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Get some inside tips and tricks on 3 of the biggest Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin). Use these tricks and tips to give you an edge on the web and maximize your Social Real Estate.

These 5 LinkedIn plugins for WordPress let you do that and more:

LinkedIn Share Button:

A cool plugin that lets you add a LinkedIn button to your posts. It’s pretty flexible and enables your visitors to share your stories with their contacts with a click.

Full Details

WP Greet Box:

One of my favorite plugins, WP Greet Box lets you target your visitors based on their referring URL. So you can spoil your LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter clients (but not others).

Full Details

Social Bookmarks:

A pretty flexible social media plugin for WordPress that lets you add some of the top bookmarking sites to WordPress. That includes LinkedIn too.

Full Details

Sociable:

Another one of my favorite social media plugins around. It has a very dynamic back-end and is very flexible. The buttons are attractive too. You can customize its look and feel if you know some CSS (many settings can be changed in the back-end).

Full Details

LinkedIn Resume:

Displays your CV on your profile (using the information available on your LinkedIn account). Just enter your profile name, and it’s all done.

Full Details

What’s your favorite WordPress Linkedin Plugin?

For those that tend to use Twitter more then LinkedIn, it’s easy to set your profile to automatically post your tweets.  Here’s how you do it.

On your profile page, you’ll see the new “Twitter” section (It’s right under “Websites”.)  Go ahead and click the “Edit” link.

In this example, I’ve already added my @scottjmanley Twitter account to my profile and now I want to add my company’s tweets (@FYIndOut) as well. To do so, I’ll click the “Add another Twitter account” link.

You’ll receive a popup asking if you want to allow LinkedIn to connect to your Twitter account.  Because I’m already logged into Twitter as @FYIndOut on my pc, it asks me to confirm the account or tells me to log out of Twitter and log back in as the account I wish to add to my LinkedIn profile.

Once you add the profile, you’ll see that you have the ability to share tweets from that Twitter account on your profile with either “everyone” or “no one”.

You also have the ability to set your profile to share all of your tweets or just ones with the hashtag “#in” in them.  For those that tend to use Twitter for personal use as well, this is a great way to make sure only your professional tweets end up on your LinkedIn profile.  However, if you’re like me and you only use Twitter for your work life, you’ll want to set it to display all tweets.

All you need to do from there is click the “Save” button and you’re good to go.

Using this new feature makes it much easier to share your information with both networks in one action.  It’s worth the 2 minutes to set it up.  Good luck!

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has over thirty-five million members in over 140 industries. Most of them are adults, employed, and not looking to post something on your Wall or date you. Executives from all the Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn. Most have disclosed what they do, where they work now, and where they’ve worked in the past. Talk about a target-rich environment, and the service is free.

Here are ten tips to help use LinkedIn to find a job. If you know someone who’s looking for a job, forward them these tips along with an invitation to connect on LinkedIn. Before trying these tips, make sure you’ve filled out your profile and added at least twenty connections

1. Get the word out. Tell your network that you’re looking for a new position because a job search these days requires the “law of big numbers” There is no stigma that you’re looking right now, so the more people who know you’re looking, the more likely you’ll find a job. Recently, LinkedIn added “status updates” which you can use to let your network know about your newly emancipated status.
2. Get LinkedIn recommendations from your colleagues. A strong recommendation from your manager highlights your strengths and shows that you were a valued employee. This is especially helpful if you were recently laid off, and there is no better time to ask for this than when your manager is feeling bad because she laid you off. If you were a manager yourself, recommendations from your employees can also highlight leadership qualities.
3. Find out where people with your backgrounds are working. Find companies that employ people like you by doing an advanced search for people in your area who have your skills. For example, if you’re a web developer in Seattle, search profiles in your zip code using keywords with your skills (for example, JavaScript, XHTML, Ruby on Rails) to see which companies employ people like you.
4. Find out where people at a company came from. LinkedIn “Company Profiles” show the career path of people before they began work there. This is very useful data to figure out what a company is looking for in new hires. For example, Microsoft employees worked at Hewlett-Packard and Oracle.
5. Find out where people from a company go next. LinkedIn’s “Company Profiles” also tell you where people go after leaving the company. You can use this to track where people go after leaving your company as well as employees of other companies in your sector. (You could make the case that this feature also enables to figure out which companies to avoid, but I digress.)
6. Check if a company is still hiring. Company pages on LinkedIn include a section called “New Hires” that lists people who have recently joined the company. If you have real chutzpah, you can ask these new hires how they got their new job. At the very least you can examine their backgrounds to surmise what made them attractive to the new employer.
7. Get to the hiring manager. LinkedIn’s job search engine allows you to search for any kind of job you want. However, when you view the results, pay close attention to the ones that you’re no more than two degrees away from. This means that you know someone who knows the person that posted the job—it can’t get much better than that. (Power tip: two degrees is about the limit for getting to hiring managers. I never help friends of friends of friends.) Another way to find companies that you have ties to is by looking at the “Companies in Your Network” section on LinkedIn’s Job Search page.
8. Get to the right HR person. The best case is getting to the hiring manager via someone who knows him, but if that isn’t possible you can still use LinkedIn to find someone inside the company to walk your resume to the hiring manager or HR department. When someone receives a resume from a coworker even if she doesn’t know the coworker, she almost always pays attention to it.
9. Find out the secret job requirements. Job listings rarely spell out entirely or exactly what a hiring manager is seeking. Find a connection at the company who can get the inside scoop on what really matters for the job. You can do this by searching for the company name; the results will show you who in your network connects you to the company. If you don’t have an inside connection, look at profiles of the people who work at the company to get an idea of their backgrounds and important skills.
10. Find startups to join. Maybe this recession is God telling you it’s time to try a startup. But great startups are hard to find. Play around with LinkedIn’s advanced search engine using “startup” or “stealth” in the keyword or company field. You can also narrow by industry (for example, startups in the Web 2.0, wireless, or biotech sectors). If large companies can’t offer “job security,” open up your search to include startups.
11. Build your network before you need it. As a last tip, no matter how the economy or your career is doing, having a strong network is a good form of job security. Don’t wait until times are tough to nurture your network. The key to networking (or “schmozing”), however, is filled with counter-intuitiveness. First, it’s not who you know—it’s who knows of you. Second, Great schmoozers are not thinking “What can this person do for me?” To the contrary, they are thinking, “What can I do for this person?” For more on schmoozing, read “The Art of Schmoozing.”

Jobs.alltop

Linkedin.alltop

There’s one thing about LinkedIn that always amazes me. When I ask business owners if they have a LinkedIn profile – all the hands go up. But when I ask, if they feel they know what they are doing with LinkedIn – the hands go down.

Jan Vermeiren is the author of How to REALLY Use LinkedIn and he was recently interviewed by Forbes.

Two things he mentions in his interview, that are important for getting the most out of LinkedIn are:

1. When you find the person you want to connect to, don’t send an email to the “middle person” instead, pick up the phone and call them.

2. It’s important to join LinkedIn groups.

There’s so much we all have to learn in order to maximize our social networks. But like any tool, if you want to get the most out of it, you need to be educated in how to use it.

So often we learn something by ourselves, be it bike riding, how to use a computer program or how to drive a car. But only after receiving more training do we really how much more we are able to get out of it.

My own personal learn experience is related to Twitter. I’ve known about Twitter for years and used it off and on. But only after I finally downloaded TweetDeck was I able to use Twitter to a fuller potential. TweetDeck helps you better manage the entire Twitter experience. I’m learning every day from gurus Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends and Brent Leary of CRM Essentials. Who are you learning from? Who are your gurus?

If you don’t have gurus who can help you learn to do more, you will always miss out on how to better use technology as a tool to grow your business.

LinkedIn 

Here is a brief list of benefits of using Linkedin:

• Networking
• Hiring
• Posting jobs
• Get business advice; expertise
• Find high-quality passive candidates (people who are not really looking for a job)
• Make money; “Even if you are not a professional recruiter, you could work your contacts to find candidates for a recruiter and charge a finder’s fee” Ajay Jain states in his recently published book, Let’s Connect Using LinkedIn  to get ahead at work.
• As an employer you could save a great deal of money that you might have needed to spend on recruiters’ fees or on advertising.

If I were to draw a parallel with any other similar sites, I would bring up Facebook. Both are considered to be very private, you can actually get in contact only with those who you accept as a discussion partner. LinkedIn covers business networking while Facebook brings friends together for chatting mainly. LinkedIn CEO Dan Nye states (when talking about Facebook), that it makes sense to keep one’s professional life separate from the personal. I recommend in this respect reading David Kirkpatrick’s article, Why you’ll finally use LinkedIn .

Linkedin. Six Steps Explained

Your 1st degree connections are people you know and they are the center of your network. Each person connected to your direct connection makes a 2nd degree connection and those who are linked to your 2nd degree, make up your 3rd degree connection.

So, in this way you can say that you have linked with friends’ friends and you don’t feel like your connections are strangers. You actually trust people who made a new connection possible for you. And as a connection yourself, you feel responsible for recommending somebody to a friend… this is what I would call “the circle of trust”.

1. Creating your profile

“If your profile gives them what they want to know about you instantly, you will have their attention. So make sure your profile is well dressed for LinkedIn to be at its best” is the piece of advice given by Ajay Jain, author of Let’s Connect.

• Create an account – free of charge.
• Fill out your profile completely.
• Make your profile less formal, people are more interested in the person and what they are doing with their life. Short paragraphs are welcome.
• Say a few words about you, don’t just stick to your education and jobs or positions you had; be funny, be creative; use simple language.
• Talk about your professional experience, goals and it is also recommended to mention why you chose to be a member of LinkedIn, and what is it you are hoping to get from your connections.
• It might be useful to tell people who you worked with in the past (industry, organization type, number of employees, etc.)
• There is also a feature called “Recommendation” which actually allow people on LinkedIn to put in a good word for you, right in your profile. In case you don’t agree with the things written about you, you can reject that certain recommendation. This feature is a great help in editing your profile, because there are perhaps some details you missed and then somebody remembers them and send them back to you.
• Recommendations and your answers rated “Best” in the Q&A section boost your credibility.
• It is advisable not to put your email address under your name on your profile and there is a good reason for it. Putting the email address there, make people aware that you are willing to connect with just about anyone. Better let the person interested in you contact the mutual friend in order to get in contact with you.
• Add a photo of yourself, so people can actually see who they are interacting with.
• You can use up to three websites as a reference to you, places where people can find out more about you.
• Keep your profile up-to-date. Every time you add something new to your profile, connections can see it. “Your profile is like a dynamic CV, and beats any of those static, outdated ones posted on job sites or left with recruiters” Ajay Jain concludes in his book.
• Use a tagline under your name, this is what members see first.
• There are some privacy settings you could use in order to avoid spammers, salespersons to waste your time (Introductions, OpenLink and Inmails).
• The checklist gives you the possibility to filter your incoming messages whether you want to be contacted for career opportunities, expertise requests, business deals, job enquiries or just to reconnect with others.
• Set your profile to Full View. With this feature viewers will have more information about you and search engines will find you easier. You can also promote your profile by copy pasting the Linkedin code wherever you are allowed. Why not check my Linkedin profile? View Adriana Iordan’s profile

2. Connecting to people

• Upload your adress book from Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook or any other database where your contacts’ email addresses are stored and LinkedIn will tell you immediately who of these are already LinkedIn members.
• You may choose to invite all these people to your network.
• Invite people who are not LinkedIn members to set up accounts, this way your network broadens.
• LinkedIn doesn’t allow you to contact somebody let’s say 2 degrees away, at least not doing it directly (there are no contact details to let you do this). First you have to find a mutual connection that could forward an Introduction on your behalf. Beware, there is a limit of five Introductions per month at the free basic account!
• InMail is another great feature, a premium one, which only paying members can have! InMails are private messages sent to any LinkedIn user without showing their email addresses. You can see these messages only if they are accepted by the recipient.
• You can also activate your OpenLink feature. This is a way to be known at the highest rank, but you can still keep your contact information confidential. Sending an OpenLink message is free of charge, but having this feature activated means you need to be a premium paying member.

3. Further tips on how to use LinkedIn

• First work on gaining a wide network that serves your personal and professional needs. Then ask questions or answer questions yourself to help others. This way you encourage global team work.
• Check the site on regular basis, keep your connections warm.
• Read the LinkedIn Blog , because this is full of news and ideas.
• Be careful about the language you use, don’t make any spelling or grammar mistakes. Connections won’t see you with good eyes.
• Refresh the relation with your former colleagues, classmates (the bottom of the LinkedIn Home Page often shows them as being present in the network). You never now what kind of opportunities might come your way, and we have to admit that bonds are always stronger with these people.
• Don’t spam or bother your connections with too many or any irrelevant messages.
• Always thank people when they do something for you like answering your questions, getting you an introduction or reference, giving you leads etc. Nurture the relationship. Use words like “thank you”, “yes, please”, “can I assist you”, “I appreciate what you said”.
• Contact connections only if you feel interruption is welcome.
• Be professional, be respectful.
• Avoid being intrusive.
• Don’t accept invitations from people you really don’t know. The idea is to get introductions from a friend and not from strangers, otherwise everyone could do the introduction himself/herself. I recommend consulting LinkedIn Etiquette 
• Don’t send invitations to people you don’t know.
• If you invite someone to LinkedIn, remember to remind that particular person under what circumstances you two have met and then you can choose to connect.
• An option to group all your contacts is yet to come, but you can download a LinkedIn toolbar that lets you bookmark any of your contacts under any folders you create.
• Don’t invite your contacts to each social networking site you are a member of, it could become very annoying.
• When you connect, always edit and personalize your invitation.
• Give a reason for wishing to connect with a particular person.
• Be open to discuss different matters such as family, hobbies, goals, etc.
• Do not only connect with people from your industry. Try other branches too, people met there might become your clients.
• Avoid being critical of members by mentioning their names when networking with your partners.

4. Answers / Q&As

• Questions should be only posted when you can not get the desired information. Look up first!
• Close the question when you get your answer!
• Participate as much as possible in the Q&As, this is how you can know people better. I recommend here, Guy Kawasaki who identified Ten Ways to use Linkedin  
• Rate responses by all means, otherwise the respondents will ignore your future questions!
• Questions asked have to be clear!
• There is a limit of 10 questions a month for the basic account.
• Be careful not to give misleading answers in a subject area, as that will reflect your skills and knowledge!

5. How to recommend somebody

There are certain criteria that should be taken into consideration when recommending someone. Check:

• If you have actually worked with the recommended person;
• If he/she has delivered products or services to you;
• if you were content with the delivery;
• If you have met the person;
• If you are happy with recommending this person to friends;
• Language and spelling;
• The reason for your recommendation.

I recommend reading some Linkedin Recommendation Examples  with explanations.

6. Belonging to a group

LinkedIn has a special feature called Groups and these are divided into three sections: Basic, Premium and Partner. The Basic group feature is free of charge which actually doesn’t appear on the directory. So to form an idea, groups are collegiate and professional school alumni associations, corporate alumni groups, professional organizations, networking groups, event and tradeshow organizers etc. It is advisable to read Dave Taylor’s Secret of Linkedin Groups. 

The good thing about using this feature is that instead of sending out questions to a huge group of people, you can choose only the domains you are interested in the most. Being a member of a group gives you the feeling of belonging to somewhere, instead of being posted individually on the network. Read also the FAQs about LinkedIn Groups .

Conclusion

To sum up, LinkedIn is once again the biggest gathering of professionals, it is like an online Chamber of Commerce, where everyone has unlimited access 24/7 to valuable information. The space set is not an impediment anymore, you can do business easier than ever with Russia or the Far East, and that is only one click away.

You can find out information about companies in a smoother, easier way; you get to know your future employer before actually going to the interview; research possibility is better than ever. You don’t need to count on recruiters, there is no need to send tens of CV’s to all sorts of companies, you can actually get noticed and get into contact with, before you realize that.

My advice to you is to signup on LinkedIn as soon as possible. You could be an active or a passive member, it doesn’t matter…. things might come your way from sources you didn’t even expect. You could get in contact with people you otherwise couldn’t. It‘s easier than going to a conference, where you might not get the proper attention. Doing business from the computer is all that anyone could wish for!

What do Boston, an avocado, Shakopee, MN, and a banana have in common? LinkedIn.

My client sells printing for Imagine Print Solutions in Shakopee. They print packaging and custom displays, post of purchase, labels and signage. He was contacted by a print rep out of Boston, who was contacted by Chiquita thru LinkedIn, to broker a job for their new avocado launch. The connection was made possible by LinkedIn, and could prove to be a very loyal and profitable customer for my husband in the future.

WHAT IS LINKEDIN? LinkedIn is a business networking website that allows its users to identify, make and maintain contact with other business professionals. It also has forum sections and “groups” where users can ask and answer business related questions.

• Has more than 30 million users
• 1.3 million new people sign up each month
• of that 1.3 million, 750,000 are senior executive level
• Average annual income exceeds $109,000
• The average age for LinkedIn users is 41, with all the top Fortune 500 business decision makers having LinkedIn accounts.

8 Tips to Use LinkedIn to Grow Your Business

1. People use LinkedIn as an online resume. Members create profiles that provide a snapshot of their professional background – where they work currently, past work history, the businesses they own, and even the side businesses they run. So, if I am checking someone out, I visit LinkedIn because it’s usually the most streamlined place to scan professional qualifications.

LinkedIn Profile Tips: Use a current photo; Include keywords in your headline, summary, experiences, and interests; Add your web URLs, blogs, links and any part of your online identity; important stuff about what you do; reinforce your marketing message. You can also add the LinkedIn Blog application to add more information to your profile; Make it public.

2. LinkedIn is also a way to connect and establish relationships with new people, and expand and reinforce existing relationships. So what exactly can LinkedIn do for your business? Use it to:

LinkedIn Tips: Expand your contacts. The right contacts can help you grow your business, whether you need to find business partners, suppliers or customers. Place a link to your LinkedIn profile prominently on your website (perhaps on the About page) and/or on your blog. That will encourage people to become one of your LinkedIn contacts. In addition, answer questions on the LinkedIn Answers network. Giving someone valuable information makes it easy to strike up an online conversation and from there build a relationship. You are building TRUST. It’s about reputation. Networks like LinkedIn are systems for communicating reputation so people can determine how much they should trust you. It’s a virtual representation of your reputation. Both what you list and who you are connected to, give critical information about who you are.

Tips on contacts: use LinkedIn Search people—who are you looking for? You are only one, possibly two, linkedin connections away from your next large customer. Bring your network online. Your network is one of your most valuable assets, but it does little good for you offline. Upload your Address Book, invite the people you want to connect with, and get connected. Having your network online means that you can now use it as a personalized search engine for both who and what you know.

STORY: It’s important to find the right person at a company. For Jeff Ragovin, doing just that has netted his company “over two to three million dollars”. Jeff writes: “I look at my network on LinkedIn,” “And I look at that as a gold mine.” As the VP of Sales and Business Development at Buddy Media, Jeff brings in marquis clients like Anheuser-Busch, Microsoft and New Balance by reaching out to the right person with a valuable proposal. Jeff says they’re more inclined to reply when approached via LinkedIn, because “they already have the opportunity to look you up … and maybe even see in your network where you have 14 recommendations. So there’s trust.” Perhaps that trust is why Jeff likes to keep his network “large but lean”.

“It’s not a numbers game,” Jeff says. “It’s not about how many people can I have in my network. With LinkedIn, it’s about how many qualified people that are valuable to me.” Jeff’s track record suggests that success is found in quality, rather than quantity. Though as quantities go, $2-3 million is nothing to sniff at.

3. Stay connected with existing business networking contacts. You’ve invested precious time in developing business contacts through networking –don’t let those contacts evaporate. Using LinkedIn, you can keep track of people you’ve met at in-person events or at trade shows – or people you’ve only met online. LinkedIn offers profile photos, letting you remember the person’s face even if you haven’t seen them in a while. Also, if you need an up-to-date email address for one of your connections, you can find it on LinkedIn.

Find connections. Who knows your client or customer before you do? Keep track of old friends. LinkedIn Identifies good networkers. Identify relationships between people you know and people you want to know. Pay attention to people’s job titles.

4. LinkedIn Recommendations – With LinkedIn, you can receive ongoing testimonials. When your clients and vendors give you recommendations, you gain instant credibility.

We are now in a time where most people will do a Google search for your name and company before deciding on a purchase. Your LinkedIn profile along with the recommendations from your clients and vendors will be near the top of any search on your name clearly adding to your credibility.

Invite and connect to people who have worked with you and can give you a glowing “specific” recommendation. You’ll want to help the person giving the recommendation use the right key words and specific solution for best results.

Give recommendations whenever possible. It will show up in Recent Activity on all the connections for both of you. In other words, you’ll both go up the referral curve!

5. Draw traffic to your website and blog. You can link to your website and blog from your LinkedIn profile. Adjust your LinkedIn settings to notify your contacts whenever you update your profile. Then update your profile once a quarter and LinkedIn will send out a notice to remind your contacts to come see what’s changed. For instance, if you redesign your website or add a product line, you can update your profile and your contacts automatically will be notified.

6. Get PR visibility. Many bloggers and journalists have LinkedIn profiles. While it may be difficult to get their attention by “cold call emailing,” try getting introduced to them through LinkedIn. You certainly do not want to spam them or annoy them. But connecting through LinkedIn is a low pressure way to start developing a relationship. Later on, after they “know” you, they may be more receptive to hearing about your online store, particularly if you serve a niche market or have distinctive merchandise. Take advantage of what you are working on to promote what you do. (keywords)

Join relevant Groups based on your interests, position yourself as an expert. Read the comments and add helpful, appropriate comments. Follow other groups. Use the news. Involve your coworkers into discussion.

7. Reinforce your business brand. Your LinkedIn profile will include your company name. You can even include detailed information about what your business does as well as your products and services. Some savvy entrepreneurs include their URL as part of their name and title so that it appears every time their name is displayed on LinkedIn. These actions reinforce your brand at no cost to you. Announce significant news about your business (new launch or joint venture. By way of a profile update. Make sure your website, blogs and other web-based content are SEO for YOUR purposes. Add something of value to the content, linked, tips, etc.

8. Use LinkedIn to hire service providers, freelancers, independent contractors and employees. LinkedIn is excellent for finding or checking out qualified help. All you need to do is request an introduction through an existing contact.

Lets review these LinkedIn Tips:

• Come recommended and reach out to the right person at the right company.
• Update your professional summary and request recommendations from your LinkedIn contacts who know what you do best.
• Search for the right person to connect with by job title, company, location or keyword.
• Review profiles to see if they’re a fit for your proposal and request an introduction through a common connection, or send an InMail directly to that person.
• By answering questions in your field of expertise you can help others while showcasing your knowledge of your particular industry in front of a wider audience. This will allow you to connect with interesting people and hopefully bring in new contracts.
• Have people familiar with your work recommend you!

Given our current economic conditions, there is no better time to utilize marketing opportunities like social media which are right at your fingertips to promote your business.

I hope you utilize 2009 to jumpstart social media strategies to improve your business.

With LinkedIn, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

The video links below provide easy understanding to the uses of LinkedIn.

General LinkedIn

How to Join LinkedIn

Creating and Managing your Profile

Navigating Your Homepage

LinkedIn Subscriptions

Adding/Changing an Email Address

Managing Your Recommendations

Removing a connection

Watch this short video for an overview of what LinkedIn is and how it can help you.