[Laughter]
Marc: Welcome to LinkedIn Live: Who’s Your Daddy? And I’m your daddy. This is Marc Freedman coming to you from Dallas, Texas. Lovely sunny day here, the torrential rains have gone, and we’re happy to be in sunshine.
Today’s Wednesday, March 19. Thank you for joining us. We’ve had a few technical difficulties, so we’re not able to mix in our music at this time, so it’s going to be all Marc all the time and in any case thank you for joining us.
Again, this is LinkedIn Live: Who’s your daddy? Our website is whosyourdaddyshow.com and at that site you will find a bunch of things. There is Links which come direct to our show, we have a number of yahoo groups, and mailing list that you can join – through DallasBlue you can join the mailing list for the official announcement for this show.
We had a discussion list which was directly related to the show on yahoo groups, and we have another yahoo group called TopLinkedIn, which is our main forum for LinkedIn questions and answers, and discussion. So, I hope you’ll join us at our forum and our mailing list.
Our co-host Heidi Heyns is not able to join us today, so it’s just going to be myself, and Heidi, the voice of milk and honey get a shout out -you are apparently AWOL, and I would love to hear from her, and have her back with us.
Our show today is going to about LinkedIn answers and first up however is the news. Live news to catch you up on recent events. We took an extended hiatus most recently there have been a number of homepage changes.
The beta of the homepage was announced about a month and half ago or so. Some of us had the privilege to see and it’s now being disseminated to all users. What do you think of it? Let us know! Go to our forum at TopLinkedIn or our yahoo discussion group or whosyourdaddyshow, and let us know what you think about the homepages changes.
From my own perspective, it is extremely deficient – Web 2.0 cutesy graphics, toys, and widgets. That’s what we are not for. We are networkers; we are looking to find better ways to find and connect to people and to conduct business.
These things that aren’t competitive and frankly are of little use – widgets and things like that may look nice, but they don’t address the core challenge that we have with LinkedIn, which is how to better the business, and how to better network.
And my recommendation is do what you do well, and leave the other cutesy stuff out. That’s my opinion. What you think, let us know? And talk back on our forums. In other news, LinkedIn has a mobile networking application, if you are not in LinkedIn.com; you can access the LinkedIn portal through a very simple interface suitable for your mobile device.
In other news, LinkedIn has started a relationship with Microsoft and there is video right there on the omepage for a day promoting Microsoft server software, Bill Gates, and a LinkedIn question that he answered that also was featured on the homepage.
On the corporate front, LinkedIn recruiters a new enterprise application that LinkedIn now provides to Human Resources Staffing and recruiting firms to make it easier to use LinkedIn to find candidates.
There was an announced that TiVo – the video recording manufacture was the featured beta user for that, although that services now are in widespread use.
Customer service has an announcement that there is a new ticketing system that provides online service database with trackable tickets where we can look at the current status of customer service request. That is in beta. And I’m here to report that there seems to be a lot of bugs in terms of their using that all the time and reliably using that and responding.
But it raised a positive signal, and in terms of our LinkedIn Network performance watch, now entering month five that’s FIVE not one, not two not three or four, five, and we are talking months, not weeks or days. Five months of severe performance issues with LinkedIn and it affects not just top networkers like myself but I’ve heard complaints from many other users who have many less connections.
It may affect only your display of LinkedIn Answers, other services from LinkedIn that are affected include searches, profiles, settings that include your number of introduction Inmails remaining, and other pages.
And very disappointing on two fronts. The first is that this problem has continued and the second is that when people write to LinkedIn to complaint about the outage. LinkedIn says it’s because you have too many connections and that’s neither accurate nor is that good customer handling.
The fact is prior to October, people with tens and thousands of connections, had absolutely no problem accessing LinkedIn and its services. So clearly LinkedIn did something in that October timeframe, and one of their software updates – with their network, with their configuration in between the two that made it far more sensitive to the number of connections, and essentially broke their own system.
So, LinkedIn don’t try to blame it on the users, just fix the problem, and maybe we should worry about of basic performance issues before you, try to get cute with the newsfeeds and simple widgets. And that’s our LinkedIn update for today, Wednesday March 19.
Turning to what’s new with the DallasBlue Business Network and MyLink LinkedIn service, we now have over 70 LinkedIn groups, we invite all of our listeners and readers to check them out.
The DallasBlue LinkedIn group have over 10,000 members, and as a result we split up those members, and created a whole slew of groups depending on the locations.
So even if you’re in Dallas and you are a member of DallasBlue, we now have a DallasBlue LinkedIn groups for you. And we have many groups depending on our country, city, and even professions.
So we invite you to find the DallasBlue LinkedIn group which is right for you. Join one or even a few of them. The address there again is MyLinkFamily.com.
We have also created LinkedIn user groups, which has been a long time in coming. LinkedIn User Group here the acronym is LUG. We have a few LUGs to tell you about. One is the PRIDE LUG for LinkedIn members who are more than just users but true fans of LinkedIn.
And whether or not you have five connections or 5,000 whether you are an open networker or connect only to people that you are currently actively doing business with, we like you to be a LUG if you are someone who strongly supports and uses LinkedIn. So, show your support of LinkedIn and join the PRIDE that’s the Pride LUG together at MyLinkfamily.com.
Other LinkedIn user groups we have are for evangelist who like myself maybe want to blog, record a podcast, write articles, make them public, hold multiple events, they are all evangelist and we invite you to join our LinkedIn Evangelist LUG.
The last LUG is our business LinkedIn user group, the business customers aren’t just users. They are critical stakeholders who fund LinkedIn operations and if you are like me, you are severely disappointed at the lack of input, notice and transparency and frankly honesty of a lot of LinkedIn operations in business.
As a stakeholder I think we deserve more and as an individual subscriber they are not terribly responsive. But maybe in aggregate, maybe if we band together, we’ll ensure that our business needs are met and that our voices heard.
So if there are any business LinkedIn subscribers join our business LUG. In addition, we have additional LinkedIn groups for – at your liberty, and if you’re a LION LinkedIn Open Networkers or if you own or operate a LinkedIn group, we have an owners’ LUG.
So, that for today with MyLinkFamily. Today’s topic again is LinkedIn answers, the good, the bad, and the ugly. If LinkedIn answers are relatively new to you or you are new to LinkedIn, LinkedIn answer service is relatively new. It’s been debut on LinkedIn roughly over a year ago.
It is available on the main menu at LinkedIn. It’s one of the top 4 to 5 major options for you. And there are a number of ways that it is accessible.
One way is to literally go into your homepage, look at the main menu and directly access the LinkedIn answers. So, any LinkedIn member has an access to the questions and answers there.
When you look at your LinkedIn answers, it’s a relatively restrictive format. You’re not able to change your questions or your answers although you can clarify them and provide an addendum to them.
Another feature is called flagging and LinkedIn Answer is a user moderated community. So, the LinkedIn takes the hands off position which is relatively practical considering that there maybe thousands of users participating in LinkedIn answers.
And by flagging you have to choose one of several options that you claim the question or the response is inappropriate for inclusion in LinkedIn Answers.
In general it’s because it’s not a business oriented question; it’s not under a right category; it’s recruiting or job seeking plea; it’s a commercial advertisement.
And there are consequences to flagging questions. If your question is flagged and I believe the current setting is flagged by three people then it’s taken down and in addition your accounts can be restricted.
So each member can ask ten LinkedIn questions per month. If you get restricted that can be reduced to five. But that are other limitations and restrictions that can ensue.
So, a little bit about LinkedIn answers and how it works. Typical questions are up for about a week to give people time to find and to answer the questions.
So, to talk about the good, bad, and ugly of LinkedIn answers, the ugly is the flagging mechanism and it’s always a difficult balance between giving people sufficient power so that abusers of the system can be penalized between giving people too much power to moderate the community and really stifle what may be appropriate questions.
And then in many cases, I personally find again, I frequently get complaints from others that their questions are flagged and they think they are reasonable.
And unfortunately there is not much you can do about that. Your recourse is very simply is to resubmit the question to use one of your available questions for the month and to tone it down and hopefully get to a point where the people in that community, in that specific category that you selected are going to find that acceptable and you may be successful in resubmitting it or maybe flagged again.
And I’ve had both of those cases.
So, the ugly of LinkedIn answers, frankly, they are some militant members out there who are very aggressive in terms of flagging your questions, even if you find it appropriate, you may have a friend who finds it appropriate, it’s just takes the few bad apples out there or – for people to flag and bring your question down. So, good luck in your questions and trying to find that balance there.
The bad about LinkedIn answers is that depending on your questions and the forum and the time of the day, you may not get a lot of answers and you may not help you seek.
You get what you pay for in that case, don’t you? The good about LinkedIn and I think this is the experience that most people experience is that in general it works.
I got questions that I submitted where I have upwards of 40 to 50 answers. Admitting again very helpful with many ideas. I just couldn’t have found or hadn’t had access to.
So, your mileage is going to vary with LinkedIn answers but you can get good results; the best results are simple questions that tap directly into people’s expertise so that they can give you simple answer.
For example, and I have this kind of situation where you might say I have an event, I’m going to be holding it in New York City, are there any venues, hotels, restaurants, conference centers, where can you recommend I can hold an event for 50 people that’s affordable etc?
So, very simple questions that either people immediately know or don’t know the answers typically get the responses. You are going to find that many responses are off topic. They aren’t really answering the specific question that you are asking. So again it’s just like any usual forum, some of the answers are going to be applicable. Some of them aren’t. Give it a try.
If you have questions about LinkedIn answers, if you suggestions about LinkedIn answers again I invite you to go to whosyourdaddyshow.com. We have a few links there to our various forums especially our Top LinkedIn yahoo group and feel free to share your observations and your questions there. And tap into our community where you can get support.
There are few tips I can provide to your LinkedIn answers to close out our discussion of LinkedIn answers. The first is a hierarchical set of categories. So, make sure you deal all the categories and may be 40 to 50 different categories there. Everything from using LinkedIn to a variety of categories on technical, development, on marketing on business and on startups.
So, check those because your topic, your question may or may not fall in those, so it can be quiet a search sometimes to find the right category.
The next tip is that you now can post your question in two categories. So, that’s double the exposure and double the access to experts in that specific category. So, take the advantage of that if there are multiple categories where your questions might fit.
The third tip is don’t forget marketing and branding. LinkedIn answers actually are now indexed by Google and other search engines. So, it’s another way for you to get exposure – both when you are asking the question or when you’re answering the question and getting an exposure on the search engines, increases the likelihood your brand name is going to come up, or your company is going to come up, your URL is going to be found and so on.
So feel free without being overly commercial, to add your company name, add your URL because remember all these questions and answers are being picked up by the search engines.
The last tip is that recognize that there are different ways that LinkedIn answers can be promoted. First, there is a difference between public and private questions on LinkedIn answers.
And if your question may not have been appropriate for the public forum because you are a recruiter, you are a jobseeker, it’s commercial offering, it’s not a business or corporate oriented product or service that people can help you and people may flag your question if you try to shoot one onto the public forums, you still have the option of using it as a private question.
And to use the private question, be sure to select the option to notify your contacts. So, it’s another LinkedIn connection update just like you do when you do when you refer someone, update your own profile when you recommend a job and so on – when you create a LinkedIn question, you now have the option of also disseminating that to your LinkedIn connections.
Whether it is a private question in which case only the people that you sent it to will be notified. Or whether it is a public question and it’s going to be posted on LinkedIn answers and available to any LinkedIn members.
So, be sure to use that of course, your typical LinkedIn restrictions and limitations apply. There is a maximum of two hundred people that you can send that to, so if you have several hundred connections that does become somewhat unwieldy to use.
If that’s what happens to you and you want to notify everyone, there is an option there to share the LinkedIn question which essentially is the direct URL for that, so just copy and paste that URL and then use whatever currently you use for LinkedIn update, whether its outlook, your email or mailing list and then share that LinkedIn question with everyone.
And last but not the least, know that these questions do get a fair amount of visibility so as we discussed you can directly contact your LinkedIn connections to notify them of the question on LinkedIn answers.
It’s available to LinkedIn members by going to the LinkedIn answers item on the main menu and directly accessing the LinkedIn answers. It also shows up on the homepage of the network update or your direct connections.
So, whether you ask the question or whether you answer a question both of those are now shown in the network update on your friends homepages, and so it’s another way that they know that you are being active in LinkedIn and there is a link there for them to check your question and your participation.
So, again that’s our coverage of LinkedIn answers. We do recommend that you try it. You get ten questions per month. So, it’s really quite a lot. So any time that you feel that you have questions and you might need an expert or an answer or just some ideas go ahead and give it a try and I’m sure you will get some good suggestions and ideas and support from the LinkedIn answers.
And that’s our show for today, I want to thank you whether you download the podcast, remember we do multiple ways to hear the show. You can subscribe to our page and have a podcast automatically delivered to you and then if you go to whosyourdaddyshow com, you will have information and links and all of these.
We are currently using the NowLive.com platform and if you go through the links and register at NowLive you can open up their special media player which is in participate in chat and you can ask questions as well, so listen to the show live.
A third option is to call into the show and there are a number of local access numbers, unfortunately none here in Dallas or Texas where you can call locally or it can be a long distance call and a fourth way to access the show is they support Goggle talk and Gizmo project.
So, that’s internet software that you can use to connect to the show, listen to the show while it’s live or even to call into the show and chat with me.
So again I want to thank you for joining us in LinkedIn Live: Who’s Your Daddy and I’m your Daddy, I’m Marc Freedman. This is our first show back from our extended hiatus last year.
Last year we had some terrific interviews with people like Jason Alba who wrote the book on “I’m On LinkedIn-Now What???”, Dave Taylor, Denver Tech Geek and well known LinkedIn blogger at Ask Dave Taylor, Christian Mayaud and Christian is actually founder of the “Lions” movement for the LinkedIn Open Networkers and he is an investor and serial entrepreneur.
We also spoke with Arnnei Speiser, developer of LinkedIn Contact Manager. So, you can access those past broadcast and interviews again through whosyourdaddyshow.com.
In upcoming shows this year, we are committed both to holding these weekly, the time is Wednesday noon at 1 pm Eastern that’s 10am Pacific time and next week we are scheduled to talk about to LinkedIn business account. Does that make sense for you in your business?
In the following weeks, we will be covering face book, LinkedIn groups, LinkedIn forum for recruiters and we’re also going to have interviews with Dr. Earl Smith who is the expert and Board of Directors and how they can help propel your business and other interviewees that we’ll announce in our groups and on our mailing list.
So again whosyourdaddyshow.com has all the information. We hope to see you next week. Thank you again for the show and we hope to have the music problem fixed. We will talk to you next week. Thank you. Good bye.