July 17th, 2008. LinkedIn Maintenance: Do This Right Now (or else?) (61 comments – once you do this, leave a comment to report back )

Make today the day you spend a few minutes to back up your LinkedIn stuff… this post tells you how to backup CONTACTS and your PROFILE (including Recommendations).

It might be the most critical thing you do today… I’ve heard of many, many people who have lost access to their LinkedIn account.  How would you like everything you’ve done on LinkedIn to go away?  I wouldn’t like that either.

So go read the post, and backup both your Contacts (by exporting your LinkedIn Contacts) and your Profile (by saving your Profile as a PDF).   Do this at least once a year.

BONUS IDEA: Once you have your Contacts exported, do something with them!  Many people import them into a CRM system (like JibberJobber).

If you don’t do that, at least go through the spreadsheet and look for people you should reconnect with.  The spreadsheet will have their email address, so it will be really easy to write an email and reconnect.

A big part of networking is NURTURING the relationship, and you do that with communication… like an email.

I dare you to nurture relationships!

WOW.  Wow. The year is gone.  Amazing.  Here’s to 2012, which might be the year the world ends (I’m not in that camp :p).

August 2nd, 2007 I wrote a post titled How Job Seekers *Should* Blog.  It shows how passionate I was about blogging over four years ago.  After this post I saw much of the traffic go to Twitter, Facebook and other places, but I have recently seen some shifts back to blogs, with very good reason.

Check out the post – there’s some good meat in there!

How Job Seekers *Should* Blog is part of a 3 part series… you can see the other two parts in the intro of that post.

Have you ever got a request to help someone? I get, and see, these types of requests regularly.  Here’s one I saw on a LinkedIn Group 7 days ago:

Recently downsized, I am experienced in many areas any leads would be appreciated.

This was the ENTIRE message… there was nothing before that and nothing after that. So…

What do you think… can you help this person?

Are you ready and willing to share some leads?

Many of you are open to it, some of you are anxious to help, but first, let me help the person asking this question.

The problem with the question is that no one knows what kinds of leads this person would be most interested in.

Do you want to sell insurance?  There are plenty of people on Monster that would love to have you start selling insurance.

On the Group where he asked the question, there were two responses that looked like MLM.  I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but are you interested in a business ownership, commission and sales role?  (based on the person’s LinkedIn Profile, I’d guess he is not too interested in that)

Would you like to work in construction, or at Taco Bell?  Want to work as a security guard at night?

There’s nothing wrong with any of these, but the question does not help me understand what this person is looking for.

Let me use imagination and re-write what this message could have been.  I’m going to use MYSELF (from six years ago) in the example below… Pass this post along to anyone who has asked you for help… many, many people need to have more clarity in their message.

I was recently downsized from my company where I was the general manager. We provided custom software and networking services for companies in a few different industries.

(these two lines gives you an idea of what I used to do, what my skills and experience have been, and perhaps what my passion has been)

I have a lot of experience with various things including leadership and strategy (which is what I did as a general manager), customer acquisition and account management, and software design and development.

(This line helps the reader/listener understand even more what my specialties are… it is definitely a missing link in the original message)

I would appreciate any leads in the Salt Lake City area.

(that is where I was living when I got laid off, and where I have a house payment, etc.  NOTE: after a few months of no success, I opened up my search to anywhere in the U.S.  It’s important to let us know if you are open to moving… or if you want to stay in one area!).

I am especially interested in a company that is growing fast and needs strategy and leadership as they grow.  I’d love to work at a company that provides software services for other companies. .. I would be open to a large company that has an established IT shop.

(This last line needs work, but the idea is to give me an idea of what kinds of companies I want an introduction to.)

For example, I’d like to work at Zions bank in their IT department, or for ______ company, or for ______ company.  I’m open to other similar opportunities, also.

(Now, close it with a question / aka, call to action:)

Do you know anyone I should talk to?  They can be at those companies, similar companies, or just in the IT field.  If you know someone you can introduce me to, will you send me an email so we can start the introduction?  My email is _______.

Contrast the message above to this message (in bold).  Very different…. when you ask for help, if you aren’t specific, you risk no one being able to help you.  Imagine going to an architect and saying “please design a house for me.  I don’t have any specifications… just a house.” They’ll need more to go on, right?

Your friends and family need more to go on, also.

I have two JibberJobber trainings left this year … one tomorrow morning at 9 am MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE, and one next Wednesday at 9am MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE.

If you haven’t jumped on one yet, get on one!

If you have, but it’s been a while, come for a refresher.

Please let your contacts know about this training… thank you

REGISTER HERE

JibberJobber is a tool that helps you organize your job search.

Many use JibberJobber when they are NOT employed, to keep up with their networking.

Many small businesses use it as their CRM tool.

Learn more on the webinar

Listen up.  I see this problem all the time.

Keith Ferrazzi says if we want to be better than 95% of our competition, we simply need to follow-up.  In this video I show you how to use JibberJobber as a follow-up tool.

Everyone knows this.

Not many people are doing it.

If you do it once, you are better than 95% of your competition.

HERE’S WHAT THE TOP 5% ARE DOING WRONG: After they follow-up once, they don’t follow-up anymore.

When you think of “follow-up” I want you to think of “nurture relationships.”   This is a process that takes time, and has multiple touch-points.

Sending one card as a follow-up is good, but having multiple communication points is BETTER.

I’m not talking about opting people into your newsletter – I’m talking about really reaching out to them, individually.

If you only follow-up once, you aren’t doing enough.

Overwhelming, isn’t it? I know it is.

You won’t follow-up with most of your network contacts… but you should strategically try to follow up with some contacts, regularly.

Take this quote from Dr. Jim Wright (from Timothy Ferris’s blog): “Consistency and moderation over intensity.”

Take this quote from Mark LeBlanc: “Consistency Trumps Commitment!”

Following up once is not consistent.

(if you are overwhelmed with what this might take, jump on JibberJobber and use it as your follow-up tool)

On PR Daily Becky Johns wrote Students: The 9 things that matter more than GPA

The comments are great, there is someone who has hired a lot of recent grads and she weighs in with a great argument… but I don’t want to focus on that.

The 9 points are awesome… go to the post to see what they are… and then figure out how you can incorporate them into your own stories.  Can you show how you learn (#1) with stories?  Can you help an employer understand how you tackle time management (#3) through examples?  Can you show a portfolio (#5)?

Read the post for the nine ideas. If any of these make sense to be a part of your brand, figure out how to create the stories so you can help people understand how strong you are in any of those areas.

BONUS: In JibberJobber, use the Interview Prep area to store your stories you’ll use in interviews…

Yesterday I blogged about working with recruiters.

Here’s another post of interest: The recruitment database is far from dead….

Peter Cosgrove says that his firm, the largest recruitment agency in Ireland, took their 20 last placements and lists where they came from:

• Only one applied through a job board
• Two came from a cv database such as monster
• 3 came from our own Cpl website
• 2 were found on Linkedin
• 12 were by referral or internally found by the recruiter on our database.

Read his short post for his thoughts.

My thoughts?

NETWORK!!!!

Network with recruiters, but NETWORK with people who can refer you!

Tomorrow (Tuesday, November 15, 2012) I am doing two awesome webinars.

At 4pm EST (Tuesday, Nov 15) I am doing an updated LinkedIn for Executives: Beyond the Basics, for Experts Connection.  The cost is $60.  I’m amazed at all the crappy LinkedIn advice floating around… rest assured, I won’t go into anything superfluous.  I’ve always recognized that my audience is busy, or feels overwhelmed, and needs to know what to DO to get the most value, and then move on.   Click here to sign up.

At 7pm EST (Tuesday, Nov 15) I am hosting Mark Hovind for our second “tell me about the economy” NO COST webinar.  The first one blew me away.  I almost-guarantee (I hardly ever guarantee anything) that you will learn a ton.  Is the economy going up?  Is it going down?  Disregard the crap you get from the media and check out Mark’s analysis, taken from current economic numbers and compared with the trends from the last 60ish years. Click here to register. (here’s the last one I did with Mark, in July of 2009)

Sign up for at least one of these!

Yes, it has significantly changed.

Technology has been one major catalyst of the change.  The economy has been the other major catalyst.

What has it changed TO?

Check out this post by Meg Guiseppi titled Today’s Executive Job Search Toolkit. Meg says you need these things for a successful job search (especially as an executive):

• A specific career target and list of target companies (read more)
• Research on each target company and the industry (read more)
• Target Contact List for networking (read more)
• Personal branding designed to renonate with your target companies (read more)
• Branded Career Documents (read more)
• LinkedIn (read more)
• Google Profile (read more)
• Recruiter Relationships (read more)
• List of References (read more)
• Online brand-building communications plan (read more)
• In-person and online networking strategy (read more)
• Interview Preparation (read more)
• Thank you notes (read more)
• Job search managmeent and tracking system (JibberJobber, of course!) (read more)

Check out her post for more info and links.

The job search is not as simple as it was.  Be proactive, take ownership of it, and excel!

I got sucked into Chris Broganville recently, reading a bunch of his posts, and posts from others about him.

One that stuck out was his post titled COMMUNITY ONLY MEANS SOMETHING IF YOU KEEP IT WARM

He talks about relationships he’s had with the biggies… Dan Heath, who he had a warm relationship with, and who he thought he could pick things up with.

Contrast that with other biggies who he hasn’t maintained a relationship with, including Keith Ferrazzi and Tom Peters.

Chris runs with the big dogs… he knows some serious people, and they know him.  But he’s not talking about knowing them from 30 years ago, or just dropping their name once… he is talking about THE STRENGTH OF THE RELATIONSHIP.

In JibberJobber there is a in important function that you should be using: ranking/stars.

When you put someone in JibberJobber you should rank them.  On the image on the right you’ll see the stars… you can change them on various pages, but the point is to monitor or measure the relationships you have with individuals.

Meet someone at a networking event the night before?  If you don’t think you have anything in common, or a reason to pursue the relationship, then don’t give them any stars (leave it blank).  If you think there is something there, though, and you want to pursue a professional relationship, rank them as a 2 or 3 Star.

As you develop the relationship, increase the ranking to 3 and 4 and 5 Stars.

If I rank you as a 5 Star, that means I think we have an awesome relationship… perhaps you’ll interrupt a meeting to take my call, or at least you’ll respond as soon as you can when the meeting is done.

In JibberJobber I can track how STRONG my relationships are, not just how BIG my network is.

Are you doing this?

I think many are disillusioned by those who say “my network is THIS BIG!!”

Really?

How many of those contacts will actually respond to what you have to say?  How many care about you, or will help you?

Go read Chris Brogan’s post, to get a sense of where you want to be with your professional relationships… and then jump over to your JibberJobber account and make sure you are using stars to rank the strength of the relationships.