The document provides an overview of a LinkedIn training session focused on maximizing the professional networking platform. It covers topics like personal branding, growing one's network, connecting with others, using tags, and managing time on LinkedIn. The training aims to help users stand out, drive more business, build new connections and pipelines, and use LinkedIn most effectively for recruitment, branding and business development.

1. APEX Resource Solutions may 2012
making the most of linkedIn
a product of

2. training
reap the power of the world’s biggest
professional network
today’s agenda....
1. planning: the basics
2. personal branding: boosting your profile
3. how to grow your network: connecting with people you don’t know
4. connecting with people: the do’s & don’ts
5. ‘tagging’ on LinkedIn
6. how to effectively use updates
7. managing (and maximising) your time on LinkedIn: your activity
calendar
3

3. 1 linkedin for recruitment
today’s goals
• stand out from the crowd: improve • growing APEX brand equity and
your personal branding online presence, through a strong,
professional and consistent presence
• have greater influence of staff and consultants
• drive more business from your • greater social media participation
profile: candidates & clients confidence & success
• grow candidate networks • improve LinkedIn networking
effectiveness
• build new business pipeline
• ideas to help you do your job better
• deepen knowledge of clients, new
business pipeline, people • connect with people you don’t know
• how to NOT look like a recruiter on • use Groups effectively
the hunt when head-hunting
3

4. For most industries, LinkedIn is now the de
facto career management tool for
professionals -- and if you don’t have a
LinkedIn profile, you don’t exist
inc.com may 2012

5. the platform
about.....
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6. average salary of a
LinkedIn member is
$130,000+
Source: jeffbullas.com
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7. Source: Vincos.it
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8. Source: Vincos.it
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9. Source: Vincos.it
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10. Source: Vincos.it
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11. Source: Vincos.it
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12. 1 planning #1
the basics
3

13. 1 planning #1
the basics
Your photo:
You have a professional photo that is recent, clear, warm,
well-lit, appealing. Too busy to market yourself? Don’t be.
Good photos.....

14. 1 planning #1
the basics
Average photos.....
Don’t:
• Use a photo with someone else,
where the someone else is cut off!
• Use a photo where you’re fishing,
cycling, at a party, drinking, or
finishing a marathon: CONTEXT
• Cut off your face to look creative
• Go full-body. The shot will appear
too small

15. 1 planning #1
the basics Contact Details:
• Are they up to date?
• Make sure EVERY detail is recent:
mobile, email, company web address,
Headline: Twitter handle, blog address
• The length of less than 1 Tweet to
describe what you do to get their
Do you regularly add connections?
attention
Unless you’ve managed to jack off
• Largely used for current position &
EVERYONE in your career to date - or
company
you’ve been living in a dessert - you
• Compelling keywords will ensure the
should have at least 100 connections
right professionals will find you
The Summary Profile Completeness:
• Who you are; what you do; how you • If it’s not complete, why not?
help people • How is it written (grammar, tone, voice)?
• Punchy; clear; personable; bullet points Have you had an ‘outsider’ check it?
get read • written in the first person: without using
• Don’t ramble on: keep it tight ‘I’ too much
• If it’s not clear that you love what you • HONESTY of content (don’t kid yourself)
do, and that you do it better than • Your profile is public, right?
anyone else, why not? • Include keyword tags: skills & expertise
• Ad ‘sections’: courses, awards,
publications, articles, projects, travel, blog

16. 1 planning #1
the basics Give Recommendations:
• Request recommendations to be
displayed on your profile
• The best way to receive
Interests & Groups: recommendations is to give them first
• Complete both sections • HOT HINT: You need at least three
• All nominated terms will be hyper- recommendations in order for LinkedIn
linked and will take you to other to label your profile ‘complete’
users in the network who share
these interests
Your URL:
• Make sure your public URL is meaningful
• http://au.linkedin.com/in/jacintacroagh
Web Listings: • This optimises it for organic listings on search
• Customise: you can list up to 3 URLs engine results
• Describe them with relevant terms eg rather than
using the website URL use (as an example) ‘Talent
Resource Solution’
• Not only is this more descriptive, but it also gives
you a better opportunity to rank for these
keywords in search engines

17. 2 planning #2
personal branding

18. 2 planning #2
personal branding
Personal branding is a description of the process whereby
people and their careers are marked as brands. Unlike
self-help management techniques which relate to self-
improvement, personal branding suggests instead that
success comes from self-packaging wikipedia
• You guys are all active users of LinkedIn
• You’re all high-value individuals, solutions providers
• What makes you better than the thousands of other recruiters in the
market? A distinctive personal brand.

19. 2 planning #2
personal branding
Consider these facts.....
• Only 50% of LinkedIn users have a complete profile
• Only 13% have 500+ connections: how many do you have?
• Only 10% are on LinkedIn 8 hours or more, per week
• Only 50% believe it’s good for building NEW network relationships
with influencers of potential customers
Which leaves open a host of opportunities for GETTING ACTIVE....
• Contribution to conversations: uploading unique commentary regularly
• Look at what your competitors are/aren’t doing: and launch a counter-attack
• What value do you add to your contacts, groups, network?
• Are you active anywhere else in the social web? Automate your Tweets to
your personal LinkedIn feed; and your slideshare content
• Devise your activity strategy (more on that later)
• In your summary, include how you HELP people in your role. Are you
outcomes driven? Or do you just talk it?

20. 2 planning #2
personal branding
LinkedIn recently acquired Slideshare; the largest presentation sharing platform on the web
If you want your personal brand to stand out:
• Sign-up for Slideshare
• Optimise LinkedIn so it displays Slideshare presentations on your profile
• This will demonstrate thought leadership in your industry

21. 3 growing your network
new connections

22. 3 growing your network
new connections
• Import contacts from your email platform
• InMaps: LinkedIn allows you to connect
with others by integrating with and
importing from your own existing
networks, such as:
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Your educational institutes (college,
university, high school)
• Past companies you've worked
• Groups
• Professional affiliations
InMaps provides you with a colour-coded,
graph-style representation, so you can see
how your unique network groupings
inter-connect. (It literally allows you to
visualise your network.)

23. 3 growing your network
new connections
• Used Advanced
Search to find
specific people or
categories of
people you want
to connect with

24. 3 growing your network
new connections
Using Search:
• Save your people searches: create an alert - LinkedIn will
send you an email every week with new prospects based on
the topic of that alert
• With its structured fields and facets, LinkedIn’s search
interface is supremely powerful and precise: both organically
and within Groups
• If you build your LinkedIn network to a great number of
people, this will assist with and show up in the search results
within your network: critical tool for sourcers and recruiters
• The contacts of your contacts become a great opportunity
for broadening your network: this requires a commitment of
time

25. 3 growing your network
new connections
• Look at the contacts of your contacts: if they’re
private, look on the RHS of the screen, at who’s
looked at this profile: here you’ll find a wealth of
contacts to research & connect with
• Look at the people you want to connect with, and
note the Groups they’ve joined: join those Groups
- but ONLY if they’re relevant to you, and you
have unique & valuable contributions to make:
don’t joint them gratuitously

26. 3 growing your network
new connections
• Follow your network’s updates and your contacts’
interactions; as you watch who your network interacts with, you
might notice opportunities for building valuable relationships. If
someone mentions someone interesting, ask for an introduction
• Don’t underestimate the ‘Groups’ and ‘Events’ features
• Majority of LinkedIn’s users are more bent on making personal
connections via messages and one-on-one interactions. These
are great but you are not taking advantage of LinkedIn's full
potential if you are limiting yourself to these traditional
strategies
• Thus tap into Groups & Events to double or triple the amount
of connections you make on the site
• LinkedIn has constantly improved these features to make them
accessible to anyone

27. 3 growing your network
new connections
• First ‘Groups’: like any group - online or offline. It's a
bunch of users who share the same interests, skills,
experiences or causes
• 2 ways to get involved in a group: create one or join one
(you can join a max. of 50 groups); the built-in search
function will find you great groups to join
• Creating a group is a powerful way to attract new
contacts to your professional network: by starting a
Group you can undertake a member search and directly
send a message to someone, provided they are using the
default setting LinkedIn offers. In other words, by
attracting your target demographic to your group, you
can directly engage with them regardless of your
connectivity status
• If you’re starting a group, remember, this is inbound
marketing, it’s not a direct company promotional tool - so
no company names: offer something of value and create a
#hashtag to cross-promote on Twitter so you have the
potential to expand the group even further

28. 3 growing your network
new connections
Other factors when it comes to groups:
• If you expect a return on your investment, participate
• Observe for a time; then engage
• Don’t jump in without clear goals in mind; don’t insult or cut others down; make sure you
listen to & demonstrate respect for opinions & experiences of others
• Run polls in your group
• If you’re running a Group, use the announcement feature of to communicate regularly to
your members
• Use announcements
with caution: used too
frequently and they’re
considered spam

29. 3 growing your network
new connections
LinkedIn Events:
• Events are a proven means for connecting
with new LinkedIn members
• Setting up an ‘Event’ is easy: invite your
connections to become a part of it; get
them to invite connections
• The ‘Events’ feature is used to draw
attention & exposure for an upcoming
event
• You can make use of external tools like
Twitter and Facebook to promote the
event: so all 3 platforms are connected for
the single purpose
• Whether you are conducting an online
webinar, an offline conference, or you just
want to let people know that you will be
having a booth in a trade show, creating an
‘Event’ on LinkedIn is easy & effective

30. 3 growing your network
new connections
Promoting an Event on LinkedIn:
• Create an event logo
• Get creative with your title: exciting ways to describe your event
• Promote the event in LinkedIn Groups, on Twitter, Facebook (as
relevant)
• Promote your event on your LinkedIn company page
• Send direct & personalised invites to your event
• Find related or relevant events to attend (and get ideas!)

31. 3 growing your network
new connections
Follow companies:
• Company follows make it possible for you to keep your eye
on key activities happening at companies you’re interested
in: as prospective clients and prospective talent
• You’ll find information regarding new jobs, new hires and
promotions, what it’s like to work there and employee
testimonials, average employee tenure, new management,
ownership structure and performance (for public
companies)

32. 3 growing your network
new connections
Stay updated: RSS
• You can subscribe to a news feed for network updates on the
LinkedIn RSS page
• The RSS for your network updates is a personal feed showing the
latest activity from people in your LinkedIn network (similar to
what you see on your LinkedIn home page)
• RSS also provides a great opportunity for sourcing new topics to
discuss, articles to post on your news feed

33. 4 connecting with others
the do’s & don’ts

34. 4 connecting with others
the do’s & don’ts
Don’t send out random requests to multitudes of prospects:
research them, approach with InMail (paid for) and use your
knowledge to cut-through to your candidate & client audience
Look at the types of connections individuals accept
Don’t try to get a response from a group member or
prospective contact by hounding them: if you don’t get a
response first up, look for smarter, more meaningful ways to
engage
Confer recommendations on colleagues & ex-colleagues, with
sincerity. Don’t do it to expect something in return.
Don’t be the group nerd: offer your informed opinion & insight
regularly and in a timely fashion: not all the time
When you invite people to connect, personalise the message
Don’t expect everyone to network like you do

35. 4 connecting with others
the do’s & don’ts
Be proactive about making new connections: research them
first, then go for it in an informed & measured way
Add value - every step of the way
Update your profile with new achievements, awards,
education achievements
Make sure LinkedIn is integrated into the host of other
communications channels you have in play
Don’t be pushy & salesy: be informative & helpful
Make sure you use your personal voice: be friendly, open,
professional. Not arrogant, opinionated, annoying
Embed custom links in your updates & Group contributions
so you can see where your leads are coming from

36. 4 connecting with others
the do’s & don’ts
Look at the opinions of like-minded individuals: connect
with them irrespective of the immediate business benefit
Don’t list over-personal information that you don’t want
past, present or future clients or employers to see
Only add people you don’t know when you feel qualified
to do so
Do connect to former employees, suppliers, partners of
your business
Don’t sell or spam others with your business proposition:
offer relationships of value instead

37. 5 tagging
what does it mean?

38. 5 tagging
what does it mean?
• Tags on LinkedIn are keywords you can ‘attach’ to your 1st level connections (ie. the people
you are directly connected with) which essentially allow you to put them into categories, a
bit like creating different folders to keep their records in
• LinkedIn actually starts the process for you – when you invite people to connect as
‘colleague’, ‘friend’ or as ‘groups’ then, when they accept, they automatically get tagged as
such
• You can filter (or segment) your
connections in any number of different
ways because you can add as many tags as
you like to each person
• This gives you the opportunity to send
information out to very specific tagged
groups of your 1st level connections who
you know are going to be interested,
whether that’s due to eg. their interests,
their location or their job

39. 6 updates
making them effective for you

40. 6 updates
making them effective for you
• Review updates of your network regularly - eg twice a day
• Comment on updates: be they Tweets, comments, article postings, new
appointments, news
• Add Twitter to your LinkedIn profile and when you update your LinkedIn
network by asking a question, sharing a thought or posting an article, you can
choose whether to share it on Twitter at the same time. It’s a powerful way
to integrate the business side of your tweets
• From your homepage, take three actions on your network’s updates; e.g.,
like, comment or send a message
• Update with relevant news articles: use a URL shortener (eg bit.ly) to keep
the message tight. Post a comment about the article in your update:
• Update with company
news, industry insights &
snippets (they’re all
interesting), research,
whitepaper,s slideshare
presentations

41. 7 productivity
managing your time

42. 7 productivity
managing your time
Your Activity Strategy:
Plan your LinkedIn activity with this engagement calendar:
Day Updates Groups Companies Skills
830am monitor changes, for candidate
Monday 3pm
list groups for activity
updates, news targets
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

43. thank you
e: jacintacroagh@mac.com
t: @croaghie
m: 0404 203 250 a product of