Whenever I talk about the types of users on LinkedIn there are always people that look sheepishly at their shoes as they embarrassingly recognise themselves. That’s not something to worry about – it’s great as now you can evolve and move forwards. You need to think about how you want to be seen, where and […]

I am often asked if I have a guide of what a “good” profile looks like, and I often send people towards our Profile test and our How good are you at using LinkedIn test as these should get you thinking. If you wanted a quick guide your profile should have: Professional Headshot: Having a […]

LinkedIn has become a critical business tool and as such I often receive notes asking how to back up the connections on a LinkedIn account for a variety of reasons. It might be that you’re: trying to extract all the details to populate a customer relationship management (CRM) system. adding them to a mailing program […]

In our previous blog we shared five things to consider when moving towards more success on LinkedIn, but there are so many we had to do a part two – so here’s another five things to look at to make your LinkedIn more successful. Inbound invites – With increased visibility you will find there is […]

At the beginning of 2023 the number of people globally on LinkedIn sits at over 900,000,000, and we expect to see this figure increase as the year progresses as more and more people join LinkedIn every day as LinkedIn is THE business networking site to be on. We like to keep an eye on how […]

How do I know what people might enjoy? How do I make it go viral? How do I come across well? As a thought leader / smart etc? I don’t want to say the wrong thing. These are some of the worries we hear a lot from people about what is stopping them from posting […]

How often have you had a message on LinkedIn come in and think I need to do that .. and then have to scroll through and struggle to find it later? Well fear no more, LinkedIn has released stars. We’ve always had the option to mark messages as unread but now there is a new […]

We’ve all sent a message and then realised, just after we’ve hit send, that it has an error or typo in it – grrr. The good news is that you can edit messages that you have sent and it is a really simple process. 1) Go to the messages 2) Click on the message you […]

We’re always researching and analysing trends and behaviours across LinkedIn and annually we review the industries globally and thought we’d share the current top ten. Since last time we did the research LinkedIn has undertaken a radical overhaul of its industry categories going from 148 to 439! But within that they have also created some […]

Too many people “do” LinkedIn without pausing to reflect on why they’re doing it and what they want to get out of it, which might impact the approach they are taking to LinkedIn in the first place! Hence, they often become unsure of what a good LinkedIn result or outcome might be, hence this first […]

When you first chose to activate your LinkedIn Creator mode, LinkedIn would have asked you for the five hashtags of things you talk about so that it could highlight these at the top of your profile (as you can see highlighted below): But sometimes you find better hashtags, you evolve what you offer and hence […]

On most social media there is the concept of being followed, where someone chooses to hear from you or see your content regularly, and LinkedIn is no different. Some users will even select “Follow” as their primary option or choose to use LinkedIn in Creator mode as they want to use LinkedIn to build an […]

I think most of us have had the situation where we bump into someone, and they say, “Did you see my LinkedIn post on X?” And we didn’t, despite the fact we know and like them – we’re pretty sure LinkedIn never showed it to us, right? Well, you might be right, it might not […]

We’re all human and we all make mistakes sometimes, but why is it we only spot those mistakes after we’ve hit the post button on LinkedIn? Dang it! There’s nothing worse but fear not for there is an easy fix for whatever has happened. First some thinking: Is the mistake material enough to change? After […]

You might not have spotted on your LinkedIn company page but a little while ago LinkedIn gave you the option to stick (or “pin” in LinkedIn speak) an update to the top of your page of update posts to give it maximum exposure. If you click the little three grey dots beside any company page […]

It so important to have your current focus role first in your experience section. f you have more than one role (present is how LinkedIn describes them, but you and I might say current roles) then LinkedIn makes the most recent addition to your experience your primary role. Hence when you post, comment, or interact […]

It has been a frustration for businesses and brands on LinkedIn that they couldn’t get more involved with interactions throughout the LinkedIn ecosystem, as opposed to just on their own business page and LinkedIn appears to have listened. They recently announced the ability for super admins of business pages to interact on any post and […]

LinkedIn has released lead contact forms for the company page on LinkedIn. A small step towards making business pages even more useful in the marketing mix. Company pages have always played a secondary role within LinkedIn to be a hub for the content that staff can share, a point of reference for potential clients, building […]

I am often asked “Why can’t I have two profiles on LinkedIn?” There are a few dimensions to this: Firstly, it breaks LinkedIn terms of service, and hence you risk both profiles being removed! Secondly, there are implications for you: 1) That great network that you have now, how do you migrate that and its […]

Following our blog about how you can control who sees your posts, you can also decide who can comment on a post, delete a comment or disable comments completely. This was originally brought into LinkedIn as a way for those companies with a less than ideal reputation to stop any less positive comments being left […]

We’ve written a blog in the past looking at things you can write an update post on LinkedIn about (https://thelinkedinman.com/what-should-i-say-on-update-posts-on-linkedin/), and now we would like to tell you how you can control who sees what you post. When you start to create a post, you can select who you want to see the post by […]

You might have wondered what those little symbols beside your LinkedIn messages mean, but often they pass us by unnoticed. LinkedIn has quietly been giving you both delivery and read receipts, but you may not have noticed before. When you look at a message you have sent, and it has a tick beside it, that […]

LinkedIn has become the de facto platform for all business professionals on the planet and today it turns 19! Not many appreciate its scale, roots, the journey it has taken and where it came from. Today LinkedIn has over 830 million users globally, with 30.8 million of those in the UK. It operates in over […]

A campaign from Virgin’s founder Richard Branson has seen “Dyslexic Thinking” added as a new and valuable skill on LinkedIn in the last week. The campaign, simply called “Dyslexic Thinking,” was run alongside charity Made by Dyslexia aimed to improve the understanding of neurodivergence. From our side we have constantly seen a stream of Dyslexic […]

One of the most common questions I get asked about LinkedIn profiles is what to write in the About section, and hence this blog will give you a little guidance and some pointers. There are two core narrative sections in your LinkedIn profile – ‘About’ (about you) and ‘Experience’ (about your work). It is important […]

LinkedIn are finally rolling out the ability for users to add a Career Break to their profile, the idea being that, rather than having a gap in your work experience history if you have taken a break from work, you can now choose the Career Break option, select an option to describe the reason for […]

Following on from our blog about the industries across LinkedIn globally, we have now looked at the industries in the UK only and thought we’d share the current top ten. Since we last did a review in November 2020 the only changes in the top ten are that Hospitals & Healthcare have moved from 2nd […]

We’ve all done it, got excited about a new platform, added it to our LinkedIn and proudly shown off that Twitter logo for years. Now a few years on we might not be so active, so present, and hence it might be time to take that Twitter link off our LinkedIn profile – but how? […]

We’ve analysed the industries across LinkedIn globally and thought we’d share the current top ten. It’s interesting to note that the top 8 haven’t moved places at all since we last did a review in November 2020. The only change this time around is that Higher Education (previously in 10th place) and Automotive (previously in […]

After many years LinkedIn has finally added in the ability to remove a connection directly from your LinkedIn homepage feed on the pc and laptop versions – not yet available on mobile I am afraid. If you see a post and think that perhaps you no longer want to see what this person is posting, […]

Not everyone wants LinkedIn to be the same, so LinkedIn increasingly supports different ways of using it and different approaches and the latest episode of this is Dark Mode. Not some ominous film, but the ability to choose a light (white) or dark (black) user experience and you get to choose. You can either specify […]

As of the end of September LinkedIn has finally killed off the LinkedIn stories function. They are continually reviewing the functions that people use and this element always felt at odds to what people are trying to use LinkedIn for, and hence it wasn’t widely adopted so in the latest iteration it has been cancelled […]

When I am booked to do a keynote talk there is often a theme to the event and recently I got thrown a curve ball as it was the colour purple! Whilst it made me scratch my head for a few minutes I found a way to bring it into the talk and ran some […]

Previously, when someone died, the only option on LinkedIn to deal with their LinkedIn profile (assuming you had authority to act on their behalf) was to request for it to be closed which meant their profile was no longer searchable or visible on LinkedIn and, whilst it was a solution, it wasn’t ideal as it […]

We’ve all been there; something doesn’t work as we think it should or it’s broken and we need help. With LinkedIn the trouble starts when you try to find a human to help you. Hmm… none to be seen it appears. But once you know how, logging a call with LinkedIn is quite straightforward. Just […]

In previous blogs we’ve told you about the introduction of Cover Story and Gender pronouns, this time we are looking at the roll out of Creator Mode for all profiles. This is part of the increasing duality of how different types of users want to use LinkedIn – do they want to be media famous […]

LinkedIn uses a proprietary algorithm to present search results to each individual user and no one knows exactly how it works, but we do know you can influence where you appear by doing some simple things with your LinkedIn profile. Below are some ideas for improving how you appear in the people search results on […]

Another recent addition to LinkedIn is the service page which according to LinkedIn is a “dedicated landing pages that showcase your services and businesses at no cost.” The idea is that this free tool will help your business get discovered on LinkedIn by its members and anyone outside of LinkedIn searching for your services via […]

You might have already noticed that some users on LinkedIn are using the new, optional gender pronouns field at the top of the Profile which will be displayed next to your name, but you might have been wondering how they do it or perhaps why? Simply put, gender pronouns are the words we use to […]

LinkedIn recently announced a new tool called Cover Story – not yet available in the UK but slowly rolling out globally. It is aimed at helping users share their professional skills via an introductory video within their profiles. The idea of the video Cover Story is to give you the opportunity to personalise your profile […]

When you turn 18 it is the official end of your childhood and the beginning of adulthood and that feels like an appropriate view for LinkedIn. After officially starting on the 5th May 2003 it was on a mission to “connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful” and it has certainly […]

We’ve often wondered what the average number of profile views on LinkedIn was. This was prompted by peoples’ assumptions that their LinkedIn was working well for them as “some” people had looked at them (this number varied wildly!). So, we took on a mission to do a little research. Individuals taking part in the research […]

An increasingly important aspect of your LinkedIn profile are recommendations as they can make a big and positive difference to your online reputation when someone looks you up or does their due diligence. Recommendations are reflections of the good work you have done, the impact you’ve had on people and the positive things people say […]

A while ago LinkedIn introduced the option to opt-in to making “Follow” the primary action on your profile rather than “Connect.” LinkedIn’s thinking is “it’s important that the right people can see and interact with your thoughts, questions and ideas. Other like-minded professionals benefit from hearing your perspectives on timely news and trends impacting your […]

I bet if I asked you if you had someone that annoys you on LinkedIn with too many posts, or too salesy or inappropriate posts someone would immediately spring to mind – together with a mental grrr about them as your hackles come up and you think less than positive thoughts about them, their personal […]

As we all start to do more and more online it is becoming more and more important that you look as good online as you are in real life and I am not talking just about “that” photo on your LinkedIn profile! Increasingly people check out the “stuff” they want to buy or engage with […]

Everybody has a network of connections on LinkedIn, but what do the three degrees of connections mean to you? Perhaps you’re more familiar with the Six Degrees of the actor Kevin Bacon or The Three Degrees singers from the 1960’ and 70s? LinkedIn’s three degrees do not relate to pop stars or actors but to […]

Many people are unsure what they should say and how they should act on LinkedIn so I thought I would share some suggestions. Think about the posts on LinkedIn being the same as when you interact with people in real life in a business setting like a networking event, conference or convention – those small […]

It’s that time of year again when we look at the top 10 industries on LinkedIn globally and in the UK, and it’s interesting to see what’s changed. Looking at the top 10 industries globally on LinkedIn, the top 3 industries haven’t changed in order from 2019 to 2020, although the number of users on […]

Not everyone wants to be a member of LinkedIn, yet sometimes you can keep receiving invitation emails to join again and again and, if you’ve no intention of joining LinkedIn, it can be a pain .. but you can stop it. LinkedIn has a way to block it by simply hitting unsubscribe here and filling […]

A recent new introduction on LinkedIn is the Away message (currently only available to premium members). Like out of office messages on your email, the Away message on LinkedIn allows you to set a message that goes out automatically when a connection sends you a message via LinkedIn. To set up the Away message: Go […]

Increasingly we all seem to be evolving into multiple work interests be it two paid roles, charity roles or others and this makes LinkedIn profiles a little more interesting to craft. The trend if often called a “portfolio career” or if fashionable “slashers”, these individuals have multiple professional role identities to manage but when you […]

We’ve all seen those profiles with little images, clips to click on and watch, and documents in profiles supporting what the person is trying to get across – their personality or maybe even a call to action (you can see some examples in my profile here). If the emails I receive are a guide, a […]

There are over 430 million (yes I checked) articles with tips about your LinkedIn profile and, whilst I don’t want to add to that morass, there are some aspects that are mostly overlooked and hence here are four key things you need to include within your profile – Differentiation, Value, Likeability and Trustworthiness. Differentiation What […]

Events had been a function on LinkedIn until late 2012 when they removed it due to a lack of use, but back at the end of 2018 LinkedIn quietly started to release events as a function again to enable you to promote, highlight and get people to come along to events. We wrote this blog […]

LinkedIn are always changing the platform and trying to make it better and they are changing the address system at present.  This means your address on your profile might change but it doesn’t always get the location right and hence we wanted to share how to change your address to make it the best reflection […]

We’ve all had one of those moments when you are due to meet, call or Zoom with someone and you look at their name and worry that you might get it wrong but no fear as LinkedIn might save the day. Another new recent addition to LinkedIn on the mobile phone is the ability to […]

A recent new addition to LinkedIn is the #OpenToWork feature to help highlight to people viewing your profile that you are on the lookout for a new role and open to new job opportunities. To enable the feature from your LinkedIn profile you need to click on your photo at the top of your LinkedIn […]

Every LinkedIn company page has an admin (or number of admins) who is a LinkedIn user at your organisation rather than a specific email address and password. To administer a company page you need to be a user on LinkedIn! If you have admin rights you will find admin access if you go to the […]

We have all done it, scrolled through the LinkedIn home page feed spotted an article we want to read and thought ace I will read that later …. Only to not be able to find it when we look later … grr very annoying. LinkedIn sometimes listens to feedback and they have created the option […]

We’ve all seen those profiles with the clever, branded and visually impressive images at the top, and I am often asked what should go in there, how to do it and more, so here’s a blog to explain the thinking and process. On the desktop client you can see it across the tops of a […]

While your 1st-degree connections automatically follow your posts and articles, anyone can follow you, even if they’re not in your network. Following someone on LinkedIn means that you can see what they do in a public way and hence all their posts and interactions in the public domain – which is most of them!  Think […]

We’ve written lots about the different approaches to LinkedIn and whether connecting a lot or being more selective could work well for you and you can read more about that here, but our view has always been that to make LinkedIn work for you it always has to be personal and that includes the connections. […]

Following on from our recent blog looking at the top 10 industries globally and in the UK by the percentage of users on LinkedIn in that industry, we thought we would look at the least communicative industries on LinkedIn based on the percentage of users posting in LinkedIn. Talking to people is what makes LinkedIn […]

As it’s been over a year since we last looked at the top 10 industries on LinkedIn globally and in the UK, we thought it was time to review the statistics and see what’s changed, if anything. Looking at the top 10 industries globally on LinkedIn, interestingly the top 6 industries haven’t changed in order, […]

Most people don’t realise that when they log into LinkedIn the session stays open. No worries you might think, but what about those times when you quickly log in to send a message on a public PC or on a client or suppliers site? Have you left your account open to someone else whilst you […]

With the continued rise of LinkedIn and other social platforms there is an increasing focus on audience, reach and network but quite often these terms are misused and muddled. To explain the difference an analogy is called for – A room full of people for a business event where perhaps you are talking on a […]

LinkedIn are currently piloting a new feature called Teammates. This isn’t available to everybody yet, but the idea is that this feature will “ensure you never miss an update from your team” and by team they mean work colleagues. If you have access to this feature you can currently add people such as your manager, […]

As some of you will know I believe in the huge power of relationship, referrals and making introductions when I can see a good fit or think somebody can help someone else I know or have met. Most of the time I make the introduction at my own suggestion rather than being asked to do […]

LinkedIn have recently started to roll out a feature called “Find an expert” which is aimed at helping users find a service provider for a task they want completed. Currently only available on the mobile apps (iOS and Android), this option allows you to ask your network and also the wider LinkedIn audience for their […]

It’s drummed into us a lot lately about cyber security, identity theft and fraud, and some people feel that having your birthday on your LinkedIn profile increases your risk of exposure to these types of activities. Why you may ask? Well, when you add your birthday to your profile you get the option of choosing […]

Not all work roles or jobs that we have are paid roles as it is always good to give back. If you’re not careful though your LinkedIn profile can get confusing as people try to work out which of your roles is the one you focus on or are good at. If you’re volunteering or […]

As work life evolves, we are all starting to have more than one job, developing a more portfolio-based work life. The good news is LinkedIn let’s you have many roles of current work experience within your profile, but you do need to think about and order them in the way you want people to see […]

Since LinkedIn introduced the “Your post has been trending” feature some months back it has caused a lot of confusion with users not really understanding what it means and whether it’s a good thing or should they even care. So, here’s a blog about it. Just after LinkedIn introduced hashtags, they decided that they wanted […]

Sometimes I feel like a broken record, not all connections on LinkedIn are good. Quite often they can be detrimental to you, your business and the perception of value to your audience, clients and casual viewers. One of my favourite quotes ever is from Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn: Often people are flattered to […]

When I originally started out as a salesman (many years ago!!), the sales process was quite simple – make some leads, follow them up with a demo or meeting and then (politely) chase them up to get some commitment. Diagrammatically it looked like this: Then in 2003 the sales process started to evolve with the […]

Our last limits blog was so popular that we’ve done another! This time all about the limits on posts, articles, connections and company pages – who knew LinkedIn had so many limits? Hopefully this summary of the limits will help you to make your own use of LinkedIn even better, but if you’d like to […]

It’s surprising how many times we have looked at LinkedIn profiles (and we do look at a lot!) that show a person is working for the wrong company. This is usually not intentional and just because they have not selected the right company when adding it to their profile, it didn’t exist when they got […]

It’s been over a year since we last published a map showing LinkedIn members around the world, so we thought it was time to give you an updated insight. This was bought into stark contrast when we did two presentations in central London just a handful of hours apart and yet every hour 100+ users […]

We can’t reiterate enough how important it is to send a personalised LinkedIn connection invite every time you send one, rather than using the standardised “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” invite. “Why?” you may ask. Well, how do you feel when you receive a standard “I’d like to connect […]

The most important thing to understand about your homepage feed is that it is a reflection of the people you have chosen to follow, invited to connect or accepted connection invites from. Therefore, if the content you keep seeing is not as professional as you are, perhaps you have some unprofessional connections? If you see […]

LinkedIn is a fabulous business platform with over 635 million business professionals having profiles on there that reflect them and their value. The one question I am constantly asked is how big is that section, the text and file size so I thought I would pull a blog together of all profile and group limits […]

According to ABI (the voice of the UK’s world leading insurance and long-term savings industry), the UK insurance market is the fourth largest in the World, and the largest in Europe. The size of this industry is also reflected on LinkedIn with the number of users in the insurance industry on LinkedIn in the UK […]

Around 10 days ago LinkedIn introduced and started to roll out the new LinkedIn Reactions (you might not have them yet as they are being rolled out gradually). They say these are a “set of lightweight expressions that offer members a way to more easily participate in conversations and communicate with their network”, and a […]

Have you ever had that moment that just after you hit ‘connect’ you realise you shouldn’t, it was the wrong person or perhaps that you forgot to personalise it? People often send me a connection request AND an email apologising for the lack of personalisation on their invite after coming on one of our courses. […]

This is an update on an old blog we wrote as LinkedIn has changed the format of how to add, change or remove an email address on your profile. It’s a really simple process, just follow these instructions: Go to “Settings and Privacy” under your photo on the top right-hand side of your profile. Click […]

Did you know you have the option to control who can see your email address on your LinkedIn profile? There are in fact 4 options to choose from so you can be very specific as to who has access to your email address and who doesn’t. To set your preference click on the Me icon […]

I received an email recently requesting details on how to merge two LinkedIn accounts as the person in question had managed to set up two over time, and it reminded me that I needed to write an up to date blog on how to do this – so here it is! If you can log […]

How many times are we told that senior people aren’t on LinkedIn? These figures kind of prove otherwise! 25 February 2019 Share this article

Towards the end of last year LinkedIn started rolling out Events, a feature aimed at providing members with “an easy way to create and join professional events that interest them” apparently. As we always say, (and interestingly LinkedIn’s research showed that nearly 80% of LinkedIn members agreed with this), professional networking is critically important to […]

Whilst you can see your own picture when you look at your own profile not everyone else can necessarily. I’ve recently spotted quite a few profiles where you cannot see the photograph until you have connected to them, but with that comes a problem. If you have that profile, then a casual viewer will most […]

During June last year LinkedIn quietly introduced Kudos as a mechanism for you to publicly say ‘thank you’ and more to someone for some input into your world or business, but has it been widely adopted? No, well … not yet. I suspect that is mostly because (as always) LinkedIn didn’t tell people it was […]

This is a question we get asked surprisingly often so we thought we’d clarify the difference between a personal profile and a company profile on LinkedIn. In a single diagram it works like this … A company profile is … all about the company What it does, how many staff, what specialities the company has, where it’s […]

Despite the fact that the recruitment industry is so small on LinkedIn, it is still a fabulous place to recruit staff, but you don’t necessarily have to pay to do so. The techniques to recruit on LinkedIn are similar to how you would use it to find any good person but, in this context, you […]

I don’t know about you, but I regularly meet someone in another way before I “meet” them on LinkedIn. Maybe I’ve had a great chat with them at an event or over a coffee or informal meeting, or maybe I’ve seen their biography, CV or profile from a website, and I’ve felt they’ve come across […]

Groups on LinkedIn have always been a slightly odd place to be for the most part. Everyone seems to join and wait for someone else to talk, to share a nugget of goodness or waits for … something to happen. Hence LinkedIn decided they would attempt to rebuild the group experience and integrate more closely […]

The final part of our four-part series, you can find parts 1, 2 and 3 by clicking on the numbers. We’ve seen LinkedIn used successfully across a wide spectrum of needs from staff engagement to sales, and we constantly see new uses evolving and cannot see any sign of that stopping as increasingly all things […]

Following on from the introduce of QR codes on LinkedIn (see our blog here), the latest new function on the mobile app to be introduced is the ability to record and send a voice message. This is an easy function to use, you just need to find the connection you want to message on LinkedIn, […]

Following on from part one and part two here’s the next exciting episode – yes part three and there’s still another one to come! Having shared 10 ways to use LinkedIn before you might be surprised to know we have another ten to go so no dilly dallying here’s the next 5 ways to use LinkedIn […]

We can’t help it, we all make assumptions about things and LinkedIn is no different. Just last week I was talking with a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) who proudly told me that companies like theirs didn’t use LinkedIn … Oh really? When I showed him how many companies were on LinkedIn and what they used […]

Are you fed up with going to networking events, conferences, meetings or informal gathering and collecting lots of business cards from people you have been introduced to or exchanging contact details, and then realising the next day that you can’t find the card or the details you took? Well fear not.  At the end of […]

Isn’t it annoying on LinkedIn when you connect with someone and you want to see who they know but they’ve hidden their connections. Kind of weird on a networking site isn’t it? Wouldn’t it be good if there was a way to unpick some of those connections that they’ve hidden from you without them even […]

Whilst you can’t opt out of seeing advertisements completely on LinkedIn, you can hide each sponsored content posts and adverts individually when you see it in your LinkedIn feed if you don’t want to see it again. You can choose to hide each sponsored post by clicking the small More icon in the upper right […]

Most people think that once they’ve gone into their settings and hidden their connections they are now safe to connect with anyone, even competitors. Well unfortunately it is not as clear cut as that, so let me explain some realities about hiding your connections … 1) When you hide your connections, it doesn’t actually hide […]

We have previously looked at why you should consider engaging in LinkedIn groups, but you may have joined a group and in hindsight wished you hadn’t, or perhaps the group is no longer relevant to your current situation so how do you leave? Well, it’s quite simple – On your LinkedIn homepage click on Work […]

I’m sure you get lots of invitations to connect with people including some you know and even more you have never heard of. Should you just hit “accept” quickly to make your life easier and take them out of your outstanding invitations box, or should you try and connect with them in the truest sense? […]

It’s great to receive a recommendation from a previous client or colleague (you might find our blog Understand (and trade in) the currency of recommendations helpful), but you might not want to display all of them if a particular recommendation on your profile is not valued by you or the person that wrote it reflects […]

After the success of part one of our blog 5 Ways LinkedIn can help you do your job right now, here are some more ways you could be using LinkedIn to help you with your networking, profile and role. LinkedIn is a veritable Swiss Army Knife of tools and rather than have that ‘odd bit’ you […]

Sadly, we do occasionally get asked how to close an account on LinkedIn, usually because someone has retired or because they are fed up with the results they are getting, or sometimes simply because they haven’t made it work for themselves yet. If you fall into the latter category then you might want to read […]

Some of you will notice that when you type someone a message on LinkedIn it does annoying things like this … Dear James <Enter> Then it sends the message – grrrrr! I wanted to get in touch because I want you to come along and speak at my event <Enter> Then it sends a second […]

Whenever I am talking at a conference I love to ask, “who thinks LinkedIn is a job site?” and you can see a number of hands shoot up as they get harassed by recruiters and see them all over LinkedIn and they’d be right. They are all over LinkedIn (in fact 95% of recruiters use […]

There are a lot of, in fact 147, industry categories on LinkedIn and when we teach people simply don’t know what industries are represented and are often surprised at which are big and which are not! You might enjoying reading about the top ten if you haven’t before. The range is quite diverse but definitely American […]

Last July we had a look at “How to get around the world with LinkedIn” and at that time there were over 500 millions users on LinkedIn globally. Looking at the figures today the overall number of users on LinkedIn has increased to over 546 million globally, so it’s good to see that LinkedIn continues […]

Let keep this simple. There are two core approaches on LinkedIn, very different in approach, the work involved and the risk. Connect and message This is the approach where you connect to lots of relevant people with the idea that more people will see your updates or perhaps send a message when they accept, which […]

As LinkedIn is the biggest ‘list’ of professionals on the planet with over 540 million users around the world it can be a great resource to find the people you need in your business – but how can you tell the good people from the less good? Quite often we look for the resources we […]

As well as our previous blog about the top industries on LinkedIn  we have now done an infographic using data from LinkedIn’s advertising targeting on 5 February 2018 to show you the gender and age ranges on LinkedIn globally. 5 February 2028 Share this article

When you look at the number of accountants in the UK that are on LinkedIn it can be quite daunting to think about how you and your firm can stand out from the crowd of over 365,000 of your peers. If somebody was looking for an accountant on LinkedIn how would they pick you out […]

LinkedIn introduced LinkedIn Video on their mobile app back in August 2017 with the idea that their members would “share their experience and perspective”, and “share ideas, learn from others and jump start new conversations.” Now hang on a minute, isn’t LinkedIn a business networking site rather than a social networking service such as Twitter […]

Athazagoraphobia is a genuine phobia and, while rarely reported, is quite a common phobia and seems to be rampant across social platforms. Clinicians say that people that suffer with this phobia have a fear of being forgotten or ignored, and can have low self-esteem and self-confidence. I am sure there are some people on LinkedIn […]

At the beginning of 2018 the number of people globally on LinkedIn sits at over 535,000,000, and we expect to see this figure increase as the year progresses as more and more people join LinkedIn every day as LinkedIn is THE business networking site to be on. We like to keep an eye on how […]

We all move on, we change job roles or change email accounts and only when we go to reset our LinkedIn password or logon do we realise we forgot to change our account email address (if you want to know how to change your email address on your LinkedIn profile read this blog). If you […]

You know the scene – you’re at an event and someone you know says “I’ve seen your LinkedIn profile” do you think ‘oh great’ or ‘oh dear’? Many of us struggle to write about ourselves as this is something we don’t often do, we mostly write about other people. In our everyday life we don’t […]

Firstly, what is a status update post on LinkedIn and what’s the difference between this and an article? The status update is a bit like the business small talk conversation when we bump into someone we know in real life at an event or on a train – the response to “Hi, how are you […]

LinkedIn used to be simple – we had connections and that was it, we got it. Back in 2015 LinkedIn released the function for followers to make it easier for people to see good content (don’t get me started on going viral) and in this case LinkedIn doesn’t make it easy to understand when it […]

If you are unsure what you can use LinkedIn for why not watch our short video which will hopefully give you some good ideas on how to use it. Hopefully this video will inspire you to utilise the wonderful tool that LinkedIn is to help you get more introductions, more referrals and more sales, but […]

  Back in May 2016 we wrote a blog Who’s afraid of the big bad human looking at the benefits of talking to someone face to face or over the phone, rather than via email or swapping messages via text or social media sites. It seems that now in 2017 the ability to communicate with […]

Ok, you know the definition of to “go viral” means a video, image, story, etc spreading quickly and widely among internet users via social networking sites, e-mail, etc, but should you be going viral on LinkedIn? In my opinion, no you shouldn’t, and the reasons why I think this are: It’s an inefficient use of […]

Too often people divorce any thinking of real life when they get on LinkedIn, slipping into “social media mode” and suddenly do and write things in ways we would never do in #reallife! Perhaps if you thought of LinkedIn more like a conversation with someone you know, like a connection (or all of your connections) […]

Last month LinkedIn quietly introduced Active Status as part of LinkedIn messaging.  This means that if one of your connections is online you will see a green dot next to their name, but if there is a green dot with a white circle in the middle, this means that your connection is available only on […]

Not everything LinkedIn does is good. We see a number of people getting fed up with receiving notifications of work anniversaries and birthdays from connections on LinkedIn (after all this isn’t necessarily something you would tell someone face to face in every day life is it?). What you may not know is that it is […]

Given the recent changes to the LinkedIn interface we thought it was time to update one of our popular blogs on how to share an update on LinkedIn. Status updates are a great way of keeping in touch with your network, reminding them of what you do without being pushy, and keeping you in the […]

I started using LinkedIn, trying different approaches, and learning how to make it work for me in corporate life as a Sales Director.  It enabled me to build new relationships, remind clients of breadth of value, and get engagements worth over £10 million in sales in my first six years on LinkedIn. The clients we […]

It is quite easy to inadvertently give LinkedIn all your contacts details.  Sometimes it overtly asks and other times it’s less obvious like when you install the app. If you have already imported your contacts into LinkedIn from an external address book there may come a time when you want to delete one from your […]

Back in June I wrote a blog about some of the bad spelling mistakes I had found on LinkedIn when looking at peoples’ job titles and professional descriptions, and I’m sad to say that I have found a load more to share with you. Hopefully you are not one of the people with these spelling […]

We are often asked for our advice on whether people should connect to large numbers of people on LinkedIn, or whether being connected to a smaller number of connections is more successful so we recorded this short video: As you will see there are pros and cons to both approaches, but we definitely sway towards […]

Not everyone realises that LinkedIn lets you interface and create your LinkedIn profile in multiple languages so we thought we would explain how this works. This is ideal for all those of you that fluently speak multiple languages or engage with different nationalities in their local language – we would never suggest you do this […]

The world is getting smaller! Not literally but figuratively. We’ve all heard of six degrees of separation where you can reach anyone else on the planet within six relational ‘hops’, or how about the six degrees of Kevin Bacon where you can link Kevin Bacon to any other actor or actress? Well since last year […]

I’ve previously written about profile pictures I never want to see on LinkedIn and the mistakes people make when choosing which picture they use on their LinkedIn profile. This time I thought I would have a look at some of the spelling mistakes people make on LinkedIn when writing about themselves professionally. My top 5 […]

Genuine and authentic connections underpin your success on LinkedIn. They can make or break your journey to achieve the results you seek. There might come a time though when you realise that your connection strategy may not have been the right one and that maybe it’s time to clean up your connections. The ones that you […]

LinkedIn recently released an interesting bit of research detailing the top ranked companies in the UK where people want to work and we thought we would share their findings with you. The LinkedIn press release said “Top Companies list is based on the billions of actions taken by LinkedIn’s 500+ million members. Our data team, […]

  A common misconception is that only extroverts can go networking as their outgoing personality and ability to talk to anyone is ideal for a networking group. Why would an introvert, by definition a shy reticent person, want to put themselves in an environment where they are encouraged to chat to strangers and to be […]

LinkedIn have recently issued a preview of its new terms and conditions that come into effect on the 7 June 2017. There has been much press, speculation and downright scaremongering about this over the last couple of weeks so I wanted to lay out what we know and what we could guess at. LinkedIn has […]

Interestingly Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, said last week that most users are doing LinkedIn wrong by connecting to everyone! He said … “LinkedIn is a closed network, and for a very simple reason: For the network to have value as an introduction tool, the connections need to have meaning. It’s up to you […]

In the last two weeks LinkedIn announced that it has broken half a billion users, up from its previous stated 468 million in October last year. That means more than 1 million more users per week hence more than two new users per second still joining the biggest business social network, and there is no […]

As we all get older every single day there will be a point where we move on and pass away – not a cheery thought for a blog but bear with me … Many times we are asked how to deal with deceased users, not necessarily by just the family, but also those around them […]

There is a furore every time LinkedIn changes the profiles or interface and this most recent refresh was no different. Locations of advanced search, groups and more has changed and little used functionality has been quietly removed. But one function that was removed and missed by many was the ability to sort the homepage on […]

LinkedIn lets you have a website link that takes people straight to your LinkedIn profile which is a great way to both drive traffic to your LinkedIn profile, but most importantly see who’s been looking at you either from within LinkedIn or from finding your link on other social sites like Twitter or Facebook. You […]

We often get enquiries from frustrated marketing teams and company leaders about why they can’t access a company page after an administrator has left, or they don’t know who their administrators are. Hence we decided to write this blog providing some simple instructions on how to resolve these issues. Administration rights will always be automatically […]

Now I am not talking about saying which celebrity you follow or who you bumped into in the lift, but the people that you enjoy seeing or meeting on LinkedIn. LinkedIn makes it easy for you to name drop a level one connection or a company you follow but you would never normally use a […]

Ok, you’ve read my blog about how to behave professionally whilst at a networking event and you are confident that you are making the best impression you can, now what? How do you make the most out of your time attending a networking event? Here are a few quick tips to help you get more out […]

As January always feels like a flat month after the excitement of Christmas and the New Year, perhaps your thoughts have turned to thinking about a new career or a fresh job opportunity to add some spark into your working life. You might want to let people know on LinkedIn that you are looking, but […]

You might be a seasoned networker or perhaps have plucked up the courage to join a networking group for the first time, but have you stopped and thought about how you should behave whilst attending a group? Your behaviour is paramount to how you are perceived by others and you need to gain peoples trust […]

If you are reading this I assume you have set up a LinkedIn profile, or are thinking about it, thereby joining the leading social network for professionals, with over 450 million users. If all you have done is set up a profile, filled out the various sections, connected with people you know, and left it […]

Facebook has pages where you can interact with others who share similar interests and passions. What many people don’t realise or don’t take advantage of is LinkedIn Groups. Choose your involvement in groups carefully. LinkedIn groups are user generated, around professions, sectors, fields of expertise, and regions. These groups are where other users share updates, […]

In our previous blog in this series (found here) we looked at how relevant LinkedIn is to you by demonstrating that there are sufficient people on LinkedIn who could make great clients. Now LinkedIn isn’t just all about sales, it works on many other levels too, and this is what we are going to look […]

There is no doubt that recommendations help you stand out from your competitors and make you appear as a more credible person to approach. It’s therefore important that you gather as many real recommendations as you can. This means asking for them from people you have worked for in the past, particularly where they can […]

Ok, you might have a profile on LinkedIn, but does it make you stand out from the crowd of over 450 million other users on LinkedIn? In this blog I am going to walk you through some of the most essential elements of your profile: its visibility, your picture, your headline, experience section, and the […]

If you are reading this, and have a LinkedIn profile, you may be wondering why you haven’t had an influx of new business. Isn’t that surely the point of LinkedIn? Shouldn’t you be able to generate more leads, new sales, connect with more of the right people, and solve business problems? Yes, you should. Having […]

In the second blog of this series (first one can be found here) we will look at how relevant LinkedIn is to you. Through running training sessions and talks I have spoken to countless businesses across the country and indeed around the world. We all understand the value of generating new business, so one of […]

  Being present on LinkedIn but not doing anything is a bit like going to a Halloween party, not wearing a costume, not saying anything and then wondering why everyone ignores you.     If you’re trying to get the treats you should from LinkedIn start by looking at a few simple things: – Your […]

LinkedIn has taken time to ensure that a wide range of third party rich content providers can integrate with the platform, for the benefit of LinkedIn users. Using these rich content providers the right way will have a positive impact on your profile in search results, your credibility, and reputation. Yet for the vast majority […]

Too many people on LinkedIn just fill out their profile and expect the results to roll in. That’s like going to a huge networking event in a nice suit, but not talking to anyone! A good profile on LinkedIn takes a little more planning and preparation than that. At the heart of LinkedIn is the […]

I feel privileged that in my job I get to meet so many people from such a diverse range of careers and professions. I have trained people ranging from FTSE 100 board members right to sole traders to make the most of their use of LinkedIn, all of whom have an opinion of LinkedIn. Very […]

It may sound like I’m stating the obvious in saying so, but on LinkedIn who you connect with is everything. You’d be surprised how many people I meet that don’t even give this a moment’s serious thought. The key point here is that the most powerful aspect of LinkedIn is understanding that it’s not so […]

Updating statuses, sharing, liking and tweeting are words common in the lexicon of modern business and any social network user. Most of us have probably done one or more of these things before, and highly engaged users will have done them often across multiple social media accounts many times a day or week. But not […]

Our first blog post on how to find a role was so popular we’ve created another! Here are seven more tips on how to maximise your chances of finding the next career step or job role on LinkedIn. 1. Take the opportunity of some quiet time to weed through your network, reach out to those […]

We are often asked (by those executives and sales leaders we have worked with previously) how to find their next career step or new role on LinkedIn. Rather than keep this information quiet we wanted to share it with everyone to give them some focus to their efforts, demystify some of the “best practices” that […]

The other day, I was meeting a client for coffee, and he seemed very excited. You’ll never guess how many new contacts I got this week, he said. 72! In a single week! Well, that might sound impressive, but is it really? When I asked my client who these people were, his answer surprised me. […]

As “The Linked In Man” we receive lots of emails every day asking for advice on many aspects of LinkedIn and we endeavour to offer assistance where we can. Sometimes however people mistake us for LinkedIn as they can’t easily find out how to contact them direct. Whilst we are happy to help where we […]

The latest big tech company take over is LinkedIn which is being bought by Microsoft for a staggering $26.2 billion in cash. This acquisition of LinkedIn will be Microsoft’s biggest ever when it completes later this year, exceeding the $8.5 billion it paid for company Skype back in 2011 although it doesn’t have a great […]

LinkedIn’s own marketing is superb at promoting it’s free trials and upgrades but sometimes it is tricky to find how to opt out once you have upgraded – so here’s some instructions on how to cancel your LinkedIn premium account. We are huge fans of the upgrade on LinkedIn, but only once you know how […]

I’m hoping that most of you use LinkedIn regularly to post status updates, join groups and comment on discussions, as well as looking up people you are going to meet or would like to connect with. These are all positive actions that can help you make the most of LinkedIn, but are you aware that […]

There has been a range of reports with all sorts of numbers bandied about and I for one am struggling to drill down to the reality beneath the media hype, but rather than fret why not just change it? It is really simple to change your LinkedIn password, simply log into your account in the […]

Have you noticed that people don’t talk any more? Perhaps they are phone-a-phobic, or maybe, like most of us, it’s because there are so many modern channels of communication like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Kick, Google+, Skype etcetera which give us the excuse not to talk to each other. Think about it, when was the last […]

How many times do you see a maths problem, a family photograph, a politic entry, a meme or a quote from a famous person at a networking event, convention or conference? Not very often? How about on LinkedIn? How many times do you read them and think oh good, wow? Not many I bet! There […]

Have you ever been to a networking event, conference or convention and after sharing a nugget of insight someone has just held up a thumb in response? No. So why do you ‘like’ things on LinkedIn then? Is it that you’re trying to say something positive like “well done”, “glad to see how well you’re […]

One of our most popular blog posts ever has been about how to add a “View my LinkedIn profile” button to an email signature but it was so long ago that we thought it deserved an update. Just a couple of weeks back we published a stylish “View my company profile on LinkedIn” button which […]

One of the most common questions I am asked by administrators at the end of our company profile course is how to remove the ex employees that are still showing on their company profile. LinkedIn doesn’t make it obvious, or easy, to make it happen but does have some processes in place to help you once […]

A while ago, I got a very enthusiastic response to a blog post about how to add a LinkedIn profile button to your email signature. Lots of people followed up by asking how they could add a “view my company profile” link to their signatures, so today I’m going to show you how to do […]

If I had a pound, euro, dollar or yen for each person that has had an epiphany when I have explained this I could have retired. We all go to networking events and onto LinkedIn looking to meet clients or partners, starting to build those long term relationships that are both profitable and critical to […]

New Year’s resolutions are easy to make and often started with the best of intentions, but are seldom adhered to after the month of January. People pay for unused gym memberships, wardrobes are full of Lycra sports kit with tags on, baskets of uneaten fruit are left and there are unused running shoes everywhere! It is […]

Everybody knows LinkedIn is big, but we sometimes don’t realise how big. As LinkedIn has just broken 400 million users globally we thought we’d look at the top 5 UK cities and we think the results will surprise you.  Were you surprised by the results? Has it made you think differently about LinkedIn? If you […]

LinkedIn has been quietly getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Not just around the world but in our own backyard too! It quietly slipped past 20 million users a couple of months ago and that’s 2/3 of the working population of the UK and yet people still (unintentionally) don’t do the right things or approach […]

LinkedIn has been working on the user interface to make it consistent, clean and very image lead for some time. With previous updates to profiles complete it is now the turn of messaging. They have been rolling out the changes for some months, seemingly starting with the lightweight users and accounts first. We are now seeing […]

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a quick simple way to share a message with your entire network? Something for them to choose to read, nothing pushy, nothing that would be emailed to them or bug them? Well you can – it’s called a status update. On your LinkedIn home page you can find […]

We often have people tell us how they think LinkedIn works and it is not always correct.  There are a lot of myths about what it takes to make LinkedIn work so we have created a series of blog posts to dispel the most common myths we see. Myth #7: LinkedIn is just a super-sized […]

We often have people tell us how they think LinkedIn works and it is not always correct.  There are a lot of myths about what it takes to make LinkedIn work so we have created a series of blog posts to dispel the most common myths we see. Myth #6: LinkedIn is for individuals – […]

We often have people tell us how they think LinkedIn works and it is not always correct.  There are a lot of myths about what it takes to make LinkedIn work so we have created a series of blog posts to dispel the most common myths we see. Myth #5: I’ve got no chance of getting found […]

We often have people tell us how they think LinkedIn works and it is not always correct.  There are a lot of myths about what it takes to make LinkedIn work so we have created a series of blog posts to dispel the most common myths we see. Myth #4: Profile pictures aren’t that important. Au contraire. […]

We often have people tell us how they think LinkedIn works and it is not always correct.  There are a lot of myths about what it takes to make LinkedIn work so we have created a series of blog posts to dispel the most common myths we see. Myth #3: On LinkedIn, recommendations don’t matter […]

We often have people tell us how they think LinkedIn works and it is not always correct. There are a lot of myths about what it takes to make LinkedIn work so we have created a series of blog posts to dispel the most common myths we see. Myth #2: Bigger is better: I should […]

We often have people tell us how they think LinkedIn works and it is not always correct.  There are a lot of myths about what it takes to make LinkedIn work so we have created a series of blog posts to dispel the most common myths we see. Myth #1: Automating content between Twitter and […]

They say the only thing certain in life is taxes and death, but I think change is also a given – especially inside LinkedIn. They are always evolving, quite a lot in the last month but the one that has everyone talking today is the home page changes. LinkedIn announced 11th December 2014 that it […]

Once you appreciate how LinkedIn really works there are more reasons to not connect to people that send you invitations than there are to accept them! LinkedIn is all about the good people that you know and by that I mean the ones that you can talk to (in real life, over a coffee, on […]

The New Year kicked in last week, we all enjoyed the party, made the resolutions and probably half of you have already broken them! Hence we thought we would give you a quick ten things that will make a huge difference to your LinkedIn. Most common approaches to LinkedIn are driven by a tick mentality […]

What is this concept of “going” networking? People feel the need to go to a place, a venue, a location or a collection of fellow “badge wearers” to be able to communicate to others. My amazement is people that “go networking” – this seems to indicate that at some stage they don’t! Obviously for the […]

We all want a good photograph of ourselves to go with our LinkedIn profiles. I’ve seen many great personal photos on LinkedIn, but not all of them are the right choice for conveying a professional image. People read a lot into the photographs we choose to represent ourselves with. Put the wrong type of image […]

LinkedIn offers so many features that it’s hard for most users to be aware of – much less take advantage of – all of them. However, it recently added three new tools that you should familiarise yourself with for one very important reason: security. While my posts here typically focus on the main reasons people […]

  Holy @#**^&#! You wouldn’t believe what some people say on LinkedIn. A search for some of the leading profane or vulgar terms[i] reveals they have been used by a surprisingly large number of people on LinkedIn on their professional profiles. Holy s**t! (Used by more than 8,000 people.) Really? Yes, really. Over 31,000 people […]

LinkedIn quietly passed a major milestone in the UK earlier this year[i], when its user base rose to over 50% of the working age population. The business network has been growing rapidly in the UK, taking just 27 days to gain 1.2 million new users. (That’s over 30 new users signing up every minute!) This […]

  With over 300 million users globally, LinkedIn is often thought of as the place for professionals to look for new jobs. However, it turns out the overwhelming majority of users are there to network, to build relationships and to get more sales. LinkedIn is the default business social network for all those “dynamic” (over […]

LinkedIn has become the de facto platform for all business professionals on the planet, but not many appreciate its roots,  the journey it has taken and where it came from – so here’s a blog to explain the history of LinkedIn. 2002 LinkedIn started out in the living room of co-founder Reid Hoffman and the […]

Way back in December LinkedIn quietly removed one of the smart users favourite features, the ability to see their connections activity.  When LinkedIn first removed this feature in December, it caused issues because a user’s activity feed was the only place where other users could go to see all of their recent status updates, profile […]

LinkedIn profiles have been stable now for some time and hence just when everyone is (very slowly from our latest research into over 2,000 profiles) getting to grips with their personal brands and LinkedIn profile here’s another wave of new functionality – some of which isn’t even new! We all know our profile on LinkedIn […]

No one would intentionally do the wrong things would they? If you needed specialist expertise or brain surgery you wouldn’t just dive in yourself would you? None of us intentionally does the wrong things, we just sometimes get too busy to look at things properly, to stop and think about the messages we are unintentionally […]

One of the most requested features I came across was the ability to block someone from seeing your profile on LinkedIn and after a while LinkedIn has got around to releasing the functionality. This is aimed at those people who really shouldn’t be able to constantly (and often worryingly for users) look over their shoulders […]

If you met someone that could be massively influential on your commercial future or success you wouldn’t say hi Mr (or Mrs) Prospective Customer would you? No of course not! You’d be more personal and professional and say “it’s lovely to finally get to meet you face to face Bob (or Mary)” or something similar […]

They are, really they are, from 14th April LinkedIn has decided that not enough people are using the functionality so they are going to discontinue it. There could be any number of reasons for this but I suspect there’s more to it than not used, more likely not understood or not leveraged or simply that […]

I often receive notes asking how to back up the connections on a LinkedIn account for a variety of reasons. It might be that you’re trying to extract all the details to populate a customer relationship management (CRM) system adding them to a mailing program (like MailChimp, ConstantContact or others)  just backing them up as […]

With the recent changes on LinkedIn it has become more difficult to see the impact of your status messages on your connections, audience and the associated engagement. Back in November LinkedIn removed the option to see historic activities on profiles but you can still see this on some mobile applications, interestingly. Status has always been […]

We have written an up to date version of how to close your LinkedIn account which can be found here. There are always those that chose to not use the tool properly, that bemoan that it doesn’t work or aren’t prepared to invest the time to learn, and hence chose to say how difficult it […]

You might be surprised to learn that there are fake profiles on LinkedIn, not many in my experience but they do exist and they are in fact reasonably easy to spot.  For example … Firstly it is worth pausing to think why these exist and what people get from it, the answer is sadly simple, […]

With over 3.2 million company pages on LinkedIn now it has become a go to place not just for the serious business professional but increasingly as a trusted source of insight. Even within the last 10 days there have been reports of 64% of all corporate website hits coming from LinkedIn in the UK and […]

There are so many “experts” and “masters” of subjects out there (often just because they say they are!) and sometimes they’re not! Sadly social media and social networks are a great example of this but it equally applies to every profession. The ability to irrefutably reflect the value that you have shared with your clients, […]

With over 242 million business professionals on LinkedIn looking to network, to engage and to share it is a rich source of insight and opportunity. LinkedIn enables you to safely leverage your network, the networks of staff and the personal brands of the team to drive the business brand and enhance the corporate reach. You […]

  Many only start to look when the “little black book” of people they know is emptied, run out and a client free zone and then they think it’s time for LinkedIn. One of the starting points when I talk to sales leaders in a business is what do we do on LinkedIn to get […]

One of the most used bits of functionality on LinkedIn is the mad passion we all have for looking at who has looked at us on LinkedIn. There are often a range of interesting and not so interesting people. Often we all get recruiters, the invisible ones (no matter how much you pay you will […]

There are plenty of reasons to connect with good people that you know on LinkedIn and sometimes there are very good reasons to disconnect people too! It is not like LinkedIn tells people when you remove them, it doesn’t send “you don’t love X anymore and they’re not your ‘friend’” this isn’t the playground, this […]

LinkedIn is the biggest global network of business professionals on the planet yet so many of its users fail to realise the true value of their free membership, let alone the paid options. People don’t know what to do, how to make it work and more so they try things, they dabble and they often […]

We often see people logging onto their accounts with old email identities or receiving invitations to be “added to my professional network on LinkedIn” on their personal email accounts – when they already have a profile associated with their work email. Good news for you – there is no need for this! You can chose […]

One of the regular threads that I see in LinkedIn groups is how to find an expert on X or how do I check that Y is right for me, I’m sure you’ve seen them? LinkedIn profiles are a great place to start, as they contain the representation of the person in their own words […]

LinkedIn has been working on enhancing the interface of groups with a new look and feel in line with the menu and homepage presentation changes of late. It is about time they did this as it was starting to get tired and dated and we are delighted to see this change. Below is an example […]

LinkedIn is evolving its terms and conditions to allow people as young as 13 to have LinkedIn profiles so that they can start early in life to differentiate between their upcoming professional and personal interactions they often share on platforms like Facebook. The profiles will be treated differently within LinkedIn to ensure safety including different […]

  Sad to see that whilst I was away for a couple of weeks LinkedIn decided to turn off the Signal functionality on the 29th July 2013 and I think it is a real shame, but I am not that surprised. It follows on from the shutting down of polls as a function at the […]

I love asking people what they think LinkedIn is when I talk at events and conferences.  So come on tell me what do you think it is? Is it:- a)      Social media b)      A job site c)       Other?   The truth is, it is …. Drum roll …. None of them. It is a social […]

  Well has it? Can you tell me the wallpaper in the restaurant where you had that party all of six months ago? No? Well what makes you think that all those connections, those followers and those interested people you “engaged” with more than 6 months ago will remember you now? Come on be honest, […]

I don’t know about you but I like simple things that just work. Known for my honest opinions on all things LinkedIn I always greet news of an interface update with some trepidation but in this instance it appears to be good news. There is a new simpler, cleaner and less cluttered interface coming to […]

One of the questions I am often asked by people is what do you do differently when you network on LinkedIn to what you do when you network in real life face to face. The truth of this often causes people to pause, reflect and sometimes shocks people. LinkedIn is no different to real life, […]

  One question that I am always asked when I am in mentoring mode is what should I charge? It is one of those questions that everyone agonizes over and the truth is there is no fixed approach that I have ever come across that is universally true, but my experience from starting a small business unit or […]

Does CRM mean connection relationship management? With LinkedIn Contacts it does. Having written many times about the importance of knowing the people you connect with and maintaining your relationships we are delighted to see the release details of LinkedIn Contacts and it looks great from what we’ve seen. You might be thinking you already have […]

I hate spam and spammers, and so does LinkedIn. It puts loads of functionality at your disposal in the battle against spam. LinkedIn is not the best at promoting the functionality that is there to help you, make your experience better and, in this instance the whole community better, so I thought I’d lay it […]

LinkedIn is continuing on rolling out a range of new features starting with mentions. Think of them like idly dropping someone or some organization into your interactions, a little like adding in a Twitter handle on Twitter. This new feature hails towards making LinkedIn more interactive and engaging with your connections and the others that […]

The biggest fear of users that I meet is that they do “it” wrong or say the wrong thing. This often causes such a fear that they do nothing. If you imagine LinkedIn to be like a big room full of business people, for that truly is what it is, then think what you would […]

This is our first guest blog of 2013, written by Clare Evans, Business Productivity Coach, Author of “Time Management for Dummies” and speaker. Clare is an expert at enabling you to use your time more productively and hence more profitably. Firstly – if you’re using Social Media for your business – it’s not a standalone […]

With most users (estimated 90%) not paying for LinkedIn I am often asked how LinkedIn makes money, as whilst we can all enjoy a free to use social network or social media site there has to be an underlying successful commercial business to provide the longevity and foundation for future success. LinkedIn is not like […]

In my opinion too many people rush into paying for LinkedIn thinking that it will unlock new functionality or enhance their experience in miraculous ways … but the truth is that whilst it does include some great enhancements they are just that, enhancements. LinkedIn themselves are great at getting you to buy and upgrade your […]

The global Questions and Answers forum on LinkedIn where you could get insights, help and advice from the 200 million users is being retired at the end of this month and I have to say I am sad to see it go. The announcement on Help Centre says “As of January 31, 2013, the LinkedIn […]

The New Year kicked in last week, you enjoyed the party, made the resolutions and probably half of you have already broken them! Hence we thought we would give you some more. New Year is  a time of reflection for many on the past year. What went well? What didn’t? Thoughts of progress and new […]

At this time of year we often think of gifts, cards and new beginnings – more so than any other time of year. Rather than give cards, gifts or other trinkets we thought we would start something new, something valuable, long-lasting and having a real impact. Reid Hoffman talks about small gifts in his book […]

If you have the newly redesigned profile you might not have noticed that there was previously no application support, so if you were using SlideShare, WordPress and more then you didn’t get a new profile, but this is starting to change as of today. LinkedIn has released a new function to enable you to integrate […]

I have to say – thank goodness! Too many people created an event and expected magical things to happen (a bit like some peoples’ interaction on LinkedIn). Being present, creating a little content is simply not enough. So now LinkedIn have announced that the functionality is dead as of 26th November, what do you do? […]

I think that there is a huge difference between thinking you’re using and really using the internet to develop the business. A lot of the time what I see is a public display of vanity rather than a commercially fuelled injection of sanity. But it doesn’t replace every other communication channel and tool! The internet, […]

I am not a huge fan of free tips on anything, mainly as they are often given by people that don’t really know what they are talking about, as it is not their core business they are giving away. I often think it is a bit like asking a carpenter for plumbing advice, you wouldn’t […]

Now that the noise has stopped on the new companies page (and started on the new personal profile!) I thought I would take the time to write about what has changed for your company profile experience on LinkedIn. If you haven’t seen one you can find or follow ours here http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-network-coach-limited. I have to say […]

One of the things I am often asked when people are setting up their accounts as part of the training we offer is how to get more of their networks update stream and hence more LinkedIn to see, to use and enjoy. As not everyone reads their news feeds directly from LinkedIn Today you can […]

Being a huge Star Wars fan and continual networker I am often reminded of scenes from the film and how they play out in business life. How many people that we meet in real life appear a bit like Darth Vader? Unapproachable, faceless and full of foreboding, hard to engage and difficult to build business […]

With over half of the business professionals in the world on LinkedIn it can sometimes be difficult to find the right person to help you, the real “expert” and the person that could transform your outlook, your business and yourself. So how do we filter through to find the person we need? I thought it […]

You have always been able to recommend people on LinkedIn but after the announcement some weeks ago you can also now endorse your 1st degree connections’ skills and expertise on LinkedIn with just one click. It is really simple to endorse someone’s skills on LinkedIn, simply scroll down to the skills section of their profile, click […]

I have reviewed thousands of profiles for law firms, accountants, corporates and global companies over the last two years and the one consistent bit of feedback is wow I never knew. So I have put out a tool that scores profiles as a way to get everyone to up “their game”. LinkedIn is a fab […]

I had a wry smile today to get the list of updates through on one of the groups I am in on LinkedIn which had 118 new discussions and 1 (yes one!) comment. I am in a few groups, run a couple, help lots of huge companies make LinkedIn work but yet felt compelled to […]

With over 175 million business professionals on LinkedIn looking to network, to engage and to share it is a rich source of insight and opportunity – within the UK alone there are 10+ million professional users and 2 million plus are Directors and above. LinkedIn enables you to safely leverage the networks of staff connections […]

LinkedIn used to let us all get a kick from seeing how many people were in our network at the three levels that LinkedIn gives us. The people we know (level one), their connections (level two) and the connections of our connections (level 3) but this is no longer possible in a nice easy fashion […]

After the recent changes to the home page LinkedIn has now moved on to give peoples profile presentation a makeover. On the plus side there is much more focus on the image, name and professional headline. Photographs have always been important  but now they’re supersized and even more so. The new format is simpler and hence much […]

It has been some weeks since the divorce between Twitter and LinkedIn, yet in some cases it would appear that the message of the separation has not got through. Even today there are over 100,000 updates gone out using hashtags inside of LinkedIn, don’t they realise that it just makes them look less professional than […]

For over nine years LinkedIn has had a consistent user interface but all that is about to change. After a long wait LinkedIn is finally in the process of releasing a user interface update and it is starting to make appearances in accounts in the passed two days. The new design takes some elements from […]

Now before you say “hang on James you said recommendations were good” –  yes they are but… There are recommendations and there are recommendations. When I was reviewing a company’s presence on LinkedIn their most recommended person had 24 recommendations, (look at my profile picture below to see where the number of recommendations is shown on […]

If we were ever to meet at an event, in a networking meeting, a conference or in a coffee shop would you give me all of your client’s details and/or a full set of your personal information? Of course you wouldn’t! That would be commercial suicide and personal data protection would go out the window! […]

When I recently attended a large physical networking event, (you know the thing, loads of local business owners coming together ridiculously early in the morning over a greasy breakfast), I thought I’d take a different perspective. I found it fascinating to watch the dynamics, the twenty or so people, the body language and to listen […]

There has been a range of reports with all sorts of numbers bandied about and I for one am struggling to drill down to the reality beneath the media hype, but rather than fret why not just change it? It is really simple to change your LinkedIn password, simply log into your account in the […]

Most people dread getting spam or phishing emails that say they’re from LinkedIn, PayPal, Amazon or other well-known companies but I have been hoping to get one from “LinkedIn” and this week success. As the prevalence of LinkedIn grows to almost half of the business professionals on the planet there is an increase in the […]

I am often approached by people that have more than one LinkedIn profile; the current record with me is someone that had four! Most common is two. It is easily done, you created one year’s ago, forgot it, and then created another and possibly another … It actually breaks the LinkedIn terms of service, so […]

One question I am often asked at events is what a LION is and is it a premium feature? In short no, it’s not a premium feature it is simply one approach to making LinkedIn work and tends to be quite emotive in discussions. LION stands for LinkedIn Open Networker and the people declare themselves […]

I am constantly amazed how many people I meet think that, to make LinkedIn work, you simply create what you think makes a good profile and then sit and wait for the “magic” to happen. I have just started a LinkedIn Poll here  to see what other people think. I’d love your vote there and also […]

One of the common failings of people trying to make LinkedIn really work for them is that they don’t put enough focus on their profile and use of the platform. For all those people that I have had the pleasure of seeing at a LinkedIn Essentials Course or quietly written or polished their profile will have […]

LinkedIn has been busy,and  now the stable period has subsided and it is all change again. Last week the “people you may know”  got an update and this week it is the group search. Every day millions of professionals like you are engaging in the 1.25 million groups on LinkedIn covering such diverse topics from […]

One of the often overlooked features on LinkedIn is the people you might know (PYMK) feature on the top right hand side of your LinkedIn homepage (you can find it here. This week LinkedIn released details of the feature update they will be releasing soon across the current 150 million plus users on LinkedIn with […]

One of the discussions I have most often with people is around company profiles – why they don’t have one, or why they have tried to create one, but wrongly used a personal profile. As an example here is ours. Even when I am reviewing a companies activity or branding during a consultancy session I am often surprised […]

As LinkedIn breaks the 9 million user mark in the UK we reflect on the fact it took just 118 days to add that additional million. In the UK we create a new LinkedIn user every 9.7 seconds! When you look at the numbers they’re astounding, according to the statistics (www.statistics.gov.uk) there are around 38 […]

One thing that always surprises me about LinkedIn personal profiles that I see is how much some people put in that they shouldn’t, and how much they leave out that they should put in. We get rightfully upset when companies fail to protect our privacy, but sometimes we don’t help ourselves. The latest report from Javelin […]

I recently touched on this subject in my “Do you go networking with a paper bag on your head?” blog, and this is still a question I get asked many times. It is REALLY critical that you include a photograph of yourself; it is one of the real no no’s on LinkedIn to not have […]

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a simple, quick way to share a message with your entire network? Something for them to choose to read, nothing pushy, nothing that would be emailed to them or bug them? Well you can – it’s called a status update. On your LinkedIn home page you can find […]

No one will be surprised that I am a huge fan of LinkedIn© and what it can do, I have had the bottom line enhancing experience first-hand of using it well but just in the last month or so there has been a lot of misinformation, halve truths and downright wrong content being produced about […]

“Build it and they will come” (a quote from Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams) does not work with LinkedIn groups. The first thing you should be asking yourself is why? Why do you want a group? Can you give it the focus it needs to make sure it is relevant, timely and appropriate. For […]

One of the joys of my consultancy role is that I am often asked to review the first ‘touch’ emails from a range of professional services, consultancies and other firms. You know what it is like, you have met someone for the first time, are trying to get a meeting, networked a way in or […]

I was recently asked this question during a Question and Answer session with The Guardian which you can see here. (http://careers.guardian.co.uk/social-media-job-search) Whilst you can integrate your Twitter activity into your LinkedIn© profile either by publishing Tweets into your LinkedIn© stream automatically by associating both accounts or using the Tweets application to show them on your […]

This blog was updated in February 2016 and you can find the updated version here. I am often asked by people how to promote their LinkedIn profile and how to get noticed more.  LinkedIn gives you a range of options but there are also good options outside of LinkedIn and Outlook is one of the most popular. […]

I will never forget having a conversation with someone that really inspired me to write this blog. This is a sad tale of a good business and a good person that said the wrong thing too many times and lost their nerve, but there is a happy ending to this tale. They were trying to […]

I was talking to over 100 accountants a few weeks back and over the lunch break, when I had my badge off as always (I like to be as anonymous as I can at events and have much more interesting conversation pre talk) I had some fascinating conversation about fears. The one that struck me […]

In the UK LinkedIn gets 8,771 new users a day* We all know that LinkedIn is the largest professional network, but not many know how quickly it grows. We have been watching over the last few months so that we can tell you. The fastest growing professional network has been growing increasingly fast in the […]

I have a very simple view of my role, I help other people to learn more about how LinkedIn© works and how they can apply it to help them to move forward. All the training I do is tell a bit, do a bit, tell a bit more and do a bit more. I want […]

In a word – no. Blog done! Why do so many people get hung up about getting 500 connections? It simply doesn’t matter! It is not a status badge, it doesn’t get you a LinkedIn© star, it doesn’t make you any better or worse than anyone else. It simply says you say you know more […]

I must confess I get really frustrated when someone calls me a social media expert, I am not. I don’t think you can be! The platforms all change so fast, evolving as our needs evolve and that is not just the big ones – it’s all of them – all 206 right now (according to […]

I am prone to drinking the odd coffee, but a recent meeting made me reflect on this a little. Someone (nameless) asked for a catch up over a coffee, duly arranged by my office we met and shared 30 minutes over a coffee, before I made my excuses, unusually – let me explain … “What […]

Your marketing budget is precious and you need to ensure it provides a great return on investment for you.

I regularly speak at events to over a hundred people or several hundred people at a time, yet whenever I ask it never ceases to amaze me how many people simply don’t have a profile photograph on their profile. Ignoring that a recent poll on LinkedIn© said that people simply don’t trust profiles with no […]

How many ways can you think of to reach people today? LinkedIn©, Twitter, Email, Web sites, blog posts, letters and many more. You take the time to craft your LinkedIn© profile, to make it you, to give everyone the best impression so that they can find you, engage with your value and values and then […]

Do you remember back to when you were a child? Remember learning to ride a bike and how often you crashed, fell or scraped your knees? Each time you would get up, brush yourself off and get back on. Now compare this with LinkedIn©, perhaps you have come on a course and paid to learn […]

You know the type, stood at the front, dapper suit or designer dress telling you about how good it will be, how marvellous the future looks and dazzling you with a bright white 10,000 watt smile. Lot’s of talk about vision, high level concepts and how rich you will be if you only …. You […]

I am often asked how I made the business work so well – so I thought I would share a concept with you about how I never started a small business at all – yep that is right I never started a small business. Starting out I did all the thinking, the research and the […]

If you wanted to find a LinkedIn© expert to develop your expertise how would you do it? Ask your friends? Do a quick Google search (and find over 25 million LinkedIn© trainers)? Or search LinkedIn? Ok, you have lots of options but how do you find a good one? With LinkedIn© it is easy … […]

LinkedIn just tipped over 7 Million professional users in the UK, that’s more than 11% of the total UK population and very nearly as many UK users as there are people in Hong Kong! The professional network goes from strength to strength with over 3 million joining LinkedIn in the last twelve months alone and […]

Rarely a day goes by when I don’t get an email saying “let me introduce you to” or more embarrassingly this week “I was at X event and Mr B, Miss S and Miss C all said I should get in touch” – fabulous. All I did was introduce them to a connection, help and […]

If I do something for you for nothing you’ll think I’m a nice guy. Let’s say Mr X in my network needs a service that you offer, I wouldn’t hesitate to introduce you. I help you and Mr X, you both win – but why would I do it? Am I just nice? What’s in […]

I have done huge amounts of business over coffee and a chat, and it’s not just because I love that particular beverage. “Coffee” is a great tool in the salesperson’s arsenal. Who says no to a cup of coffee and a chat? Hardly anyone. It’s an informal setting and its only a coffee …. we’re […]

I don’t do reciprocal recommendations automatically, but if you want to here’s some free advice. Don’t make the mistake of writing one for the person the same day! Firstly it looks dodgy and instantly downvalues its perceived worth and secondly it’s a missed opportunity! The way updates work if you wait a week or so […]

I’ve got over 170 recommendations that say I’m good at what I do, I’m a great guy to work with and to share a coffee with, but so what? If you want to make it easy for people to buy from consider this: in a search only your name, professional headline, amount of connections (if […]

“I’ll write a nice profile because it’s going to unlock the world of LinkedIn and the 100 million business contacts” or so people think. Get real. When was the last time you sold something through an advertisement? There’s a reason 24 out of 25 top newspapers are in decline. People look at me strangely when […]

I’m constantly thinking about everyone I’m connected with on LinkedIn, my network and how I can help them – if anyone in my network can help another person in my network I’ll introdue them to each other on an e-mail. Partly it’s because I’m a nice person and I like to do the right thing, […]

Using a professional headline is a huge way to get found and to demonstrate your value, but the way most people write theirs is such a very common mistake on LinkedIn. When you do a search you only get names, professional headlines, number of connections (or 500+) and number of recommendations. Imagine Joe Blog, MD […]

LinkedIn gives you names and titles of over 100 million people. It’s a massive, constantly updated and free database of business contacts, but you have to be smart. Lots of people do it wrong – for example they say “my target audience is the chief marketing officer, so what I’ll do is go into a […]

I get 10 – 15 enquiries a week off the back of my status updates. Do you? Do you do a status update message? What does it say? What does it say about you and your value to me as a potential client?  Maybe it’s because I update my status every day. Every day I […]

Actually it’s more than £10m. That’s just when I stopped counting.

Most people are wishy washy on LinkedIn©, that’s just one reason they don’t get much value out of it. “I’ll connect with you because I know you”. Full stop. What they’re not doing is focusing on value – they’re just collecting people, getting a big list and no results. Every day on LinkedIn© do something […]

It’s not as if I haven’t had a presence on the internet for a while, but today I’m pleased to say that we’ve launched a new-look website for the business.  While design is important, there’s actually more to it than that … The new website will enable me to … Update people frequently on news […]