However, LinkedIn has just added an application that will allow you creative types to showcase your best work on that site too. Called Creative Portfolio Display, this application allows you to create an attractive online portfolio.

The application is actually powered by the online portfolio site Behance Network. This free network allows you to post your multimedia projects to an online portfolio that can be posted to a variety of site, not just LinkedIn.

You’ll need to sign up for Behance Network, upload your portfolio items and then install the application to LinkedIn. Now you’re network will be able to see your work without having to leave your LinkedIn profile and go to your website.

Andrea J. Stenberg

Until now.

LinkedIn has changed how you can moderate groups.

First of all, it is now easier for group owners to delete threads that are inappropriate or outright spam. As group owner or moderator, just click the “More” tab then delete. It’s like the spam was never there.

And you don’t have to make moderating the group your full time job. You can get other members of the group on board by making them moderators. Pick people who are active, and who you trust, and ask them to help moderate. They can attack the spam for you.

You can also automate spam removal. Members of the group have the option of flagging any post as inappropriate. You can change the group settings to automatically remove posts that receive a certain number of flags.

You can also moderate the group through your email. First, change the settings to have an email sent any time someone posts to the group. You can actually delete inappropriate posts from right within your inbox.

So, if you’ve been holding off on creating a LinkedIn group because you were worried about spam, get on it now. It’s never been easier to keep your groups on topic.

Andrea J. Stenberg

Hashtags are used for following conversations on Twitter. Putting a # in front of a word or code allows everyone to see what’s being said about this topic.

For example, you may have seen #followfriday on Twitter. This particular hashtag is a way for people to tell their followers about interesting people on Twitter.

I’m a big baseball fan. By following #Bluejays or #gojaysgo during a game, I can chat with fellow fans from the comfort of my living room

Hashtags for Live Events

However, hashtags can be used in a variety of other ways. This past year when I was at Podcamp Toronto, the hashtag for that event was #PCTO2010. Before and during the event, people could Tweet about Podcamp and include the hashtag #PCTO2010 so others could follow the discussion.

Before the event even started I learned about the speakers, discover who I knew was attending, and had conversations with other attendees. During the event, people could Tweet about the workshops, voice their thoughts, and in a variety of ways have discussions. Afterwards, the hashtag was great for locating people I had met and wanted to connect with.

Virtual Events

Hashtags are particularly useful for virtual events. I am currently participating in the #blogboost challenge. This virtual event is a month-long support group encouraging bloggers to write posts daily, and share them with the group.

Hashtags are also useful for teleseminars and webinars. If you are hosting a teleseminar, create a simple hashtag for the event. Tell participants about it, and encourage them to tweet throughout the teleseminar. By using the hashtag, participants can see who else is attending this virtual event. If participants tweet interesting content related to your teleseminar it may attract new followers.

How to follow a Hashtag

There are several ways to follow a hashtag. If you use Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, create a column specifically for the hashtag. Anytime someone uses the hashtag (even if you’re not following them) that particular tweet will appear in the column. This is particularly good for ongoing hashtags like #blogboost.

You can also use your web browser to follow hashtags. Sites like http://hashtags.org or http://monitter.com/ will allow you to easily follow hashtags. For following a live event like a teleseminar use http://tweetchat.com. Not only can you follow the live chat, but you can add your thoughts to the discussion with the correct hashtag automatically added.

Andrea J. Stenberg

Do you have an interesting hashtag you follow? Please share it here by leaving a comment.

It helps if you make this decision early. If you’re going to be using Facebook for both business and personal relationships, you need to act accordingly. You need to be aware of who is seeing your posts and make sure what you are saying on Facebook is something you would like clients to know about you.

The first thing you should do is create lists of friends. Lists allow you to target certain posts to specific groups of people.

For example, if you’re talking about a pot luck dinner for the family reunion, you may choose to only publish this to family. You can put family in one list, personal friends in another, and then create a variety of business-related lists.

When adding new friends, you are given the option of adding them to a list.

I recommend you get in the habit of adding each new friend to one or more lists right away. If you have existing friends are not on any lists, don’t worry. You can easily add them to lists now.

It helps to have a variety of categories for your business relationships. You may choose to list people by geography, industry or both. You may also choose to create lists of how you met the person.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with having people on more than one list.

Once you have your friends added to lists, you can use these lists to control who sees what content.

For example, when posting a status update, you can decide you only want your family to see this post.

To post your update only to specific people, click on the little lock icon underneath the post and you’ll get a drop down menu.

Choose customize, which opens a new window.

While Facebook doesn’t bring up your lists of friends, you still can choose who will see your status update. To allow only certain groups of friends to view this particular

update, click on “Specific People” then type in the name of the list.

Don’t worry if you don’t remember the exact name you chose for your list. After you type the first few letters, Facebook will show you people and lists that most closely match what you type. Just select the appropriate list then click save.

You can also do this when uploading photos, videos or any content.

Just one caveat: although Facebook settings may seem secure, never post anything online that you don’t want the entire world to see. If something is truly private, keep it offline because although you can control what you do with your posts, you can’t control what other people do with it.

Andrea J. Stenberg

One song has stuck with me, for a reason other than the sheer repetition. “I’m boring” is about a nerd who talks too much about boring topics so people run away from him.

While there was some joking around that this was about my husband who does like to talk about science a little too much, it does have a marketing connotation.

You may have noticed some online superstars – you know, the ones with thousands, if not millions of followers.

Many of them became popular because they are controversial. They say over-the-top things that get the online world buzzing. People reply, people argue about them, people visit their sites to see what all the fuss is about. They’re not boring!

One colleague of mine recently rebranded herself to be a little more “in-your-face”. She’s being more blunt and less polite all in an effort to be “more authentic”. This revamped version seems to be working for her.

And yes, being authentic online is essential, particularly if you’re using social media. And being controversial helps. If you can get people arguing about you and your ideas, well, as they say, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

But what if your authentic self is, well … boring?

I mean, what if you don’t go around swearing like a trucker? What if you just can’t bring yourself to talk about your bowel movement during a podcast? What if you don’t have opinions that are contrary to the majority?

Are you doomed to obscurity and business failure?

I don’t think so.

Remember Bill Mahr’s old tv show Politically Incorrect? It was wildly popular because people were speaking their minds. However, I often found the show tedious. Many guests were on the show saying outrageous things not because that was their firmly held beliefs, but because they felt they needed to be outrageous to get noticed.

It’s the same with marketing. If you try to be outrageous, controversial or in-your-face just for the sake of attracting attention, you’re doomed to fail for two reasons. First, eventually people will see through your attempts and brand you as a fraud. They’ll wonder, if your marketing is a lie, what else is.

Second, if people don’t see through your façade, when they meet the real you to do business with you, you’ll have attracted people who aren’t an ideal fit. They won’t enjoy working with you and you won’t enjoy working with them. And worse, the people who would like to work with someone less controversial will have moved on to someone else.

You can successfully market yourself even if you’re polite, have moderate views and think some topics are off limits in public. You can be the milder, gentler marketer. You just have to know where to draw the line between gentle and truly boring.

Where many baby boomers fall short is including something of themselves in their marketing. We grew up in a more private time. Not everyone knew your business, even in a small town. And if you have corporate experience, you know that sometimes it pays to keep your mouth shut. Talking too much about your private life can hurt.

But when marketing online, you need to show you’re a real person. If you’re only talking business, you will be seen as boring (or pushy) and people will move on. You have a life outside of your businesses so share some of it.

If you do, you may not spark a flame war on the blogs, but you’ll gradually build a following who is genuinely interested in what you have to say.

Andrea J. Stenberg

Authors, Journalists and Bloggers

When looking for experts to interview, there’s no better place to look than LinkedIn. Not only that, you can monitor discussions in Answers or Groups to look for hot topics to write about. Even better, post a question in Answers or a Group and use the responses to guide your article. With permission, you could even get some interesting quotes to use.

Consultants

You can do a lot of research about your clients using LinkedIn. Learn about key players and see what’s new in the company: who’s been hired or promoted and who’s left. Use this information to be better prepared for pitches or in delivering your services.

Sales professionals

Why make cold calls if you can warm them up first? Locate potential customers on LinkedIn first. See if any of your connections already know your prospect then get an introduction. When you phone for an appointment, they’ll already have a level of trust because you’ve been introduced.

Recruiters and Human Resources Professionals

LinkedIn is a great way to find out the truth about potential employees. Unlike paper recommendations, you know the LinkedIn recommendations appear as written by the recommender. Still have questions about a candidate? Use LinkedIn to find former colleagues to get the real scoop on this person.

Executive Directors of Non-profits

Using a LinkedIn profile to promote a non-profit. Create a group to promote discussion. The group doesn’t have to have your organization’s name. It could include a more general topic that will attract people who might not be looking for your organization. Using your profile, you can promote the Non-profit by importing a blog, asking and answering questions and participating in other groups. Finally, you can network and connect with key people who could be potential volunteers, donors or advocates for your group.

Freelancers

Anyone who freelances should be on LinkedIn. Use your public profile as an online resume to promote yourself. Unless you’re really good at SEO, your LinkedIn profile will probably show up higher in Google ranking than your website. Being seen as an expert in the Answers section will increase your profile and show potential customers you know your stuff. Having connections to current and past customers will show off the type of work you do and increase the likelihood that you show up in searches. And having recommendations from those customers will make future customers more comfortable about hiring you.

Anyone who purchases products or services for their business

Whether it’s software, a new cell phone provider or a new web designer, use LinkedIn to get the right products or services for your business. Ask your connections for recommendations. I once asked my network for help choosing between two types of software. Within eight hours I had seven very strong opinions about which software was better plus one recommendation for a third piece of software I’d never heard of (and ended up buying).

This is by no means a definitive list. However, it does illustrate a number of ways LinkedIn can benefit a variety of businesses, probably even yours.

Andrea J. Stenberg

If I missed an obvious business that should use LinkedIn, please leave a comment and let me know what it is and why LinkedIn is so useful to that type of business.

However, I must admit I like the changes made to the inbox for your LinkedIn account. It looks nicer and has your messages separate from your invitations. I find this helpful.

Another great feature is the ability to flag messages. Say someone sends you a request that needs action. You can flag it so in the future you have a reminder that this message requires action on your part. Even better, you can also filter you inbox to only show flagged messages. This is very speedy.

If you’ve only noticed the changes to your LinkedIn inbox but haven’t explored what you can do with it, you really need to watch this short video. It’s less than a minute but will get you up to speed so you can use these changes to their full potential.

Andrea J. Stenberg

If you have any questions about the inbox or anything about using LinkedIn, please ask it in the comment section or send me an email.

Shortly after I wrote that post, the number of automated direct messages (DMs) I received declined. In fact, for several months I received almost no automated DMs. Only DMs from people who wanted to send me, and only me, a private message. Now as much as I would like to take credit for this decline in what is essentially Twitter SPAM, I am sure my post is not the only reason for this.

However, I’m starting to see a rise in automated DMs so I thought I’d revisit the issue.

First, let’s make sure we’re all on the same playing field. What is an automated DM?

A DM (or direct message) is Twitter’s private message service. If you send a DM, only the recipient can see it. This is different from an @reply (an “@” symbol in front of someone’s Twitter user name) which is public. For example if you put @andreastenberg in your Twitter message, everyone can read that message but the @andreastenberg let’s me know you meant that message for me or were talking about me in some way.

An automated DM is different. There are a number of tools that let you automatically follow people who are following you. These same tools often will allow you to automatically send a DM to anyone who starts to follow you. Now on the surface, this sounds like a good idea. If you’re using Twitter to market yourself or your business, why not automate things to make it easier?

Well, another term for social media is social networking. And I’m sorry to say, you can’t automate your networking. You need to put in the time.

Let me show you some examples of what’s in my DM folder right now. Please note, the names/links have been blocked out to protect the innocent (and not so innocent).

Twitter SPAM

I hate these types of messages. First of all, these types of tools are usually just generating more Twitter SPAM. Social media/networking is about building relationships.

Second, this guy doesn’t know me from a hole in the ground and he’s trying to sell me something. Dude, build a relationship first.

When I get these types of DMs, I do one of two things. If I’m in a good mood I reply with a link to my article about DMs. If I’m in a snarky mood I unfollow them immediately. And I know a lot of people who do the same. If you’re trying to build a loyal following, this is not the way to do it.

Better but still SPAMish

This one is a little better than the one above. He’s not trying to sell me anything, just sending me to a free resource.

I’m not offended or annoyed by this type of DM, but it still feels too soon. This guy hasn’t tried to get to know me at all. This is just trying to get me to his website. Yes, it’s for a free audio, but it still feels kind of like a guy trying to kiss me before I’ve even agreed to a first date.

Still too impersonal

This DM is getting closer, but still jumps the gun. Yes, I often connect with people on Twitter first then move to Facebook (or LinkedIn) but only after I get to know them.

It is nice to say she wants to engage longer on Facebook, but we haven’t engaged at all on Twitter yet. The only contact we’ve had is that I’ve started following this person. I haven’t had much of a chance to see what she has to say.

What would be better in my opinion? Actually read some of my Tweets. Make some @replies to what I’ve had to say, or reTweet me. Once we’ve actually engaged (that’s college-speak for having a conversation) then send me the DM about connecting on Facebook.

Best so far

This DM is much better. It’s still pretty generic but at least it’s not trying to get me to take action. It doesn’t look like an automated message since it includes my name although it could be. However, at least he’s trying to start a conversation. And that’s what it’s all about.

Andrea J. Stenberg

What do you think? Are you for or against automated DMs? Do you think they help or hurt the relationship- building process? Do you have a particularly funny one you want to share? Please leave a comment.

It sometimes seems like the makers of these tools are making changes for the sake of making changes.

However, the changes to LinkedIn’s groups are an exception. I think these changes will make it easier to interact with members of a group, easier to get to know people and overall, make groups more useful.

Please watch this short video to get up-to-date on the changes.

Then head on over the LinkedIn and start exploring the Groups feature again.

Andrea J. Stenberg