I got an e-mail from Susan Ireland, at the Job Lounge.  She asked me if I knew anything about LinkedIn deleting people’s accounts… I’ve heard a little about this, but mostly just hand-slapping for looking like spammers.  Getting an account deleted can be a huge problem, especially as you use LinkedIn more.

She writes about it here (I can almost hear a tear drop on her keyboard as I read it… ouch!!!).

The two issues are (1) why she was deleted, and (2) what LinkedIn can/will do about it.  I have no idea why she was deleted, and apparently she doesn’t either.  As far as she knows, she wasn’t doing anything wrong with her LinkedIn account, or LinkedIn connections.  As far as what LinkedIn can or will do, here is their response:

“At this time we do not have a recommended back up system for your account. Once something has been deleted there is not a back up at this time to recover any information. …One thing you can do is copy your profile information and save it as a word document so that you will always have it on your computer.”

Not very comforting, is it?

Here are two absolute must-do’s, right now, on LinkedIn - and they will take less time than it takes to read this blog post (so do it now!):

1. Export your contacts. Simply click on Contacts, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on Export Connections, and follow that process.  Just leave everything at default and you’ll end up with your connections in a .csv file, which opens in Excel.
2. Export your profile. You’ve probably put a fair amount of thought into creating your profile, right?  What about any references you have gotten?  Simply click on Profile, then find the grayed-out icons above your name, and click on the adobe pdf icon.  This exports your profile, including recommendations, into a very nice, presentable document (kudos to whoever at LinkedIn did that formatting, it is very well-done!).  Here’s an image of where the icon is:

These are the two most important things for me to grab, if I knew my LinkedIn account might go away.  (1) Who I connected with, which includes e-mail addresses very every single contact, (2) my recommendations  (I can always rethink and recreate a profile, but those recommendations are priceless!).

Please, don’t even take 2 seconds to comment on this post, just head on over to LinkedIn and do this very easy, very quick maintenance!

I am frequently asked “how old is LinkedIn,” and my response lately has been “I don’t remember.” Here’s an easy way to remember - LinkedIn started on May fifth, five years ago. Happy birthday LinkedIn!

On their birthday blog post they show some interesting stats, announcing LinkedIn is over twenty-two million users (more appropriately would be “signups”), and their staff has grown from ten people five years ago to almost three hundred people today.

Also on their blog post you’ll see the two founders, Reid Hoffman and Allen Blue. I thought that Konstantin Guericke was also a founder. Note that Reid is the Chairman of the Board (and President?), working with current CEO Dan Nye. Konstantin moved on to found and run Jaxtr, but Allen Blue is still in active management at LinkedIn, apparently as VP of Product Strategy.

I started on LinkedIn during my last job, although I forgot about that account and actually created another account during my job search, a little over two years ago. So I’ve probably had an account at LinkedIn in their first two years - how about you?

I’m frequently asked if I’m an employee or evangelist of LinkedIn. I respond that I am not. I think LinkedIn is a great tool for professionals, and that you can get a lot of benefit from having a good profile and a decent strategy on LinkedIn… but I realize there are issues with LinkedIn. For now, though, I say, ride the wave!

What are the problems? I won’t go into them here. Heck, Scott Allen, author of The Virtual Handshake didn’t go into them on his post where he talks about backing off of his LinkedIntelligence blog. His point #3 is titled “LinkedIn is doing some things far worse now than they were two years ago.” Well, I can’t tell you what they were doing two years ago because I really wasn’t paying much attention. And if they flew me out to their Silicon Valley office I’d be happy to talk about what I think they are doing wrong now, and what they could do to improve, but that is … well, about as likely as me going to the moon.

Nonetheless, I still think the tool should fit into your personal branding and networking strategy… as one component. If you haven’t started yet, or at a loss on what to do, check out my book. If you don’t want to pay the 19.95 + S&H, download the eBook for just 11.95. After reading it you should be able to wrap your brain around LinkedIn and know how it would fit into your your overall social strategy.

Again, happy birthday LinkedIn - we’re anxious to see what the future has in store!

In March I read a post by Lucian Beebe, Director of Product Management, called Get Your Inside Connections with BusinessWeek & SimplyHired. I was simply jealous at the very cool interface that BusinessWeek offered to their readers, and immediately sent an e-mail to the address at the bottom of the post asking how we could do the same thing.

Thankfully, we got a quick reply and were able to give this functionality to YOU. How cool is that? A huge THANKS to LinkedIn (and the LinkedIn API) to help make your experience richer! Here’s how it works:

First, you get real data when you are actually logged into LinkedIn … so go login to LinkedIn! If you don’t login to LinkedIn, you’ll be prompted to, like in this picture:

Next, log into JibberJobber and go to the Company List Panel. This You can get there by clicking Companies on the main menu (or, in the image below, click on the link in the QuickView Stats for your Target Companies).

Next, on the right side of the List Panel you’ll see all the icons. You should see the little “in” icon (if you don’t, click Manage Columns and add that icon). Simply click the in icon and you’ll see a popup of who you know at that company, like this (these are the contacts that I have that have eBay in their profile… based on my connection relationship with them… so your results will look different):

Finally, you can drill down to any of the options they show… which goes to LinkedIn’s page, and shows as search results.

Again, thank you LinkedIn for opening up and allowing this type of functionality - it really does make the web a richer place!

A couple of months ago I started to get some e-mails from friends saying “you need to get on Stan Relihan’s The Connections Show.”

Then, I jealously read that my good friend and mentor (he doesn’t know he’s my mentor) Vincent Wright was a guest on The Connections Show (listen here).

I made a note to figure out how to get in touch with Stan and see if I could be a guest.

Before I got to it, however, I got an e-mail from Stan, asking if I would be able to be on his show!

Here’s a link to the 22 minute recording we did. I’m surprised at the comments on this post, and flattered that people took so much away from the interview.

If you are a digger, please go digg Stan’s show. Not the interview with me, but his entire show. Right now he is in third place, ahead of BusinessWeek, Wired News, NPR, Wallstrip and other popular shows.

Thanks for the opportunity, Stan!

Recommendations is a pretty powerful thing within LinkedIn. You can’t write your own, and you can’t edit what someone has submitted for you. You can just decided whether you want to show a recommendation or not. Because of this, each recommendation carries some weight.

Issues surrounding Recommendations are too complex for one blog post, so in this post I’ll just focus on writing an excellent recommendation. I’m not covering who to write one for, what to do if you don’t like the recommendation someone submits for you, how to solicit recommendation, etc. Just what makes an excellent one.

Two things come to mind:

First, make sure your recommendation is going to add business or professional value to the recipient. This is not the Facebook Wall, or the MySpace comment area. Recommendations are not “atta boys,” kudos or “happy birthdays.” They are meant to show a professional endorsement for that person.

Second, make sure your recommendation has specific information (and, is not too vague). You can say “Jason is an excellent project manager,” or you can say “Jason showed excellent project management skills by (example a, example b, example c).” The first one is just too vague… becoming cliche. The second one is more credible.

Now, I’ll probably be accused of wanting to flatter myself for posting this, but I just received it and I think it’s an excellent example of how to do a strong recommendation. This is from Patreece Thompson, who participated in a LinkedIn webinar that I did this morning:

“Jason conducted a webinar on LinkedIn that I found extremely valuable. He demonstrated a high degree of expertise and his presentation was clear and immediately actionable. He was sensitive to others that did not have the on-line visual. In addition, his style was open and inviting to questions (and expressed appreciation for them) and willingly gave his time to responding to questions thoroughly. Jason is extremely enthusiastic about his work which is infectious. I certainly would recommend him for any training on this topic.

Notice how powerful this recommendation is… it is much more specific than something like this:

Jason is a great presenter, I really enjoyed what he talked about. I would recommend Jason anytime.

Of course, my example is still positive and flattering, but Patreece’s recommendation has teeth… it has the kind of information and authority that means something.

I expect to see positive things about you in recommendations. Any specific stuff just seals the deal.

Be specific!

Want more info on optimizing LinkedIn? Check out the blog behind the book, I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???

There is an issue with LinkedIn that gets some people all bent out of shape. It hasn’t affected me yet because (a) I don’t invite that many people to connect, and (b) if I invite them, I first ask them outside of LinkedIn (phone, e-mail, or in person) if they want to connect, get their approval, and then do it through LinkedIn.

But I know some of you invite people fast and furious… not that it’s bad to do it, but the current design of LinkedIn disciplines you if you appear to be a spammer. The issue is that it’s too easy to appear to be a spammer, even if you aren’t.

On my I’m on LinkedIn — Now What??? blog I address the issue in two posts:

I Don’t Know You (OUCH!) talks about the issue and explains things you need to know, and

How To Know When You Get A LinkedIn IDK shows you screenshots to help you know if/when you get IDK’d.

This is an issue that all social networks face… what to do with those who “spam.” It’s ugly, though, because they will usually discipline you with no warning and with little recourse. Last year one of my favorite bloggers, Harry Joiner of MarketingHeadhunter.com, got his entire account disabled on Facebook because he simply used their tool to invite people to be his Facebook friend.

So there you go, just a simple warning to keep your account intact

It’s time, isn’t it? LinkedIn has been growing, and it’s an excellent career resource. What have you done with your account?

Let me share a very cool e-mail I got from Tom Kenny, an East Coast friend (and a living example of perfect networking), after he read I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???:

I feel there is a lot of useful information in the book that people can act upon to improve things, a lot of food for thought and you even give over 30 references to other material. The book may be brief but you’ve given me a lot of home work to do! I hope everybody realizes that you are not providing solutions but helping to steer them in the direction that is right for them! In my book that is the best type of teacher!

Here’s what’s cool about this e-mail: Tom wrote a very good LinkedIn user guide for members of a professional networking group in New Jersey… he has already put a lot of thought into getting the most out of LinkedIn!

I find it interesting that he talks about the 30+ references included in the book (I haven’t counted them, and didn’t realize there were that many, but hey :)). I wonder if it’s because I’m a blogger, and we regularly link out to other people, so pointing my book readers to other places is no big deal. I’m going to pay more attention to what other authors do in their books, and how many resources they point to.

Anyway, if you are looking for another new year’s resolution, and “eating less donuts,” “lose 30 pounds,” or “get a promotion” just doesn’t excite you, how about:

1. Get my LinkedIn game on,
2. Get business out of relationships found from LinkedIn,
3. Do all of the bare necessities with my LinkedIn account and profile,
4. Derive more value out of my online social networking (Facebook, anyone?), or simply,
5. Just understand what the heck I should be doing!

Go ahead, check out my book. Or go to Scott Allen’s LinkedIntelligence.com blog. While you are in this mode, check out Alison Doyle’s list of Top Job Search Sites for 2007 - I definitely agree with the third site she lists!

A few weeks ago I sent a copy of “I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???” to Bob Sutton, who I’ve come to admire and respect over the last year. I asked for an endorsement, if he thought it was worthy of one. Here was his reply:

“I was ready to abandon my LinkedIn account before I read Jason Alba’s concise and remarkably useful guide. Jason writes with remarkable clarity, provides one useful tip after another about how to use it most effectively, and unlike so many users guides that offer breathless and uncritical hype, Jason candidly explains the virtues and drawbacks of Linkedin’s features. Beyond that, Jason has such deep experience with the web that the book contains hundreds of broader lessons about how to get the most of the web: I learned an enormous amount from this little gem.”

Robert Sutton, Stanford Professor and author of The No Asshole Rule

I fell out of my chair. And when I got back up and read it again, I fell out of my chair again.

I e-mailed Bob and thanked him for such a kind review, and he e-mailed me back with a very encouraging, supportive e-mail that reinforced this review. It was unbelievable.

My first brush with Bob Sutton was when I read a book review by Kent Blumberg about his book. It was an excellent review so I was a fan right away. But when I started learning more about his publishing story, and how the Harvard Press wouldn’t print his book unless he changed his title, and that he refused to change the title, I gained more respect for him.

Then I started reading more reviews about his book from bloggers. Bob Sutton hit a major hot spot for the working class around the world, and has continued to evangelize the message. I’m sure that what he is doing has freed or empowered people to get the self-confidence to deal with rotten boss situations, as scared as they may be.

Thank you, Bob Sutton, for encouraging me and helping me with my first book. I’m really a nobody in your world, shoot, I’m the guy that couldn’t even get a job interview and was out of work for too long. Writing a review like this, and even reading the book was above and beyond cool, and I’ll appreciate it for a long time!

There are other reviews that have come in since the last time I posted about it, which I’ll post soon! If you are interested in learning more about “I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???” you can click here to find pricing on the hard copy or the soft copy.

I hate to blog about things that I think will turn you off, and I try not to blog too much about me, or the book, or my conferences, etc. But I am getting a lot of e-mails and chat messages asking me how the book is doing. So here’s a quick update.

Let me put this into the context of you can do this, and it will greatly help develop your personal brand. In other words, don’t take this as a brag or whatever, but think about how having your own book will help you professionally.

• Last week I was in Austin, Texas, presenting to the Launch Pad Job Club - I wish there were more of these throughout the country, as they it is a stellar organization. I was introduced as “author of…” and the person introducing me said something like “it’s only 124 pages long and most of the front is page after page of endorsements about how great the book is!” I got a laugh out of that. Even my publisher told me that he’s never had as many endorsements as I have, and they are still rolling in.
• Yesterday I was on a radio interview (recorded podcast) with Central Valley Business Times, in California. The interview is 11 minutes, and pretty interesting (if I do say so myself :)). It’s on the front page right now but I’m sure that will change, so here’s the link to the story, with a link to the podcast at the very bottom. The only reason I got that interview was because my publisher put a press release out, and it got picked up by these guys. If you want to hear one of the most professional radio voices I’ve heard, go listen to it (not my voice, mind you :)).
• On Monday I got an e-mail from my publisher saying that I’m on LinkedIn — Now What??? was in the 5,000’s on the Amazon ranking. I think this various by the hour, and I’ve seen it usually sit somewhere between 30,000 and 120,000 … so to be one of the top 5,000 books was pretty cool. But thanks to author Anita Bruzzese, and her advice, I will not be following the Amazon rankings
• Someone who I think is a hero, a superstar, a rockstar, a legend, Robert Sutton, who authored (parents, cover your kids eyes) The No Asshole Rule, which has an awesome story behind it and has taken the world by storm, sent me an endorsement. A really nice endorsement. When I replied that it was very, very nice, he wrote me a personal, sincere compliment about my writing. Yes, it was quite flattering, and yes, he’s won me over and I’m one of his biggest fans.
• I actually got a royalty check. No, I’m not rich, and it wasn’t a ton of money, but it was the first one. I’ve been conditioned to not expect any money so getting that royalty check was a nice surprise!
• I am way behind on linking to the bloggers who have blogged about it. But I’ll share one with you that I just saw. This one comes with some history, too long to explain. Let’s just say that John was instrumental in evaluating JibberJobber when there were too many rough edges, and he found a number of … flaws. Well, go read the Reinke Faces Life blog post about this book. It’s really quite a complement, as he ends his post with “From the fellow who recommends very very few things a (job)seeker should pay for, this is one of them.” I’m still shocked.
• When I hosted the Blogging for Business Conference on Monday I handed the speakers an “autographed” copy of my book. It was really cool to be able to give them something valuable (more than a Hallmark card, right?), and personal, as a thank you.
• I was invited to speak at the Personal Branding Telesummit, which is going to be the biggest thing to hit personal branding… ever! The requirement to be a speaker is to be … an author!
• I am in talks with a number of organizations that have reached out to me to speak to their groups… which is pretty cool considering I didn’t reach out to any of them.

Hopefully I’m working on you… convincing you to write your own book!

So, how is the book selling? I am not sure. I don’t ask Happy About for numbers. I have too many other things to work on, and watching this metric will only stress me out…. so to everyone who asks how it’s selling, my answer is “I don’t know.”

Still wondering what I’m talking about? You can get the book from Amazon, or Happy About (you can also get the ebook for around $12 from Happy About) to check it out.

My wife comes down stairs with a big smile, hiding something behind her back.

It was my book… the real, shiny, white and red book! She asked for my autograph :p

It was surreal to flip through the pages of something that I had spent hours on — to see what a layout professional could do was really neat. What a cool experience!

Also, the book got listed on Amazon a few days ago, so if you’ve read it or blogged on it, and you have an Amazon account, please go leave a review there. Monday is the day the hard copy ships (if you want the eBook, order it from the Happy About publisher’s site), so I’ll do one more post then, and then I’ll move on to other things For now, though, I’d like to bring attention to some of the bloggers who have posted about it since last time:

Megan Fitzgerald is the expert that I would go to for any information on expat career advice. She works with expat professionals and expat entrepreneurs, is a career coach, and a personal branding strategist (and a JibberJobber partner). I’ve worked with Megan in various capacities and have found her to be passionate, knowledgeable, helpful and a real delight (why the big deal with expat for me? Because I almost was one, and still have a lot of interest in moving overseas for a while). She says: “I strongly recommend this book for those who don’t want to waste time trying to figure out LinkedIn’s myriad of features on their own” … read more here.

Clint James doesn’t need an introduction on this blog… here’s a snippet from his post: “LinkedIn caught my eye while I was doing my job search in April and while I picked it up and played with it there never really was any part of it that truly caught my fancy. But recently I read a book by Jason Alba at JibberJobber.com and I am on fire for this site! Most sites aren’t as good as say, Experience.com, about telling you what to do once you have signed up, and Alba has written the missing owner’s manual one of the hottest career sites. ” … read more here.

Joe Neitham, an IT recruiter in Singapore, very kindly says “… and I believe that anyone who is serious about networking through LinkedIn must grab a copy of this book…” … he also says some pretty nice things about me … read more here.

Your HR Guy, who was another blog that was mentioned (along with the JibberJobber blog) by the Wall Street Journal’s Career Journal, says the book is “what I consider to be the consummate guide to navigating through the waters LinkedIn.” … read more here.

Mike Thomas, chief machete swinger at The Daily Machete, coins a new term (eat your heart out Jessica Alba, because he’s not talking about you!!) “Another “Albanian” strength - his clear, down-to-earth writing style - may also pose a challenge for the average reader. How can good writing pose a challenge? Simple: his words are too smooth, which can make his book a quick read. But breezing through “I’m on LinkedIn — Now What???” would be a disservice to readers. Despite being content-rich, Alba’s writing style can lead you to believe you’ve absorbed everything upon first reading it. The best advice? ” … you’ll have to read the best advice here.

Daniel Schawbel writes “Millions of people around the world use LinkedIn, but most either don’t use it properly or have little experience with many of the features. By reading this book you will have a great foundation for…” … read more here. (sorry for not putting this up the first time I posted!)

And a head nod from Jack, at MarketingMe, who even calls JibberJobber a “neat site” :)

Thanks to all who have supported this venture, with e-mails, blog posts, comments, tweets and phone calls! It’s fun to be at this point, and I’m sure the best is yet to come