If you’re work has a visual component – graphic designers and photographers come to mind – then LinkedIn has probably felt a little cold to you. On a site like Facebook you can easily post your most attractive work and let it speak for you. After all, saying you’re a great photographer is a little lame. Showing it is something different.
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.
Setting up a LinkedIn group is a great way to encourage discussion and get to know new people. However, groups on LinkedIn have been the last bastion of spammers on the site. Unless you had lots of time to moderate the group, too often people would be posting items that are unabashedly promotional, rather than contributing to the group.
Have you been holding off on creating a LinkedIn profile because you’re not sure it will be of value to you? Here’s my short list of businesses that need to be on LinkedIn and how it benefits them. Even if your business type isn’t listed here, you may get ideas on how to use LinkedIn.
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. Read More→
I hate it when software or online tools change. Even minor tweaks mean I have to learn something new. And sometimes it seems like they’ve made changes just for the sake of making changes. Can you say Microsoft Office?
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 commentsection or send me an email.
Normally whenever a piece of software or a social media site makes major changes it pisses me off. It means I have to devote time to the learning curve – how do the changes work and what buttons do I need to press in order to do what I used to be able to do without thinking.
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.
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