Mario Sundar's Speakeasy

This was a blog series that was begging to be made. Every week, there are countless stories about LinkedIn, tips and tricks on using our site as well as stories on how professionals are using the social networking site. Here’s a weekly summary on the Top 5 such articles each week.

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Here are the 5 most useful articles on LinkedIn, week of Mar 1, 2010:

1/ HOW TO: Promote yourself on LinkedIn to find a job / Wall Street Journal:

This article takes on the vexing age-old question of should I or should I not update social networking sites with the banner: “Hire Me”? Is it too needy? The article suggests that in these tough economic times, it may not be a bad idea to reach out proactively to your network when in need of a job. For e.g.

While it’s acceptable to let people know that you are looking for a position, it’s important to approach it professionally and to be specific about your needs. One way to do this is to use LinkedIn’s “professional headline” to establish your identity. Ms. Karp recommends adding the words “in transition” or “seeking a new challenge” to your title. LinkedIn also gives you the opportunity to fill in a status box. “Use this area to describe contract or consulting gigs you have as well as any volunteer work you are doing,” suggests Ms. Karp. “This approach enables you to reinforce your brand through the headline as well as highlight current relevant projects.”

Terry Karp is the career counselor and co-founder of the Bay Area Career Center in San Francisco. The article also features suggestions from my friends Dan Schawbel (“If your network is unaware that you’re job searching, then how are they supposed to support your search?“) and colleague Krista Canfield (“Status updates remind your network that you’re looking for a position and what types of jobs you’re looking for“).

2/ 5 ways to weave LinkedIn into your Marketing Mix / Marketing Pilgrim:

A succinct summary of five ways to include LinkedIn in your marketing mix. Of particular interest to job seekers may be four easy steps to optimize your LinkedIn profile as you share that far and wide with potential hiring managers:

For the LinkedIn community, your profile will be this first item they see, so treat it as you would any landing page. To make the most of your profile:

• Hyperlink using keywords. Include relevant URLs in your profile, and use links with anchor text. For example, instead of “My Blog,” use a keyword to describe it such as “SEO and Online Marketing Blog.” (see image below)
• Use keywords in descriptions. That includes the summary, specialties, experience and all other description categories.
• Include an image in your profile. LinkedIn, after all, is a social networking channel. So add as many personal touches as possible to maximize engagement and put a face to the brand.

3/ How a B2B company made $1 million in revenue through a LinkedIn group / Web 2.0 Journal:

Truly amazing! I’ve reached out to the group owners so I could share with you readers how exactly the group was able to accomplish this. SafeNet, is the 3^rd largest provider of information security solutions in the world and were able to generate $1 million in revenue, directly related to LinkedIn Information Security Community (a + 50K member group, grown in over 2 years).

The company carefully measures ROI by tracking the original sources of leads and sales conversion via:

• Marketbright marketing automation software
• Systems engineers and product managers reporting on which members they directly connect with SafeNet sales for follow up (upon member request)
• Salesforce.com

4/ A social networking starter kit for job seekers / Yahoo Finance:

I wish the article were put together, the way Mashable puts together posts. There’s a lot of valuable advice here lost in the terribly layout. So, let’s begin. To me, all the tips provided here can be summarily addressed by LinkedIn and it’s social rolodex address book. For starters, job seekers, GET LINKEDIN!

Social networking is a great way to expand your network. Set up an account on LinkedIn and post your profile and resume there. You can look for former colleagues, alumni, professional associations and other connections. Recruiters frequently search for applicants on LinkedIn, so put your best professional face forward.

True dat! But, all other tips like “Make a list of all your closest colleagues, college buddies and past employers and follow up twice”, “share job leads with other job seekers”, or “tell your tennis buddies” can be done by organizing your job hunt through LinkedIn’s newly redesigned address book or social rolodex as I call it. This may actually be deserving of it’s own post on this blog. Stay tuned!

5/ Building your cyber resume for job search success / Wall Street Journal Digital Network:

It’s my friend, Dan Schawbel, who kicks off this post with tips on building your professional identity. Sree Sreenivisan, suggests picking two or three networking sites and sticking with it. Agreed. As most successful users will agree, when it comes to professional opportunities LinkedIn should definitely be the heart and soul of your social networking world.

LinkedIn is the Place to Be
If you only have the time to join one site, most experts agree that LinkedIn, with 60-million-plus members, is the most essential — at least right now. “LinkedIn is the premier business social networking site, so it is the one crucial place to be if you are a business executive, professional or entrepreneur,” says Kaputa.

That said, you want to integrate your activities across the other two key social networking sites – Twitter and Facebook. For e.g. LinkedIn now allows you to sync your Twitter activity with your LinkedIn profile #in. Also, there’s a Facebook app that allows you to sync your Twitter activity to your Facebook status feed #fb. Do both and you’re good to go.

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UPDATE: The jobs and LinkedIn #blogchat that I hosted with @mackcollier and a bunch of our fellow tweeps was very well received. We brainstormed insights into job hunting using social media and social networking. Live at 6PM Pacific as the Oscars go live!

We had over ~1000 tweets with over 130 participants in 60 minutes. The transcript of the chat can be found here and the  homepage can be found here.

Questions? Leave a comment below this post and you’ll be sure to get a response. Thanks!

Filed under: LinkedIn in the News