Internet Marketing Tools

Before we examine the actual Job Searching Tools of Linkedin, let’s summary what you have done so far in these Linkedin exercises.  To provide a summary I turn to Guy Kowasaki for his comments on how to use Linkedin in your job search.  

1. Increase your visibility.

By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do business with. In addition to appearing at the top of search results (which is a major plus if you’re one of the 52,000 product managers on LinkedIn), people would much rather work with people who their friends know and trust.

2. Improve your connectability.

Most new users put only their current company in their profile. By doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You should fill out your profile like it’s an executive bio, so include past companies, education, affiliations, and activities.

You can also include a link to your profile as part of an email signature. The added benefit is that the link enables people to see all your credentials, which would be awkward if not downright strange, as an attachment. 

3. Improve your Google PageRank.

LinkedIn allows you to make your profile information available for search engines to index. Since LinkedIn profiles receive a fairly high PageRank in Google, this is a good way to influence what people see when they search for you.

To do this, create a public profile and select “Full View.” Also, instead of using the default URL, customize your public profile’s URL to be your actual name. To strengthen the visibility of this page in search engines, use this link in various places on the web> For example, when you comment in a blog, include a link to your profile in your signature.

4. Enhance your search engine results.

In addition to your name, you can also promote your blog or website to search engines like Google and Yahoo! Your LinkedIn profile allows you to publicize websites. There are a few pre-selected categories like “My Website,” “My Company,” etc.

If you select “Other” you can modify the name of the link. If you’re linking to your personal blog, include your name or descriptive terms in the link, and voila! instant search-engine optimization for your site. To make this work, be sure your public profile setting is set to “Full View.” 

5. Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks.

LinkedIn’s reference check tool to input a company name and the years the person worked at the company to search for references. Your search will find the people who worked at the company during the same time period. Since references provided by a candidate will generally be glowing, this is a good way to get more balanced data.

Companies will typically check your references before hiring you, but have you ever thought of checking your prospective manager’s references? Most interviewees don’t have the audacity to ask a potential boss for references, but with LinkedIn you have a way to scope her out. 

You can also check up on the company itself by finding the person who used to have the job that you’re interviewing for. Do this by searching for job title and company, but be sure to uncheck “Current titles only.” By contacting people who used to hold the position, you can get the inside scoop on the job, manager and growth potential.

By the way, if using LinkedIn in these ways becomes a common practice, we’re apt to see more truthful resumes. There’s nothing more amusing than to find out that the candidate who claims to have caused some huge success was a total bozo who was just along for the ride.

6. Increase the relevancy of your job search.

Use LinkedIn’s advanced search to find people with educational and work experience like yours to see where they work. For example, a programmer would use search keywords such as “Ruby on Rails,” “C++,” “Python,” “Java,” and “evangelist” to find out where other programmers with these skills work.

7. Make your interview go smoother.

You can use LinkedIn to find the people that you’re meeting. Knowing that you went to the same school, plays hockey, or shares acquaintances is a lot better than an awkward silence after, “I’m doing fine, thank you.”

8. Gauge the health of a company.

Perform an advanced search for company name and uncheck the “Current Companies Only” box. This will enable you to scrutinize the rate of turnover and whether key people are abandoning ship. Former employees usually give more candid opinions about a company’s prospects than someone who’s still on board.

9. Gauge the health of an industry.

If you’re thinking of investing or working in a sector, use LinkedIn to find people who worked for competitors—or even better, companies who failed. For example, suppose you wanted to build a next generation online pet store, you’d probably learn a lot from speaking with former Pets.com or WebVan employees. 

10. Track startups.

You can see people in your network who are initiating new startups by doing an advanced search for a range of keywords such as “stealth” or “new startup.” Apply the “Sort By” filter to “Degrees away from you” in order to see the people closest to you first.

11. Ask for advice.

LinkedIn’s newest product, LinkedIn Answers , aims to enable this online. The product allows you to broadcast your business-related questions to both your network and the greater LinkedIn network. The premise is that you will get more high-value responses from the people in your network than more open forums. 

For example, here are some questions an entrepreneur might ask when the associates of a venture capital firm come up blank:

•  Who’s a good, fast, and cheap patent lawyer?
•  What should we pay a vp of biz dev?
• Is going to Demo worth it?
• How much traffic does a TechCrunch plug generate?

These additional ideas came in through comments from readers:

1. Integrate into a new job.

When people start a new job, ordinarily their roots aren’t that deep in the new company. However, with Linkedin, new employees can study fellow employees’ profiles and therefore help them get to know more people faster in a new company. (contributed by Vincent Wright)

2. Scope out the competition, customers, partners, etc. This seems like it’s a no-brainer, but you can use LinkedIn to scope out the competition’s team as well as the team of customers and partners. For example, your competitor’s vp of marketing came from Oracle…she’ll probably believe that business is war. (Kev)

Read more: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/01/ten_ways_to_use.html#ixzz0GogcZn50&B

To be Continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Here’s the most exciting networking tool to help in your job search and build your Linkedin network.  When you use this tool, you combine your Outlook program with your Linkedin Program.  You can have your Outlook program running behind your Linkedin program; or your Linkedin program can run behind your Outlook program.  You can switch back and forth between programs.  In a moment I will show you how to activate this Linkedin feature.  First let me show how you can use it to build your Linkedin network quickly.

Emails You Receive in Outlook

Once your download this free tool, for every email you receive from a person via Outlook, there will be a Linkedin symbol in the right hand corner of the email.  When you click on this, it tells you this person is a member of Linkedin, their headline and the number of their contacts.  From this brief information you can decide if they would be helpful to your job search.

If they are on Linkedin, you can Keep In Contact with them or Invite them to join your network.  If you click on the Invite, a screen appears with all the information and choices to send them a personalized invitation to join your network.  You decide on the words you want to use or create a template to use on an ongoing basis.  ( Use the Job Search message you created in the last post)  Once you complete the form, you hit send and you are right back at your Outlook program.

The beauty of this tool is that you don’t have to leave Outlook to send an invitation.  And it only takes a few minutes. It’s even faster if you use your own template invitation to send the person an invitation.

Another feature of this tool is that if the email you receive contains other names in any part of the address, the CC or Blind Copy, these names are shown in a separate box.  You can click on them and find out if they are on Linkedin.   One email I received had four additional names displayed when I clicked the Linkedin symbol.  I sent out five invitations in the space of five minutes, one to each person.

The Power of the Outlook Tool

Stop for a moment and think about the power of this tool.  First there is the speed and convenience of sending out invitations.  Then, in any given day, I may receive dozens of emails from other professionals in my field.  They are advertising materials to sell, newsletter, etc.  I can click on any of these emails and invite the person to be on my network.  When they receive the invite, it is very easy for them to click and say “Yes” to become a member of my network.  And you can do all of this without every leaving your Outlook program.  How cool is this?

Now I can invite the top people in my field as members of my network without all the work involved in personally contacting these people.  When others see these experts on my network, now my credibility soars.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

A Formula for Powerful Recommendations

If you are going to get Recommendations to support your Linkedin job search, why not get the best Recommendations you can.  They will give you an advantage over many competitors for the same job.  Here’s a formula you can follow to make and select the best Recommendations.  

Exciting.  Most Recommendations are vanilla flavor!   People get bored reading them.  Make your Recommendations exciting.  There is no law that says you have to be “corporate boring.”  People hire people, not positions.  (Later I will show you how to get others to help you create powerful Recommendations)

Benefit orientated.  Making your Recommendations benefit orientated means adding an additional sentence that connect what you did with what someone might get from what you did.  For example, Dan did internships with three different medical practices.  These internships allowed him to see the best treatment for XYZ.

Be specific.  Make the Recommendations specific and detailed. Recommendations should present your work, your specific strengths, your responsibilities and your best qualities.   It’s much better to say “We realized a 19% increase in profits,” rather than “We improved profits.”  Avoid the “Rah, rah, Dan is great” style of Recommendations.  Readers get very little from cheerleader comments.

Credible People.   Get Recommendations from credible people’s whose opinion would be respected by the reader.  If you can get a Recommendation from an expert or famous people, you can add even more power to your Recommendations.

Short.  Keep your Recommendations short and to the point.  Use short paragraphs.   Whenever possible use your key words in the text (helps search engines find you.)

Identifiers.  Include the name, the city of the person, and their position in the Recommendations.

Thank you.  Thank your connections for their Recommendations.

Conclusion

Think of your Recommendations as a sales person for you.  Let them provide credibility and a clear message about what you have done in the past and how this will benefit a company in the present and future.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Your Brand on LinkedIn

A few more thoughts about branding before you start the details of creating your Job Searching Linkedin Profile.

Your Internet Billboard

Your LinkedIn Profile is your billboard on the internet highway.  Like billboards along the freeways, you never know when someone is going to take notice of your billboard.  Getting noticed by others is essential.  Your Profile needs to be constructed in such a way that it becomes a billboard that others will notice as they travel the internet highway.

The Brand We Call You

You are always selling on Linkedin.  You may not think of yourself as a company.  You may not have a lot of experience.  The fundamental rule of selling is that people buy from people they know, like and trust.  Your Linkedin Profile is where people get to know you, get to like you and get to trust you.

 They will come to know the brand that is YOU.  You will construct your Profile, not only to show your skills and expertise, but also your personality as well.  Remember people buy from people not a business.  You want your personality to be expressed in your Profile.  People buy from people they know and they like!

Building Your Brand

Your Linkedin Profile is the marketing expression of your brand.  Your brand is the expertise and skills you can bring to a company.  It’s the special something that you give that a company cannot get from your competition.  If your profile is like every other profile from others in your industry, why would a person want to interview you?  Your profile offers an opportunity to establish your online reputation that will draw others to you.   You don’t want to overlook this opportunity.

What do you do? Your first challenge in creating a brand is to provide the prospective company with a clear picture about what you are offering.  What skills, expertise, experience are selling do?  You must be able to answer this question simply and clearly.  Confused buyers never buy.

Write down the answer to this question in simple and clear words.  Then show it to three people.  Is it simple and clear to them?

What is your specialty?  A second branding question is what is your specialty?  Companies don’t “buy” from Jack of all trades and masters of none.  They have too many buying options.  When you try to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.   Make it clear about your specialty.  Can you describe in one sentence what makes you attractive to your customers and different from your competition?  How will the company benefit from your skills and expertise? Why should they believe you?  Your Profile should answer these questions for a company.

View Profiles In Your Industry

A very good exercise is to view at least the Profiles of at least five other people who are already working in the industry where you want to work.  Read them.  Study them.  Learn what language and terms they use in their Profiles.  Check out their backgrounds and experiences.  You want your Profile to be consistent with these Profiles so that a company feels comfortable with you.  At the same time, I will show you how to create a Job Searching Profile that makes you stand out and get noticed.  

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

A First Step