When my children were little, they used to love helping in the kitchen and one of the most popular activities was making Alphabet Soup. It was a great way to use up leftovers from the weekend, packed full of vegetables and to keep them interested, I used to add a packet of dried pasta shapes with letters of the alphabet.
We never knew which letter would be in the next spoonful and we had some fun making up words or telling stories using those letters!
Like my real life soup, I am starting a series of posts in LinkedIn which will provide tips, information, guidance on all things LinkedIn related with each post looking at a letter of the alphabet.
Now it would be easy to start with A and work my way through the alphabet wouldn’t it? To capture the same element of fun, I’m going to mix it up a bit.
After all, who knows what will be in the next spoonful?
Look out for my post on Monday 31st August 2020, when you will have the opportunity to influence which letter of the alphabet to start with.
LinkedIn Linda’s Alphabet Soup posts will be appearing every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday starting 1st September 2020.
You have invested time on honing your LinkedIn Profile, getting it set up the right way and are being found in searches.
Imagine how frustrating it is when there are distractions that take your viewers away from your Profile and to other profiles instead! Possibly even your competitors.
LinkedIn have a feature that is turned on by default. It is called People Also Viewed (PAV). It sits in the right hand side of your Profile and lists profiles that other people have viewed. It is meant to be helpful however, as a business owner, you want the focus of your viewers to be on you, not to be distracted by moving away from your profile and especially to those who are your competitors.
What most LinkedIn Users don’t know is that this feature can be turned off so that it does not appear on your Profile.
How to turn off People Also Viewed
Go to the Me button on the black menu bar at the top of your LinkedIn Profile
Select the Accounts and Privacy Option
Select the Privacy tab
Select the Viewers of the profile also viewed option
This is a series of 5 FREE 30 minute webinars in using LinkedIn especially for business owners, freelancers and entrepreneurs. It is called the 5 in 5 at 5 because you will receive…
Each of the webinars are intended to be educational and are suitable for people who are new to LinkedIn, as well as those who have used LinkedIn previously. We will be using the free version of LinkedIn therefore all skills you learn can be implemented without investing in any Premium package.
The 5 in 5 at 5 webinars are part of my commitment to help people in business use LinkedIn more effectively during the COVID-19 lockdown.
When and How?
The webinars are available for 5 consecutive working days from Monday 6th April 2020 at 5pm and will be delivered by Zoom.
What Will The Tips Focus On?
Each webinar will focus on different aspects of LinkedIn and will give you 5 practical LinkedIn tips with actions to implement.
Day 1 6th April: Core of LinkedIn – Your Personal Professional Profile Day 2 7th April: Connecting and Following Day 3 8th April: Communication and Conversation Day 4 9th April: Contribution and Engagement Day 5 14th April: Content – Posts and Articles (Due to Easter, Day 5 will be taking place on Tuesday 14th April)
On registration, you will receive a link by email to access all 5 webinars. You only need to register once and can attend as many as you like.
Use the same Zoom link each day to access each webinar. You will need to register prior to attending to access the webinars to enable me to email you the link to the recordings.
Each webinar will be recorded and you will receive a link to access the recording by email shortly after the session has finished. Please be aware that the link to access these lessons will be available for 72 hours.
I look forward to welcoming you to the 5 in 5 at 5, and sharing some practical tips you can implement immediately.
For those of you with iPhones and iPads, following an Apple update the LinkedIn app has also been updated and the Find Nearby and QR Code features have moved to an almost hidden location.
***Updated November 2019*** Android phones have now been updated and you should find the features in the same place as iPhone users.
To find the features now, tap the My Network tab at the bottom of your screen, then tap the little blue circle on the right hand side. This will open a sub menu which reveals the Find Nearby and the QR Code.
The screenshot below is taken from an iPad. It is similarly placed on iPhones and Android.
How to access the Find Nearby and QR Code features on iPhones and iPads
You know what it’s like when you are browsing through your LinkedIn Home Feed and you see a really interesting article – but you just don’t have the time to read it? You may think to yourself “I must remember to find that article later” and then when you come to find it, it is lost amongst the noise of LinkedIn.
Did you know that you can save articles for reading at a later date?
This feature has been around for some time and yet, until recently, you could only find your saved articles in the mobile app.
Now you have the facility to find your articles in the desktop platform too. Well done LinkedIn for making this useful feature available to folks who want to use their computer to read the articles. Not everyone wants to read long articles on their mobiles and I am personally delighted this feature is now available in the desktop version too.
How to Save Articles and Locate Them at a Later Time
Watch this 3 minute video to see how simple it is to save articles and to find them at a later time.
There are many levels of LinkedIn training you can undertake: some people just want to build connections and relationships, while others intend to use LinkedIn as a key part of their marketing strategy.
Whichever the case, there are essential skills that everyone needs to learn, such as how to update your profile. This may sound simple, but as one MD found out, mistakes can still happen – and are not best made in front of your entire professional network.
Here’s how the story goes…
As the managing director of an established IT company, Lisa had built up a sizeable LinkedIn network, including: colleagues, vendors, clients, business associates and leads. The business was booming: she was in the process of setting up a subsidiary company, while reassuring clients, associates and prospective clients that the existing business would remain her primary focus.
Excited for the launch of the new business, Lisa booked some LinkedIn training for her marketing team, so they could start raising awareness of the new venture. They would need to update their profiles to reflect both businesses, which was a core part of the initial LinkedIn training.
Creating a Professional Image
A paragraph of universal wording was agreed for the ‘Experience’ section of all personal profiles within the company, so a consistent message would be created regarding the developing business. Lisa attended the training along with her marketing team, but when it came to actually updating the profiles, she said she had ‘other things to do’ and ‘knew how to do this anyway’.
On went the training, and by the end of the session the marketing team felt confident in using LinkedIn to promote the business, the new Company Page had been created and they were proud of their smart new personal profiles! The trainer left, happy with the results and off to prepare for her next client.
Where’s the Panic Button?
Very early the following morning, the LinkedIn trainer had 3 missed calls with voicemails from Lisa to her mobile – all with an air of distress and urgency. It transpired that instead of adding her new business venture to her profile, Lisa had replaced any mention of her existing business with the new company – she had effectively shut down her own business overnight.
In amongst the many messages of surprise, and hesitant congratulations, Lisa received a number of private messages from her clients and prospects: demanding answers and raising concerns. Her calls and messages to the trainer were cries for help – she didn’t know what to do, or how to explain her rather public mistake.
Damage Limitation
What followed, were many hours (at a cost) spent rectifying the profile mistake and offering apologies and reassurance to her valuable clients and prospects. It was a simple error. The remedy was to use the profile ‘Experience’ section to add the new business; then rearrange the order so the existing business would appear on top, as her primary focus.
This knowledge was built-in to the LinkedIn training schedule, just after Lisa left to attend to other things. So too, was the advice that when making any major changes to your profile you should ALWAYS switch off ‘Sharing profile edit’ – so you have the chance to review and move things around before your network are notified of the change.
To find this, go to Settings ➡️ Privacy ➡️ How others see your LinkedIn activity ➡️ Sharing profile edits ➡️ Switch to No
The Moral of the Story: You don’t know what you don’t know
If you are aware that training is needed, then book a trainer you trust to teach you and set aside the time to learn, even if you think you know it already. Like other platforms, LinkedIn regularly adds new features and updates existing ones, so a professional trainer will have the expertise to guide you through these.
Lisa is now happily running both businesses and has not lost any clients or prospects fortunately. However, following step-by-step instruction for something so important could have avoided unnecessary time and money spent, and removed the risk of damaging her business reputation.
💡 For more information on using LinkedIn to grow your business, or to book a targeted training session, please contact Linda for a no obligation conversation.
I was delighted to be invited to be interviewed by Debra Levitt, from Bridge Consultants, in her Podcast series Bridging Gaps – The Business Podcast.
In my conversation with Debra, we discussed lots of subjects, including my transition from a corporate environment to business owner and LinkedIn trainer. We also talked about how I found The Athena Network and why I took the decision to invest as a franchisee and become a Regional Director with The Athena Network.
I share some LinkedIn tips, networking tips, some personal challenges, and my motivation for doing what I’m doing. Please listen in – I get the giggles half way through when what I want to say just escapes me! So please forgive that part.
I hope this gives you an insight into me and my businesses.
One of the things I see frequently when helping people to use LinkedIn for Business is that they have set up a Company Page in LinkedIn but haven’t linked their Personal Professional Profile to it.
💡Here is how to do it – once your Company Page has been set up, it honestly takes a few seconds to link your Personal Professional Profile to it!
In Your Personal Professional Profile, scroll down to your Experience section
Make sure you have added your role in the business as an Experience – if you haven’t then you’ll need to Add an Experience – then follow from step 4 below
Click the Edit button (the pencil button at the right) which opens the Editing window
Click into the Company field
Delete anything that is already in the Company field (even if it is the Company name)
Type in the name of the Company Page (as this is what you are aligning to) – as you do so, you will see some different options appear.
When your own Company Page is visible, click to select it and then Save
💡 Be careful not to select the wrong Company Page – I’ve seen several people select what looks like their Company Page as the name may be similar.
💡 When you set up your Company Page, I strongly advise you to add your logo to it, so that when you select the page in step 7 above, it will be easily identifiable.
Watch the short video to see the above steps demonstrated.
One of the most common comments I hear when training people to use LinkedIn for business is that they are not attracting Followers on their Company Page. Usually it is because people fall into the trap of publishing their Company Page and then are not proactive in telling people it exists.
An easy way to do this is to add a Follow button to your website. LinkedIn provide a free Follow button plugin, which can be added to any page of your website. You can either do this yourself or send the code to your web developer. You will need to be logged into LinkedIn to retrieve the code.
When the code is added and published on your website, this is what it will look like:
You can choose to show the number of followers horizontally, or choose not to show the number of followers at all. If you have less than 50 followers, this may be the better option. It shouldn’t be a numbers game however, we are naturally attracted to businesses who already have a positive presence, so if you are building your followers, leave the follower count out until you reach a number you are happy to publish.
To retrieve your own Follow button, go to the following link:
This is just one of the ways in which you can attract followers to your Company Page. If you would like to find out more about building a Follower Strategy for your Company Page, please Schedule a Call with Linda
LinkedIn have made it a little bit easier to re-order your Skills and Endorsements section in your Personal Profile.
There is now the ‘Pin Skills to Top’ feature which enables you to pin your top 3 skills so they are prioritised over all your other skills, to encourage other LinkedIn users to endorse you for those top 3.
Here is how:
In your LinkedIn Profile, scroll down to your Skills and Endorsements section
Click or tap the pencil icon on the right to Edit
Once there, you’ll see your top 3 skills with the Pin button on the left in bold
To remove a skill from your top 3, just click or tap the Pin button. Don’t worry, you will not be deleting the skill, purely moving it out of the top 3
To add a skill to your top 3, scroll down the list of skills, identify which one you want to pin to the top and click/tap the Pin button on the left
Then click/tap the SAVE button
Watch this very short video to see the feature in action:
This knowledge was built-in to the LinkedIn training schedule, just after Lisa left to attend to other things. So too, was the advice that when making any major changes to your profile you should ALWAYS switch off ‘Sharing profile edit’ – so you have the chance to review and move things around before your network are notified of the change.
