How to be a LinkedIn superstar

how is someone felling to be a star

@Rick Itzkowich thanks so much for the nice note and for putting this on your blog. I like your suggestion as well. Also, as a result of this article, I have had a lot of people LinkIn with me. Something new that I try to do every time is to reply with a thank you. It never hurts to be nice and at the end of the day, if someone wants to be in my network, I'm honored that they want me there.

Excellent article. I specialize in working with Social Networking for Newbies and this article is going right onto my blog.

I would like to add another way I personally use LinkedIn that is extremely valuable. I use LinkedIn to connect people to each other. My goal is to be the "go to" guy when anyone in my network has a need. So by building my LinkedIn network am better able to accomplish this.

So my criteria for inviting and accepting people to my network is that they need to be someone who would either add value to my contacts or someone to whom I feel comfortable referring my contacts.

Rick Itzkowich
http://www.snfornewbies.com
http://www.socialnetworkingforbusinessprofits.com/

@AL Freeman, @John Homiblow, @Tall Netzer, @Hillary Feder, Thank you so much for the nice comments. I'm glad this was helpful. I'll try to post a part two to this article in the coming months and add some additional tips. Thanks again! Larry

Larry,

Thanks for your inspiring and meaningful article. Full of action items any to use linkedin as the marketing tool it was designed to be. I appreciate your insight.

Hi Larry...
Thank you - i completely agree with the article and most of the additional tips in the comments.
in fact, everytime i have a business meeting with a new person, i try to do a quick background check to get a better feel of the person - Linkedin plays a big role here.
Its yet another insight regarding offline significance of online social networks.

Tally

Larry , great article , many thanks

Excellent Article. It was a pleasure to read. http://www.linkedin.com/in/alfreeman

@Em - we don't have a specific stat on what percentage of companies are using LinkedIn, but there was some interesting information revealed in a study by Facetime Communications about social networking at work: http://www.facetime.com/survey08/socialnetworking/

Note: we weren't affiliated with the study, so I don't have much more information on that particular piece than what's listed on their page.

Hi everyone, thanks for all the great comments. I'm glad you liked what I had to say.

Some quick responses:

@Ern, I don't know the % answer, I think Steve would probably know better than I would since he works at LinkedIn.

@Steve P: Thanks for chiming in. I could have gone on for days about LinkedIn, but I had to keep it short. You added more than I ever could.

@Phil: You are dead on. My email signature has a link to my LinkedIn page and since I write at least 100 emails a day, I'm constantly branding my "resume"

@Roger: I see your point about recommendations. I definitely live in the 'don't say anything if you can't say something nice' world At a minimum, if someone recommends you, thank them. I can't tell you how many times that hasn't happened for me!

@Steve N: I keep my contacts public. In the world of Social Media, I go for transparency. There is definitely an argument for privacy, but I choose to publicly display myself via LinkedIn so I might as well keep everything else about me public. I'm here because I want you to know me. So I'm not going to keep things private.

@Henriette: Great example, thanks for sharing.

Hope that helps and thanks again for all the great feedback.
Larry

@Steve Nesich -

Deciding to keep your connections accessible or private is a personal choice; the people you've chosen to connect with (and who have chosen to connect with you) are a big part of your "professional brand" and for many members that's an important item to display. For others, they'd prefer to keep that list of trusted connections private. There's really no right or wrong answer, it all depends on what you're looking to accomplish on LinkedIn. Since I'm quite selective when it comes to whom I choose to connect with, I allow my connections to view my connections list as I know there's a low risk of abuse.

Hope that helps.

Best,
Steve
http://linkedin.com/in/stevepatrizi

I agree with Mr. Weintraub wholeheartedly on this one. It is, in fact, in a class of its own within the social-networking world. I think this is the watershed for a new era of Business-related networking.

Ben Reiss
Direct Marketing Executive
American Heritage Data Corp.

I am having a great experience using LinkedIn to as a support tool for applicants to the Telenor Group Global Trainee Programme.

We have established an informal place where the applicants can ask questions. This works really great, and we have discovered that this way of communicating is building a positive brand experience through dialogue.

With more than 4000 applicants, of whom 923 passed the initial qualifications, we expected a lot of disappointed candidates to write negative things. And some did, but at the end of the day they were thankful for getting personal feedback.
Another great experience is that the LinkedIn group became a huge "live" user generated Q&A, providing useful information to many people at once.

Since the recruitment process started, January 10th, the LinkedIn group has got 580 members, and new ones are arriving every day.

Here is a link to the group: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=1543447&trk=anet_ug_grppro

Henriette

Larry,
Great article and so timely...Thank you! I have recently been speaking of LinkedIn's virtues to some colleagues (again) who still haven't signed on to LinkedIn as yet. And now I can forward this article to them as back up.

Cheers,
Raycent
http://www.linkedin.com/in/raycent

Good article, Larry. Thanks.

A thought.....think hard about the recommendations you write for others.

If you can, write about successes you worked on together.

Try to include statistics and facts to back up what you say in recommendations (as you would in a resume).

With this approach you "promote" yourself at the same time you recommend your contact and tell more of your career story.

Very good article, Larry.

I'm interested in your opinion---and the opinion of other readers---regarding what people choose to do with their Connections List on their LinkedIn profile.

As we know, some people choose to reveal their list of connections to anyone who views their profile. Others choose to keep their list of connections private.

There are obvious tradeoffs to either choice, but I'd like to hear what you and others think: Keep your LinkedIn connections private or make them available to anyone who wants to see them?

Larry,

Thanks for the great article. It's the perfect example of how giving is the best networking you can do.

Great article and you gave me a good idea on how to leverage my connections in my job search beyond the obvious search for connections. I'm going to ask for advice on interview questions, how they found their current positions, etc.

Great article Larry!

I first heard of LinkedIn in Jill Konraths book "Selling to Big Companies" a couple of years ago and ever since have been a big fan.

It can also be a great tool for establishing trust and rapport with people you are building new relationships with. They can see your past track record as well as the things your clients have said about how you helped them out.

Hi Larry,
Good stuf, I agree, LinkedIn is for business. I find an interesting mix of professionals and groups to network with, thanks for the article...

Great article, thanks Larry.

There is one of your points I would modify, though. Do not feel obliged to give someone a recommendation just because they have given you one. If you do not have anything good to say about them, it is better to be quiet.

However, if you want someone to give you a recommendation, then always post one for them first before asking. It is polite and effective.

Regards
Roger Stone
www.linkedin.com/in/rogerstone

Nice piece Larry.

One small suggestion I'd make would be to include a link to your profile in your e-mail signature and, possibly even include on your business card. As someone involved in sales and marketing, I've found this to be an extremely useful in expanding the network and forging stronger connections.

Thank you for a very informative, practical "how to" for LinkedIn. I think it has finally pushed me to update my profile and take advantage of it as a marketing tool - and encourage my clients to do the same. One added motivator is that LinkedIn also serves to improve SEO results.

Paul Lavenhar, PL Communications

Linkin is clearly the best business network tool out there.

Hi Larry -

Thanks for sharing this with the iMedia Community. It's always rewarding to hear about how our customers are using LinkedIn and see them advocate its use to other professionals.

Two other items I'd add:

1) Edit - or create - a Company Profile. Company Profiles are an important research and marketing tool for your business that can help potential customers, clients and employees learn more about your company and the people who work there. You can learn more about Company Profiles here:
http://blog.linkedin.com/2008/11/17/creating-company-profiles-on-linkedin/

2) Use the LinkedIn Application to share information with your network. Last year we introduced the ability to add applications that allow you to:

- Monitor what's being said about your company on Twitter (Company Buzz)
- Share presentations (SlideShare)
- Integrate your blog posts into your LinkedIn profile (WordPress)
- Share files with trusted contacts and customers (Box.net)
- Collaborate with your employees or contacts (Huddle)
- And much more...

You can learn more about the LinkedIn Application Platform here: http://www.linkedin.com/apps.

And if you're a marketer looking to discuss how you can put LinkedIn to use in your marketing efforts, you can reach me at http://linkedin.com/in/stevepatrizi

Best,
Steve

Steve Patrizi
Director of Advertising Sales
LinkedIn Corporation

Inspiring. Do you have some idea of what pourcentage of companies are using Linkedn as a professional network tool?

Excellent article!