Informed: the podcast for LinkedIn® users

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!Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

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 to transfer the connections to.Approach LinkedIn (help center) and explain that you have two profiles and you wish to merge the connections into your main account.Andy Headworth asks if there are any examples of employees who are currently being forced to hand over their account or change their profile by their employers. If anyone is in this situation please get in touch - confidentiality assured. Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

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.Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

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) are something that LinkedIn also wants to get rid of. The pattern LinkedIn normally demonstrates is to make a popular feature less useful/easy to use before 'retiring' it.QuestionsWhere can I see how many views my updates have been getting?ANS = You can't! The new homepage design has removed this feature. Sometimes you can see the stats for your last update. This is in the top section of your homepage but only occasionally shows and can't be manually found - you just have to wait for it to appear!Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

All about LinkedIn ads, plus other topics.Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

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 the basic search is used the algorithm sorts results into categories including one for showcase pages.How long should a podcast be? Is 30 mins about right or do you think you would prefer a shorter one (15 minutes). Let me know at mark@linkedinformed.comQuestionsShould I put the letter MBA after my name in my LinkedIn profile?ANS = Yes, if that is what feels right for you. It is not against the rules and it may ensure you feature in recruiters search results. It is against the rules to put any other keywords in your name field although many people do it and the search algorithm does seem to like finding words in the name field.Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

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;Objective is to build your personal brand within your market / community. LinkedIn publishing is ideally suited to this.Objective is to guide people towards your website in order to build and monetize your following (online business). In this case the best tactic is to use a published post as a teaser with an incomplete post that includes a link to the complete article on your site. A good example is this post from Will Broome (the CEO of London launch who I am featuring in my new Winbusinessin serial podcast)QuestionsWith linkedin asking us to post more, two questions:a) Where do we get cheap/free non copyright photos, or does everyone turn a blind eye? I think not!b) What is the etiquette on quoting sources? I have seen so many posts ( not yours) just quote/cut and paste chunks of others work with it looking like their own.A guide to posting without getting sued for plagiarism or copyright infringements! ANS = Using images is critical if you want your updates or posts to get noticed but using sites like Google images does not ensure that you are not breaking a copyright. The image depositories that I use are as follows;99c - Low cost, royalty free images (such as the one used in this post)Canva - A design creation site that also includes a good selection of images. Images cost $1 with many of the designs free.Photodune. A much bigger selection of images but more expensive ($3-5 on average).Depositphotos. Similar to above but can be cheaper if you are prepared to buy a bundle of credits.The etiquette on using sources is that if you quote directly from an article you should include a link to that article, if your piece has been inspired by reading another I think it is less important but still an option. Blatant plagiarism is obviously wrong but it does happen. I personally don't waste any time worrying about it though.Please feel free to let us have your views on this subject.Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

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 with them, most sales people would aim to connect with prospects not just customers. So why hide them? The one exception to this is Recruitment companies because of the confidential nature of their role. Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

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 create follower communities that are separate from the overall company followers, this works well when you wish to build a community around a brand or product type.Mentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.

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 haven't already why not subscribe on iTunes? That way you will get each episode downloaded onto your phone/device automatically each week.CommentaryLinkedIn Recommendations - don't be such a cynic!QuestionsHelp, I'm stuck in profile edit mode!ANS = No you're not! This listener is referring to the new 'permanent edit' mode that LinkedIn recently introduced. You can view your profile as others would see it by clicking on the blue box at the top as seen belowMentioned in this episode:This show was created by the original host of the show, Mark Williams.