LinkedIn recently just announced they hit one billion endorsements. But how about the value? As I posted few times before about LinkedIn Endorsement. I received some endorseents from the people that I never worked with.

From my opinion, boosting how many endorsements we can get is similar to boosting how many "Likes" we can get on Facebook Fan Pages.

Below is the infographic about the one billion endorsement.

Source: 1 Billion Endorsements Given on LinkedIn

I received an email from LinkedIn said that I have one of the top 1% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012. Is this true? I searched on Google and got different views. Some told it is true, others told that it is just another LinkedIn marketing strategy to use our ego to help them spread LinkedIn news that it now has 200 million members.

When I did my research, I got these comments on LinkedIn Help Forum from Moderator Derak Homann and a blog post from Kelly Clay

Source: You have one of the top 1% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012

Source: hasoffers Marketing Blog

My opinion is, since LinkedIn is a very professional networking site, I believe top 1% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012 is real and LinkedIn wants to use this opportunity to make this news goes viral.

But it means nothing to us if we don't get any benefits from LinkedIn. Top 1% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012 is just another number.

How about you? Did you receive the same email? If yes, what is your opinion?

I read a lot of blog posts advised people how to build professional reputation with Linkedin. 9 out of 10 posts are almost the same. Fine tune your headline, update your summary, put more projects and experience, etc.

Today, I share with you how to build your reputation with Linkedin according to your target market. Let say if you are an internet marketing consultant from Malaysia and you want to do business in US, you need to build your reputation or fine tune your LinkedIn profile according to US, rather than Malaysia market. How do you do that?

You need to study US culture. In US. Maybe Americans use "specialist" rather than "consultant". Maybe Americans don't use "specialist" or "consultant" at all. For example, they use Search Engine Optimizers, Social Media Optimizers, etc.

And, you need to get some certificates from accredited SEO or Internet Marketing agencies to build your reputation. It does help your American customers to understand you if your awards, certificates and qualifications are all from Malaysia.

This unique advice helps you to truly build your reputation with LinkedIn according to your target market. All the best! :)

What do you need to succeed? The right mindset, communication skills, networking skills and relationship building skills. This is newly launched Link It Magazine about. Link It Magazine is a Linkedin, communication, relationship builing and networking skills magazine. We work with Dale Carnegie Training (Dale Carnegie is the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People) and Napoleon Hill Associate (Napoleon Hill is a author of Think and Grow Rich) for 1st issue. We interviewed Neal Schaffer who is a Linkedin expert.

I hope that you can learn from our magazine. Happy reading.

If you wish to contribute your ideas, opinions and knowledge, feel free to contact us.

 

What is the biggest reason for people to invest time in Linkedin rather than other social networking sites? Recentlly, there are two polls ran together on Linkedin, let us see what are the results.

From the poll above, 92% of people agree they invest time in Linkedin rather than other social networking sites. But for what reasons people are willing to invest time. Let us see the poll below.

Link : On other social networks I spend time. On LinkedIn I invest my time

No.1 reason for people to invest time is get professional and useful contacts/networks. The second most important reason is maintain professional ID. If you really want to do professional networking and expand your business, Linkedin is one of the best social networking sites.

Link: What’s the main reason you turn to LinkedIn over other social networks?

Have you experienced this before in a networking event - A person comes to approach you, give you a handshake,  when you say hello and hi, the person just keep silent and walk away?

This is the problem for those who don't know how to use Linkedin and don't know how to do networking. They don't even know how to respect people. Each day, I receive two to three  invitations on Linkedin. I browse and read their profiles,  before (for those I am not sure if we should connect) and after (for those I am sure we can bring value to each other), I will send them message to say hello, ask them what and how I can help them, or I ask them what  purpose is for they to build this relationship, etc., most of them never reply.

I don't know. You connect people on Linkedin just for fun? Or you connect people on Linkedin just to increase the numbers of your connections to impress people while you don't even reply to show your respect? And sorry to say, most of them are Malaysians. I don't say all of them, some of them are very good in doing networking on Linkedin, they are very professional.

So, which one is you? The one who really know how to do networking and build relationship or the one just want to increase the numbers of connections on Linkedin?
If you are the one who connect but never talk, you are killing your reputation on Linkedin because....doing networking on Linkedin needs trust.

If you don't want to talk to me, don't send your invitation. You are wasting your time and my time. Go to read Ivan Misner's blog (Father of Modern Networking) first to learn how to REALLY do networking and build relationship.

For the last month, Linkedin has a lot of new great features for Linkedin users. First, we have endorsement, then we have Follow Thought Leader feature and the most recent we will have new Linkedin profile layout. For myself, except endorsement feature, I really love the other two features, especially the new Linkedin profile layout.
The new layout has a modern design with more images (especially with the big profile photo on your profile layout).

Then we have Activity which you can Share, Like and Comment.

Then, we have Summary, Skill and Expertise (with the new endorsement feature), Experirence with company logos.

Next, we have Volunteer Experience and Causes, Education, Publication, Project and Languages. All with small icons.

In connection section, Linkedin shows your connections with their profile photos which I really like it and more engaging compared to previous no photo layout.

 

In Groups section, again Linkedin shows photos for all the groups that you joined.

And lastly, is the following section to show what topics that you followed on Linkedin.

Below are some of the most important new features from Linkedin new layout

The demo doesn't have the features which I am going to share with you. I get this profile from Linkedin founder - Reid Hoffman. With the new profile layout, now we can browse other people's network. We can study from four perspectives - Company, School, Location and Industry. As you can see, if I choose industry, I know that Reid's strength is in Internet. With this feature, we actually understand Reid Hoffman more. When we want to build relationship with him, we will know what we should talk about.

For me, this is the greatest feature in new profile layout. In communication, sometimes we need to find some common things to talk about in building relationship. When I moused over to "In Common with Reid", at least we have three things in common. If I am able to connect with him, one of the common topic we can share is social media (but definitely we are not connected yet).

One of the reason I love Linkedin because Linkedin keeps working hard to roll out new and useful features. If you ask me among all social networking sites Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, etc., which social networking site you must use, I would say it is Linkedin. :)

Since I am a Linkedin Connecter and Networker, I offer five referrals each month for any one in any business that need referrals. Please feel to contact me at 017 24 30 307.

What does touch and go business relationship mean?
It means quick business relationship and rarely leads to a long lasting healthy relationship.

Where does it happen?
It happens everywhere.

Facebook
We add friends on Facebook without knowing who they are (I made this mistake many years ago, now I have almost 4000 friends on Facebook, not even 10% of them I know).

Twitter
We follow people to hope that people will follow us. No conversation happens, just want to increase the numbers of followers.

Linkedin
We send invitations to just only want to build our numbers of connections on Linkedin without any specific purposes (I receive at least one to two invitations per day). When I reply to ask them what the purposes are for them to send me invitations, they never reply.

Blog
We comment on other people’s blogs just want to do links building but without replying comments.

Networking Events
Same thing happens to networking events. We meet, we exchange name cards, we talk for two to three hours, we go back home without following up. Following up is very important to build business relationship. What? You go networking events to collect name cards so that your children can play card games?

This is the problem that we face in today’s world. We are too easy to connect. A simple click can connect anyone. Unlike in previous day, to build business relationship, we need to make calls to meet and when we meet, we really build deep and genuine business relationship.

I learnt it from a Linkedin top author from Belgium – Jan Vermeiren, the author for How to REALLY use LinkedIn. He has written a blog article about sending and accepting LinkedIn Invitations - My Personal Policy Regarding Accepting LinkedIn Invitations. In order to build business relationship him, you must make sure he knows, likes and trusts you. He is definitely right.

I don’t understand, do big numbers of friends, fans, connections and followers help in your businesses when you don’t even talk to them, know them and trust them?

When you want to build long lasting relationship, make sure you have something to offer first without expect any returns – Napoleon Hill. If you keep grabbing from friends, sooner or later, you have no friends can grab for your benefits.

If you need help in building relationship on Linkedin, you can contact us now.

I received two calls in two different days from a Japanese wanted to sell me marketing information (actually until now, I still don't know what they tried to sell) via phone call. Read the conversation below. Ms A is the japanese girl who called me.

Ms A: Hi, Mr Kent, good morning, I am calling from ABC company (sorry, she couldn't even pronounce her company properly).

Kent: Yes, I am Mr Kent. Good morning, what can I do for you?

Ms A: I would like to sell you some information.

Kent: What kind of information would you like to sell to me?

Ms A: What is your humanwebsite about?

Kent: It is about internet marketing.

Ms A: Yes, we sell you marketing information.

Kent: Please specifically explain to me, what exactly you would like to sell to me that able to help me?

Ms A: Do you have an email address, I can't explain thru' phone, I will send you an email. (It made me feel so weird)

Kent: No! Before you tell me exactly what do you want to sell, I won't give you my email address.

Ms A: Mind to give me your email address because I really can't explain now, we have marketing information to sell to help you..

Kent: Ok, since I don't know what's that about, sorry, I can't give you my email address and I am busy now. Bye.

Ms A made a deadly mistake (the same mistake twice, call me exactly the same time in two days and talked about the same thing).

1) She coulnd't explain to me what exactly she could help me in a few seconds.

You are busy, I am busy, everyone is busy. If you are in marketing, you have only a few seconds to talk to a person on how can you help them, only few seconds to get people attention. We scan newspapers, we scan titles of blog posts, we read people in seconds, we are getting impatient in watching long videos, etc.

As you can see, I offer my help on Linkedin for 5 people each month. Yes, there are people requested my helps and I was able to introduce big and right connections to them. But the problem is when those big connections need proposals but those asked my help send cover letters. When they send invitations to connect on Linkedin, they didn't talk to other people's interests but keep asking what other people can do for them. With this kind of communication skills, it really makes people frustrated and kill relationship.

Remember, everyone is busy. If you don't understand how actually relationship works, you will never succeeded in your marketing career.

I bet that if the japanese girl keep using the same telemarketing technique to talk to people, she can't achineve anything.

 

Each time, when I presented the infograhic below to businessmen in Malaysia, the first feedback I get is - since there are not many people use Linkedin in Malaysia yet, Linkedin is not yet for them or some even said it is useless for them.

My advice to them is - Don't lock yourself in Malaysina when using Linkedin in internet world. I know you might say, the world is too big for us or even think this is impossible to work with other people from other countries because it is too troublesome. I have to say, Linkedin almost done 90% of the work. All you have to do is search the database and connect to the right person to work together.

If Linkedin doesn't have video chat, don't worry, ask the person join you on skype and discuss about your projects. I have customers and staff from around the world. I have partners from different countries. I work with Mexicans, Americans, Swiss, Indians, Pakistanis, etc.

Don't lock yourself in Malaysia only when you have the world. You can build relationship with anyone on Linkedin from around the world and start working on projects any time. Open your mind to the world. This is how I built relationship with Neal Schaffer and Alison Woo from US.

Below is the infographic "Top 10 Linkedin Locations". If you need any helps on using Linkedin, don't hestitate to send us a message or call us at +6017 24 30 307