You can never have too many Recommendations! Getting additional Recommendations should be part of your ongoing job search. A variety of Recommendations on your Linkedin Profile will improve your credibility.

Start with a Plan

The best way to get the right amount and type of Recommendations is to create a plan on what you need. The goal of the plan is to establish your credibility and present your best qualities-qualities that match the job you are seeking. The plan should identify the number and types of Recommendations needed to support your goal.

Job Experiences

You should have at least two Recommendations for the major job experience you listed on your Profile. These Recommendations could be from co-workers, bosses or others who worked with you at those jobs.

Skill Levels

Skills transfer across job experiences. A perceptive company will recognize skill levels even if you lack experiences doing the job. When I left the ministry, I had no job experiences with the jobs I wanted. The first man who hired me for a human services position said that teaching me the content would be easy; I already had the public speaking skills he wanted for the job.

Identify the skills that are most wanted for the job you are seeking. For each of these skills, get two Recommendations to describe how you used these skills in the past.

Job or Company Related Recommendations

If you can get a Recommendation from someone in the same job field or the same company, these are valuable Recommendations. You can search within Linkedin for people to help. Go to your first level connections and click on each of their profiles. You can see who is connected to them. Then you can click on these new connections to see who is connected to them. (3rd level of connections). See if there is someone in these different levels of connections that may be in your job field or in the company where you want to work. (Later I will show you how to invite these connections into your circle.)

Personal Qualities

By having one or two Recommendations about outstanding personal qualities, you add frosting to the cake. These types of Recommendations add depth and richness to why a company should hire you.

Conclusion

Use a variety of Recommendations to complete your Linkedin Profile. Use the formula for power Recommendations as an outline for the content of the Recommendations. In the next two blog posts, we will talk about giving Recommendations and getting Recommendations.

Your comments are always welcome…

Al Hanzal

By having one or two Recommendations about outstanding personal qualities, you add frosting to the cake.  These types of Recommendations add depth and richness to why a company should hire you.

Conclusion

Use a variety of Recommendations to complete your Linkedin Profile.  Use the formula for power Recommendations as an outline for the content of the Recommendations.  In the next two blog posts, we will talk about giving Recommendations and getting Recommendations. 

Your comments are always welcome…

Al Hanzal

I will share with you four strategies to maximize the power of Linkedin to help your job search.

1. Creating a Job Search Profile 
   
2. Getting recommendations
   
3. Expanding your network of contact 
   
4. Using Linkedin Power tools 

1.  Creating a Job Search Profile

I am assuming you are already on Linkedin.  When you first created your Linkedin Profile, you probable followed the normal process for completed each of the items on the Profile.  I am going to ask you to rewrite your Profile.  Think of your Profile as the online document to sell yourself to others.  It is your online resume.  You will rewrite your Profile as Job Searching Profile.

Before we start on the individual items on the Linkedin Profile, let’s review the overall tone and approach you want to bring to remaking your current profile into a Job Searching Profile.  Let these serve as guidelines for reworking your Profile.

1.  Devote time.  Devote the necessary time to rewriting your Profile.  The Profile is your most important item on your Linkedin page.  It’s what people first use to learn about you.  As you complete a rewriting of your Profile, have someone you trust and respect to not only proof read your new Profile but also to give you suggestions on ways to improve the quality of your re-write.  Having several people review is even better.  

2.  Tailoring your Profile.  When I was in the job hunting process, I always tried to tailor my resume to fit the company and the position I was interviewing with.  As your online resume, make sure your Profile is tailored to the position and the type of job you are seeking.   Think of who will be reading your Profile.  What do they want to learn about you?

3.  Positive.  Make your Profile positive.  There is no place in this Job Searching Profile for negative or limiting statements such as low grades or why you left your last employment.

4.  Easy to read.  Make your Profile, crisp, simple and clear about the points you want to make.  People don’t take the time to read everything online.  Anticipate you have a limited time and space to make your point with an audience that is busy.

5.  Your own voice.  Put your Job Searching Profile in your own voice.  Most resumes and Profiles are dull and boring, written in some form of corporate language.  Express yourself.  People hire people not resumes.  No where does it say that your Profile must be boring!

 6.  Key words.  Use the key words you have identified from your key word search.  Remember, everything  starts with keywords.  See my post on key words http://tinyurl.com/cj5kjg.

Use these six guidelines as you make your Profile into a Job Searching document.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Over the next few weeks in these blog posts I will explore the Job Searching functions in Linkedin. A variety of reasons prompt me to dig deeper into this Linkedin tool.

Today’s Economic Situation

Today’s economic situation is a big starting point. Listen to the daily loss of jobs. Politicians promise to get the jobs back. The jobs are not coming back! Today’s economy is like a snake shedding its skin. One form of the economy has spent is course. Another form, a digital, world based economy, is being born. The old world is not coming back. Let me share with a couple of examples.

Disappearing Hospital Jobs

Recently, the hospital where my wife works as a manager experienced layoffs for the first time in 20 years. These aren’t low level positions. Many of the positions were positions like financial analysts, people who had worked at the hospital for 30 years. The hospital which is part of a larger health organization recently consolidated their hospital accounting systems into one system. They don’t need a financial analyst at each hospital. These jobs are not coming back.

General Electric

Our two year old refrigerator stopped working. I called the GE Customer Services hot line. They set up a service call for the next morning. At 7:30 that morning, I received a computerized call that said I was next in line for service and the repair person would arrive in 30 minutes.

At promptly 8:00 the repair person pulled into my driveway with his truck. Loaded with a laptop computer, he quickly diagnosis the problem as a malfunctioning mother board which controls the main operation of the refrigerator. He unscrewed four screws, snapped in a new mother board and the repair was completed in less than 20 minutes time.

I asked him where his service center was located. He said he operated completely out of his home. GE no longer has a service center with staff, a building, phones, a warehouse, store managers, etc. His daily work is set up by the GE computer with work schedules and directions. All parts are routinely sent to his home. He can do 10 service calls per day. He keyed in the activities he completed on my refrigerator into his lap top as part of my online record and at the same time a new mother board was being sent to his home for future use. He had a hand held credit card processor.

The repair man told me he no longer needed the skills once possessed by older repair men. Engineers had reduced most parts to snap in place parts. Older repair people took apart things like motors and tried to fix them on the job site. This was time consuming and not very cost effective. By plugging the refrigerator into his laptop, he could diagnose the exact problem area.

You have a major corporation that has coordinated engineering, customer service and repairs into a new system that essentially operated from a person’s home with the aid of computers and the internet.

GE no longer needs an expensive service center. A home business application is now more efficient and effective. This is a great example of the changing landscape and how home businesses in a variety of shapes and sizes will have a prominent place in the new economy. The old service center jobs are never coming back.

College Students

Beyond my beliefs about the economy, I have made a personal commitment to helping others with job searches.  My daughter lives in Portland Oregon and works as a coach for students in college. The business she works for has contracts with over 50 colleges to provide personal coaching to students. She does weekly phone calls with each student.

Many of these students are graduate students just finishing their studies. With today’s economic situation, they cannot find a job. They are frustrated; she is frustrated. I have promised to provide her with a Linkedin resource she can share with college graduates.

My Church

I have offered my time as a resource for an unemployment group at my local church. About 30 people attend a monthly meeting for inspiration and skill building for their job searches. Most of the skill building has been confined to resume writing and interview skills. These skills are important. I also believe a digital networking like Linkedin can add resources for their job searches.

Over the course of these posts, I will look at the direct ways Linkedin can aid in a job search. I will show how other Linkedin functions can be used in a job searches. I have invited several expert Linkedin authors to write a guest post on job searching. It is my hope to bring together as many thoughts as possible on how Linkedin can be used a resource in today’s trouble economy.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Let’s now apply the information about making powerful testimonials to the Making and Receiving Recommendations for your Linkedin Page.  I’ll start with Making a Recommendation.  If this is your first Recommendation, it is always good to spend a few minutes reviewing what other people are using for Recommendation.  You can learn what you like and dislike about these Recommendations by looking at the work of others.

You can initiate a Recommendation from your profile, from the profile of the person you are recommending or in direct response to a request you receive from the other person.  Here are the directions from Linkedin for using these three options:

                                          To recommend a person from your profile: 

1. Click the ‘Get Recommended’ link found in the ‘Recommended By’ section of the profile.

2. You’ll be taken to a page that allows you to ‘Mange recommendations you have received’ or ‘Make a Recommendation’.

3. Under the ‘Make a Recommendation’ section, enter a contact’s first/last name and their email address or click the ‘Select from your connections list’ link. Scroll to the lower part of the page.

4. Choose a category: service provider, business partner, colleague or student.

5. Follow the instructions provided based on the category you selected. 

                                              To recommend a person from their profile: 

1. Click ‘Recommend this person’ found in the upper right hand corner of the profile. You will also find a recommendation link in the Experience section under the position for which you want to recommend them.

2. Choose a category: service provider, business partner, student, or colleague.

3. Follow the instructions provided based on the category you selected. 

                                        To recommend a person in response to a request: 

1. Open the message in your email client or from the Received Recommendations page in your LinkedIn inbox.

2. Click ‘Write Recommendation’.

3. If this is an original request, you will be directed to a page where you can compose and submit your recommendation.

4. If this is a request to replace an existing recommendation, you will be taken to a page where you can edit the previous recommendation and submit the revised text. 

Once you have completed the name the person and identified your relationship with them (you are given a number of choices), then click on Continue and you are taken to series of questions to complete before you write your recommendation.  

What to Say?

Write the recommendation using the framework discussed in previous posts.  Make it exciting.  Be specific about the work done by the person, the strengths and responsibilities demonstrated by the person and the results or benefits produced. 

Submit your Recommendation to the person.  They will have the opportunity to review it, accept it or ask for revisions.  Most people will accept what you write, however, they can ask for revisions to clarify points they want in the Recommendation.

I’ve found the best method is to email or call a colleague and offer to exchange Recommendations.  They supply one for you and you supply one for them.  In this way, you can specify what each person would like in a Recommendation.   You can always send an email with a draft of your recommendation.   The other person can send it back to you with the changes they would like.  Then you put the revised Recommendation through the Linkedin process.  This is an easy way to quickly generate recommendations.  

You can Withdraw your recommendation.  Situations changes; jobs may change.  You are allowed to withdraw your Recommendation.  When you do this, it is permanently removed from Linkedin and the recipient is not notified.  To withdraw a Recommendation go to your Managing your Recommendations and click on Withdraw Recommendations.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Last year I wrote an extensive paper on how small business owners can use testimonials to generate more profits for their business.  The principles I developed in that paper totally apply to the creation and use of Recommendations on your Linkedin page.  In the next several posts, I invite you to read the principles I developed in that paper and apply them to your Linkedin thought process.  I have divided the paper into four parts and four posts.  If you would like to read the entire paper now, click on http://tinyurl.com/cj5yz6 . You can read it on line or print your own copy.  Remember, every place you see testimonial substitute the word Recommendation.  

Linkedin Resolutions and Testimonials–Your Secret Sales Force

Adding the Secret Ingredient to Grow Your Profits!

Successful small businesses have more customers, who buy more often and have more loyalty.  Yet, when you look closer, these same businesses do not have superior products or services.  What secret do they use?

Successful small business owners use this secret—plenty of good testimonials.  These testimonials become like a powerful sales force for their businesses.  The average small business owners keep this potential “sales force” locked in their closets.

In this paper, I’ll show you how good testimonials improve your bottom line.   You will also learn the formula for creating good testimonials so you can start making more and better sales right now.  You will learn why Resolutions are so important to your Linkedin page.

How Testimonials Attract and Improve Your Sales

We live in skeptical times.   Customers, especially internet buyers, are very nervous about letting go of their money.  Customers want to believe your claims because they want the benefits your product promises.  

But customers don’t want to be hurt or disappointed or look foolish.  So, they resist their urges.   If you don’t overcome this customer skepticism, you lose the sale.  They leave.  You may never know how close they came to making a purchase!

How can testimonials change this picture and help overcome customer skepticism?  Here are some of the ways good testimonials will make a difference in your business.

Testimonials make you more believable.  Customers trust what others, especially people like themselves, say about the results they receive from your business.

Testimonials provide a tract record for your business.  They show that customers have gone before them and been successful in using your business.

Testimonials create more customer loyalty.  Once they put their name on a testimonial, customers feel obligated to stand behind their decision, even if it doesn’t turn out the way they proclaimed in their testimonial.

Testimonials create a sense of security for your customers.  Everyone loves to be part of the “in-crowd”—to join others who are using your product.

Testimonials cement the selling process.  Testimonials raise the excitement of the customer’s interest in your product.  It makes them more eager to purchase by reducing the buying anxiety.

Testimonials give you insights into why customers are buying your products.  People will state in their testimonials why they bought from your business.   Their reasons may different from your reasons.  

How to get testimonials that add to your profits

You have seen the power testimonials can have in your business–no matter what business or to whom you sell.  So why do so few small business owners use this tool in their businesses?

Most small business owners cite a lack of time or the mistaken notion that asking for testimonials bothers the customer.  Or maybe, they just don’t know how to get good testimonials.

As a small business owner, you have spent a lot of money getting this customer to buy from your business. Now you have the opportunity to leverage this customer’s experience into getting more customers to your business.  Why waste this opportunity?

When customers have a good buying experience, they love telling others about it.  When you ask them to help you by giving a testimonial, they feel honored.  They feel they are contributing to your business.  They are happy to help.

For purposes of helping you implementing testimonials in a step by step process, I will assume you have few or no testimonials that give you the power you want in your business.  I will take you through a process that shows how easily and quickly you can start using powerful testimonials to attract more customers and more sales.  Follow these steps and I guarantee you will see immediate improvement in your business.

A System for Getting Testimonials

Step One Focus on your Target Market

Your prospects want to hear from customers just like themselves.  This is the type of proof they want before they purchase.  What group of customers are you going to focus on for their testimonials?  Identify the group now.

Step Two Clarify your Marketing Message

Powerful testimonials focus on your key benefits—those items that make your customer’s life better.  You want to get at least one testimonial for each benefit.  List at least three benefits your product or service provides to your customers.  

1.)

2.)

3.)

Step Three A Testimonial Blitzkrieg

You can never have too many good testimonials.  Set yourself a goal for the next 30 days to get 25-50 testimonials.  Make this a priority for your business.  They will be worth their weight in gold.   When you see how easy it is to get testimonials, you will say 25 is too few!

Step Four Create an Ongoing Testimonials System

As you begin using some of these techniques for getting testimonials, start thinking how you can continue to use one or another of these techniques as a regular part of your business operations.  Your ultimate goal is to create a system that regularly and automatically produces fresh and new testimonials—with little or no effort on your part.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Before we move on to the next section of Linkedin, let me share with you a blog post from the official Linkedin Blog.   Ian McCarthy has written a short blog article where he identifies additional benefits to the Linkedin’s Group function that go beyond what I identified in an earlier post.

In particular, he shows the “Follow” function you can use in following Group Discussions.  When you use this function, you can get email updates on the Group conversation so you can keep in touch with the conversation without making a huge time commitment.  Go to: http://tinyurl.com/cmljgj
Enjoy.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Taking the time to answer other Linkedin participant’s questions not only allows you to contribute, it also builds credibility and expertise within your network.  Years ago, when I left my carpeting business, I volunteered for one of those “Ask an Expert” websites as an expert regarding carpet.  I answered 50-60 questions per year.  It’s been several years, since I left that program.  I still get emails from people I have helped with my knowledge.

Click on Answer a question and you will get a drop down box that also indicates what recommended Categories are most likely for your expertise.  These are based on the groups you belong to and the information in your Profile.  You will also see a heading, New Questions from Your Network.   In addition, you can click on any of the Categories listed on the right side of the page and answer questions from these Categories.

Use one of the above options to see a list of current questions.  Click on an appropriate question.  You will have two options.  You can answer the question Answer Yourself or your can Suggest an Expert and provide the person asking the question with a connection to an Expert or a resource that can help.

While Answering the question yourself bring some immediate attention to your own expertise, connecting other people resources is also a powerful way of building relationships.  Do you remember the last time someone hooked you up to the right person?  You felt good that you had a solution to your problem.  The expert felt good that they were recognized for their expertise and could now establish a new relationship with you.   And the connector felt good because they were helpful even though they did not have the immediate answer.

This Week’s Expert Status

You will also see a list of This Week’s Experts with a Star logo behind their name.  The person asking a Linkedin questions gets to select the best answer to their question.  When you are choose as the best answer you get a “Point” from Linkedin.  After several “points” you are given Expert status of the week—just a little extra bonus of recognition.  Here are the Linkedin rules for getting Expert status.

Earning expertise is easy:
1.    Find questions in the areas you know
Browse questions to find categories familiar to you
2.    Answer those questions
Remember, private answers won’t help you earn expertise
3.    Every time the questioner picks your answer best, you gain a point of expertise
The more points of expertise, the higher you appear on lists of experts
To be continued, your comments are always welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Linkedin provides another valuable resource for building your on-line social network–the ability to ask and answer questions with other people on Linkedin.   How can this function benefit you and your business?

• It’s another form of contacting and relating with Linkedin participants
• You get access to valuable resources and business answers
• Opportunities to demonstrate your own expertise
• It becomes another Google touch point for your internet presence
• Linkedin maintains a repository of valuable business information
• It gives you more visibility and credibility

Before I show the details on how to Ask or Answer a question on Linkedin, take a few moments to browse this function.  Click on the Answer tab on the top of any Linkedin page.  Experiment with the keyword search tool.  Look at the different types of questions people are making and the types of answers they are receiving.  Check out the various Categories of questions.  Look at both the “open” and “closed” questions and this “Week’s Expert”.

Ask a Question

Follow this sequence of 10 steps to Ask a question on Linkedin.

1.  Write down your question

2.  Search the Answered Questions to see if there may already be an answer to your question

3.  Click the Answer tab and the Ask Question Tab to get a new form

4.  Write the short version of your question.  Think of this first box like the subject line in an email or the heading in a newspaper.  It should be a very short and succinct version of your question.  You get better answers to better written questions.

5.  Check to see if you want people outside of your network to respond. (Usually a good idea)

6.  Now you can add more details to your question.  It still makes sense to keep this short, or bullet points that help illustrate your questions.

7.  You then need to pick one of the Categories in which to place your question.  Your geographic area can be one of the categories.

8.  Finally, you need to identify whether the question revolves around

Recruiting
Promoting your service/product
Job Seeking

9.  Hit the Submit button

10.  Be sure to thank people when they offer you answers to your questions.  This can be the start of more valuable relationships.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

How to Join a Linkedin Group

It’s a very simple process to join a Linkedin Group.  Start by clicking on the Group Button on the left hand side of your profile page in Linked.  You will be shown three options:

• My Groups
• Following
• Group Directory
• Create a Group

If you are not a part of any Group, select the Group Directory.  You will then be taken to a search box that allows you to search the many groups that already exist.  For each group you will be given a description, the number of people in the group and how long it has been in existence.  To start, choose two groups that you want to join.

When you click on a Group to join, you will be taken to a screen that will ask you several questions.  These include, whether you will display the group’s logo; your email address; how often you want to be notified about digests of the group’s activities; allowing members to send you direct messages and a general consent form for participating in the group.

You can then send a message to the group leader telling them why you would like to participate in the group.  You will then await, usually a day or so to be accepted into the group.
Once accepted you can now see previous group discussions, learn about the people in the group and initiate and participate in discussions.

Creating Your Own Linked Group

Here’s the form you must complete to create your own Linkedin Group. Once you complete this form, you will submit it to Linkedin and they will review your request for creating a group.

Group Identity

· * Large Logo:

Your logo will appear in the Groups Directory and on your group pages.

· * Small Logo:

If you have been following this sequence of posts about adding connections to your network, you have now invited all those who are already on Linkedin to join you.   In your Outlook file and other email services files, you will have many more names that are not on Linkedin.  What is going to be your strategy for inviting them to be part of your networking efforts?

Again, you want to use the your overall purpose for using Linkedin as the guiding principle to additional invitations.  Continue to ask yourself, how will this person or these types of persons who emails addresses you have, help you achieve your goals for the program.  Revisit your decisions such as quality networking verses quantity networking.

More than likely, you will have a number of people whose emails addresses that are not on Linkedin.  Break this larger number down into chuck size pieces so that you can invite them your join your connection each day.  A consistent effort of 5-10 invites a day from your existing lists of contact will produce an amazing result even over the course of 30 days.

Here’s an example of a script I used for people I know but who may be unfamiliar with the Linkedin program.

Script

“Hello, its been sometime since I have connected with you.  I hope you are doing well.  I am not sure if you are familiar with the new social networking programs people are using on the internet?  I belong to the Linkedin program as a way of networking with a group of people who have similar interests as me.  I would like to invite you to join my network.  It’s very easy to get started.  You can go to www.Linnkedin.com and sign up to be on the program.  It’s free and I think you will enjoy it.  I am currently working on an e-book of tips for people using the Linkedin program and would like to send it to you.  Let’s try to connect on each others network.   Check out www.linkedin.com and join so we can connect on a more regular basis” Thanks,  Al

Change the words to suit your situation.  With this script, I am making an invitation, telling them about Linkedin, showing them how easily they can get started and making a promise to share something with them.  These ingredients make the script work.

Use this or a similar emails invitations to those on your list and do it on a consistent basis.

Manual Invitation

The last direct tool Linkedin offers for building your network is the Manual invitation.  Go to the green Get Connected button and click on it.  You will see a manual section where you can now type in six email names and addresses to invite with one stroke of the key board.

I found it helpful to take some time to research the names and email address I wanted to invite and then place them in a word document.  I then copy six names on a daily basis from this list and send an invitation to all the people I wanted to invite.

Recycling Your Invitations

On a sixty to ninety day basis, you may wish to invite again those who have not responded.  If you go to your Inbox on your Linkedin Home Page and click on “Send” you will see all the people to whom you have send invitations and the status of those invitations.  From here you can choose to resend invitations to specific people.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal