So many profiles! So little time!

Often I find people have duplicate LinkedIn profiles. Sometimes they didn’t mean to, other times they mistakenly believed that they needed a second profile to represent a different focus.  The fact is that the LinkedIn End User License Agreement states that each user agrees and acknowledges that they shall have only one profile.  Any multiple profile instances and, whether you meant it or not, you are in violation of the agreement you accepted and in jeopardy of losing both (or all) accounts.

If you’re in this boat, here’s what you need to do. Just follow the steps that you need. Skip the ones you don’t. I’ve included a screen shot below as a reference.

1. Search your name on LinkedIn. If you find YOURSELF more than once, look at each profile and note the “Public Profile URL”. This URL is found near the bottom of the blue header area of every LinkedIn profile. For example, mine is http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/LoriRuff.
2. Look at each profile. Decide which you want to keep.  The easiest is the one with the most connections and/or the most recommendations. You can change everything else yourself; asking people to join you on your new profile requires forces outside of yourself to comply.
3. Next, if there is any text you want to save from the profile you have chosen to delete, be sure to copy and paste it to a Word document.  Alternatively, you can save all the text by selecting the pdf button on the top right of each profile. It will save an acrobat file to your computer so you have a copy of each profile.
4. Next, you want to capture your current connections so click on the top navigation bar on “contacts/my connections”. On the bottom right of the listing, you will see a small blue link to export your connections.  Just save the file, making note of where it is so you can access it later.
5. You also want to note any recommendations on the profile you will be deleting so you can copy it and send a note from the surviving account to those same people, explaining that you are combining profiles and giving them the text of their original recommendation.
6. Make note of groups that you are a member of in case you want to rejoin those again.
7. Go to your “Settings” link on the top right of your screen. (Note that anytime you try to access a sensitive area of your profile, LinkedIn will ask you to verify your password.) On the right, look under “Personal Information/Email Addresses” and make note of any email addresses associated with the account you are closing. You will want to associate them with the account you are keeping. Note that you must be able to confirm your email address in order to associate it with your account. If you cannot do that, this might make the decision of which profile to keep. Having all of your email addresses associated with your account will help prevent this from happening in the future. Think of all the business cards floating out there that have old email addresses on them!  People want to find you.
8. Finally, if you are ready, under “Settings/Personal Information/Close Account” You can follow the prompts to shut down the account.
9. If you are not able to access the account, you can follow all the steps above that you can, then send a message to customer_service@linkedin.com.  Ask them for help in shutting down the account (provide the public URL) to assist you in staying compliant with the End User License Agreement.

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Yesterday, I received yet another bulk email asking me and everyone else to send the person a LinkedIn invitation. Before you make the same mistake, please read my response below:

Dear ****:

You stated in your original email “Please note as i have exceeded my limit so i can send invitation through email, & once you send me invitation i ll be happy to accept”

The fact that you only have 2,624 connections, and that LinkedIn gives you 3,000 initial invitations leads me to believe that you either have sent a blast (like this one) or that you don’t understand how the system works.

I am responding to all so that everyone who may not be aware will learn also.

So here goes: LinkedIn grants every user a maximum of 3,000 invitations when they register. You are not aware of the limit until you’ve gone through 2,000, at which point you see a countdown of now many invitations you have left. Once you’ve exhausted your supply, you can send a request to LinkedIn to get more invitations every thirty days.

Although the concept of asking permission to send someone an invitation via email is polite, asking them to send you an invitation is not. You are in essence asking someone who doesn’t know you to buy you a cup of coffee.

Another misperception is when you are required to enter an email address to send an invitation. That means that 7 people have indicated in response to your invitations that they didn’t know you. This usually happens when you upload a large database of unrelated people to send invites in bulk. If you send an email to LinkedIn Customer Service [linkedin_support@cs.linkedin.com] – you can ask for the restriction to be removed.

Finally, when you send a group email like this one, please protect other people’s identity and communications by using blind carbon copy (BCC). Again, in the business world, it is considered rude not to do so.

I hope I’ve helped. Please let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to visit our blogs at http://www.rocktheworldbook.com/blog or http://www.integratedblog.com

Best regards,

Lori Ruff | Chief Learning Officer
Lead Social Media Consultant, Speaker, Trainer & Author
IA Social Media | Phone (303) 683-9600
LinkedIn Professional Profile: www.LoriRuff.com
Social Media Presence: www.xeesm.com/LoriRuff
Co-Author: http://www.RockTheWorldBook.com

I received an interesting LinkedIn message today from someone who’s headline reads “SEO & Social Media Expert, Author, Consultant & Blogger!” The message reads as follows (copied exactly – the typos are his own):

Hi,

I am trying to establish mysefl as an expert in eBusiness (Mainly Internet Marketing, SEO & Social Media).

Can you share some advice with me:

What areas have you diversified into?
What one area brings in most revenue?
How do you promote or create awareness of this service or product?

If you could answer my questions i would be eternally grateful.

Thanks in advance,

I am, of course, honored to be asked to assist someone on their journey to become knowledgeable in this field. But touting oneself as an expert when you are clearly not is not only a fabrication and unsupportable, it will ruin your reputation online and off. So what is my answer to this person and others who would seek us out for our expertise to mentor or train or provide advice?

Taking the time to provide insightful answers through type written answers is unrealistic. A phone conversation (or Skype) would be a better start, but even that won’t make you an “expert.” If you look up the term online you’ll learn that it takes 10,000 hours of Experience, not just training or education alone, to become an expert in a given subject matter.

While we purport honestly to be The LinkedIn Rock Stars and LinkedIn and Social Media Marketing Experts (having been active users of the platforms, training and speaking for over 4 years to the tune of more than 400 sessions to over 10,000 participants, you won’t see anyone on our team saying that we are experts on Facebook or Twitter or other “new” platforms. Those platforms are just too new for anyone to have acquired the necessary experience to become true experts. Overall, we consider ourselves to be–and have proven ourselves to be–knowledgeable and experienced in the social media arena to the point where we understand the industry and what is necessary to navigate safely through these ever changing waters for business and personal applications.

That brings to mind the analogy of a ship captain navigating through treacherous waters off the Ivory Coast. While you might have a rookie on the ship to learn, they don’t start in the position of captain and you certainly don’t put the in a position to command or navigate. It takes years of experience in all kinds of situations and in all types of water to do it well, and even some of the most experienced and best captains make costly errors (as evidenced by the number of ships at the bottom of the world’s oceans).

So, the question becomes: Who do you want to help you navigate your ship through the ocean that is social media?

Mike O’Neil, The LinkedIn Rock Star
- Active Charter User since 2004 (among the first 128,000 members), 28,000+ connections and the 27th most connected person on LinkedIn
- Over 280 solid recommendations on LinkedIn (remember that he is in front of a lot of people who have a chance to honestly review his work)
- On Facebook with over 3,500 friends, over 1,000 fans
- On Twitter with @MikeOneilDenver with over 32,000 followers; with @IASocialMedia with over 16,000 followers – and both of those accounts following most of their followers
- A long-time classic rock aficionado having seen over 1,000 concerts (he still has over 500 ticket stubs) – he is authentic to the brand

Lori Ruff, The LinkedIn Diva
- Active LinkedIn User since early 2005 (among the first 3 million members), 14,000+ connections, the 9th most connected woman on LinkedIn
- Over 68 solid recommendations on LinkedIn (remember that I am also in front of a lot of people who have a chance to honestly review my work)
- On Facebook since they were still just in school, with over 3,000 friends
- On Twitter with @LoriRuff with over 33,000 followers; with @LinkedInTrainer with over 21,000 followers – and both of those accounts following most of their followers
- Not enough concerts, but a lover of music and authentic to the brand

or my new friend… who according to his LinkedIn profile has been doing SEO work since July 2009 and a web developer since 2006, with 227 connections, 3 LinkedIn recommendations, and 60 Twitter followers and 26 Tweets, and is now an expert in social media?

I’ll refer back to the cartoon in our book: Rock the World with your Online Presence. In this particular cartoon, a woman is asked what she does. Her answer: “I don’t know, but according to my LinkedIn profile, I’m an expert!”

If you follow the LinkedIn best practices we teach (and many other experts as well), you are making use of most, if not all of the text space that LinkedIn allots in your profile. This is especially important in the Headline, Summary and Specialties – prime real estate.

Well, things just changed and some people will be really scratching their heads on this one. LinkedIn just made a Carriage Return count as 3, yes 3, characters. As LinkedIn and Rock aficionados (see our Rock The World LinkedIn book), we are always “living on the edge” to discover the way for others.

We uncovered this when I went to DELETE a couple of characters and found that my profile was now 24 characters too big as I went to save changes.

Yep.  All those CR’s now count as 3 characters vs. 1 like it has been since LinkedIn was born. LinkedIn is directing people to clump text together vs. spreading it out to make it easier to read. 

Another step backwards that reminds many of the moment LinkedIn limited single invite text to 200 characters and eliminated invite text ENTIRELY when inviting more than 1 person (can you say IDK?).  See related story.

This picture illustrates the point.

I received this question via LinkedIn today. My response follows.  After I hit Send, I realized how often I am asked this or similar questions and thought it prudent to add it as a blog post for people to refer to as they needed rather than waiting for my response. Please tell me if this helps you or someone you know. If we have a positive response, I will likely post similar posts more regularly.

*** message ***

Dear Lori,

I need some advice from you. A 1st contact in my network, who I have met in person, is linked to someone at a company I am interested in for my next career challenge. He has agreed to introduce us.

I want to make the most of this connection. Should I ask for a simple networking meeting or send her a direct application or simply be direct and inform her that I believe I would be a good fit for her company?

Any advice you can share will be most helpful since my experience in job searching has been limited to 1 job in 25 years!

Please contact me at anytime if I may assist you in some way.

Thank you for your time and interest.

 *** response ***

I am happy to help. My first inclination would be to ask for an introduction request through LinkedIn and be honest about asking for an Informational Interview. Let her know you are looking for work at a company like hers and ask if she would be open to an interview to assist you in preparing for the process.

I am confident that she will agree. Most people will. Then, if she has something available, the contact will have been made. And if she knows anyone else you should speak to, she will be more likely to be able to provide a solid introduction having done an intial interview herself.

Be sure to thank each party for their time and consideration. You might send a handwritten note if you have their address. Ask who would be a good referral for them so that you will be aware of potential introductions you can make in your networking travels. And let them know that their efforts on your behalf paid off. People need good news!

Best regards,

Lori Ruff
Lead Social Media Coach
Integrated Alliances

I was just introduced to Facebook Lite by Social Media expert Nick Armstrong.  This may be just what the doctor ordered for seemingly 90% of the people out there that are frustrated by the sheer complexity of  its Big Brother – the tiny icon’s, the terminology, the options, the hidden this and that.

What’s the difference?  Streamlined screens, no Facebook applications, shortened lists of options, CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN!

Give it a try.  It works off the original Facebook profile, Friends list, etc.  It seems to be 100% interchangeable.

Behind the scenes?  It runs on Java and AJAX according to Armstrong.  That means faster loading, faster operation, faster satisfaction.  I can TOTALLY attest to that.

Give it a try.  It’s really easy.   Simply go to www.lite.facebook.com vs www.facebook.com.

I had an interesting conversation today with an attorney who has a particularly strong local network of friends, clients, and professional contacts. We discussed whether or not he needed to invest his time by participating in the LinkedIn community.  It was a good conversation about the return on investment for a well-established professional who typically receives recommendations from tier 1 connections. These people are called upon by friends to provide a reference to someone they would trust with their own legal needs so the referral is usually a solid one.

We concluded that, at this time, it really doesn’t make sense for him to invest time, money and effort into joining LinkedIn, writing a profile, and building a network.  Will we come to the same conclusion with every client we engage in this conversation? I doubt it. But for at least some people, the time for inclusion is not yet upon them.

When the time is right, he knows who he can call for honest advice about if and when and how much to be engaged in the online community. And if you need someone to talk to about it, give me a call. I’ll treat you with the same poise and respect that I offered him.

There have been many instances of individuals getting suspended or even booted off LinkedIn for a variety of reasons. Usually it is more of a temporary suspension rather than a true booting, but I know of several very high profile cases where they are here no more and it seems to be very much on the rise.

In one case I am sure it cost the individual hundreds of thousands of dollars as he was a very successful, high profile recruiter (and still is for the most part). I prefer to respect the individuals privacy, but the big LinkedIn users amongst us probably know those whom I am referring to. 

Click here to see the LinkedIn End User License Agreement.  It will scare you.  In a later post, I will pick it apart and show you where the real dangers are.  In our LinkedIn training and consulting business (3 years now) we have to pay close attention to these things.

Do you have a story to tell about getting suspended, removed, severely restricted or some other unusual level of “badness” concerning your LinkedIn account?  I do not mean “5 IDK’s and you are restricted” types of infractions.  I have been restricted 7 times for IDK violations on my way to building a LinkedIn network of over 25,000.  It just happens and it is considered “collateral damage” by those of us with large networks.

Please share your story about what you did to get in the situation, what happened to you and what the end result was.  Some advice concerning lessons learned would be appreciated by all.

I’ve received several calls since last week from people whose LinkedIn accounts were suspended. Every now and then, LinkedIn really cracks down on users who violate one or another aspect of the EULA (End User License Agreement – last updated January 22, 2009). It is quite unnerving to log into your account and see this…

If you see this, don't panic!

In my case, I had an outstanding invoice for advertising. Of course, it would have been nice to have been told about this invoice. I have yet to find any evidence of it. Looking at your advertising account is separate from your LinkedIn Accounts & Settings. I contacted customer service but, even though I am a paid subscriber, I have not received the usual 24-hour reply. But this post is about what to do when your account is suspended.

If this happens to you, Don’t Panic! Simply click the text in blue that says “Please contact customer service”. (Of  course, it does not look like a link, but it is different color test than the surrounding text.) You will be taken to a form field to request information and you should receive a reply within 24 hours. You can then addresss the violation and ask to be reinstated. If you are unsure what to do, contact us here at IA and we’ll be happy to try to help.

This scare tactic is being applied even to the most savvy users who inadvertently–or overtly–violate one or another of LinkedIn’s rules, including me and LinkedIn Expert, Viveka von Rosen. So “don’t panic”, it is not “the end of the world as we know it”, rather a reality check that when LinkedIn says to follow a  rule, they mean it.

This is one of the best kept secrets to network building there is and I am releasing it to the public. It is one of the ways that the big people got big and continue to outpace their peers.

With the right knowledge, it is possible to create a link or a button that, when someone else clicks on it, they initiate the process to invite you. This builds your network passively (people invite you all the time with no effort from you) and it conserves your valuable, limited invitations. This powerful link (URL really) does all of the following:

• Takes that person to LinkedIn and signs them in
• Does a search and located YOU so you can be invited
• Opens their invitation screen with your name pre-selected
• Shows them your e-mail address which may be needed in some instances

Still, there are a few things that you must know:

1. Your LinkedIn ID number
2. A confirmed E-Mail address associated with your account
3. Correct spelling of your First Name and Last Name on your LinkedIn profile

Seems pretty easy doesn’t it. But wait.

Just how do you find out what your ID number is?  See our prior blog post to find out what your LinkedIn ID number is.  It can look a little like programming at first glance. It really is simple though. Just replace MY information with YOUR information. This then becomes a hyperlink. You can see that my LinkedIn User ID is 125841.

http://www.linkedin.com/inviteFromProfile?from=profile&key=125841&firstName=Mike+O’Neil+-+moneil@integratedalliances.com

An explanation of what you are seeing. 

125841  is the Profile Key, essentially your LinkedIn User ID.  They are sequential so you can see that I was an early adopter of LinkedIn (January 14, 2004).

Mike+O’Neil+-+ is the first name and some extra characters to indicate “and” in the search.

moneil@integratedalliances.com is the e-mail adress.  It does not have to be primary.

This is what it looks like: 

It really isn’t a link you want to show anyone so you want to make it a hyperlink with other text like “Click here” or with a picture or logo.

Try this to see what I mean – Invite Mike

or

Click on the picture at left

or

Purchase a vanity domain name to foward to the link you have created (i.e., http://www.linktomike.com).

It was too good to be true.  Put a clickable URL in over here, put an e-mail address over there.  It’s just like all the other systems.  Yes, the http:// part is a bit of a hassle.

Well, LinkedIn has changed the game. As of now, users can no longer put a clickable link in an E-Mail Invitation.  You are warned in bright Red language when you try (“We’re sorry, you cannot include website addresses in Invitations. Please remove the website information.“). It will not let you SEND with this information included. I have tried the http:// with a space after it and the system does not reject it, but it is not clickable either.

At this point, this feature removal is limited to just Invitations. Messages, Forwards, Replies, InMails, Introductions all seem to be unaffected at this time.

I am swamped with questions about LinkedIn’s recent change to a generic-only invitation process.  I have done some investigation looking at it from the most common situations.

Specifically, it seems to occur when inviting an individual from their LinkedIn Profile.  There is no longer a customized invitation capability available.

Another situation is not affected. If you have their e-mail address, you can still click on the green Add Connections button and use the 6 per page inviting process.  Just put in one person.  The Add Message field is still fully operational there.

It sounds like there is a bug. LinkedIn knows about problem and here is what they say:

“Let me start by saying that I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced. Please know that we are fully aware of this issue and have a team of dedicated, highly qualified individuals who are working diligently to resolve this. I appreciate your patience and encourage you to continue to use the other great products and features on LinkedIn.”

Stay tuned for updates as they become known.

Update:

I logged into LinkedIn yesterday and the bug was fixed.  However, I also had a message that my account was dangerously close to being restricted because several people responded “I Don’t Know Lori”. Perhaps this was caused by an inability to send a cusom invite message. After all, I am finding people I knew years ago when I lived in Charlotte and looked much different than I do now.  So I sent a message to customer service asking for help.

Sure enough, to prove my point, this morning I received a response from an old colleague who apologized for “clicking ‘I Don’t Know’ you, but then I went back and looked at your profile and saw that we had worked in the same” non-profit organization together.  She then gave me an update on what she’s doing now and asked me to join her network.

So, I took a screen shot and sent it to customer service as proof. Today though, my account is restricted and I await the forgiveness of the LinkedIn customer service team before I can fully operate in my account again.

Special Preview from Mike O’Neil’s upcoming LinkedIn book…

How to ROCK THE WORLD with an

ultimate on-line presence

Your roadmap to a multi-platinum LinkedIn Profile

“Take it to the Limit” – Eagles
“One toke over the line” – Brewer and Shipley (yep, remember them?)

With but a few exceptions, everything in LinkedIn has its limits. We thought it might be a good exercise to put the Profile limits all in one place.

We suggest that in terms of characters used, you should “take it to the limit where we indicate below with an asterisk (*). Fortunately, LinkedIn will, in most cases, tell you when you are “one toke over the line” and tell you just how many characters you are over the limit. It is even in nice red text so you really can’t miss it.

For example, paste your text into your summary text box, click on “Save” and you will get an error message that will tell you that have used 2,050 characters and you are only allowed 2,000. It won’t let you save it until you comply with the limits. Numbers indicate the maximum number of characters that are allowed.

Number of Profiles you can have – legally 1, technically there is no limit

First Name – 20
Last Name – 40
Former/Maiden Name – 40

Headline – 120
Web site URL Anchor Text (or label) – 20
Status field – 140
Public Profile URL – 46

Summary – 2,000
Specialties – 500

Number of Companies – unlimited
Company Name – 100
Position (Job) Title – 100
Position Description – 2,000

Number of Educational Institutions – unlimited
Education/Degree – 100
Education/Fields of study – 100
Education/Activities and Societies – 500
Education/Additional Notes – 1,000

Number of recommendations – unlimited
Number of characters in a recommendation – more than you should ever use!

Interests – 1,000
Groups and Associations – 1,000
Honors and Awards – 1,000

Contact Settings – 1,000+ (if you go over in this field, it simply will not save your changes. The most we have seen is 1,195 characters, but the total is less than 2,000)

Mike O’Neil’s about-to-be-published book, “How to ROCK THE WORLD with an ultimate on-line presence: Your roadmap to a multi-platinum LinkedIn Profile” includes a handy reference of just how much space you have for each field of your Linkedin Profile.  There is some very insightful stuff to be gleaned, such as how important LinkedIn believes each section is based on how much real estate they give it.

So we’ve preached about how you have 2,000 characters available for your Summary; did you know that you also have an additional 2,000 characters for the description of each job description? In addition to 100 characters each for Company Name and Position Title, there’s a lot of space to pack in as much Search Engine Optimized (SEO) words and phrases as possible to help you be found by customers or recruiters.

Check out my Linkedin Profile to see an example of how these spaces can be really used to their fullest. I have 1,920 characters in my Summary, exactly 500 in specialties and 1,611 in my experience description for Integrated Alliances.  All of it is keyword-rich and findable by potential customers and partners.

Now, combine that information with my recent column about how to pack that space with all the right elements and you too can have a rockin’ profile worthy of an encore!  Read the full article full of helpful tips here: http://budurl.com/experience.

This is an update to our original post from May 6. The original post was focused exclusively on simple, “in your face”, ways to get an idea of the relative expertise of  a “self-proclaimed” LinkedIn Expert or Social Media Expert.

We are well aware that there are many other factors that fill in this picture and the blog post comments below are very good at explaining what some of the “analog” methods might be.

The purpose of this post was to get a quickie look at some things that might give a brief indication, vs. exhaustive test, of relative suitability for speaking or consulting.  As such, we have modernized the post.

——

There seems to appear a new self-proclaimed Social Media Expert, LinkedIn Expert or Twitter Expert about every hour or two. They shout it out, present what might be their first Webinars or presentations and seem to forget that the world can see whether or not this is true.

One’s profile and network size are among the truest indicators of expertise. Profiles because they are the root of it all and Network Size because it is a skill that must be learned yourself before it can be taught to others.

Here are some things that you can do to see if these claims are brick solid or a house of cards about to fall under their own weighty claims.

LinkedIn:

• Is their name clean, free of non-name text like an e-mail address? Should be preaching good housekeeping.
• Do they have an appropriate photo?  Any photo at all?  Basic 101 requirement
• Is their Profile Complete?  They can’t teach you completeness if they are not complete.
• Do they list websites and are they not defaulted to “My Company” ?  This is basic customization any expert should know and know well. A true expert will show 3 Web sites that list a Twitter site, a facebook page or some mother social media location.
• Is the Personal URL to their Profile customized?  Random characters in the profile URL are a red flag.
• Does their Summary reflect their abilities?  This is their brochure.  Does it make you want to buy?
• Do they even have Specialties listed?  Often overlooked by basic users but not Experts.
• Are Jobs and Education listed all the way back with real data included?  SEO basics they should be practicing.
• Are the Interests and Groups/Associations sections completed and “formatted” ?  The strategic use of comma’s is critical and experts know this.  Hover over the words here and you will see.
• Are they a member of any LinkedIn Groups?  How many?  More than 20?  Groups are critical in LinkedIn circa 2009.
• Does their Contact settings area tell you how to reach them?  They should know this.
• How big is their network?  If it isn’t at 500+ you can stop right there…..  Experts without a following and not experts.
• True LinkedIn experts cannot have small networks. It is a demonstration of their following and their network buiolding skills.  Should be 2,000+ and state it somewhere.
• Are their connections being shared?  Blocking off connection sharing is only OK for a select few, not for Experts

Twitter:

• Is their Twitter ID something that makes sense?  It should be their name or their company or something else that is strategic.
• Can you find them when you search Twitter (try their name)?  Findable or not?  Do you want to be found?
• Do they have an appropriate photo?  Simple best practice for business users.
• How many Followers do they have? Should be 1,000 or more at the least!
• How many others are they following? Should be within 10% of the Followers – basic Twitter strategy.
• How many Updates have they done? Should be well over 500.
• Does their Twitter profile tell you what they do? Free of mis-spellings?   Include URL?

These are the requirements for a B-level Social Media Expert, LinkedIn Expert or Twitter Expert. Maybe we will do a posting for an A-level Expert sometime (see the A-level players below).

We suggest you use this as a litmus test to gauge your experts. Here a few we recommend you look at.

Check out these true LinkedIn and Social Media Experts:

Mike O’Neil, Denver, 22,000 connections, 5,000 followers
www.linkedin.com/in/mikeoneil – Twitter @mikeoneildenver

Viveka von Rosen, Ft. Collins, 9,000 connections, 10,000 followers
www.linkedin.com/in/LinkedInExpert – Twitter @linkedinexpert

Lori Ruff, Denver & Charlotte, 8,000 connections, 4,000 followers
www.linkedin.com/in/loriruff – Twitter @loriruff

Dave Westfall, Denver, 10,000 connections, 2,000 followers
www.linkedin.com/in/davewestfall - Twitter @davewestfall

Dave Reingold, New Jersey, 5,000 connections
www.linkedin.com/in/davereingold

Ed Riefenstahl, Ft. Worth, 5,000 connections
www.linkedin.com/in/edriefenstahl

Valeria Riefenstahl, Ft. Worth, 4,000 connections
www.linkedin.com/in/valeriefiefenstahl

Brad Hanks, Denver, 14,000 connections, 4,000 followers
www.linkedin.com/in/bradhanks – Twitter @bradhanks

Rich Fiene, Minneapolis, 12,000 connections, 1,000 followers
www.linkedin.com/in/richfiene – Twitter @richfiene

Lonny Gulden, Minneapolis, 9,000 connections
www.linkedin.com/in/lonnygulden

Neal Schaffer, Los Angeles, 15,000 connections, 13,000 followers
www.linkedin.com/in/nealschaffer – Twitter @nealschaffer

Patrick O’Malley, Boston, 10,000 connections, 2,000 followers
www.linkedin.com/in/patrickomalley – Twitter @617patrick

Lewis Howes, Columbus, 5,000 connections, 6,000 followers
www.linkedin.com/in/lewishowes – Twitter @lewishowes

Miles Austin, Seattle, 5,000 connections, 1,500 followers
www.linkedin.com/in/milesaustin – Twitter @milesaustin

Integrated Alliances Web Site

Dan Schawbel of Gen-Y has a terrific post entitled “6 Reasons You Shouldn’t Brand Yourself as a Social Media Expert” that goes very well with this topic.  See the post

Listen carefully to the experts, even if you are one yourself. They not only have the knowledge that can help you, but they have the life experiences to back it up. A number of Colorado’s leading LinkedIn Experts and Social Media Experts gathered in Denver on Sat. June 6 at a special National Speakers Association (NSA) training session featuring on-line marketing.

The Denver Athletic Club played host to Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert Heather Lutze, founder of The Findability Group. She started the day off with a roar!  Being an authority on LinkedIn Expert myself (We have trained 7,000 people in 400 LinkedIn training sessions), I wasn’t sure that I would learn much.  Boy was I wrong. I came home with 5 pages of notes.  Being an expert and being a great speaker often do NOT go hand in hand.

Viveka von Rosen, a fellow LinkedIn Expert (@LinkedInExpert), and I (@MikeOneilDenver) are taking a new approach to our LinkedIn names as a result.  Viveka is now “Viveka von Rosen: LinkedIn Expert & Speaker“.  Her LAST NAME is entered as “von Rosen: LinkedIn Expert & Speaker”.  It is still searchable in LinkedIn, and Google supposedly likes it a whole lot more. See how it looks on Viveka’s LinkedIn profile.

I am trying a slightly different approach.  I put “the LinkedIn Expert” as my former or maiden name so I am now “Mike (the LinkedIn Expert) O’Neil”. See how it looks on my profile.

We will both be independently reporting on how this LinkedIn search and Google search works out and will pray that the forces of the mighty LinkedIn do not come down upon us.  See Viveka’s blog post on this topic.  She has a wealth of other great information on her www.LinkedIntoBusiness.com blog site.

Also “on the bill” Saturday as a co-headliner was Steve Spangler of Steve Spangler Science.  Steve is well known to the public from his 9News appearances showing interesting science experiments.  See Steve blowing up soda bottles with 9News reporter Kim Christianson.  It has had over 1.5 million views!

Unless the profile belongs to a job seeker who understands that they need to show potential employers their skills and talents, many LinkedIn profiles are lacking in a very important area, experience. Showing on the profile below Summary, Specialties and any plug-ins may give one a false sense of security. However, the important point is that by including as much employment history as possible makes one more findable.

Here’s why. Many people are found on LinkedIn because of keyword searches. A profile robust in keywords and phrases is much more findable. So, with 2,000 characters available for each position added, a profile well built-out is much more findable than one just listing previous employer and title.

People ask what should be included. After all, this is the area of LinkedIn that is most like a resume.  That may be so, and it is important that positions correlate with ones resume. However, being found is the most critical focus of this section. So here’s the methodology practiced at IA and recommended to our clients by the most experienced LinkedIn business strategist in the world, IA Founder, Mike O’Neil.

Answer these five questions when completing each position:

1. Who is the Company?

• For example, not everyone realizes that ACN is a distributor of video phones

2. What do they do?

• To carry forward the example, ACN distributes video phones and sells internet-based telecommunications solutions

3. Where do they do it?

• Nationwide, Regional, Locally?

4. Who do they do it for?

• Individuals or Companies, B2B, B2C, etc. What does a customer look like?

5. What is your role at the company; what makes you special?

• Briefly describe your responsibilities and one or two special achievements

This methodology is proven time and again in conversations with recruiters and employers who want to know that potential candidates have what they are looking for. It is also proven by sales, marketing and business development professionals who want to show potential customers that they and their company has the experience needed to get the job done.

For more information: check out Mike O’Neil’s LinkedIn Profiles Guide.

In the LinkedIn and social media training we do, we always seem to get asked about the status function and if one status update might cover all three, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter statusing is really at the heart of it all. Statuses (Tweets) from here can feed LinkedIn, Facebook and a long list of other social media platforms by using tools like Ping.fm.  But, because you CAN share the status, does that mean you SHOULD?

This is what we do here at Integrated Alliances.  Maybe it will work for you:

Do NOT use a status utility to feed all three.  They have different purposes in terms of what types of information. I think you might want to try the following strategies.

LinkedIn statusing  is best for activities that have a 1 week to 1 month horizon.  It is not a real time statusing system, although you could do that if you liked. One other problem is that LinkedIn inserts your name at the beginning of the status statement. For example, on Twitter you might send:

“At the Denver Metro Chamber event meeting lots of new downtown business partners, Brown Palace, goes until 10.”

Whereas in LinkedIn it becomes:

“ Mike At the Denver Metro Chamber event meeting lots of new downtown business partners, Brown Palace, goes until 10.”

 Facebook statusing is generally for activities that are on the 1 day to 1 week horizon.  It works out well getting the feed from Twitter. People often comment on my Tweets right on my Facebook wall. This allows me to see and reply quickly to each comment.

So, how might actual status messages differ?

Some good examples of status updates for LinkedIn:

• “Meeting with new customers from India, never thought that there would be more English speaking people there than in the US.”
• “Looking for C++ programmers for 6 month project, data architect and coders needed. http://www.tinyurl.com/Tcsw3“

Some good examples of status updates for  Facebook:

• “Taste of Colorado this weekend. Opie Gone Bad hits the main stage at 3:30 on Sunday. Look for me in front.  I’ll be dancin”.
• “Scored big – touring the commercial studio where they make 9News commercials, excited to meet Adele Arakawa, heard she races Porche’s.”

Some good examples of Twitter Tweets (status updates):

• Hazel Miller band rockin’ the house at the Taste of Colorado, tunes from the new album.
• At National Speaker Association event watching @klutze, knows her stuff. @stevespangler is up next – Learning how to do a YouTube Channel.
• At #SXSW with my East Coast Buds, hitting 6th Street tonight for the VIP party, end up at Chili Willy’s.