Another good feature addition on LinkedIn that is helpful. I don’t know the basis on which the list is shown but using it, I connected with four people today who I had interacted with in the past online – I cannot recall where I’d interacted with them though. The list currently shows you three names on your home page [ top right corner ] and there is a ‘see more’ link that then leads to a new page with a list of ten people on it. It is convenient to invite someone you recognize on that list. Great to see that the Beta version is still being built on instead of just cosmetic changes!
March 4th, 2008
Caveat : I don’t hold anything against the poster of this question : please don’t sue me – I’m just using it as an example to share with readers of this blog on how not to ask a question on LinkedIn.
I subscribe to the Graphic Design Q&A on LinkedIn as an RSS Feed on Google Reader. Browsing it today, there was a question framed as follows :
Hi, can anyone tell me how to create similar flash catalogue? http://www.oriflame.sk/prod/offers/CurrentBrochureFrontpage.jhtml I’d like to know how to make such a loop? I’m not interested in companies that do it for money. I would like to do it on my own – is there any ‘script’ or ‘code’?
LinkedIn is a professional online business networking platform – I might add it’s one of the best. When you do anything on LinkedIn, publicly – even a slight change in your profile – everyone else on LinkedIn comes to know about it – and that is THE reason why one needs to be very professional in all dealings.
What I’m trying to say is, there’s a better way of saying, “I’m not interested in companies that do it for money.” Before you even get to the stage of coming onto LinkedIn to ask your question – if you’re looking for a ‘script’ or anything for free, it would be prudent to search for it on Google. If you’ve already searched on Google and it turned up nothing, either there isn’t anything available or you probably didn’t use the correct search terms. And if you’d like to know how to make something and are unwilling to pay for it, at least be nice and say “I’m a newbie – can’t afford to pay for it – can someone who knows how to do it share their expertise please?”
And to do this on LinkedIn is even worse. It’s not Craigslist or a Freelancer Exchange.
There are so many ways one can use the Question & Answer facility to increase visibility and accessibility – the statistics aren’t visible but there are many people who actually read the questions and take time to reply to the ones they have knowledge about – before posting their answers, they read the other answers posted before them and post only if they have something to add.
If you have even an iota of doubt whether you should post that question on LinkedIn, don’t.
February 13th, 2008
Woo hoo!
I’ve been wondering and then wondering some more about what new to write about online business networking – thanks to Gautam Ghosh [ who I connected with on Facebook today - I've known him since 2003 starting with Ryze and LinkedIn and Orkut and now finally Facebook ] – I learned today that LinkedIn’s launching some slick new stuff! And I haven’t stopped drooling since I saw the beta homepage.
While the look might not appeal to you right away – we’re used to the slick looking current interface – but wait till you realize the potential of MODULES! Yes modules! Yay! Have you been using Netvibes / iGoogle? If you have been, then I’m sure you realize how powerful that web-app is – now imagine LinkedIn delivering something similar for online business networking – for your PROFESSIONAL / work-related stuff!
Right now they have only three modules : Job Search, Answers and People Search but imagine what all they could add! Just thinking about it gives me a headache – imagine the potential! What if they made a module for feeds for people you’d like to connect with – for example, I’m always looking for Alumni from my school [ The Army Public School, Delhi ] and my B-School [ SCMHRD ] and instead of doing a people search for new people on LinkedIn every month – what if I could defined a filter and convert it to a feed and have that displayed on my LinkedIn home page – so that whenever someone from my school / B-school joins LinkedIn, I can find out almost immediately! Oh the pleasure! [ I'm sure there are other more powerful modules that LinkedIn has already thought of - I just can hardly wait for them to roll it out! ]
And I really like the small rounded-rectangle with my brief profile on the left sidebar. It just looks really nice. And the small bit of immediate information about the number of people on my network.
LinkedIn seems to have expanded to 17 million people – as I read from the About LinkedIn page.
This is exciting! Kudos to LinkedIn for always being one step ahead of the competition and always giving some love to the users! Brilliant stuff!
February 8th, 2008
New Beta feature on LinkedIn.
That’s how the feature is visible on my main dashboard page when I log into LinkedIn – on the right hand sidebar.
That’s what the display looks like when I click on the sidebar link – it shows me people’s titles who have visited my profile in the last three days.
- It does not give me names of people – so there is no direct access to the visitor’s profile.
- Each result is a click able link that allows you to search for the particular person based on their title in their profile heading. Most people do not have a very specific title in their profile heading so search results tend to run into 500 for most of the queries. I got two searches where the results were 11 and 7 in number.
- It’s an interesting way to determine how much your profile is viewed. And who are the typical bunch of people who view it. Doesn’t give much detail though. Unlike in Xing, where they tell you exactly who came and checked out your profile – it has turned out to be beneficial to make a connection and even get business.
- You can also change your visibility setting where you can choose to either show your name and headline or you can chose to show your industry and title – these are called anonymous profile characteristics or you can choose to not show at all that you visited someone’s profile.
The feature is still in Beta – maybe they’ll come up with some additional functional and useful features like maybe showing us what keywords were used when the visitor landed on our profile.
May 22nd, 2007
LION : LinkedIn Open Networker
If you are an open networker – meaning that you’re open to connecting networks on LinkedIn with people you don’t really ‘know’ – then it’s a fantastic idea to put that on your profile. I have “LION” on my profile headline. Others who have the same on their profiles also, usually, have their email ids listed on their profile making it easier for you to send them a direct connection invite. You connect with fellow-LIONS and your network grows. Usually exponentially because most LIONS are avid networkers.
That’s one of the most under-used and successful ways of growing your LinkedIn network.
The reason I’m talking about it is because after a long gap, I re-started proactive networking on LinkedIn today. I sent 42 direct connection invitations to fellow-LIONs today – about four hours ago. 19 have already been accepted. That’s a damn good score – within four hours too. I have no doubt that all 42 will be accepted before the end of this week.
And you can search for fellow LinkedIn LIONs by using LinkedIn’s very own in-built ‘Search’ feature – just search for the term ‘LION’.
The Lion sketch above is a derivation of the tattoo design by Elizabeth, converted by Naina. For usage permission, please get in touch with Elizabeth.
April 4th, 2007
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