Personalizing LinkedIn

Last week one of my asphalt paving audience members asked me about personalizing LinkedIn.  Is it a good practice to personalize LinkedIn, and if so, how does one accomplish this?

2011.2.6 PingTags Profile

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Personalization is always a good idea as long as you do so in accordance with the generally accepted standards of the community.  Just because LinkedIn is largely a business community does not mean you cannot find opportunities for encouraging more conversations.

Invitations and Messages

Take an extra moment when you send an invitation to personalize it with a least one engaging word – the recipients first name.  You can and should apply this technique to all of your social networking communications. Why?  It shows class. 

When I receive a new connection request I always make it a point to says thanks for connecting – and to take a moment to acknowledge something relevant and timely that we both have in common.  Once in a while this leads to a nice getting-aquainted conversation.

Use PingTags to More Easily Engage 

PingTags is a new service that makes connecting on LinkedIn as easy as scanning a QR code. This free service brings a Connect via LinkedIn button right to the mobile device of the one scanning your PingTag code, just as Likify does with your professional Facebook Page.

What is especially interesting are the analytics that give you the location and time the code was scanned on your PingTag dashboard.

2011.2.6 Ping Tags LinkedIn

You'll want to polish up the Summary section of your LinkedIn profile as that is the first thing one sees after scanning the code.  Sharing something personal such as your hometown is a nice way to accomplish this. 

Status Updates and Personalization

Let's go back to the question that was the inspiration for this post. The point was made that not a lot of us are hanging out on LinkedIn.  We are typically using sites such as Ping.fm to post remotely.  Agreed.

So, does it make any sense to use Twitter to fill up your connections status page with all of your Twitter updates – a practice that many of us find particularly annoying?  A better practice is to be there and read and comment on the updates of your connections.  Since there is very of little this within LinkedIn, it will be noticed and appreciated.

LinkedIn is a business environment.  Share productive business-oriented tips and advice.  Do that in a personable manner and you will encourage far more conversations than you will by posting endless inspirational quotes or other chatter.

LinkedIn Groups and New Connections

I have found LinkedIn Groups to be invaluable for making new business connections.  The key is to use them as you would question and answer site Quora.  Make intelligent responses that contribute to he overall conversation, as opposed to just serving your particular needs.

This week I was just ready to make a thoughtful comment on one particular group question when one of the other commenters said:  "Nice to meet so many like-minded girls …" Needless to say I cancelled my comment just in time.  

It's about the group – not you.  Make conversation in a way that makes everyone feel welcome and that helps as many in the group as possible.  

We Trust LinkedIn

At the end of the day, the greatest value of LinkedIn is that it has proven itself to be a network that we can trust.  This is one reason most of us freely accept most connections that come our way on LinkedIn.  

Used properly, LinkedIn is a great network for getting business relationships off the ground.  I frequently join those groups of associations where I will be speaking in the near future.  It's a great way for me to prepare and learn the challenges and opportunities of the association members.

From there, I have just what I need to better personalize my business presentations.

What do you think? Feel free to scan my PingTag and connect with me on LinkedIn. 

Feel free to share this with your friends by clicking on the Facebook Like button below, leave a comment, or consider subscribing to the feed. 

Until tomorrow,  Jeff

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