Let’s put the social back into social media. I have to admit when I first joined LinkedIn, I wasn’t that social. I didn’t know how the platform worked. That was five years or three versions of the profile page ago.
I have been listed as one of the top LinkedIn specialists and someone you should know for LinkedIn speaking and presentations. LinkedIn says my profile is viewed a lot and they were impressed with the visual media I’ve added to my profile. But it took several years to get there. People on LinkedIn in 2009 were much more social and willing to help novices out. I remember connecting with a recruiter and he actually sent an email to me asking me to have a phone conversation to find out about one another and how we could help each other out.
Today with 289 million members it’s hard to be social with all the noise on your homepage. People are collecting connections instead of strategically searching for mutually beneficial contacts. Everyone wants attention or to sell you something. It’s about making your profile searchable, it’s about in-bound marketing, and it’s about me instead of being social and helping others.
I have found one way to be more social and recognize others on LinkedIn and that is the @mentions feature. I do not see a lot of people using it as a sharing or social tool. Using the Mentions feature is a way to get connections to view and interact with you. Companies can also be mentioned and will be linked to their LinkedIn Company Page from your update or comment. Mentions allow you to notify your connections or a company or groups that you’re talking about them in an update or comment.
To follow through on mentions go to your homepage and in the update section start typing. Type “@” and then begin typing a name in the box. You’ll then see a list of potential people or companies you can mention. After you select someone from the list and finish your update, that person will receive an email and an update letting him or her know you’ve mentioned them. The name will also be linked to a profile or Company Page from your update.
Remember social media and social selling is about helping the other person with no expectation of reciprocation, on LinkedIn it’s not about you. So I would like to thank @Russ Kovar for connecting with me, @Todd Herschberg and @Rui Pedro Caramez for encouraging me to use LinkedIn. Finally I would like to thank @Nancy Wajler and @Harry Reczek for inspiring me to pursue LinkedIn to teach it uses to others.
Guest post by Bruce Bixler, previously published on Hobknobery