Successful Blog

Revising Your LinkedIn Profile: Who's Looking at YOU?

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I’m on a quest to approach social networking and reputation management in a saner, more organized way. Now I’m checking and revising what I’ve already got out there.

Your LinkedIn Profile: Who’s Looking at YOU?

LinkedIn is an important bridge between the online and offline business communities. Both groups use this tool to connect and share their professional expertise. This cross-cultural nature makes LinkedIn more than a social media resume file and management tool. Because of it’s far-reaching membership, LinkedIn can serve as a research tool that shows whether our professional profile is working for us.

Have you noticed the box on your LinkedIn home page called Profile Views? You’ll find it in the right column under the flash ad — I’ve circled it in the screenshot below. (UPDATE: THIS APPEARS ONLY ON PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTS.)

LinkedIn Profile Views

Profile Views is a statement of and a link to who’s been looking at your profile or looking for someone like you. If you click the link, you’ll see something that looks like this.

LinkedIn Who’s Been Looking

This list is compiled based on the visibility settings of the people who came to look. The options are three and offered this way:

What will be shown to other LinkedIn users when you view their profiles?

  • Show my name and headline
  • Only show my anonymous profile characteristics, such as industry and title
  • Don’t show users that I’ve viewed their profile

[To check or change your settings use the “Change your settings” link below the box.]

Click through on one of those links, and you’ll see the folks in your network who fit the same description as the person who stopped by to check your profile. NOTE: The person who actually came may not be in this list.

Looking Back and Saying Hello

At first it seemed silly to look at list of people who hadn’t looked at me. Then I realized this list was representative of someone who had been a visitor. I got curious about who they were. Now I look back regularly and sometimes I reach out to meet them as well.

  • I check the list of “who’s been looking” for a possible match in our goals or a connection to people close to me. For example, right now I’m working on a training program called “Models and Masterminds.” So, “Someone in the Executive Leadership function in the Internet industry from Savannah, Georgia Area” might have similar goals to my own. I also might find a connection to my colleague Chris Cree.
  • I click through on the match I find and concentrate on the Level 2 connections. I read down the list for many things.
    • The words that people use to name their jobs
    • The companies they work for currently
    • The companies they’ve worked for in the past
    • Their current location
    • The number of recommendations and connections they have

    I only click through on those that look like a possible fit.

  • When I click through on a possible fit, I read that person’s profile and see who connects me to him or her.
  • If there really is a place where our goals could meet, I write a brief (6-8 sentence email) that explains what I’d like to learn and invites a conversation. I use that to ask a friend to introduce us or send a direct in-mail message on my own. The key is to be specific and guarantee a limited need for commitment on the receiver’s end.

I had a wonderful conversation yesterday with someone I met in this fashion. I expect that we’ll be doing business soon.

On the other hand, I sometimes look to find that something in my profile has attracted a list of folks with whom I might never have the right skill set to form a partnership. If people from the same group keep showing up, I look to my profile for the words that need editing.

Do you pay attention to the folks who are viewing your profile? The more you know about who finds you, the more easily you can adjust your profile to bring the partners who are right for you.

UPDATE: I WAS UNAWARE THAT THIS FEATURE WHICH CAME WITH THE NEW DESIGN IS ONLY ON PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTS.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Check out Models and Masterminds too

SOB Business Cafe 05-30-08

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Duct Tape Marketing points out:
It’s my belief that you need to employ all three approaches in order to generate the right kind of know, like and trust building that will attract your ideal customers.

Attract More Customers says:
Business can be a lot simpler than the consultants and MBAs claim. Craigslist, for example, just listens to its customers, then gives them what they want. No wonder they’ve been profitable since day one.

Vandelay offers:
For those of us who are interested in always learning new tricks and improve our design skills, we’re fortunate to have a number of very valuable websites and blogs that regularly publish high quality, informative tutorials.

Technosailor plans
The Situational Analysis is probably one of the hardest sections you will [write] because you are essentially laying out how the product will function in various environments and how it will be perceived in the marketplace.

The Positivity Blog advises

Illumiblog explores
All this focus of resources and positioning to woo this small group of individuals who are considered to be influential and well-connected enough to capture the attention and business of untold number of consumers may not be so effective, according to new research from sociologist Duncan Watts of Columbia University.

Related ala carte selections include

Rick Mahn smiles . . .

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

A New Day Thought

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I've been thinking . . .

a new day thought.

On a Friday morning, I’ve been thinking about the wonder of a new day.
Like the sun, we can open our eyes on hours filled with opportunity.
With a fire behind us, we move into the morning spreading light as we move.

We can use that light to repair what was once broken.
We can follow it to a path that’s more true and familiar than the one we’ve been following.

We can warm the lives of the people we love in a short moment.
We can put a glow where a cold heart has been a dark and lonely space.

A new day is a chance to make a new way for ourselves and the world.

On this typical new Friday morning, I’m letting the old days and old pains fall away from me.

I’m only keep the new ones.

Central America sunrise by etstrauss

Image: etstrauss

Will you do the same thing?

Liz's Signature

Seth's Book and Reaching the Reachable

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Reaching You

The Living Web

During my trip to the UK, I was rereading “Meatball Sundae,” Seth’s book about the New Marketing. Certain pages have become thoughts that I like to share with folks who are new to the blogosphere. Seth’s book is one that folks helps bridge the gap to the blogosphere through a lens they understand.

Of course, I was rereading Seth’s book for me too. I find every time I revisit a favorite book with a new problem on my mind, something I hadn’t seen before shows itself to me there. Once again, that proved true. . . .

My thoughts were on how easy it is to have ideas and build products without knowing how to reach the customers those products will serve. My instinct kept pointing to the folks who sit right at our doors.

Do we overlook the customers we already know? Or do we surround ourselves with people doing the same things that we do?

My memory kept returning to Dave Bullock’s declaration at SOBCon08, “You have the community and the relationships . . . I want what you have.”

While reading, I stopped at a passage from Seth’s book (also on his blog)that shone brightly like it was brand new.

. . . start making products, services and stories that appeal to the reachable. Then do your best to build that group ever larger. Not by yelling at them, but by serving them.

Dave and Seth were saying the same thing. Recognize what you already have. Reach out to the folks you know. Make products and services for them.

In response to that idea, I started Models and Masterminds, and it’s getting a fine response. (woo!hoo!)

Glen Stansberry and Leo Babauta have launched an ebook publishing house for the folks they know best.

Reaching the reachable also means keeping fresh and keeping up with them . . .

Roger von Oech has published this generation’s

A Whack on the Side of the Head!

What new offer have you made to the reachable customers you already know? Go ahead. Promote it here.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Check out Models and Masterminds too

Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 21

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Get Closer to You

This is a series of questions, I don’t know how many. They are the ones I ask when I help folks get closer to their personal identity.

What was your favorite way to pass time when you were an eight-year-old child?

I’ll answer first to get things started.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
Branding: 5 Ways to Help You Find Out Who You Are
Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 20
Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 19
Questions to Get Closer to You: Question 18
Questions to Get Closer to Your Brand: Question 1
You’ll find the entire series of Questions to Get Closer to you on the Successful Series page.

Traffic, Readers, Colleagues — Are They Customers?

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Reaching Customers in the Offline World

The Living Web

As I put together the SOBCon materials for Models and Masterminds course, I’m thinking about the folks we call visitors and whether they’re really customers.

When I first started my writing blog, I had one reader, a friend who likes to read. Then I joined a “click traffic group” and as long as I clicked other blogs I got a related number of pageviews. Those clickers became the first visitors to my blog. I’m fairly sure few actually read anything.

At day 21, a comment appeared. Shortly after that a few folks started coming back. I had regular readers. Then I had 10 subscribers. I even knew who some of them were. When page views reached 1000/day and comments were plenty and regular, I put up some ads. I thought I’d make some holiday money.

I was confused.

I hadn’t really been looking at who was visiting my blog.

Traffic, Readers, Colleagues — Are They Customers?

When you look at the people who visit your blog, what do they do and how long do they stay?

  • Traffic – If they come in swarms following a link or bookmark and leave in a few seconds flat, it’s traffic. If someone stumbles a page and thousands come only to go away, isn’t that the same as people visiting a store because they were downtown to watch a parade? Traffic is noise unless convert it to readers or customers.
  • Readers – If each visitor reads 1.5 pages or more, you’re building a community of readers. If an audience is your goal, you’ll well on your way. If selling is what you’re about, you’ll need to convert readers into customers. Readers ignore ad that sit in the sidebar. To sell to readers, talk about what they want. Be helpful in solving their problems with products and services that naturally draw from the content you discuss.
  • Colleagues – Being helpful and solving problems can convert readers into customers. But look closely at your audience. Are they potential customers? If you run a “trade” blog — one that discusses the ideas, trends, and people in your industry — your discussions might be with an audience of colleagues not potential customers. Colleagues are unlikely to buy your products and services, at least not long enough for your business to thrive.

We can build a thriving blog that knocks everyone’s socks off, but it can be an investment of love and time that has no customers.

In a world where mostly bloggers read blogs, it’s a good habit to watch our audience. Unless we’re selling specifically to bloggers, our businesses will grow faster if we connect to customers outside the blogosphere.

How would you help a new blogging business connect to customers in the offline world?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Models and Masterminds begins with offline connections to customers.