Day: February 10, 2016

A question from a colleague, with whom LinkedIn has provided us re-connection after a long period of time and enabled us to share thoughts, and help each other as part of the overall personal learning network we all have with each other:

I was wondering if you could shed light on something that happened to a friend of mine who is in sales. In a staff meeting, the speaker announced that my friend’s LinkedIn page looked like she was actively looking for a job.
They also are recommending changes to everyone page to add words that benefit the organization. Is this unusual or are companies taking ownership or voicing their preferences over individual profiles?

I was a bit horrified.

Dear A Bit Horrified:

Don’t be. This is always a tough question and very much depends on the organization’s culture.

I believe that each person needs to express him or herself in terms of “why I do what I do” on LinkedIn, especially in the Experience section that pertains to the organization they are working for at the time, but use the right wording so the reader believes the person is not only an individual but strengthening their organization at the same time. Links in the chain concept…

This can be done with a few pre-selected SEO keywords, phrases or sentence(s) that reflects in the individual’s own voice why they do what they do for the organization at the time.
Some companies and nonprofits I have worked with provide material and key words for their employees in a library, on a shared drive, on on their intranet, to choose from. That helps keep the message tighter.

It’s not unusual, is part of the company’s social media management and only makes the individual look better to the reader, even if he/she is {secretly} seeking a job. Hope that helps.

Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks.

Uh oh, same issue as last time we “spoke” you searched on LinkedIn for your name and see you have more than one LinkedIn account.
But this time, you cannot recall the email ID and/or the PW you used to open the account you want to get rid of.

Luckily LinkedIn has a few protocols for that.

Here’s the link (and below is the screen print) from the Help Center page that deals with what you have to do, all depending on your situation:

From the page on the Help Center, you can click on the options that best described your own situation next to the sideways arrow (►) at the bottom of that screen print and get further instructions.

Help Center usually responds in 24-48 hours, sometimes more and often less.

Sometimes the connections for the old duplicate profile can be transferred to the new one.

Keep your profile updated and get rid of any old connections that don’t make sense any more or those whom you do not know.