Blog Archives
7 Essential Back to College Applications
Well, at the University of Wyoming, courses are in full session. With that in mind, here are my recommendations for applications that I believe all students should have close at hand. These applications were chosen based on versatility and accessibility. All of these applications and Web programs can be reached from desktop computers as well as mobile devices. Personally, I would recommend loading the applications on all your devices so you can reach them from home, work, school, and on the road. Read the rest of this entry
Getting more out of LinkedIn
When I talk with folks about social media, I usually recommend four basic tools: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a rolodex on steroids and is used for professional networking. As with most applications, its power is enhanced with the use of third party tools. LinkedIn is no different. With third party tools, I have gotten more out of LinkedIn. Here are some of the tools that I use and recommend.
LinkedIn for Outlook
LinkedIn for Outlook is a plug-in for Outlook that links to LinkedIn. When added, it enhances Outlook with a LinkedIn tie in. Here are some of the features:
- When you select a message to read, you will also have an additional window showing the individual’s image with a link back to LinkedIn to see their profile and activity. If they are not part of LinkedIn, there is a link to invite them. If there are multiple people in the message, they will be listed.
- Within the contacts folder, there is a new grouping of just LinkedIn contacts. These are all of your contacts from LinkedIn. You can email them directly from Outlook.
When crafting message, it is a nice way to see what has been previously written as well as what activity they have had.
InMaps
Basically, InMaps allows you to visualize the connections you have in LinkedIn. The image above is my LinkedIn network. The dark blue is Civil Air Patrol, the orange is UW Extension, the green is University of Wyoming, the gold is the Bujinkan, the light blue is Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and the grey is ASTD Northern Rockies Chapter. You can see your connections by going to LinkedIn InMaps.
Evernote Hello
Evernote Hello is a mobile tool that helps with relationship management. By building your contacts with Evernote Hello, you can leverage the power of both Evernote and LinkedIn. When you add a new contact, it searches LinkedIn to see if they exist, and pulls information from LinkedIn to help populate the new contact. As the site mentions, “Hello automatically brings in related information about the people you meet from your calendar, Evernote account, online networks, and more.” If you log each encounter with a person, you can develop a rich profile on them. Evernote Hello is backed up through Evernote.
TripIt
TripIt is a tool that will let you create an itinerary for your trip to include times, locations, and important phone numbers. These details can be accessed from multiple devices. TripIt will also sync with your favorite calendar programs. I just discovered today that I can mail my confirmation messages to TripIt and they will automatically be posted to my itinerary. If you are interested in sharing your experiences with others, you can post your itineraries to your favorite social media sites like LinkedIn.
SlideShare
Slideshare is another program that I get a lot of mileage out of. Basically, I post all of my presentations on Slideshare for others to see. Once they are posted, they automatically show up on my LinkedIn profile. There are also options to see presentations posted by fellow LinkedIn’ers.
WordPress
Finally, if you are a blogger, you can connect your blog to LinkedIn. In my case, I connect my WordPress Blog to LinkedIn to automatically share new posts. My personal goal is to share everything I create. Being able to do it automatically removes one more thing to do from my list. Wordpress has plug-ins for making these connections.
All of these third party applications help to both disseminate information to my connections as well as help me stay in contact smartly with my connections.
Are you using any other applications to leverage LinkedIn? If so, I would love to know about them.
#ASTD2013 Linkedin Networking for Crazy Busy Professionals: Wendy Terwelp
The first real presentation for ASTD 2013 was Linkedin Networking for Crazy Busy Professionals given by Wendy Terwelp. She did a great job talking about the importance of LinkedIn in your career, and how to get more out of LinkedIn.
As Terwelp pointed out, Linkedin is useful for building careers and selling products. Approximately 73% of recruiters successfully hired a candidate because of LinkedIn. An important lesson learned is that if you are not on LinkedIn, a recruiter cannot find you. Linkedin shows up on page one of a Google search. It is not an option to be on social media:
- Recruiters will look at linkedin before looking at a resume.
- People will Google you and look at your LinkedIn profile before meeting with you.
Profiles
During the presentation, Terwelp had us make updates to our LinkedIn profiles. Before we did, she instructed us to turn off activity broadcasts before making multiple updates. Before making updates to our profile, she had us collect business cards from those around us. It was interesting that no one had a picture on their business cards. Lesson learned: 97% of communication is visual. Having a current color picture on your LinkedIn profile helps with the know, like, and trust factor. People tend to remember faces they have seen. However, not having a picture on your LinkedIn profile detracts from from your credibility.
Next on the list, we reviewed and tweaked our headlines. Check out Terwelp’s headline for an example that she recommended. She advocated for including your personal email address to be used rather than your business email address… just in case you change jobs on short notice.
Terwelp had us enhance our profiles with the various LinkedIn tools such as Publications, Skills and Expertise, and Certifications, etc. She recommended highlighting presentations and clips of training; basically, building a portfolio. She stressed that we are CEOs of ourselves; we have to manage our own brand.
Build Your Network
Terwelp moved onto networks and invitations. She stressed to only add individuals whom you know and trust because this is your professional network and brand. I totally agree with this advice. When sending out invitations, it is important to customize your invitation by explaining how you know the individual. Canned invitations raise suspicion and lack of sincerity.
The conversation moved to receiving invitations. Terwelp noted that you do not have to accept invitations. She advised the following when you do not recall the individual:
- Look at their profile. Do they have value added content? Do they have a picture?
- Look at shared groups. Are they members of shared groups?
- Look at shared connections. Do they have shared connections with you? How many?
- If you want to know more, you can call someone to learn more.
- You can also reply to the individual without accepting the invitation.
Groups
First order of business – join the ASTD National group. It is possible to join up to 50 different groups. Terwelp recommended selecting groups that focused on audiences that you wished to target as well as groups relevant to your clients. One of the significant benefits of groups is the ability to send messages to individuals in your group as well as the ability to invite them to connect.
I need look into the interest of creating a group for University of Wyoming Extension.
Skills Endorsements and Recommendations
Terwelp also addressed skill endorsements and recommendations. She began with skill endorsements. Skill endorsements are a new feature for LinkedIn. They have less importance than a recommendation but are nice to give if you know about an individual’s performance.
Recommendations on the other hand are testimonials about your performance. You should solicit recommendations from your clients, vendors, coworkers, and bosses. As trainers, you should also solicit endorsements from learners. When asking for a recommendation ask for a specific recommendation… let people know what you would like to be recommended for. You should not only ask for recommendations but also give recommendations. Terwelp challenged us to identify 3 people to receive recommendations from, and 3 to give recommendations to.
Do one thing a day
Terwelp pointed out that it does not take much time to tend to your LinkedIn profile and contacts. You should touch base with your network on a regular basis. Here are some recommendations:
- Endorse or recommend someone
- Invite someone to join your network
- Update your status
- Congratulate someone for their accomplishments
If you are interested in learning more, you can always check out Wendy Terwelp’s book: Rock your network.
Wendy Terwelp can be reached in a number of different ways:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/wendyterwelp
- Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wendyterwelp
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wendyterwelp
- Website: http://knocks.com
As a bonus, here are some LinkedIn tools that will extend your experience.
tubarks 