I have been on LinkedIn for 4 years now and i have learnt a lot while engaging from that platform. Some of these things i have learnt have helped me find the does and don’t on this platform so that you can move forward in your engagement and connection.
The following below are my does and don’t on Linked;
DOs
a) Share links (using a URL shortener) to interesting articles, websites or video you have found that some individuals in your network might appreciate. Don’t worry about whether all of your connections will find the information equally valuable. Always try to use words that grab the readers and encourage them to click the link.
b) Pose a question that could lead to solving a problem you have, like: “How knows any social media marketing firms?” You will have a spread of information following in from your connections. Actually if you are doing business research i suggest you use this platform in that form to get some insights on your topic.
c) Conduct an informal poll of your network (which consists of many smart business people) relating to a topic that is of interest to you, such as: “What do you think about Orange Mobile Money and its influence to the business sector?”
d) Mention a person or a situation that might be helpful to some of your connections, like: “I just meet with Stephen Musoke and he gave me get insights about business and technology.” Share what Stephen said with your connections and see what responds you would. (@ssmusoke forgive but your insight are helpful to me)
e) Talk about an event you are attending or have attended to encourage involvement and questions about what you learned there.
f) If you are a job seeker, don’t use this, “Hey, I’m still looking for a job.” Rather, mention job fairs you are attending, people you are interviewing with, networking events you are going to, etc. Remember having your name show up on a consistent basis on your entire network’s home page is extremely important whether you are in job-seeking mode or not.
g) Use the “Like” feature when you see a helpful update from one of your connections. Doing this shares that update with your entire network. This is a great way to give the writer helpful update exposure to your network that he/she wouldn’t normally have.
DON’Ts
a) Mentioning personal things–like what you had for breakfast and the fact your can’t get out of bed because it’s raining is just wrong. This suggests to the business professionals in your network that you don’t really respect their time.
b) Continually talking about specific products and services takes people back to the days of big newspaper ads and screaming radio messages. This is not the purpose of social media, especially LinkedIn.
c) Avoid talking about topics that might be sensitive to some of your audience. I am too embarrassed to even think about, let alone share, some of the items I see posted as status updates. You know what I mean. If your mother wouldn’t want you talking about it, don’t put it in your LinkedIn Status Box. Things like your sex styles, who needs to know about your pervertedness in the business world.
d) Think twice before posting your physical whereabouts. I have heard several real-life examples of people being stalked, am waiting for the rape cases and maybe murder, you never know but please don’t post your where about except if its a business meeting and one of your connections is the speaker and you want to give them a boost to connections. Don’t link your Foursquare to LinkedIn even if it has not yet been developed this is an If3 Don’t.
e)The LinkedIn/Twitter interface is causing people to have too many LinkedIn updates as well as inappropriate updates. So, if you are using that interface, be selective about the updates you share between the two platforms. LinkedIn and Twitter are designed with different purposes and strategies.
f) The netiquette on LinkedIn is no more than a couple updates per day, whereas on Twitter you are almost expected to tweet twenty times per day. (I apologize to my Twitter followers for not getting out twenty per day but the 14 i do i think are just enough!) So, watch the frequency of your LinkedIn status updates.
g) Don’t waste your time reading updates from people who violate all of the above. By using the “Hide” function, you can stop an individual’s status updates from showing up on your home page. (YES…hehe i heard that, but don’t miss use it, would want you to miss out on great information from others)
Follow these simple suggestions, and you will be on your way to being a model LinkedIn citizen!
Also are other resources to master LinkedIn for Business Like: http://LinkedinSuccess.org
If this is helpful, please leave a comment or tweet me @pkahill
