LinkedIn

Whenever I do LinkedIn trainings or talk to people about LinkedIn, I get a few recurring questions. One of these is by business developers who want to connect with new potential customers, partners and investors. Although I believe LinkedIn is a tool for actually connecting with people you know already, it can certainly be very useful for finding new contacts. This is especially true when you are doing business in a new industry or geography.
 
My advice is normally to connect via someone you both know, someone you are both connected with on LinkedIn. The quickest way to do this is to pick up the phone and as this common connection to make an introduction in person, on the phone, via email or LinkedIn.
 
But what do you do when there is no common connection and you have no idea how to introduce yourself to someone on LinkedIn? You probably have to find some common ground, such as having worked at the same place, gone to the same university or having an interest in collecting stamps from the South Pacific.

Templates for your LinkedIn invites 

Here is a compilation of ideas from Anthony J. Johnson, see what you think:

It's time for a LinkedIn Demographics and Statistics update by our friend Amodiovalerio Verde. The highlights of this 2012 update include:

• LinkedIn’s members have reached 147 million, although this figure is an approximation provided by LinkedIn

• The average user of LinkedIn is male (57.9%) and aged between 25 and 54 years (67.7%); compared to the previous year, the percentage of teenagers (18-24) has grown more than other age groups

• The 10 countries with most LinkedIn users: United States (58.5 million), India (13.3 million), United Kingdom (8.4 million), Brazil (6.8 million), Canada (5.1 million), France (3.2 million), Netherland (3.1 million), Italy (2.8 million), Australia (2.8 million) and Spain (2,6 million)

• In the 10 major countries is concentrated 79% of members, and 40% of all LinkedIn members reside in the United States

• By number of members, Brazil has overtaken Canada, France has overtaken Netherlands, Italy has overtaken Australia, compared with January 2011 data

• Compared to January 2011, LinkedIn’s member have grown by 45% worldwide

• The country with the strongest growth was Indonesia (+111%) followed by Turkey (+97.3%) and Brazil (+91.6%) while countries with a lower growth were Denmark (+23.5%), Finland (+22.7%) and Netherlands (+22.1%)

• Over 44% of LinkedIn’s users work in companies with more than 10,000 employees, in Asia the figure rises up to 57.3%

• 39% of the members is a Manager, Director, Owner, Chief Officer or Vice President

Want to see more slides? Check out How Your Company Can Start Using Social Media to Recruit.

As both a Personal Branding and LinkedIn trainer, I get a few recurring questions in my workshops and seminars. I thought I would compile a little list with questions and answers here, hopefully they will be useful to you. Most questions are related to sales, marketing and recruitment which is basically the type of professionals I tend to train.

Here goes the 21 LinkedIn questions and answers:

We've all seen the really bad LinkedIn profile images and we kind of know what to avoid.... Or do we? Here is a list of seven pictures that must never be used on your LinkedIn profile:
 

1. Grainy or Pixelated

A picture that is grainy in any way is not only annoying, it just looks bad. This happens when you don’t have enough light to take the picture, so it gives off kind of a dark unprofessional vibe. You want the image to be completely clear. Also, don’t crop an image of yourself out of a photo and resize it to the extent that it becomes pixilated. It is difficult for people to see what you actually look like and just looks like you don’t know how to resize a photo.
 

2. The Self Portrait

There is nothing wrong with taking your own profile picture. Just don’t make it look like you did. Photos that are obviously taken from your laptop or by holding your arm out and snapping a picture look hasty and unprofessional. Hire a photographer or use a timed setting on your camera to stand against a wall and snap one.
 

3. Poorly Lit

This goes back to not wanting to have a grainy or pixilated image. But even if the photo comes out well, you probably don’t want to have a dramatic or shadowy image to represent you professionally unless you work in the arts.
 

4. Inappropriate for Your Industry

Think about what a potential employer would be looking to hire and try to present yourself in that way. It’s great to have a creative or wacky profile photo of you’re a creative professional. If you’re a lawyer or accountant, potential employers and clients may want to move on to someone who comes off as more trustworthy and solid.