Business Networking | Digital Ethos

New LinkedIn Endorsements are Here

October 12, 2012 by CraigEYaris 2 Comments

Almost since the beginning, LinkedIn has offered us a way to offer recommendations to those people who provide great products or services to us. In addition, recommendations have always been a great way to build up your credibility for the jobs that you have listed on your resume. Now, LinkedIn is offering a new way for us to recognize individual talents that people we know and have worked with may have. This is very different from the traditional recommendation, since there is no way to ask that people endorse you (we can still ask for recommendations).

How do I get endorsed?

The first step in getting endorsed is to actually add skills to your LinkedIn profile. Make sure that you are editing your profile so you can see the Skills area. It is here that you will begin adding skills that you think you possess. As you begin typing, LinkedIn will recommend skills based upon your profile, but you are always free to add additional skills.

Be aware, however, that you are currently limited to 50, the number of skills that you can add, and make sure that you have the more important skills at the beginning of the list, so that your connections don’t have to take any unnecessary steps to endorse you.

Finally, the best way to get an endorsement is to give one. That’s right. If there are certain people that you would like endorsements from make sure to visit their profile pages and endorse them for the skills that you believe they possess.

Are they useful for college students?

LinkedIn endorsements may be especially useful to college graduates, as well as anyone looking for employment, as there is increased credibility when people endorse you on their own. In addition, whenever you endorse someone, they receive an e-mail notifying them that they have been endorsed, and it just may spur a reciprocal endorsement.

The Endorsement Advantage

The biggest advantage that these new endorsements offer over recommendations, I believe, is that they are organic. You can’t request them. People need to actually take the time and endorse your skillset as it relates to them.

Have you added your skills? Have you endorsed anyone?

References

6 Tips for Using LinkedIn the New Endorsements

Introducing Endorsements: Give Kudos with Just One Click

LinkedIn Debuts Endorsements As A Lightweight Way To Recommend A Professional Contact’s Skills

New LinkedIn Endorsements May Benefit College Students

LinkedIn endorsements offer more credibility behind skill sets

About Craig Yaris

Craig E. Yaris is the owner of EsquireTech Solutions, which helps small business get found on the social web, whether through Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, he can both teach you the effective use of any social network or act as your social media manager, enabling you to reach your clients where they are and when they want to hear from you. He can teach your organization the social media best practices that can help you use the tools of today to cost-effectively increase your bottom line. EsquireTech Solutions brings the social web to your business. Visit EsquireTech Solutions or call 516-495-9107 .

Filed Under: Authors, Branding & Marketing, Business, Business Networking, General, Social Media, Social Media Topics Tagged With: Endorsements, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, social network

Why use Google AdWords? – Part 1- [Internship]

October 8, 2012 by Digital Media Education Internship 2 Comments

Ever search something on Google and wonder what makes the first search result better than the next? With a little help from AdWords it can help you achieve a higher rank in the search results. AdWords bid on keywords that will help trigger their sponsored ads. How much they bid is one of the things that determines their position on the page of search results. The more their ads are clicked, the less they have to pay for each click.

Google AdWords is Google’s pay per click (PPC) advertising platform. This tool is used to direct traffic to your website. Every time your ad is clicked in the PPC option, the advertiser pays the website owner on the terms that the agreed on. The budget can determine how often ads can appear on Google. PPC’s content usually takes form in advertisements such as sponsored links or ads. They appear either above your search results or along the side.

There are many beneficial factors when taking using the AdWords tool. When someone clicks on your ad, this will take them to your website where they can learn more about your business and make a purchase. Advertising on Google can direct more traffic to your website as you are using the most widely used search engine in the world.

When you first come across Google AdWords, you’ll want to narrow down your audience and attempt to target just your customers. Google AdWords allows you to narrow down your audience by choosing from hundreds of languages, and specific cities and regions. For example, if you own a furniture store in New York City, you don’t want your ads to be seen in Colorado. Set your campaign ads to be read in English throughout the New York City area. Making your ads visible within a ten miles radius of the city or using the zip code targeting can’t hurt either.

After you targeted your audience, you then want to create your ad that will appeal to them. You want your ad to stick out like a sore thumb. In a world full of furniture stores, you want someone to click on your website instead of your competitors. In order for the searcher to click your ad, you want to be able to provide them with the one they think provides the most beneficial information or drives the highest value. In order to make an ad the most effective for your website, you want to choose keywords that are relevant. Choose keywords that relate the most to your site, service or offer. For example, if you are a business that sells furniture, your keywords might include couch, futon, or recliner. You’ll also find it useful to create long tail keywords, like NYC furniture store, or park slope furniture store. The long tail keywords use more terms to narrow your target and often have less competition.

There are a couple of types of keywords, one being negative keywords. A negative keyword is a phrase or word that prevents ads from appearing when a searcher types it in. For example, if your business sells furniture, but doesn’t sell bed frames, you would add the negative keyword but put a hyphen before it like so –bed frames. This eliminates your ads from appearing on irrelevant searches. Another type of keywords include exact match. You want to use exact match when you are using keywords that are exactly what a customer would be looking for when searching on Google. Exact match means that the ad shows for searches only when the search query is exactly the same as your keyword. When using exact match, chose your keyword and put it in square brackets. When someone is looking to buy a love seat, and you own a furniture company, you may want to use [love seat] as an exact match.

After you created your ad, you want to set a pricing. Set your daily budget and cost per click up. You can spend to as much or as little as you want. The average cost per click with Google AdWords is around $3.50 per click but in some cases skyrockets to $20. A useful feature on AdWords lets you change your budget at any time. When you are finally all done with setting up your ad, you want to launch the campaign.

Signing up for Google AdWords can be a good move for your business. It can direct traffic straight to your website which can mean more purchases. Google AdWords generates more visitors, followers, and customers. When you have an effective ad on Google’s search results page, your website will see a whole new world. The tool is one of the best advertising options when you want to track ROI and be able to reduce or grow on the fly. While there is still a lot of other options, using the PPC campaigns in Google AdWords can be a great source for new business.

Coming In Part 2 – Google AdWords, Advanced Options, CPM, Newsletter, Calls, DisplayNetwork

Sources:

The content in this article is part of Digital Ethos’s Digital Media Education in the Higher Education Internship Program, the content was created by @KaylaMarzo, a Student at Suffolk County Community college, intern at Digital Ethos.

About Digital Media Education Internship

Digital Media Education Internship Program is an outreach initiative for Digital Ethos.

Filed Under: Authors, Business, Business Networking, General, Sales & eCommerce, Search Engines, SEO Search Engine Optimization Tagged With: advertising, adwords, google, Marketing and Advertising

3 Tips to Effectively Market Your Real Estate Website

October 7, 2012 by Guest Blogger 1 Comment

The key to marketing a real estate website is in knowing what your prospects are searching for, what sites they frequent, and how they use the web to communicate and gather information. Consider the following 3 tips to effectively market your real estate website:

Proper Domain Selection

The first step is choosing a domain name that will either capitalize on your brand name or target web searchers based on keywords. If you already have an established brand that is locally recognized you’ll want to make it easier for existing clients and prospects to find your site by registering a domain name that contains the name of your agency.

On the other hand, if you’re able to get your hands on a rare, yet highly valuable geo-targeted domain name (i.e. – FloridaRealEstate.com) then this option should be considered over all. Some firms choose to register multiple domains in order to maximise search traffic.

Competitive Analysis and Keyword Optimization

A great way to figure out what keywords you should be targeting in your site content and marketing efforts is to utilize keyword research tools and services like:

Google Adwords Keyword Suggestion Tool
Keyword Discovery
Wordtracker
Spyfu
Compete.com Analytics

All of the above resources will help you determine which keywords your competitors are using to generate the most traffic. Once you’ve built a list of keywords you can focus on outdoing the competition by publishing more content and contributing genuinely useful information. In addition to filling your real estate website with quality content, you should also start focusing on becoming a thought leader in your industry by spreading your outreach around the web through…

Blogging and Networking

Investors, property buyers, and other agents use the web to build their contacts and educate themselves on a regular basis. Research the leading real estate blogs and attempt to establish your own authoritative presence by becoming a reputable guest author.

As a real estate professional you’ve probably heard the phrase “It’s not what you know, it’s WHO you know that matters.” With the ability to quickly contact ideal buyers and accommodate the needs of a large network of sellers you can maximise your yearly commissions by increasing the volume of transactions you facilitate.

Start by joining Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Learn the ins and outs of social networking, and consider the advantages of outsourcing the management of your campaigns to professionals that can optimize your output.

Joseph Tollett is a real estate professional and experienced blogger who currently conducts research for IronMonk Solutions, a well-known SEO firm with headquarters in New York. Click here to read their blog.

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About Guest Blogger

This article is a guest post provided by a third party, its content was added to Digital Ethos to help provide additional information for our readers and followers. While the Guest Blogger posts do not undergo the same scrutiny as Authors and lack sources, the content was reviewed and approved as valuable to our mission.

Filed Under: Business, Business Networking, General, Guest Bloggers, Sales & eCommerce Tagged With: business, Marketing, real estate, SEO, Social Media

A Day at Google New York & Seth Godin [OPINION]

October 1, 2012 by BasilPuglisi 5 Comments

Google started a pretty amazing program called “Google Engage for Agencies”, while it’s a great outreach program to help generate brand advocates that act as a sales team for low to no cost, it’s much more then that!

Google has generated a program that has done a few things, but I want to center on two, Content and Education!

1) Google Engage is a program that is producing content for Google. Agencies are now telling stories for Google about Google and tying it directly into local communities! The Engage program has agencies and consultants that now have stories that tie back to their community, ones that give all the recognition to Google and the AdWords platform.

2) Google is flooding the market with the correct information and empowering agencies and consultants through education to provide the correct and effective services. In a time period where consumers distrust agencies and digital marketers (and they should) Google has decided to empower those that want to learn, want to provide value making it much harder for those that are not genuine to survive.

The Engage program has provided others, like myself with direct education and training. The information that I now have as a professional has been advanced by the support of Google, both in a distance education program and done in conjunction with Dale Carnegie trainers at Google.

I made a comment earlier that consumers distrust digital marketers and agencies and that “they should”. I stand by that statement, in fact, I started blogging because of that very fact just a few years ago. Walk into a small business owner these days and don’t be surprised when you get a question like “what makes you different then the other 100 sales people before you” and it’s a great question, in fact if business owners and organizations had asked it sooner we wouldn’t have the distrust that the marketing industry has earned.

Google made a commitment to provide a service that they believed helps connect people on the web to solutions providers and services. That incredible tool has been defiled by digital marketing consultants and agencies. As Seth Godin has explained, marketing had it good until the illusion vanished. Out of fear and greed the economy was destroyed overnight by those that worked to game the system, be in PPC, SEO or just selling products, services and solutions that they didn’t care if it worked as long as they got paid.

Google had another great surprise for those of us in attendance, a LIVE Google Hangout with Seth Godin, “America’s Greatest Marketer“ as claimed by American Way Magazine. Seth’s presentation was excellent and while he did a great job sharing information with us, the Q&A was a treasure. Seth’s message is that success comes from being genuine and often takes a long time, in fact Seth admitted it took his blog three (3) years to gain traction.

A day at Google confirmed one thing, the world is full of fraud and the marketing industry has a disproportionate number of contributors. The bright note is that for those of us that take the time to genuinely try solve problems and not just generate sales or revenue, we can and will be successful. In this case, Google is genuine about wanting to connect people with what they are actually looking for, be it through organic search or paid search. Google is acting like a leader, providing the right and accurate resources to the community. The Google Engage program is just one of the resources that Google has invested in to empower the professionals that are trying to do the right thing by their clients, customers and business.

In the end, Google was impressive at every turn. Google New York had Food, Fun and Value! The information was only surpassed by their commitment and methods to deliver it! A methodology that I feel is worth any successful business or corporation pursuing.

About Basil Puglisi

@BasilPuglisi is a Content Contributor and the Chairman of the Board for Digital Ethos. Basil C. Puglisi is also the Digital Marketing Manager for PMG Interactive. As the Digital Marketing Manager he provides oversight and support to Digital Campaigns, from Website Development to Search and Social Reach.

Filed Under: Authors, Branding & Marketing, Business, Business Networking, Content Marketing, Digital & Internet Marketing, General, PR & Writing, Publishing, Sales & eCommerce, Search Engines, SEO Search Engine Optimization, Traditional Marketing Tagged With: advertising, adwords, brand, business, google, Marketing, ppc, Search engine optimization, SEO, Visibility, website

Making Money With Your Webinar- Structure Your Content in Five Easy Steps!

September 26, 2012 by Guest Blogger Leave a Comment

So, you finally decided to try out a webinar to make money. By now, you probably have an idea as to the type of webinar that you would like to make money from. Perhaps you have a pre-recorded webinar on your computer with a teaching or sermon that you would like to share with the world. Perhaps you recorded a how to get a full body workout in only ten minutes or conducted a teaching session on how to thrive in a stagnant economy.

It’s exciting that you’ve selected your topic of interest! The ideas that you have are indeed limitless, and the webinars that you could create are now within your grasp. You want your customers to come to you so that you can answer their needs. Every business fills a need, every customer has a need waiting to be filled. How will you go about filling this need with your webinar?

Dynamics of Content

First and foremost, you’ll want to understand the dynamics of your content and how it brings life or death to your webinar. Content answers the question of how to get your webinar off the ground. It also creates a hunger for the products and services that you have to offer. I don’t just go to any place to get my pizza fix. I go to a specific place because I know that I like the content of their pizza and the way that they make it. In the same way, your attendees are coming to your webinar for the content that you have to offer and the way that you offer it.

If you haven’t already created a webinar, you’ll want to decide on the software to hold a web conference first. Once you’ve finalized the software, you can begin to put the pieces of your webinar’s content together by following these five simple steps to ensure that your content meets the mark and your subscribers leave the session happy that they purchased your webinar!

1.) Know your audience.

If you’re lecturing NASA scientists, you can pretty much skip the fluff and beef up the content with more analysis and scientific research findings.

If you’re creating a session geared for Girl Scouts, you’ll want to include more things that they can relate to.

2.) Decide on your approach.

Do you want the audience to sit through the entire session or do you want to include short quizzes and test sections?

Do you want to be more informational and provide a lot of data or conversational and more relaxed? Which approach fits your audience better? Can you customize it to fit their needs?

Once you know what style approach you will be using, it is much easier to create a consistent webinar that exudes professionalism. There are many, many bad webinars out there that could easily be avoided if the webinars had only been consistent in their approach from start to finish.

3.) Structure your time well.

If you told your audience that you would be discussing XYZ in the webinar, make sure you don’t gloss over XYZ and skip over to ZZZ. I’ve seen this happen too many times and have been completely disappointed when this happens. Not only do I feel cheated out of my time, but I feel betrayed by the bait-and-switch method that seems to run rampant.

If it takes ten minutes to explain a key area, do not take more than that time to explain it. You want to engage your audience and keep them at the edge of their seats wanting more!

4.) Groom your content.

Are some areas too wordy and others lacking in content? Take time to comb through your presentation and cut out the clutter while beefing up the lean parts.

Does your outline convey your actual content? We often think that we have everything perfectly compiled only to discover that a key element was never included. A scan between your actual content (webinar) and your outline will help you get that 1:1 match.

Do your images and illustrations match up with your topic?

5.) Is your content engaging to your audience?

If I am going to sit down and watch a webinar that I paid decent money for, I must be looking for specific content that will help fill my needs.

Have you created the content that adequately satisfies my need (ie, my need to learn how to sew from your created webinar)?

The above are a great starting point when beginning to look into creating a webinar that has lasting results. No only will you come across as more professional, but you will also service a niche group that could potentially return time and time again.

Benjamin Baker is addicted to writing! He is a research hound and fills hard to find searches. He enjoys playing his guitar and spends his free time camping and fishing. He recently discovered www.webconferenceclassroom.com and is starting his own webinar mini-series on how to fish. He is happily married and is the father of 3 growing (and busy) teenagers. He lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife and kids.

About Guest Blogger

Filed Under: Business, Business Networking, General, Guest Bloggers, Sales & eCommerce Tagged With: business, content, webinar

Abraham Lincoln – Pop Culture and Public Speaking

September 22, 2012 by Bill Corbett Jr. Leave a Comment

I was going through my Pinterest feed and saw the Gettysburg Address(1863). While I had not read it in some time, I remain impressed by its brevity, its language and its remarkable message. I have made this document a part of my Pinterest personal “vision board” as an example of a document that has lasting impact on me. Vision boards on Pinterest are a topic I will cover in a future blog. Briefly, they are a collection of images that reflect your personal vision and brand.

Soon after placing the Gettysburg Address on my vision board, I saw a commercial online for the movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Later in the week I saw another movie listed on Netflix for Abraham Lincoln vs Zombies. I also saw Lincoln’s likeness in a commercial for a scratch-off lottery the same week. The biggest news on Lincoln is the Steven Spielberg movie slated for release on November 9, 2012 staring Daniel Day Lewis. The trailer, one of the top on YouTube, is worth a watch. The Civil War era is a period that is very interesting to me so this is a movie I will be checking out.

publicspeakingactivities.com/

Vampire and zombie hunting are formidable skills. I didn’t know that our 16th president had so many talents and curious attributes. It’s interesting how pop culture is presenting the image of Lincoln. I wonder how this will impact the younger generation’s perception of such an important historical figure? Will Spielberg’s interpretation have an impact?

The way people and elected officials communicated during Lincoln’s time was different, but messaging and clarity remain as important today as it was in the 1800s. Without question, writing well is essential in communicating effectively and for developing marketing messages that resonate in the business world. According to James DeKoven of Brand Communications, it is a pity when a company has “spent a lot of time and money on their sales and marketing plans, but they didn’t value the importance of their communications. Somehow, they forgot the primary goal of marketing collateral: to generate immediate interest in their products or services.”

The way that messages are conveyed in writing or verbally, and how others interpret words is crucial. Lincoln chose the words and phrases of the Gettysburg Address carefully. It was a short speech, but it contained all the points he wanted to convey and it evoked strong emotions. Lincoln was on and off the stage quickly, unlike Edward Everett who spoke for two hours before him, orators frequently spoke much longer than they do today.

Interestingly, “Edward Everett was quick to acknowledge the greatness of Lincoln’s brief speech. The day after the ceremony, he wrote to the president praising the ‘eloquent simplicity and appropriateness’ of his remarks. ‘I should be glad, if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes.’ Lincoln sent an immediate and gracious response: ‘In our respective parts yesterday, you could not have been excused to make a short address, nor I a long one. I am pleased to know that, in your judgment, the little that I did say was not entirely a failure.’ ”

Lincoln’s speech was two minutes, and was 10 sentences (or 272 words) long. But it was powerful. The advice is to capture the key emotions and ideas you want to convey in as little time as possible. If you can deliver a short, concise speech your audience will listen, and appreciate your brevity. According to 10 Tips from Lincoln on Writing a Kick-ass Speech”

While the style of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and other speeches seem to fit the style of the short blogs and brief messages we see posted nowadays, most would agree that blogs today, as far as content and flow, fall short of Lincoln’s writings.

Speaking, in public and on video, has emerged as a key selling tool for businesses and personal branding. It seems everyone in marketing mode has a LinkedIn profile and is an expert speaker. They may be speakers, but are they true professionals or experts? Most are not. Lincoln, from the time of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 and throughout his presidency, was regarded as a great and eloquent speaker. The ability of a speaker to capture the attention of an audience and deliver a thoughtful, well prepared speech does count for something. The current presidential campaign and convention activities have been full of media commentary on content, quality and delivery of speeches.

It is wise to familiarize yourself with “The Basic Structure of a Speech.” “Making an outline for a speech is a way to organize your ideas logically and clearly. Without making an outline your speech will probably lack structure, and so be difficult to understand. By using a presentation outline, you can “see” the structure of your speech. In addition, It can also serve as your speaking script.”

Everyone has their own approach for speaking and a system for picking topics. Speaking comes naturally to some people while others dread it. Practice is invaluable and staying on message is important. When preparing to speak have a clear goal for your presentation, know your audience and be well prepared.

“Effective communication is based on trust, and if we don’t trust the speaker, we’re not going to listen to their words. Trust begins with eye contact because we need to see the person’s face to evaluate if they are being deceitful or not. In fact, when we are being watched, cooperation increases. When we are not being watched, people tend to act more selfishly, with greater dishonesty.”

Website Psychology Today: “Words Can Change Your Brain” article “The 8 Key Elements of Highly Effective Speech…and why your words barely matter!” Published on July 10, 2012 by Mark Waldman and Andrew Newberg, M.D. in the 8 key elements of effective speech.

Lincoln knew his audience and prepared for public debates and addresses, each were different in nature, but he set his goals. He made an impression; he was liked, remembered and trusted. He won election to two- terms as president during our nation’s most difficult era. Would he have been able to create viral videos on YouTube, attract friends on Facebook and become an influencer on Twitter? My answer is yes. He understood his audience and had a clear goal. The methods for getting messages across are different today, but Lincoln would have been able to adapt and without doubt achieve success.

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About Bill Corbett Jr.

This article is provided by Bill Corbett, Jr., President of Corbett Public Relations, Inc., a leading media relations, social media and personal branding consulting firm. For more information, go to corbettpr.com or to his blog corbettprblog.com. He can be reached at wjcorbett@corbettpr.com or @wjcorbett.

Filed Under: Business Networking, General, PR & Writing, Traditional Marketing Tagged With: learn to speak publicly, pop culture, public speaking, tips on public speaking

Why LinkedIn? [Internship]

September 17, 2012 by Digital Media Education Internship 2 Comments

In today’s economy, students and young professionals share a common fear. Their fear is whether or not they will find a job. With the presidential debate currently going on, the candidates for president are constantly promising to make new jobs. This does nothing but make the current students worry that there are no jobs now and may not be any in the future. Fortunately, there are online tools that can help graduates and undergraduates worry a bit less. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking site. It is said to be the best investment you will ever make in your career. It is used by individuals and businesses for networking, job searching, hiring, and much more.

Recently, I have started an internship with the company Digital Ethos. They have asked me if I was signed up with the website LinkedIn and were shocked when I said I was not. Immediately I signed up after receiving their reaction. I could see how important LinkedIn was right away. LinkedIn is a great way to establish your identity on the web. With 175 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is clearly a striving network that helps individuals and small businesses to large corporations. With LinkedIn, you can exchange ideas, knowledge, and opportunities with a broad network of professionals. Your LinkedIn account is the first impression someone gets when they google you, this can be a huge benefit if your LinkedIn account is up to date and well put together. Your LinkedIn page can either make you or break you.

Signing up for LinkedIn is easy. You simply put in your full name and your email address. From then on, LinkedIn gives you step by step instructions on how to get your account up and running. This includes indicating where you are currently employed and what type of job. Another cool feature of LinkedIn lets you indicate what field you are in. It also asks you where you have been employed in the past and for how long. This can give your future employer a general knowledge of where you worked and what your skill-sets could be. Your education also holds a section on your LinkedIn profile, which can include when you were in high school and in college. If you haven’t graduated from one or the other, it lets you select your anticipated graduation year. LinkedIn has a section called “Summary” which lets other users quickly learn about your background and interests. There is a different area for your skills and expertise which helps potential employers find you when they are searching for a specific knowledge-base. Recommendations on your page can carry a lot of weight. It lets your colleagues, clients, or suppliers speak on your record. Recommendations are just like reference part of your resume. You’re “snapshot” is like your web based business card. It includes your name, location, education, recommendations, education, past positions, and links to your website. Use this space efficiently and you’ll be sure to catch someone’s eye.

These days, it is so crucial for not only graduates, but undergraduates, to get their foot in the door of the career world right away. It is very important for young professionals to use LinkedIn for many reasons. Young professionals don’t have a lot of experience, so LinkedIn helps them by providing an answers section. This allows a wide variety of professionals to answer any question you might have about your field or any type of field you may be interested in. Asking and answering questions also helps you build your online visibility. This is essential to making your way to the top. This generation of young adults is said to be the “Digital Native” generation since most, if not all, of their life was spent in front of a screen. LinkedIn lets them continue this sort of lifestyle and it makes it a lot more comfortable to be more productive on the network. Young professionals have little to no experience in the work force. LinkedIn gives them a realistic outlook on their field of interest. You should never let one job define your field. With over 175 million members worldwide, it is easy to network and see all kinds of different sides of your field. You can also check out your fields leading players. You can see how they got to where they are by seeing where they went to school, what they studied, what skills they developed, what groups they belong too, and to whom with they are connected. This will help you obtain a better grasp on your anticipated field you want to join.

The people who are part of your network are called your connections. A connection can indicate that you know the person well or that they are a trusted business contact. In order to become a connection, you need to be invited and accepted. LinkedIn doesn’t support people in adding somebody that they don’t know. When you want to send someone a connections request, LinkedIn asks how you know this person. The options include colleague, classmate, friend, business partner, and I don’t know said person. If you chose “I don’t know said person”, LinkedIn will not allow you to add them. If you chose any of the other, it will ask for the persons email address.

LinkedIn narrows down your connections into three different categories. They are first degree, second degree, and third degree connections. First degree connections are the people that you have directly connected with because you or the person sent an invitation that has been accepted. Second degree connections are the people who are connected with your first degree connections. You can contact them through something called an introduction. You may ask your first degree connection to introduce you to your second degree connection. Since you probably don’t know your second degree connection, an introduction from your first degree connection would be the only way to connect with them. Finally, your third degree connections are the people who are connected to your second degree connections. If you want to become their first connection, you have to ask for an introduction. An introduction usually sounds like, “Dear Mr. Smith, Let me introduce you to Mr. John from Company X.” LinkedIn shows you which connection a person is by placing an icon which says either “1^st”, “2^nd”, or “3^rd” connection.

LinkedIn offers a feature called “groups”. Being a member of a group lets you engage in one on one networking between group members. An advantage is that you can send lnmail for no fee. As a member of a group, you can discover the most popular discussions in your professional group. LinkedIn groups also allow you to follow the most influential people in your groups by looking at the Top Influencers board to see all their group activity.

Looking for a job on LinkedIn is said to be a whole lot easier than going door to door hoping they are hiring. If you know what company you are interested in joining, simply search for them on LinkedIn’s search bar. The company will have their employers listed and you can network with them and see what they did to be able to work with the company. Eventually, you will be able to establish them as a connection. On the other hand, if you have no idea what company you want to work for, you can search a keyword, job title, or location. Even though the search is much broader, you will still get a general knowledge of what you are looking into.

It is clear to see that there is a lot more to LinkedIn than just looking for a job in a newspaper. Connecting with people and getting your name out there can also contribute to your success on LinkedIn. If you use your LinkedIn profile correctly, it will become a huge benefit for you in the job marketing world.

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