Linkedinformed Podcast. The Linkedin Show

NewsSenior LinkedIn Executive hints at why superusers are being ignored by stating they are "making products universally usable regardless of ability"Report claims that Twitter is now the number one social media tool for sales people - I really doubt it!LinkedIn engineer states "We have to constantly re-iterate the recommendation process and make sure that our members always get relevant results by analysis of various user statistics" in this interview. I wonder what those statistics are?CommentaryThe Ingredients of a great post:Topical subjectEye catching headlineStriking header imageAsk a questionAlternative answers work wellTagged for a channelKeyword rich (channel keywords)Quote others (link to their profiles)Link to your websiteSend it to individual connections and ask them to commentReply to all comments and try to keep the conversation goingShare on other channelsRe-share later (if still relevant)And finally....luck!Here is a link to Greg Coopers article on LinkedIn published postsQuestionsI used to se

NewsCEO's prefer LinkedIn & Twitter. In fact LinkedIn is the outright winner really!Why Asia matters for LinkedInUnfortunate names on LinkedIn!LinkedIn are now restricting group messages to 50 a day.Hilary Clinton signs up to LinkedIn but hasn't put skills in her profile - sensible lady!Indian woman 'outs' LinkedIn sexual harasserCommentaryThis week I interviewed a florist from Grimsby about how she has had success with LinkedIn for my other podcast Winbusinessin and she revealed several real golden nuggets.I recently put some LinkedIn profile autoview services through their paces and my conclusion is that they have a part to play in how we use LinkedIn. Services mentioned were;AutopilotDux-soup

NewsPublished post sharing via 3rd party apps appears to be broken, links go to main Pulse page.LinkedIn announce Economic graph challenge winners.LinkedIn stock drops to $193Keen computer gamers are getting information about future game titles from LinkedIn profiles. This article and this one are two separate examples.Jeff Weiner admits "We are sending some members too many emails"!CommentaryPosting articles and links in LinkedIn groups is not effective unless you are actually creating a discussion. People are treating groups as poster boards for 'interesting' articles but all that does is lower the amount of interaction and provides no benefit to the person that shared the link.I was shocked to see these stats recently;Article 1 - 348 views - 41 LinkedIn sharesArticle 2 - 162 views - 302 LinkedIn sharesWhen I explored this in more detail it turned out the the vast majority of the shares of article 2 were people sending the post to multiple groups (each one counting as a separate share). Clearly these group

NewsLinkedIn imposes a limit of the number of group messages that can be sent.Confirmation that the commercial use limit on search is not just the amount of searches but also the number of profile views.Groups lose stats feature but gain a new 'about' page which includes the members section.27,000 US intelligence staff on LinkedIn revealed in a recent report.LinkedIn introduce 'who's viewed your posts' feature.LinkedIn celebrate their 12th anniversary by featuring members stories, I especially enjoyed this one.India surpasses 30 million LinkedIn membersLinkedIn's share priced dropped below $200 last week and still remains weak.CommentaryThis new web product claims to assess someone's personality from their LinkedIn profile. It sounds crazy but my experience is that it is amazingly accurate! Here are the results for meQuestionWhy do some people put their name in their professional headline?ANS= This allows people to be able to see your full profile even if they are outside of your network. When you search for

NewsThe LinkedIn advertising hack that gained a company $100,000 funding for a penny!LinkedIn Announce their Q1 results. Financial analysts are OK with the results but hate the revised prediction for Q2 and shares plummet!Sponsored update advertising grows by 40% and the number page views grows at impressive rate again.LinkedIn hints that the Lynda.com acquisition will result in 'cross selling models and integration'. What exactly will this mean?So this is why LinkedIn bought all those copies of Reid Hoffman's new bookCommentaryLinkedIn published posts desperately need a 'read it later' feature. We all lead busy lives so the chances of having the time to read a long form post when we see it are limited. Perhaps a feature similar to Twitter's 'favorite' link would be the easiest option. At the moment I suspect we are kidding ourselves if we believe the 'read' numbers as people who have actually read the post. QuestionThis week's question comes from Carl, it's more of a point/commentary than a question but a re

News LinkedIn applies for a patent to check the accuracy of facts and statements in profiles. LinkedIn spends $500,000 on buying Reid Hoffman's new book. $115,000 are donated to a local teen centre America's three most hated companies;  Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn! This Chinese article about fake accounts is a timely reminder to us all.Are you frustrated with the commercial use limit on search?The following searches are all "free" and do not count against your monthly allowanceAlumni searchField of study searchConnections network searchTagging Are InMail responserates dropping?QuestionsHow do I post a job on LinkedIn for free?ANS = There are four ways in which this can be done; A job discussion in a relevant group A personal status update A published post Company page update (pinned to the top)

NewsYahoo Mail Contact cardsKey senior executive leaves LinkedInUpdate on the Lynda.com dealLinkedIn launch their new corporate Elevate productLinkedIn are top payers!CommentaryTip - This is what to do if you can't save a 2nd tier to contactsKeywords in name fields. It works from an optimisation perspective but it is still against the rules. QuestionHow many different type of emails do LinkedIn send you and how can you stop them?ANS = There are 20 different types of emails (excluding group emails) which can all be controlled from within your settings. Go to Communications> Set the frequency of emails. 

NewsCharacter from Ex-Machina film has a LinkedIn profile - even though she is a robot! Update since recording - it looks as though this profile has been taken down.If you have a really good post that you believe should be featured in a channel on Pulse then you can try tweeting @linkedinpulse to ask if they can help to get it promoted. Lynda.com is acquired by LinkedIn for $1.5billion!The Mashable article about LinkedIn's acquisition of Lynda.comJeff Weiners post about the dealLynda Weinmans postViveka Von Rosen's profileCommentarySponsored updates appear to be an attractive option as opposed to normal adverts on LinkedIn but there is a downside!

NewsI had a reply from the person whose published post achieved over 3 million views and she doesn't know why it was so successful!LinkedIn acquire RefreshLinkedIn's April fool jokeUniversity offer premium accounts to 1000 studentsThe latest big thing in social media? Periscope is a live video streaming app from Twitter and it is amazing!CommentaryInteresting article that lists 10 LinkedIn invitation templates. Some are pretty cheesy and I would always suggest writing your own but these may help get you started.Tip: Consider contacting some people who have viewed your profile. I saw a potential prospect had viewed my profile and as a result of contacting him I have generated some new business.QuestionsI keep seeing this nonsense on my LI feed. This and various other mathematical questions  trying to get a million 'likes'. I generally only see them because one of my contacts comments. To me they have no place on LI. But why do people do it and is there a way to stop it?ANS = I think they create them to ga

NewsLinkedIn finally bring their Jobs app to AndroidA member increases their profile views by 425%!LinkedIn settles battle over email invitesA LinkedIn post gets 3.3 million views...and they are not an Influencer!Interesting new 'search relevance' feature added to LinkedIn RecruiterCommentaryThe mystery of the 'Certified LinkedIn Publisher'.Brain De Haaf's profile and the Google search (below) that proves he did have the phrase in his profileKathy Caprino's profileThe Publishers group where my question has so far been conveniently ignored!QuestionsI no longer receive an email from LinkedIn when someone accepts my invitation to connect. Has this feature gone or are my settings wrong?ANS = Firstly the feature does still exist, I received an email just this morning. Your settings may need re-adjusting and it might not be your fault as it appears that this settings has had a recent facelift! Go to Settings>Communications>Push notifications and make sure that the relevant box is ticked. Follow this by loggin

NewsLinkedIn Expands Efforts to Help Colleges Keep in Touch With Students and AlumniJP Morgan episode 3! Another financial firm acts like a communist state!LinkedIn acquires employee referral software firmChampion puzzle maker creates a LinkedIn crossword.53% of the top 250 LinkedIn posts are not from Influencers. Excellent analysis of the characteristics of a successful LinkedIn published postCommentaryFeatured article: How do you find time for LinkedIn? QuestionsThe new home page seems to be feeding information that I do not wish to see (connections, group posts etc). How do I switch this off?ANS = Unfortunately you can't, whilst there is a section in your settings to select what updates you see, it is clearly not working! The help center are saying it is a known issue. I suspect they completely forgot about this setting when they re-vamped the homepage. It is very frustrating because from I can see (which is harder with the new design) the number of views has plummeted as a result!

NewsLinkedIn improve their sponsored InMail serviceThe JP Morgan saga continuesA new study analyses how 'happy' politicians are from their LinkedIn profile picturesCommentaryFlorist posts an image update that goes viralTwo ways of searching that are outside of the commercial use limit;Alumni searchField of study searchLinkedIn appear to be testing a new way of customizing invitesRead this article about social selling and let me know what you think. I think this sort of attitude will lead to sales people getting left behind, the changing nature of sales needs to be embraced.QuestionsHow do you convert a personal profile which has been created with a company name into a genuine personal profile without losing the connections.This is a situation that I have experienced previously and you have to be very careful in how this conversion is handled. Here is my recommended process;Download the connections of the company account.Change the name of the company account to the same name of the personal account you wish t

NewsAn insight into LinkedIn's mobile strategyJP Morgan's global Head of Technology has sent out a memo advising staff to make their profiles sparse of information to prevent Recruiters from finding them on LinkedIn.CommentaryWho has the keys to your profile? Add multiple email addresses to your LinkedIn account to prevent your employer from hijacking your account when you leave.Two ways to post updates with links and images.Post from a company page where status updates have not changed and like or comment on it from your own account.Paste the link into the normal update box but make sure that there is no gap between it and the previous word, then attach your image.QuestionsI am in the top 5% of profile views in my network. Is this important?ANS = Yes, profile views are a form of engagement and engagement will help to get your updates seen by more people.

NewsLinkedIn pay a measly $1 compensation to users who had their password stolen.Company pages get a new feature - notifications.A bank is accused of asking it's employees to limit the information in their profiles so that they won't get headhunted.Company sue former sales employee for taking LinkedIn contacts with them and lose because the contact list was “easily discoverable through public sources” and did not involve a lot of effort to compile, it would therefore not be considered a trade secret. Quite right to! This article can be found here but warning - its a subscription site (with a free trial).Sex offender nearly gets into trouble for using LinkedIn.CommentaryFollow up to my piece about LinkedIn ads last week. Carl sent in this funny screenshot which shows how the algorithm picks up words and feeds 'relevant' ad's to you!Could LinkedIn be considering 'retiring' groups - My prediction is that groups could be gone by the end of this year.The new homepage design hints that status updates (with links) a

All about LinkedIn ads, plus other topics.

NewsLinkedIn deliver impressive results for Q4 2014 as detailed here in their official announcement. They have grown membership to 347 million users and revenue for Q4 was $643m, a 44% increase on the same period last year and a total turnover exceeding $2.2b for 2014. Some of the more detailed commentary about these figures can be read here.LinkedIn launches the volunteer marketplace in the UK.LinkedIn further restrict their api making it almost impossible for anyone to develop apps that allow us to use LinkedIn in new and innovative ways.CommentaryI finally got the new home page today and I totally hate it! The major issues seem to be;You can't post a link into the text with an image status update (the workaround is to use the comments section)You no longer see the performance of your previous updates, only the most recent.There is no easy way to see how many connections you have.On the plus side.............oh, nothing! Have you considered using a showcase page for search optimisation purposes? When t

NewsThe LinkedIn Connected app comes to AndroidLinkedIn have started suggesting downgrades to premium account holders - very odd!Princes Trust uses a fake homeless person profile to highlight homeless teenagers to potential employers. What are LinkedIn going to do about fake profiles?Creddle is a new CV / Resume maker from your LinkedIn profileView Art Flater's profile - go on, I dare you!Strong Q4 results expected from LinkedIn which are likely to boost other social media stocks. As mentioned I recorded this episode earlier in the week than normal. Since this the Q4 results have been published so I will cover those in more depth in the next episode.CommentaryBlogging for the masses - the effect of LinkedIn publisher. With 1 million posts and more and more users starting to publish posts could LinkedIn publishing be the tool that makes blogging mainstream? In my opinion there are approaches to publishing depending on your objectives;Objecti

NewsNY Times offer 16 weeks free online access to LinkedIn premium members. Is this is sign of things to come?Condoms designer gets a breakthrough via LinkedInLinkedIn's job search app comes to the UKAnother new rival to LinkedIn, this one is French and called Amplement.Belgium TV network 'stalks' people on LinkedIn to publicise its new TV series.Top San Francisco venture capitalist backs LinkedIn saying "Its not a human resources company, it's a data company". Quite right too!New YouWorth app uses LinkedIn skills to estimate your worth in the job market CommentaryRecruitment company does tracks clients new connections and triggers a sales lead alert.LinkedIn may be introducing new Temp/contract features to profiles.New website launched for LinkedIn users who want to grow their business.QuestionWhen is it appropriate to hide your connections?ANS = Rarely in my opinion! Just because you are connected to someone doesn't indicate that you are doing business

NewsLinkedIn for blue collar? I think this is great news and fits with my idea of 'LinkedIn Local'.Shapr. A new rival to LinkedIn? I don't think so but it does look interesting and solves the issue of keeping in touch with your closest contacts.6 lessons we can take from the best company pages of 2014.Its that time of year and when the dreaded 'Top profile buzzwords' article comes out. Journalist's love it...I think its tosh!CommentaryAnonymous viewers. Universally unpopular but does it really matter?Why I advise against reciprocal recommendationsQuestionsShowcase pages vs affiliate company pages: what are best practices? Is it worth investing time and effort or will they end up going away like product pages?ANS = An affiliated page is a company page that can be affiliated to a parent page. This can work for subsidiaries or acquired company's and might be useful when a division/subsidiary wants to have its own unique set of Showcase pages. Showcase pages are designed to crea

NewsFacebook is still the top social network. This survey reported that only 13% of LinkedIn users visit the site daily in comparison to 70% of Facebook users.Scammers are using LinkedIn as a way of bypassing corporate spam filters.LinkedIn will be launching new intra-company communication tools. Is this a move to counter Facebook at work?Beware of phishing emails purporting to be from LinkedIn that are designed to steal your username and password. Always use unique passwords, I use 1Password to help me manage this.UpdateThe new LinkedIn search restrictions and how to get around them. This is mainly an issue for recruiters because the commercial use restriction appears to be 40-60 searches a month. Two viable alternatives to upgrading your account could be;1 premium account per office (that everyone uses when needed)Google X-ray searchingPremium accounts seem to have reverted to the previous options for some (including me!)How do you listen to the podcast? If you h