LinkedIn Answers

Hilary Schneider, Business Development ManagerBrown Wright Stein

Overview

– LinkedIn Answers

– The introduction function

– Who's viewed my profile

– Groups – the benefits of joining

– LinkedIn Etiquette

– How to manage your network in only 5

minutes a day

Last time we covered:

Good Profiles include

• A good headline

• A good summary, directs the reader to your full Profile and highlights the main messages you want to tell people about what you do and how you can help them

• Detailed, current, and describes your unique experience that's not retrospective (like a CV is) containing keywords so you come up in searches

• A minimum of 50-70 qualified connections

LinkedIn Answers

• In LinkedIn go to More tab>Answers

• Answers function enables you to demonstrate your

expertise, by answering

peoples questions

• Useful if you're looking to

gain national exposure as an expert on a certain

topic

LinkedIn Answers

From the Answers page you can browse topics related to your industry or expertise

• listed on the right hand side of the page under browse

• you can also search by keyword to find relevant questions

The Introduction Function

• Can help you to get introduced to a second or third-level connection.

What to do

• If you know the name of the person you want to meet, click "Get introduction"from the search screen:

• Or if you are viewing the person's profile, click "Get introduced through a connection".

The Introduction Function

• When you push the Send button, those 2 messages go to your trusted connection and this is where the power of LinkedIn comes into play.

• Your connection get to write something nice about you and to reaffirm that you're a good person to work with. When he pushes "Send", that information goes to the person you want to meet.

Benefits of the Introduction function

• Can be a more respectful and potentially more effective way to ask for an introduction than using the phone for the following reasons:

• Your connection can review your message when they have sufficient time

• You don't have to tie them down and ask for an introduction while they're busy trying to get work done.

• They can write a detailed recommendation to pass along to their friend and if they do, the connection is much more likely to happen.

Who’s viewed my profile?

• Found in the right hand column of the LinkedIn homepage

• Information on the viewer is limited, but you can sometimes guess by the type of company, industry and company name who is viewing your profile

• Can also help you to measure whether you're increasing your activity and presence on LinkedIn

Benefits of joining groups

The benefits of joining groups on LinkedIn are:

• You will be found• You will find others who

have similar affiliations or interests.

• Joining groups that your clients, suppliers or vendors hand out is a way to connect, answer questions and share resources, expertise and events.

• You will find job opportunities, because every group has a tab for available positions at members' companies.

Benefits of joining groups cont’d

• You can become a credible expert by answering questions and posting articles of interest for the entire group to see.

• People in groups talk about events they're involved in, and this may help you to find activities of interest to you.

• You can promote an event you are hosting to a group of people who have the same interests.

• You can search within groups and communicate with members to whom you are not officially connected.

Turning off email notifications for

groups

• NB you'll want to turn off the email notification for discussions taking place in some of the larger groups. If you're emailed each time there's a comment to a discussion it becomes very irritating.

• To turn off email notifications change the Settings in the groups Settings section.

LinkedIn Etiquette

• Don’t be one-sided

• Act quickly on

requests

• Keep it professional

• Make a big impact

with small gestures

How to manage your network in 5

minutes a day Source: Robert Half: Business

Etiquette: The new rules in a digital age

• Be the first to have a point of view. Share a

relevant news article and add value by including

an observation that may not be so obvious to

others.

• Let them know they've been heard. Listen to

what your network has to say, so you can make

informed suggestions or relevant introductions.

• Establish yourself as the go-to person.

How to manage your network in 5

minutes a day

• Try to add at least one new person to your network a week. Growing networks are far more effective than stagnant ones

Summary

• LinkedIn Answers enables you to demonstrate your expertise

• The Introduction function can help you to meet second or third-level connections

• The benefits of the Introduction function are that it can be a more respectful and potentially more effective way to ask for an introduction than using the phone for the following reasons:

Summary cont’d

• You can see who’s viewed your profile

• Joining groups is a great way to interact with people in your specialty or industry

• Remember social media has etiquette too

• Online networking doesn’t have to be time consuming, if you use simple practices that only require a few minutes each day

Actions

• Upload your Profile, summary and specialities

• Add your photo

• Connect with people you

know

• Join groups

• Answer people’s

questions

• Aim for at least 50-70

qualified connections

Hilary SchneiderBusiness Development Manager Brown Wright Stein

T 02 9394 1067F 02 9394 1011

E has@bwslawyers.com.au

W www.bwslawyers.com.au