How to Get Back LinkedIn Invitations
Posted on May, 15, 2012 by Kerry Rego -Why hasn’t that person accepted your LinkedIn invitation? I’m sure it’s not that they don’t love you or that you aren’t fabulously skilled. It might be that they’ve created themselves multiple accounts (quite common) and don’t check the email that you sent your invite to. They may simply not use LinkedIn. It could be they’ve forgotten their password and haven’t checked it since they turned on their account. You only get 3000 invitations on LinkedIn* so use them wisely!
Here’s how to get back some of the outstanding invitations you’ve sent:
- Navigate to your LinkedIn Inbox
- Click on Sent in the left hand navigation bar
- Select each line that has Accepted after the name and Delete (I deleted over 200)
- You will be left with the invitations that haven’t been accepted
- At the top of the list, you can select All and click on Delete to get back those invites
You can also use this “take back” if you’ve invited someone by mistake or have second thoughts about connecting. I was testing a Connect button during a LinkedIn lesson with a client and accidentally invited someone I totally did not know. I went and took back the invite the next day.
Simply connecting with others on LinkedIn doesn’t make magic happen. This is a digital representation of your physical network. When you need information, services, help, or work, your network is where you go. LinkedIn simply makes it easier to know the skills and abilities of your network. See this blog about why LinkedIn is the place professionals do business or read my LinkedIn blog category to get your fill on the subject.
*I have heard that you can request more from Customer Service, though I don’t know how effective that is but here are two emails I’ve found for this need: customer_service@LinkedIn.com or cs@linkedin.com
How to Assign LinkedIn Group Managers
Posted on March, 07, 2012 by Kerry Rego -Do you manage or own a LinkedIn Group? I noticed an issue with a client recently that was unable to manage her group any longer. I provided the other group manager this set of instructions on how to reassign a member as a manager or moderator.
- Navigate to Group
- Select Manage
- Select Participants
- Select Members tab
- a. Select the member you want b. or search for them by name
- Change their role
LinkedIn Tools & Functions
Posted on February, 09, 2012 by Kerry Rego -Overall Site Functions
- Reputation Management
- Connections
- Groups
- Job Posting & Search
- InMail Communications
- Company Profiles
- Events
- LinkedIn Today (customized news)
- Signal (network updates)
- Questions & Answers
View more Kerry Rego Consulting blogs about LinkedIn
LinkedIn Profile Functions
- Creative Titles
- Status Updates
- Website Listings
- Custom URL
- Summary
- Applications
- Job History
- Education/Certifications
- Volunteer Experience
- Skills
- Custom Sections
- Groups
- Recommendations
- Contact Info/Preferences
Applications
- WordPress/Blog Link (content)
- GitHub (projects)
- Real Estate Pro
- E-Bookshelf (learning)
- My Travel
- Polls
- Lawyer Ratings
- Box.net Files (cloud storage)
- Portfolio Display
- Legal Updates
- Google Presentations (slideshow)
- Events
- Reading List by Amazon
- Slideshare Presentations (slideshow)
- Projects & Teamspaces (collaborative)
WishList
- Better Analytics
- More Applications
View more Kerry Rego Consulting blogs about LinkedIn
PASCO HR – LinkedIn Training
Posted on January, 10, 2012 by Kerry Rego -I will be speaking to the group Professional Association of Sonoma County for Human Resources (PASCO) to train them to understand how to use LinkedIn to their best advantage. I’ll cover how to navigate the site, little known tips and tricks, what NOT to do, and how to make the most of it’s many features.
LinkedIn Privacy Settings You Should Know About
Posted on December, 30, 2011 by Kerry Rego -I spend much of my time either researching or training. I love to dive into settings for my clients. I like to quickly take care of the most nefarious and get their settings optimized right away. This is where I find many people run out of steam and give up because it’s simply too much and generally confusing. I found a few privacy settings I think you should know about on LinkedIn.
- Log in to LinkedIn
- Hover over your name in the upper right hand corner and Settings shows up on the drop down list, select
- At bottom left, look for Groups, Associations, and Applications, select it
- Under Privacy Controls, there is “Turn on/off data sharing with 3rd party applications”. Select or deselect at will.
- Again under Privacy Controls, there is “Manage settings for LinkedIn plugins on third party sites”
- This one is important: on the Account tab, there is “Manage Social Advertising”. This is where you select whether or not LinkedIn may use your name and photo in social advertising.
I recommend you read each of these carefully but I would bet money that you don’t know these settings are even there. Make sure you know where your data is going. I actually chose to keep the first two I mentioned but I opted out of social advertising. Be educated. Knowledge is power.
Where Do You Get Ideas For Content?
Posted on December, 16, 2011 by Kerry Rego -
Everyone that has internet and social media channels struggles for content. We have to constantly focus on what’s most important in our field, what our audience wants to hear about, and balance what we like with what we write. The biggest concern is where the content is going to come from. I won’t lie, this is an issue for me as well. But I wanted to share with you a tool I am going to be using from now on and I anticipate my own struggle will get much easier.
I talk about the benefits of LinkedIn all the time. I think it’s one of the most under appreciated (and most valuable) social media tools of them all. Every time I give a lesson to a client, I am excited to tell them about one of my favorite features: LinkedIn Today. If you struggle for content, look no further than your LinkedIn Today tab.
LinkedIn Today was introduced in March of 2011 yet most people have no idea what it is. It’s a customized newspaper, if you will, based on the industry information and key words you type into your LinkedIn profile and those you are connected with. It mainly shows you three things:
- What your connections and coworkers are sharing on LinkedIn
- What your industry peers are sharing
- What stories are interesting to a wider audience that are outside of your industry
The resources of information range from Harvard Business Review, NPR, Bloomberg, CNN, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and many many more. You can follow your industry or those of your clients. Every time I open it, I am blown away with how valuable I find the information. My problem is, I never go there. But I found a simple solution.
LinkedIn Finally Values Volunteers
Posted on September, 11, 2011 by Kerry Rego -I’ve been waiting for some time for LinkedIn to figure out that it needed to include Volunteerism and Boards & Committees as a stand alone category (see the screen shots at the end). Well, that day has finally arrived. (Thanks to Christopher Penn @cspenn for his tweet about it.)
I’ve seen people be very creative with how they listed their non-profit and volunteer work within their profiles. I haven’t been satisfied with my options and I kept hoping that they would wise up. Up until now, I’d had mine listed in Groups & Associations. This section is, sadly, way at the bottom. I always wonder if those that are viewing my profile will have the stamina and attention span to make it to that valuable information.
Why is this important? Do you ever wonder who it is that’s reading your profile? They are wanting to: hire you, sign a contract with you, finance you and your business, recommend you, recruit you out of a solid job to an even better one, work with you and many other scenarios. What you do with your time is telling of your character. It deserves it’s own real estate in your work portfolio. Since the majority of the service clubs, networking groups, non-profit organizations, civil service, educational support groups, and those boards and committees are unpaid work, being able to list it on your resume is payment in itself. You know when you walk into someone’s house or office and glance at their bookshelf? I find myself scanning the shelves, I’m looking for a hint of who they really are and how we might be the same.
It’s ultimately important because it shows you give a damn about something other than yourself. Think I’m all talk? Check out my volunteer roles to call my bluff.
Care about others. Do good unto the world around you. And put it on your resume.
New Group Join Feature on LinkedIn
Posted on May, 06, 2011 by Kerry Rego -
No matter how much time I spend on any platform, I see changes every single day. I’m good with change, better than most, but still every day there’s something new to see!
I make a habit of leaving LinkedIn connection invites in my email inbox until I have the time to sit and read them from head to toe. Your connection is only as valuable as the information you retain about that person. I am always surprised to learn some odd or quirky fact about each person. It’s totally worth the time it takes to do it, promise.
Anyway, the screencap above is what I spotted at the very end of someone’s profile in the Additional Information, Groups & Associations section. Your can join that group right on the spot. It simply speeds up the process.
LinkedIn is always coming up with useful additions. What’s your favorite LinkedIn feature?
Think Twice Before You Pass That Along
Posted on May, 04, 2011 by Kerry Rego -
I can connect with WHOM on LinkedIn?
I was on LinkedIn and spotted this “People You May Know” box. My first thought is how did they not spot an obviously fake profile of J.R.R. Tolkein? It made me doubt the filtering capacity of this tool. Then I thought it was pretty funny. It wasn’t until I uploaded this screenshot to my blog that I even noticed the Hatter.
The reason I bring this to your attention is that our comprehension and deductive skills are often called upon when using the internet. We spend much time reading, absorbing, reflecting and digesting the information that is served to us all day long. It is our job to have a healthy sense of skepticism about what we read. Just recently there was a misquote attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. that went viral.
Think before you post. Research before sending “information” along. Snopes is still a reliable source though isn’t good at “right now”. Also check the calendar to see if it’s April Fool’s Day. It wasn’t until I told someone I saw this before I was informed it was an April Fool’s joke. Got me. I’m just really glad I didn’t post this screenshot until I found out what it was really about.
And I don’t think J.R.R. Tolkein will be answering your LinkedIn request.
LinkedIn: The Place Professionals Do Business
Posted on March, 24, 2011 by Kerry Rego -What do 100 million people know? (Now 135 million!) They know that LinkedIn is the center of your professional digital web presence. And they aren’t there to play FarmVille.
In celebration of LI crossing the 100 million mark just this week, I wanted to share with you 5 wonderful features on this robust tool that you might not know about:
Get a Custom URL - Your name is your digital real estate. Claim it anywhere you can. You can place this on your business card, Facebook profile, email signature and more. It’s easier to type and remember than the default URL they give you with all the alpha numeric keys. If you have a common name, this feature is especially useful. This enhances your personal brand and is beneficial from a search engine optimization standpoint.
Maximize Your Groups – Everyone knows about groups but do you know that the conversations are searchable by Google? If you are discussing a hot topic in your field or are demonstrating your expertise on a subject, that conversation can and will be picked up by search engines. Others that are searching for that information may very well find your thought out response in their search results. Participate and spell check!
Company Profile – You can now have a company profile on LinkedIn, much like Facebook Pages. List your services, employees, job openings, standard information (includes a map), keywords and get your company “face” out there! See this great article about how to “Defy Gravity with Your LinkedIn Company Profile” (this article originally a link but the author deleted the post) by Viveka Von Rosen, my go to LinkedIn Expert. In fact her Twitter handle is @LinkedInExpert.
Today – Using algorithms to target information, this just launched news vehicle is geared to your needs based on your connections, interests, keywords, groups and interactions within the site. This tool is expected to be one of the most useful business news tools available to you.
Third Party Applications – We used to have resumes, references, and portfolios. They are now profiles, recommendations, and third party applications. Use the plug-ins such as your blog, Facebook posts, Twitter feed, Amazon book list, portfolio, Slideshare, Box.net, My Travel and more to showcase who you are and what you do. I really like the Amazon book list because it allows me to share the books that I value in my field and it demonstrates that I am continuing my education and constantly growing. It’s also a great way to refer people to books you recommend.
Most people say to me, “I’m on LinkedIn. Now what?” Even if you aren’t in classic job search mode, learning more about the professionals you are connected to, reaching more, finding work, learning about your field, becoming acquainted with and building relationships with the thought leaders in your industry, showcasing your expertise, I could go on and on with ways you can make LinkedIn indispensable to your work life.
So make the most of these 5 great ways to make it work for you…. ’cause I’d bet a nickel you aren’t using all 5.
Which one do you think you’ll put into action today?