords related to your job search (i.e. top wireless sales executive, successful headhunter for the Java programmer, etc.). Complete your profile with pictures and comments. Publish your web profile and bookmark it with Delicious, Stumbler, etc. Build back links to your profile so search engines and searchers can find you.

Linked In can be a great resource, but be careful not to abuse it or use Linked In incorrectly.

May your job search be successful!

Marketing Me: The Linked In Activity Blur

You can always tell when someone is worried about their job at work.

You get the Linked In Activity Blur.

What happens is a flurry of activity on their Linked In account. Suddenly they are adding five or six new contacts a day. Their profile is updated and tweaked. You get updates on their Linked In account every day.

The same thing happens with their Facebook account as well. A bunch of happy "guess what I am up to messages" start flying across their profile. Anything to get the word out about what they are doing.

Your Linked In and Facebook and Plaxo accounts should always be updated all the time anyway.

Further, your social network profiles should have lots of keywords which are relevant to what you want to do as well as what you have done.

And your profiles should always include accomplishments which are in demand right now. Learning 10-key is not very lucrative this year, but busting revenue goals is.

Marketing Me! Tuesday marklets

Generally, short pithy posts are saved on blogs for Fridays. But with as busy as I have been lately, we are doing a Tuesday roll out.

LinkedIn Answers - Do you participate? Have you tried? I think Answers is a fine way to build your personal brand name. The more you answer, the higher your profile is ranked and exposed to your fellow LinkedIn'ers.

Another thing I have noticed on your LinkedIn home page the "Who has viewed my profile?" feature? I mentioned this last year as a "want" for my LinkedIn list. This feature, albeit much richer, is available on MyBlogLog and seems like an afterthought for LinkedIn.

But the profile view is a fun tool. Couple of things: I wish we could add photos to LinkedIn (can we? Paging LinkedIn expert Jason Alba at Jibber Jobber). It would also be nice if we could add more than three links to our profile or Answers.

Finally, LinkedIn overkill, do you tag your LI profile with del.icio.us? You should. And StumbleUpon as well.

Speaking of StumbleUpon, do you use it? If so, wouldn't it be nice if SU showed the popularity of channels. I bet Wiccan is not as popular as Business, but we wouldn't know would we? The reason I ask is when I submit my personal brand sites, I would like to know the best channels and keywords to optimize.

I set up a profile on FastPitch but have yet to update it. Besides the emails, what are your thoughts on this service? Is it as good as they say?

Article marketing (submitting self authored articles to directories and web sites for personal brand recognition) is one of my favorite guerrilla methods to Market Me.

Digg is always listed as one of the top submission sites, but take a look at the home page for Digg. Nearly everything is OS, Linux, Mac, IT or politics related. Even the submission channels are limited.

Want to get on the first page of Digg? Submit an article lambasting George Bush for cheating AdSense with a hacked Windows server. Betcha that will put you up front.

My but I had some interesting feedback about the 3 Hour Parent yesterday. If only people would comment instead of emailing. How about some comments on this stuff?

Let's get out and kick it today. Let's bring in that big sale, arrange that meeting or finish that project today. I don't know why it seems urgent today, but the clock is ticking and I want to take it up a notch.

Happy hunting!

Marketing Me! Friday snippets

A busy week with work has me struggling for blogging time, but Marketing Me! will not suffer!

LinkedIn - Have you seen Barack Obama question on LinkedIn?

1) It won't matter what your answer was - 1300+ the last time I checked! This was some skillful, but small scale political posturing. Expect to see more of this on other Web 2.0 sites.

2) Several complaints about politics on LinkedIn from users; "Isn't this site for networking and work, only and not politics?" is the general gripe. Haven't heard about anyone canceling their membership though.

Speaking of LinkedIn, check out Jason Alba's new book. Jason runs Jibber Jobber! which is also a neat site.

Things I have learned being in sales..

1) Silence is golden. Listen to your prospects, spouse, friends, etc when they are talking, nothing is more powerful. Also, when "debating" any subject, silence has more power than any argument. Make your point, shut up.

2) Persistence counts. Call, visit and write. Often. People reward persistence and hard work.

3) You don't get anything in life without asking first.

Have a great weekend, and happy hunting!

Dear LinkedIn

Dear LinkedIn,

It has been some time since we last spoke. Well, truth be told, we have never spoken.

And that is the problem.

You see, dear LinkedIn, you don't care about me. And I don't think I can go another day feeling the way I do.

For years I have been loyal and stood by you, LinkedIn. Through thick and thin, ups and downs. I have introduced you to all of my friends and let you hang out with them. You know everything about me and I share all I am with you.

And in return, you ignore me.

When I tried to ask about it, you told me not to ask any more questions and not to invite any more of my friends over.

For months, I have been unable to send an email or answer any questions at LinkedIn.

LinkedIn, I have emailed you at customer service for 5 months now, and I have not received any replies. And it hurts.

LinkedIn, they say communication is the key to a healthy relationship. Clearly, ours is not a healthy relationship.

Do I have to break up with you to get anywhere? Do we have to finally call this quits?

I don't want it to come to this, but I just can't go on much longer feeling so worthless.

LinkedIn, please email me. Tell me you care about my account and want me to stay. Tell me you need me and love me.

You know where to find me when you are ready. I will be waiting by my Outlook waiting for your email.

LinkedIn Wish List

I was just looking at my cluttered LinkedIn homepage. Which actually is not a home page because I cannot modify it to my liking. I get what they give me. For free so who is complaining.

Which brings up my real quick LinkedIn Wish List for this afternoon.

1) I want to modify my landing page. Arrange the widgets, customize them, choose another background, font type.

2) I want an IM client with other people in my network.

3) I want pictures in my profile. A head shot for instance.

4) I want a blog space available in my profile.

5) I want down loadable business cards. Wait, I think that is available.

6) I want IM with customer support at LinkedIn.

7) I want to remove people from my network because their information is not longer current and they don't bother to login and update it.

8) I want some of the ad revenue from my profile page.

9) I would like to see some a reward program related to LinkedIn usage - like how come contacts are not like frequent flier miles? The more I use LinkedIn and add contacts the more valuable the application becomes and I become to the application.

10) I would like Customer Support to please answer my email and fix my ability to send emails and answer/ask questions!

Time: 7 minutes to post!

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LinkedIn "ho"

My friend Steph calls anyone with hundreds of LinkedIn connections a "LinkedIn ho".

I guess that makes me a "ho". I pretty much accept invites from anyone.

Once upon a LinkedIn time ago, I tried limiting my accepts to people I knew or worked in a related industry.

I also had a requirement which stated anyone in my network had to have all of their contacts viewable by others in their network.

Finally, I requested that anyone in my network had to return a short introductory email.

Alas, all of those prerequisites went out the window.

Why? I wanted to reach 500 status as soon as possible. That had to be the a good reason.

Why else? I kept getting interesting emails from strangers wanting to talk to me about my industry, jobs, writing offers, etc. Getting that type of correspondence is quite flattering and addictive. You want more so you the network is increased.

The final straw was when a respected co-worker remarked, "Ask Jack about LinkedIn, he's an expert and knows all about it".

That kicked it. I had to have the largest network and the most friends out there.

Seriously though, a large network is useful. I have benefited from it and have never regretted the number of contacts I have on LinkedIn.

Getting snotty with LinkedIn

This article, good BTW, explains how some people are using "deep narrow expertise" to drive real success in their life.

I keep reading about this same concept, not just in Web 2.0, but in everything else.

The author points out that LinkedIn can be used to publicize this "narrow expertise" to the world and thus drive more consistent and regular revenue opportunities in your direction.

AdWords for LinkedIn Marketing?

I saw this AdSense ad while logged into GMail this morning:

URL - www.linkedin.com/in/x - View professional profile on LinkedIn (free)

Where the letters URL was actually a name and 'x' was the LinkedIn profile name.

Why would someone advertise their LinkedIn profile? Each AdSense click costs a few pennies, but if several hundred curiosity seekers click the ad, the daily cost can add up quickly.

Why? My hunch is this is an exceptional person (if you see the ad click it and you will know why) who is trying to grow their LinkedIn network.

I don't believe they are looking for a job; the LinkedIn profile says they currently hold a senior position with a well known social networking company.

It is an interesting concept which I probably would not do myself, but must work in some regards.

LinkedIn - Hello

I use LinkedIn.

Where is LinkedIn's customer service?

I have sent an email every day for the past week to LinkedIn's customer service and have not received an answer. Not even an autoresponder.

"But Jack.. LinkedIn is free, how can you expect them to scale support and actually make any money?"

The value of the application is in subscriber numbers. The more subscribers, the greater value the application.

Each subscriber has a unique content page. Each unique content page has a number of ads.

There are millions of user created content pages each potentially generating small amounts of ad revenue every month for LinkedIn.

Multiply this number times the number of subscribers and you have a working example of the long tail.

This is one weakness for Web 2.0 companies - customer service. If users cannot use the application, they move on. The circle does not hold, the ends fall apart. The application unravels.
LinkedIn - please answer my email. Thank you.

LinkedIn - Extreme Makeover Edition

So I read Guy's post about remaking your LinkedIn profile for better search results.

It's funny, because I never think about LinkedIn and search engine results at the same time because, well it never occured to me.

Why would anyone search the Internet specifically for me and find LinkedIn?

Now if you use LinkedIn and search for keywords in my profile and find me, then that makes perfect sense.

So back to Guy's post. Someone at Linked In helped Guy redo his LinkedIn profile to make it more exciting and search worthy. Here are the things suggested and how I fare based upon those suggestions.

1) Suggestion One - "Add your voice. Generally, your profile is boring".
What the heck does "your voice" mean? The suggestion box is over Guy's name. Do they mean "create a better identity of yourself through your entire profile?" That "voice" business everyone talks about these days.. sheesh.

2) Suggestion Two - Write recommendations, ask questions.
Regarding recommendations, guilty. I have not written enough and need to write more.
Regarding questions, I cannot from my account. I have written to customer care.

3) Suggestion Three - (connections) Connect with old colleagues.
Done that. Have a bunch of contacts. Next.

4) Suggestion Four - Get a vanity URL.
Done that. Has my name.

5) Suggestion Five - Add substance.. this is your elevator pitch.
Mine is five paragraphs. Hope its a tall building.

6) Suggestion Six - Add specialties.. (people search on this).
Done. Have about 20-30. As many as I could squeeze in.

7) Suggestion Seven - (experience) Explain what Garage does and what you do there.
Done.

8) Suggestion Eight - (previous employer) Explain what you did there.
Done.

9) Suggestion Nine - Add board and advisory positions.
Good idea.

10) Suggestion Ten - (education) Add more context
Did that. Added some more about what I did at university.

11) Suggestion Eleven - Get more recommendations.
Ask others to write them for you. I need to do this too.

12) Suggestion Twelve - Additional Information (add websites, etc.)
I have my three and other stuff added.

13) Suggestion Thirteen - Customize why you want to be reached.
Did that already.

Okay, most of what the LinkedIn experts suggested, I had done already before reading this article. So I checked my search results.

Google - 8 pages of results so far and no mention of me on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn - I show up, but about 10 spots down.

Disappointing - I am officially nobody. :) Not really, but I go back to where I started; I don't think about an application (LinkedIn, Squidoo, Plaxo, etc.) increasing my Google (or other) search engine visibility. I know, I know, it sounds ... out of touch, non-technical, whatever.

But this makes sense when I compare it to any Web 2.0/social networking platform. Lots of work does not equate into a higher profile. That takes interaction with people.

Social Network

I saw this on Mashable this morning and wonder if it is something I have been looking for.

I belong to several social networking sites with a particular emphasis on business networking (MySpace just does not do it for me).

Everyday I look at my gmail inbox and see the updates from Ryze and Ecademy and realize I have not updated my profile, or in some cases, have not added anything to them since I joined.

I want to take my LinkedIn profile and export it to Ryze and the others with one or two clicks. There must be a way to do this because everyone must hate copying and creating new profiles!

So I checked out socialnetwork.in and no, it does not do what I want it to do.

Firefox has an Autofill widget on the toolbar for filling in online forms. There must be something like this for SN sites as well.

Any ideas? (Great Web 2.0 service, hint hint).

LinkedIn profile views

I commented on LinkedIn profile views on Friday. This morning I received a notice from Ecademy that someone had viewed my profile.

The email read:
- the name of the person (with a hyperlink to their profile).
- who else has viewed my profile to date.
- the option to turn off these alerts in the future.

I am not a big user of Ecademy, but this feature alone is worth the price of maintaining an active profile.

Most social networking sites have this feature. LinkedIn probably does, but with the paid for service only. Which is annoying because my LinkedIn profile is providing the content LinkedIn needs in order to be successful.

LinkedIn is not successful because of their great service; LinkedIn is great because so many use the product and spread the benefits virally.