Is the LinkedIn 'Contacts' App Worth It?
I've written an extensive tutorial on how to activate the LinkedIn contacts app properly. You can read it here. But before you rush off, I need to share with you my findings quite recently, which may have you thinking twice about installing this app.
LinkedIn (CEO - Jeff Weiner), says that mobile is a massive priority for LinkedIn in 2014. 41% of all user engagement was on mobile during 2013. They expect that this will rise to 50% in 2014 and he says more investment will be happening in this area.
But...are the apps stable enough and have they figured out properly how they will work together?
Let me explain more. And I'm only dealing with the iPhone apps here, I have no experience of Android and others.
The 'flagship' LinkedIn app has been around for a while and works quite well except for one major flaw.
You have the ability to download all your connections onto your iPhone, when you go into settings. It promises faithfully to download it once and every time you access the app, it will download more new connections. Very cool indeed.
The major flaw is that when someone updates their profile, changes their email, job or anything else, the app downloads another version of that record. Plus it downloads duplicates for no apparent reason in a random way, don't ask me how, because I don't know.
This is made even more complicated by the fact that Apple have installed LinkedIn as part of their latest Mac operating system, Mavericks.
So now it is even harder to spot whether the duplicates are being created by those records being picked up by iCloud and going across all my devices.
It is virtually impossible to work out how all these duplications are happening. Someone somewhere needs to seriously sort this out.
It needs a LinkedIn engineer and an Apple engineer to sit shoulder to shoulder and test it and work out what is happening.
Now let's talk about the contacts app, which I think is really great until I decided to update my iPhone with the latest iOS7 security update.
iTunes for some reason forced me to do a factory reset, causing everything to be wiped and I had to start again.
This caused some issues with existing apps, as you can well imagine. And as the LinkedIn contacts app works on the basis of dragging all your iPhone contacts to their cloud app, it meant it had to go through that whole procedure again.
So I wasn't really surprised then to find that the LinkedIn cloud app, was showing me almost exactly double the amount of records. It obviously didn't take account of the fact that I had already done this previously.
I decided then to contact support, as surely they would have the answer for me. 16 exchanges later and they really didn't have a clue what they were talking about. The agent was insistent on sharing her personal experiences with me, which I wasn't really interested in and totally misunderstood what I was asking.
She was stuck into one train of thought. In the end I solved it myself.
You can view a thread of the correspondence in the slideshare below. Make sure you scroll to the bottom of the document to get to the start. The photo screenshots I took before and after confirmed that my solution worked.
Which is; if you notice duplicates in the LinkedIn Cloud App, first remove the contacts app from your iPhone and then click remove against the Cloud app, which can be found in
https://www.linkedin.com/contacts/manage_sources/
Tread slowly and gently with the contacts app and also the LinkedIn app. You may find that you will get a lot more duplicates then you were hoping for. The same with LinkedIn integration on Mac.
I am a big fan of LinkedIn, after all I teach people how to use it and an even bigger fan of Apple. However they both really struggle to give users a wonderful experience when it comes to contacts on our devices.
Hopefully someone senior in both companies will do something about it.
Wishing you massive success always!
Do you Appreciate Diversity in Social Media?
I engage with dozens of individuals each and every week and discuss the merits or otherwise of Social Media. Nowadays the workplace consists of different generations all trying to work together to fulfill a company’s mission.
The trouble is most of us don't have a clue how we can ensure that all the different generations get on together, let alone catering for them in the social media stakes.
Let me share what I mean in a bit more detail.
Born between 1925-1945, you're a traditionalist, 1946-1964 and you are the famous baby boomer, the largest population group on earth. Gen X 1965-1979, Gen Y 1980-2000 and Gen Z 2001-now.
If you're a traditionalist you may already be retired or you will be in a mentoring and/or chairing capacity or very likely to be working in the 3rd sector.
As a traditionalist you value respect above all else. So being mentioned in a tweet incorrectly, accused of some wrong doing, you’ll be on the phone to your lawyer promptly. Not being shown respect is a major issue for you.
Baby boomers really value relationships. That's probably why this group is one of the largest on Facebook, which in essence is a massive relationship community.
Believe it or not Gen X value life/work balance and these will be CEO’s who tell their teams to leave on time and spend more time with their families, making them more productive at work and satisfied with life. Social Media more than likely is a way to relax for them. Something traditionalists and boomers would never even consider as relaxing!
Gen Y, want to be heard, they are likely to be the most prolific on twitter, making their opinions known to the world and feel happiest when they receive likes or retweets. It means someone’s listening to them.
Gen Z, are too young I know, but watch out, they will be there soon and despite age restrictions on social networks, they've already been active for a couple of years and by the time they get to work, they will have been active for 7 years or so.
Most of us have only been active for a few years!
With all of these different generations working side by side, you can learn a huge amount about them from just watching their social network activity or maybe even the lack thereof.
It allows you some insight into how they relate to the other generations too.
Would you put a Boomer alongside a Gen X and get them to learn from each other or do you let all the Gen X and Y’s sit together in a pool and feed of each other?
Respecting diversity is important in communities, appreciating how they behave on social media, with some of THE largest communities on the globe, is becoming even more important.
Wishing you massive success always.
Michael
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stayingaliveuk
Do You Accept All Connection Requests?
By far the most frequent question I get asked during my LinkedIn Masterclasses is; Should I accept connection requests from strangers?
The answer is a big resounding YES!
Now let me explain why?
I'm not saying every single stranger, you have to be strategic about it and instead of clicking ignore and run, ask yourself the following key questions.
1. How many connections does this person have?
It's a numbers game. Your are on LinkedIn for a reason. Either you are making yourself available to be headhunted, looking for a job or want to improve business for yourself or the company you work for.
To significantly enhance your success in all these areas you need a large network.
Remember that on average LinkedIn members have at least 150 connections. That means your network will be at least 22,500. These are your first and second level connections.
Second level are your immediate network’s connections.
With continually building your network, it means your area of influence, ability to find and connect to the right person, grows exponentially.
2. Are they in your industry or aligned to it or outside of it?
If they're in your industry or aligned to it, then this is another good reason to connect. They may well be able to introduce you to your next career move, right?
If they are outside of your industry, they may well be a prospect for you. So check if they are in your industry prospect list. You may have one or not. Maybe time to write one!
3. Have they got a decent profile photo?
If not, then don’t connect. Click ignore and click I don't know this person. If they continue being the ’invisible’ man, LinkedIn will eventually warn them or remove them. And I say ’man’ on purpose because I've noticed that it's only men who send invites without a photo. Women who don't have a photo do so because they wish to remain hidden in some way for fear of receiving too many ’male’ invites!
Women who do send invites have overcome this fear and always have a profile photo. Interesting right?
Whenever I challenge men that don't have a profile photo, you should hear the ’bull’ they come out with.
4. A greater opportunity to be found on search.
Every member on LinkedIn receives suggestions for people they may know. On almost every page you will see a few people recommended and indeed allowing you to click on the link to see even more. The list of cards can be hundreds and even thousands.
The algorithm looks at your first level connections and decides that their second level connections may be known to you. The chances of this is potentially true and that's why they do it.
Equally you are a second level connection to all those stranger’s connections and they will receive you served up as a ’people you may know’ suspect.
More eyeballs on your profile, means more opportunity for you to be found, the higher you will appear on search and the better your chances of achieving your reason for being on LinkedIn.
Because I was strategic early on when growing my network, it means I now have a network, that I can easily connect to if I wish, of over 4 million people, globally and in excess of 800,000 people in the UK.
On average each day approximately 30,000 people are added to my network and that's because everyone keeps growing their network.
Got it?
Wishing you massive success always!
Michael
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stayingaliveuk
Why?
I recently re-discovered Simon Sinek’s work on The Golden Circle. To familiarise yourself watch his TED Talk video. (audio quality does improve when he changes microphone)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zFeuSagktM
In essence he challenges us to think differently about how we present ourselves as businesses and especially how we create our marketing messaging to convince prospects to become clients.
Most of us have a tendency to articulate ’what we do’ and ’how we do it’. And rarely do we say ’why’.
Why is a really powerful word and very underused.
However kids say the word continuously as they grow up and as such this word is actually hard-wired in your brain, without you even knowing it.
Before you decide to buy anything your subconscious asks this question automatically.
You may not even realise it, but you do, especially if someone is pitching you a new product or service for your consideration. If they can't answer the ’why’ question for you, it’s unlikely you will buy from them and look elsewhere.
Of course we do buy stuff based on the what and how and usually you will fill in your own why, if the seller hasn't been able to articulate this for you clearly.
So your mission if you choose to accept it, is to review your marketing messages, especially your LinkedIn profile and start looking at ’why’ you do what you do?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH8uJEPOYDQ
Wishing you massive success always.
Is your Social Media Policy liked?
I read with interest a recent newsletter with guidelines and policy on electronic communication and social media. Electronic communication has been around for a while and whilst it’s good to be reminded about what should and shouldn't be done, especially for new starters and young workers who may not be so used to email, in general it’s well established and most people know what is and isn't allowed. Social Media though is a different matter all together. The first question we have to ask ourselves is ’Why is Social Media so popular?’ Well because it releases dopamine in the brain, inside our pleasure/reward centre and that in turn makes it addictive. I wrote a paper on this last year, ’Do Social Networks Sell Drugs?’.
As it’s addictive, it means for many it's almost impossible to leave it alone. Think about it, whenever someone, likes, shares, retweets, follows, invites, accepts, pokes or any other social network activity that has become part of daily behaviour, we feel good about ourselves. We feel like someone approves of us, in a world where mostly we receive criticism, it means we feel like we are getting praise. And of course that feels good and if it feels good, it becomes addictive. Especially young people, who get criticised by parents and teachers alike day in day out. Therefore when they are on social media they (mostly) will get positive messages. I know it has its down side too.
So now we need to think this through, because if it’s addictive and people can't leave it alone, will we still be as harsh on them when we catch them accessing their personal social media networks, whilst at work? Or do we accept, actually this is part of the modern world now and very little we can do to fight it.
Research from 2012 suggests that smart phone owners check their devices 150 times per day, about once every 6 minutes. But we're now in 2014, so we can safely assume it has gone up significantly? Americans aged 18-64 who use social networks say they spend an average of 3.2 hours per day doing so, according to research conducted in November 2012 by Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange (OTX). (http://styin.me/1b1O73t). I'm sure the UK is not far behind them and that figure will have gone up too.
One way to allow your employees to engage in social media activities is to supply them with an internal social media platform, which connects everyone inside the business, across geographical boundaries, allowing everyone to learn from each other and to collaborate on projects. Also allowing colleagues to like and comment on posts. This way you are distracting them from their personal networks, by allowing them to still engage in similar activities and satisfy their addiction. Actually personal Social Media, is allowing millions of workers to train themselves in order to assist their learning inside the workplace. Think about it, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have provided free online training. Make sense?
Of course there have to be some rules, but we have to recognise that there is a bigger picture and we need to be conscious of that too.
Wishing you success always.
Do You Have Suicidal Thoughts?
Most of you who are reading this are no longer teenagers. But do you remember having suicidal thoughts when you were? It’s being reported regularly that teenagers these days are very prone to having suicidal thoughts and there may be no logical explanation for it. However it appears to be contagious.
Research showed that 32 per cent of young Britons have had suicidal thoughts, while a similar proportion (29 per cent) of young adults deliberately harmed themselves as teenagers. And more than one in 10 (12 per cent) felt a failure almost every day when they were under 16. http://styin.me/1ewlGuB
I read some teenagers twitter feeds (no I wasn't stalking) I was intrigued and yes I was spying on my stepson’s feed because he was saying stupid things and he thought it was private!
But one feed lead to another and I could see a pattern of comments for example; ’I wish I was dead’ and ’I'm so close to taking as much pills as I can right now’ and ’Guys, don't any of you ever kill yourselves. If you are ever feeling suicidal just dm me, you can trust me, and I will try to help you <3 xx’.
At home we even had to call the police, because someone said on twitter that they had actually swallowed a load of tablets. When we also reported this to the head teacher at the school of this youngster, she confirmed that the instances of these are on the rise.
So why are youngsters having these thoughts and why are they sharing these openly with not just their followers, but if they realised, with the whole world!
Is it just attention seeking or is something fundamentally wrong with society, education, parents, nutrition (sugar overdose), lack of exercise, social media, television, gaming, greed, government or something else?
I know teenage years are about self-expression and finding your place in the world around you and yet for some reason they appear to be obsessed with wanting to end it all?
How do parents and teachers deal with this heightened threat of suicidal thinking in kids? Surely this must be playing out in their minds all the time and putting them in a place of fear themselves?
Do teenagers even realise what they are doing with this behaviour? Do they realise this behaviour increases further stress on their parents, who are already under pressure having to deal with a world of expectation, financial worries and keeping their kids happy.
Does one tell them to stop behaving so stupidly or do we take them to counselling? Is it just a phase of hormone development or are there serious underlying issues?
I can't help thinking that when they finally want to find a job their social feeds will be explored by employers (it's not illegal yet), who will find all sorts of silly communication on there and thereby making up their mind about whether to give them that job or not. And unfortunately teenagers don't see that as a potential threat at all!
If we want our kids to be successful no matter what their background, then we seriously need to tackle this epidemic of suicidal thoughts in young people.
Should this become part of the curriculum at schools, should teachers openly discuss this with students and get them to open up and discuss these feelings in group sessions? Should we encourage their friends to speak up about those that are openly declaring these thoughts?
I haven't got the answers but one thing’s for sure something needs to be done.
What are your thoughts? And if you have youngsters go and talk to them and find out what's going on in their heads, that is if they'll tell you!
Success
Are You Tagging on LinkedIn?
The secret of managing your connections on LinkedIn is tagging. If you don't you will never remember anyone in your network. When you accept an invitation or your invitation gets accepted, go to your new connection’s profile.
Underneath the main profile header there are two tabs, ’relationship’ and ’contact info’.
Click relationship, which allows you to complete a few bits of information.
1. Note 2. Reminder 3. How you met 4. Tag
- Note; allows you to write a few words about why you connected to them and what you hope to achieve with this connection.
- Reminder; allows you to schedule a reminder for yourself. At time of writing you can't customise a date as yet, but you can schedule it for 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or recurring.
- How you met; it doesn't matter that you haven't actually met face to face and it does help how the connection was made. They invited you, or you invited them and why?
- Tag; the most important one. If you don't do anything else on this section, this one is a must. Decide first what tags you want to have, then after you have made the connection, visit their profile, straight away and allocate the tag from the list that shows up.
Now you are able to search your connections based on their tags and send emails to groups of connections based on tags (50 limit per email). And as you grow your network it means you can find people easier by their tags. You don't need to allocate regional tabs unless you want to group them by district. For example I do have a tag for ’west midlands’, which covers a number of counties in the middle of England.
Wishing you massive success always.
Are You Improving Your LinkedIn Profile?
I teach people every week how to improve their LinkedIn profile. However there are millions on LinkedIn who don't bother to improve their profile. Most aren't getting it yet and don't appreciate that your profile on LinkedIn is your personal brand. Ignore it and you will reduce your chances of finding that perfect job, that career progression or that perfect client. The 1st key area is the profile photo. I still see many profiles and receive invites from people who don't even bother with a professional head and shoulders profile photo. Or they have a badly taken photo which could be a holiday photo or where they stand far in the distance. I completely don't understand this. The other day someone's excuse was that they had put on weight and therefore didn't want to share their photo. And what part of you thinks that people will take you seriously without a photo?
Personally I say, what are you hiding by not wishing to post a photo of yourself? In fact if you don't post a photo of yourself the chances of people connecting with you is reduced by at least 50%.
So it is essential you make this a priority.
The 2nd key area that is ignored by many is your headline. Many make the mistake to enter a title like; manager, director, coach, programmer, student etc. Of course you can use this if you wish, however you have 120 characters of space to tell the reader what you can do for people and what you are good at. OK, granted if you are a student it makes it slightly harder however you also want to stand out of the crowd, so putting something like ’Researching the meaning of the Universe to better serve my future clients’ or something equally different will make you stand out.
The reason for putting something different is that your headline follows you around wherever you go on LinkedIn. For example when you send emails inside LinkedIn, when you send invites to connect, when you post discussions in groups. Each time your headline will be shown and if you just keep your title only, it won't tell the reader anything about you. In effect it's your elevator pitch that is presented every time they read something from you.
The 3rd area is your skills and expertise. LinkedIn have developed this section carefully over a number of years, originally it was called specialities, which was a simple text box, where you could list your specialities. Now LinkedIn suggests to your connections to endorse your skills and they have succeeded tremendously with this initiative. The main reason they have developed this is for their advertisers. Advertisers are able to target their ads very specifically to you based on the skills on your profile. Now you know why LinkedIn keeps giving you suggestions to endorse people. The profile header has even got a new button at the very top saying ’endorse’.
Now most members overdo it. They list the maximum 25 skills. Firstly only 15 will show on your profile but only 10 are in a list with the photos of those that endorsed you, which tends to be the list that most people go for. Everyone scans profiles and because the main list of 10 is more visual they tend to just go for those. Plus they tend to be the highest endorsed and that's why it makes it easy for them. So reduce your list to 10 and keep very focused.
Once you've identified your list and you are happy with it, this list of skills become your keywords. Keywords inside LinkedIn is essential if you want to be found on search. With 260 million members your job is to have your profile optimised for search.
Then take those skills (keywords) and spread them intelligently throughout your profile including a few inside your headline.
This will definitely help when people are searching for members based on skills.
Finally the 4th key area is your summary. Most of the time members use this to promote themselves, which is fair enough if you're looking for a job. However most are actually looking to promote their business or their employer if they are an employee. Of course you need to say something about yourself and I would suggest this is done under your experience section. THE most important part of your summary should be some text that describes what you can do for people. Note, ’what YOU can do’ for people ’NOT what you DO’!
Keep the text short, lots of white space and bullet points wherever possible. This allows the reader to scan your summary in super quick time. Remember people are time poor and don't have time to read a very wordy profile summary.
OK I think that's enough for now. These in my view are the 4 key areas on your LinkedIn profile that need work. It shouldn't be too overwhelming for you. Another tip is to re-visit your summary, headline and skills regularly. It is vital that you refresh these and update them based on things that are changing in your world.
Wishing you massive success always!
How Do You Share Content?
As part of your journey into ’Social Selling’ and becoming your own ’Personal Brand’, you will inevitably need to share content. You don't always need to write your own content, although it’s obviously better if you did. Not everyone likes writing, certainly it took me a few years before I started blogging.
So curating and sharing other’s content is OK, providing it adds value to your own authority on your subject matter.
So how do you do it? Or rather how do I do it?
First we have to answer a few questions. Why share content in the first place?
Well, it shows that you are interested in your subject matter and more importantly that you wish to share it with your network and maybe, just maybe they will get something from it. Don't be concerned about not receiving any comments, likes or shares, that should definitely NOT be the reason for sharing your content.
However they might and it's that possibility that should encourage you to keep sharing. You just don't know where it could lead to.
I use just 3 apps for doing all my curating and sharing.
Firstly the best sharing app that I use is ’Buffer’.
I have written a separate blog on buffer, so go ahead and read more about it there.
The second app is Flipboard, where I follow different streams that are closely connected to my subject matter, plus all the posts from people I follow.
The third app is ’Pulse’, a LinkedIn app, which allows me to find more content, by LinkedIn Influencers and many other news streams.
Buffer allows me to email all content I find on the web, either via these apps or generally on the web.
I have set my buffer to share the content 3 times per day, meaning my content is posted automatically in the morning, lunchtime and evening. Times of the day that people are most likely to browse their mobile devices.
I will add additional content now and again on a more spontaneous basis. And I also add some personal comments now and again about any subject I wish. This will hopefully show people that it's not all about business and they will see my personality come through too.
So it's time to start writing, get searching, reading and finally sharing. Have fun and ensure that you have your audience in mind when sharing content.
Wishing you success always!
Are You a Social Ninja?
Social Media is not actually that old and the networks that dominate the Internet with our insatiable appetite for everything social are growing at an alarming rate. Thousands of small social media advisors have popped up all over the place, well actually all over the planet and everyone these days is an ’EXPERT’.
But will we all be looking back in years to come and say to each other...what were we thinking?!
We spend all those hours on social media when just a few years ago it didn't even exist.
What will you do when it stops? Because knowing how fussy we are as humans, it will inevitably stop at some stage, plus when a younger generation have developed something more interesting and more engaging, 'like' video conferencing instead of typing.
With google hangout (have you tried it yet?) you can video conference with up to 9 people, share your desktop, share YouTube videos and SlideShare. And the quality is excellent!
But...there is still no substitute to meeting people face to face and discussing opportunities.
This is where my 'social selling' concept comes in. It's the perfect blend between social media interaction and face to face meetings.
There are just 3 key things involved with Social Selling.
1. The LinkedIn Connection 2. The Phone Call 3. The Meet Up
Connecting with prospects or connections who can introduce you to prospects has never been easier, providing you know how to behave. LinkedIn is the best vehicle in the world right now that allows you to do this. After all with 2 new professionals joining every second, that's 63 million 72 thousand per year, which means in 5 years time it will have an extra 315+ million on top of the current 259 million. Pretty impressive!
Connecting on LinkedIn is not the final deal though, yes you can be lucky but the chances are that nobody will buy from you unless they know you. This is where the Phone call comes in. Schedule a call with your connection to explore how you can help them, note how you can help ’them’ and not the other way around!
The Phone call is not the final deal either, once you believe that you can help them an even better way to make the connection is meet up for a coffee or maybe even lunch.
Only a combination of all three will get you closer to making that next deal.
Hope that makes sense and if not, join me on my next #LinkedInstinct Masterclass.
Success!
Did You Take Part in My Survey?
Background
I've been a serial business networker for many years, but questioned the ROI only in the past 12 months. And the main reason was because I started using LinkedIn in a more effective and productive way to do my networking with existing and new connections.
So here are the results of my survey. I had actually estimated previously the amount of time business professionals spend doing networking and estimated the cost annually. But this estimate is now backed up by this survey result.
Survey Results:
50% go to 1-4 networking events per month
50% spend on average 2.5 hours at networking events
50% spend 45 minutes travelling to networking events
50% always connect via LinkedIn afterwards
68% consider Linkedin as a networking tool
Here are my previous calculations of the cost of networking:
Cost of event, lets say £20 (non-membership events) Cost of travel to and from, lets say £10 Parking is free sometimes, I know, but City Centre events maybe £5
Time taken to travel on average lets say 20 minutes x 2 = 40 minutes Time at event on average 2 hours Lost productivity time, stopping and starting project work 30 minutes
Total monetary costs £35 Total approx 3 hours @ a modest £40 per hour lost time = £120 Total costs £155 Across the month for just 2 events £310
Total cost per year £3,720 (this is a conservative estimate)
Add to that any club membership if you have any or do the calculation for that instead.
A LinkedIn premium account will cost you just £155 per annum allowing you to achieve so much more in terms of targeting the precise contacts you wish to get in front of.
Networking events are great to meet with local people, however it will always be a ’pot luck’ approach in terms of meeting the right kind of people for your business development.
And the amount of time (potentially 6 hours per month, a full working day) means that you could have found at least 30 new connections on LinkedIn that are on target for your business and start communicating with them. How many targeted connections would you have found at networking events.
Please don't get me wrong, face to face meetings are vital, but not with people who can't deliver you business. If you are just having a social, then that's perfect. But if you are looking for serious business then my suggestion is STOP hoping for 'Pot Luck'.
Wishing you Success Always!
Will You be an E-MENTOR?
Can you spare around an hour a week to be an E-MENTOR to help guide a 16-19 year old student on their path to a successful future?
I've been chatting with Diane Vernon,(http://www.linkedin.com/pub/diane-vernon/6/1a7/990), at Career Academies UK and she was telling me about their fantastic new programme called Career Ready. To work successfully they need to find willing volunteers to be E-MENTORS from the business world.
Mentoring is a crucial factor in helping a young person succeed in finding a job or place at University.
As an E-MENTOR you would communicate with a student via a new secure digital platform, as part of a structured programme. This eliminates the need to be located near your student or arrange meetings face-to-face. All E-MENTORS are DBS checked and trained by Career Academies UK.
You know the stats on unemployed young people in the UK, I don't need to remind you of that and if you've always thought of wanting to make a difference, you can do this now by contacting Diane Vernon at diane.vernon@careeracademies.org.uk or speak to her direct on 07786 170588.
You can read/download the full E-MENTOR pack by going to
http://styin.me/e-mentoringpack
Thank you for your support, I really appreciate it. I know this will be very rewarding for some of you.
I will be joining the programme myself!
Warmest regards and wishing you success always!
Michael 07866 471596
Are you using the new LinkedIn Contacts App?
Well you should!
Let me share with you what I discovered.
First I tidied up my address book on my iPhone/iPad/Mac (iCloud). It took a while but I did a few letters of the alphabet each day, which made the job less daunting, but still delivered a great result. I removed about 2000 contacts, phew! How ever did I manage to accumulate those? I have no idea! Also make sure you remove sensitive data. You don't want this going up onto a server do you? Instead move those somewhere else.
***DATA HEALTH WARNING***
You MUST do this task first, as otherwise you end up with all the rubbish inside your LinkedIn contacts and you really want to avoid this.
If you do this task first you will thank me for it and it is about time you did this and when I share with you below what you can achieve, you will be delighted...no ecstatic!
Step 1
Download the LinkedIn contacts app
(***DO NOT OPEN IT AFTER DOWNLOADING***).
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/linkedin-contacts/id635424128?mt=8
Step 2
I am assuming you have the standard LinkedIn iPhone app, but if you haven't please make sure that this is downloaded too.
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/linkedin/id288429040
You can open that one and ensure you are logged in. Providing you have set 'download connections' to ON inside this app, (if not click on the IN in top left corner to reveal the setting cog wheel top right. Click on the wheel>download connections and activate this. It will download all your LinkedIn connections on to your iPhone and keep them updated too. This is an important step to complete before going on.
Step 3
On your iPhone, go to settings>privacy>contacts and make sure the contacts app button is switched to on/green. If you forget this step, no worries the app will remind you to do this.
Step 4
Open the LinkedIn contacts app on your iPhone, it will import with lightening speed all your iPhone contacts, find them on LinkedIn, and pull in all the data, plus send all the data to LinkedIn too.
Pretty impressive actually how fast this goes.
NOTE: I don't have my Facebook connections in my address book any longer. I ended up with too many duplications and then had to link those together, which was a real pain. As I only want to have my LinkedIn connections in my address book, I don't want to disturb things. And I highly recommend excluding Facebook. Remember each contact on your iPhone will be uploaded to LinkedIn.
To switch Facebook off for your address book, go to settings>facbeook> and switch the contacts switch to off/white.
Step 5
Check that everything has worked. Search inside the app for a contact, anyone will do. Make sure the data from your address book has been pulled across.
Check on the LinkedIn website and go to network>contacts and then filter by source>iPhone and check if the number of contacts agrees with your iPhone.
NOTE: Don't expect numbers to agree 100%. Mine are out by about 10, but I know that is because previously I had some contacts that were linked with Facebook and messed things up. If it is there or thereabouts, then happy days it has worked.
That's it job done!
But now for the magic, this is where you will be very grateful for using this app.
First let me share with you how people tend to work on LinkedIn. Most people will only share their personal emails address and no phone number.
So when you have someone's business card, look them up on LinkedIn, send an invite to connect and they accept, you will see that the email address that they have on LinkedIn is their personal one. Usually no phone number.
This means you need to add their business email and phone number details. Well firstly LinkedIn has a bug on phone number formats, which means it will not accept a European format, only USA formats. Which is a real shame and yes I have had a dialogue with their support and no fix is imminent either.
But have no fear here is the solution.
Now that you have the LinkedIn Contacts app, your problem is solved.
Step 1
After someone has accepted your invite to connect or you have accepted their invite, you need to go to the standard LinkedIn iPhone app and open it up from time to time, to make sure that LinkedIn downloads these contacts to your iPhone. This makes sure that you don't have to manually enter their details in your address book. i.e. LinkedIn does it for you. However you will more than likely only have their personal email address.
So once per week, I go into my address book iPhone/IPad or Mac (iCloud), with my business cards handy, I look up those people, that I know I have sent invites to and update their record with their business email and their mobile. I don't usually bother with their land line number. If they move in the future that will change and their mobile often stays the same. (unless they have give you their business mobile only).
Step 2
Once you've updated the address record on your device, go to the LinkedIn contacts app and open up the alphabetical view (doesn't matter which view you are on) and then pull down the page, which will then start an update process and a spinning circle appears. You have to see the spinning circle, so make sure of that.
***THIS IS WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS*** The LinkedIn contacts app drags the information from your address book, with your latest updates and pushes it to LinkedIn.
Now your contact record on LinkedIn, has updated the business email address, as well as the mobile phone number.
This is pretty amazing actually, because also the phone number format bug inside LinkedIn has been overcome by adding the phone details in this way.
Now you have the correct contact details sitting inside LinkedIn as well.
What this means in fact, that as well as downloading data from LinkedIn onto your iPhone, with the standard LinkedIn app, you can also push data to LinkedIn.
I felt this was such an amazing discovery, I just had to share it.
I hope it works for you and if you have any questions, just let me know.
***DATA HEALTH WARNING***
When dealing with contact information in the cloud, it is possible to create duplicate records. This has happened to me in the past, so please take each step carefully and check your records regularly.
The steps above worked for me without any issues, but I can't take any responsibility for your records and the way that you upload/download from the cloud.
Wishing you success always!
Just 3 Apps for busy Executives?
Just 3 apps for busy executives...really? If you are a baby boomer or even if you're not and you're not sure which apps to download on your shiny new Apple iPhone 5S or iPad Air.
How about just having 3 in addition to all the ones you get free from Apple of course.
The idea is for you to achieve a super fast review of what's going on what is being said about your company, so you can scan it (read), write it or find it.
Number 1 is Flipboard
Flipboard is still for me THE best social integration magazine app around. There are others but as Flipboard was first and they made the biggest impression, for me they have stayed ahead of the crowd.
What do you need to do?
- You need your company social feeds as priority 1. This means you can view and keep up to date with what your marketing teams are sending out.
- You need your own social feeds if you have time to be engaged with them. You can have feeds from all the major ones, plus you can post and engage from within Flipboard too, so there's no need to download the individual apps. Its basically your single dashboard for everything.
Second is LinkedIn
If you're no making use of LinkedIn, then you are missing out on some key intel. LinkedIn is now THE biggest and MOST important professional database in the world.
Fortune 500 employees are there for sure and most Executives have a profile, even if some of them are hiding them.
Time to get out of the shadows and be seen!
The LinkedIn iPad app has received a major overall and now its fast and accurate. You have to meet someone, call them or even research them. Using LinkedIn is the best tool for doing that.
Your company profile should be there too. With all the detail of your latest marketing posts.
Remember of course you can pull a lot of the feeds into your Flipboard too! Primarily though this iPad app is for research and engagement.
Third is iA Writer
Not much to be said, its a simple writing app, no distractions, no formatting, no fluff, just think and write. A draft email, a report, meeting notes, just anything that needs recording simply easily and safely. Done!
Go and get those and STOP playing games, use your mobile devices to do some business and stay focussed!
Success!
Where Is Your Video Advert?
I still see many businesses, who are not making use of video to educate their customers, prospects and leads about who they are and what they do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGog-0UY7NA
Think about it, do you have time to read websites, read emails, read tweets, read LinkedIn updates, read your children's Facebook updates (no time to post your own of course!), carry out your own work, delivery fantastic customer service to your customers and colleagues and also pay attention to your family?
Of course the answer is a big fat NO!
You don't have time and neither has anyone else.
But...
Could you watch a video which is less than 90 seconds to understand what someone is saying about their business or present your own explainer video about one of your products or services to a new customer or prospect?
Of course you could!
So what's stopping you?
Time? Money? Commitment? Procrastination?
Oh yes indeed, read the stats...
- More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month - Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube - That's almost an hour for every person on Earth, and 50% more than last year - 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute - 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US - YouTube is localised in 56 countries and across 61 languages - Millions of subscriptions happen each day, and the number of people subscribing has more than doubled since last year
Time for you to get creative. Talk to me for a no-obligation review of what can be achieved using a videographic to tell your story!
Success!
Are You a Milkman?
I was awake at 4.30am the other day and heard our milkman drive up outside our house and deliver a pint of milk on the doorstep.
At that precise moment, I felt a lot of appreciation for our milkman and I am also very impressed for his dedicated customer service.
Clair, my wife, tells me that he has been her milkman for 11 years and when she moved house 7 years ago, he continued to deliver to her new house, because his depot wasn't far from where we now live.
That means we are the only customers in the street he delivers to. That is unbelievable customer service and I can't think of any business that would even consider doing that!
What a great example the British milkman sets for business leaders far and wide.
He has NEVER missed a day of delivery, he has never phoned to say that he was sick or he is going on holiday. He has never stayed away when the country has come to a standstill because of snow or flooding.
This guy, the trusted British milkman, ALWAYS delivers, without fail!
Can you imagine that?
What if, just what if every leader, every worker, every self-employed person, could behave and deliver like the British milkman.
What country would we be living in today? A successful one? A brilliant one!
Are You Losing Growth on LinkedIn?
Members are losing growth because they are using the mobile LinkedIn app.
Since I started using LinkedIn seriously, I made sure NEVER to invite new connections with the standard LinkedIn invite sentence, 'I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn'.
It made a massive difference to growing my network and reach and I'm pleased with my progress.
I teach others to always use a personal message and write something to make the invite personal. All of you know this right?
So why has the standard invite not been changed?
And why hasn't mobile given us the same opportunity for sending a personal message?
Now that LinkedIn is being opened up to a bigger and younger audience, guess how they will invite someone? Correct, via mobile! Guess how many rejections they will receive? Loads.
Why? Because business professionals are saying that they will not connect to someone they don't know and especially if they don't include a personal message.
Mobile will by far be the biggest opportunity for LinkedIn growth, most new members wish to grow their network fast, especially young people, as they are keen and excited with a new opportunity like LinkedIn.
They've been used to just invite hundreds of school friends on Facebook and follow like crazy on Twitter. It will be wrong for them to replicate their behaviour from those platforms, but we both know that they won't and will make a massive mistake but just sending out tons of invites, by clicking on ’connect’ against profiles showing up on their mobile devices.
Please Mr. LinkedIn, please change the way that you can invite members to connect on mobile and please, change the standard #LinkedIn invite sentence or at least add a flag that says, say something personal.
The ’only invite people you know’ message just doesn't work anymore.
Looking forward to some positive action from you Mr. LinkedIn.
Success!
Have you used Buffer app yet?
You may not have used Buffer as yet, but I'm here to tell you that if you haven't then you MUST. Of course only if you are involved in posting on different social media platforms for your own business or you are doing it on behalf of the business you work for.
So let me summarise what in my opinion are the MAJOR benefits of Buffer.
It's a very simple app, that is focused on doing one thing really very well
It works elegantly on all mobile devices as well as your desktop or laptop browser
You can post direct from any browser by installing the plugin, which allows you to buffer anything that you come across on the web
You can install a sharing button on your own website for other buffers to use When you send your posts to buffer it does exactly what it says, it puts them in a buffer and releases the post based on your preferred time schedule, which you set-up in advance for each account
You can set up many different channels and after a recent update the following channels can be activated; Facebook (personal), Facebook (company page), LinkedIn (personal profile), LinkedIn (company page), LinkedIn (group), Twitter, Google+ (company page), Google+ (personal profile not yet available).
The ability to send an email to all your active accounts in one go and the post will be scheduled according to your time schedule
The app also provides analytics on the posts, which you are able to collate and monitor If you don't want to auto schedule your post based on your pre-determined time schedule, you can customise a specific date and time for specific posts
You are not distracted by other streams from your connections as with other scheduling apps
If you just want to share something instantly, you can do it in the moment and of course it will go to all your active channels
You can switch certain channels off to be included in the auto schedule and instead included as and when you wish
If you have your own URL shortener it will automatically convert it to your own URL. Needs a bit of organising but it works very well!
Buffer’s team are awesome and give fantastic customer service
They write brilliant blogs and not just about their service
Here's a blogpost sharing great tips for using buffer tog tether with a cheat sheet with shortcuts.
http://blog.bufferapp.com/top-hidden-buffer-hacks-features-social-sharing
Enjoy it and if you need any help, let me know or just contact @bufferapp.
Success!
What Stage are You at with LinkedIn?
In all my dealings with clients, I have concluded that their are 4 stages of progress with LinkedIn.
Most members are stuck at stage 1, what I call the 'Profile' stage, where they are still getting to grips with developing a decent profile, that shows what they can do for people or employers instead of 'what' they do.
The objective of course is to get to stage 4, the 'Sell' stage and this is the same for members looking for business or for those looking for jobs or advancing their career.
You do need to commit time and effort to each stage and make sure you are comfortable and confident in applying or completing the stage before moving on.
Each stage prepares you for the next one and its a logical progression. There is no way you can dive in and start 'Social Selling' until you have a decent profile, a decent size network and you know how to behave.
I often say that not having a decent profile with a decent photo is like greeting someone in person with your back turned to them. I still see too many holiday snaps, people posing in the far distance or with family members and mates. Its a disaster and it will NOT win you business or your next job. NO WAY!
When you invite members to connect with you, they will almost certainly look to see if you have over 500+ members. Why? It makes you an attractive connection. Adding another 500+ people to their 2nd level network means they will achieve more exposure on LinkedIn and allows them in turn to find potential prospects to connect to easier too.
If you have 500 connections, who in turn have 500 too, it means your network grows to 250,000 in a heart beat. Now this gives you options and social is a numbers game, sorry but it is. And for those who tell me they are very careful who they connect to and decline people they do not know, you need to wise up to the fact that your network will stay small, because of your small thinking.
Once those two stages are out of the way, you can focus on your behaviour inside LinkedIn and this includes groups, emailing, sharing, liking and commenting. A massive subject taken for granted by most. Oh and it's NOT a promotion campaign that's what the advertising channel is for.
Only after those 3 stages are completed can you think about how to develop leads on LinkedIn.
Hope that makes sense? If you wish to book on the '4 stages of LinkedIn', my price is £200 + vat ($350), for 4 hours of tuition, 13 weeks online support via my LinkedIn group, costed based on the size of your group. £35 ($49) for my 2-hour video course 'Mastering Your Profile on LinkedIn'.
My coaching is over a period of 8 weeks, with a 2-week interval between each stage allowing you to adopt your new learning and implement a new approach.
It's a small investment, if you consider how much potential ongoing annual turnover/profit you will make from just adding one new customer every month to your current business.
I look forward to working with you to make that a reality.
Success!