Thursday Tip – Herding Cats
Have you ever tried to arrange a meeting time with several people and had difficulty finding a time when everyone was available? Sometimes it feels like herding cats (which is extremely difficult to do). We’re all busy and our calendars are filled.
Fast forward to 2015, and yes there is, in fact, an app for that, and it’s called Doodle.
Doodle is a free app that you can use to manage a simple schedule for multiple people. There is, of course, a version where you can spend a bit more money and get more features if you find that works best for your business.
Basically speaking though, Doodle is great time saver and you can use that time to work on your business, make follow up calls, get dinner started, or pick up a pen and paper and doodle. Don’t we all love free things that free up our time?
Top Three Things to do on LinkedIn This Week
As a Virtual Assistant, I help a number of clients with social media communication. I spend a lot of time on Facebook and other platforms like Twitter and Pinterest and Google+. While I spend fewer hours per week on LinkedIn, I find that LinkedIn has values that are not offered on the other social media sites. Some examples are:
- E-introductions. More than once I’ve referred to someone’s LinkedIn Profile when I was looking for that “just right” turn of a phrase for a virtual introduction.
- Memory jogging. Have you ever had that person that you met once at a networking event six months ago contacts you interested in your services? And you realize that you don’t remember them at all? If you take a quick at their LinkedIn profile, you’ll find out who they are, what they’re doing, and you’ll even (more often than not) get a picture to go along with it.
- Background Checks. Have you ever gotten a tip about someone who is “great” at “something.” You can look up the person on LinkedIn, find their history, read their recommendations, and see if you have any common connections.
- Search. If you’re looking for a service and type in the proper search term (and then narrow things down) you might have luck finding a service provider. Just today someone I know was looking for someone to do mold removal – I found a local contractor who had 3 people in common with me.
So – what THREE THINGS should you do on LinkedIn THIS WEEK?
- Make sure your profile photo is up to date and recognizable. If you’ve still got the same selfie that you took when you first signed up for LinkedIn in 2009, it’s time to update (consider a professional profile photo).
- Make sure your summary is clear, current, and concise (in case anyone wants to use it to e-introduce you to someone.)
- ASK for (and give) recommendations. Request recommendations from former employers, current customers, or anyone you’ve done business with. And look for a person or two that has done great work for you, whether it be a lawyer, an insurance agent, a virtual assistant, or a mold removal service.
LinkedIn might not be the platform you spend the most time on, but it might be the platform you spend the most valuable time on.
Thursday Tip – those annoying requests.
I’ve heard this complaint many times (and I’ve made this complaint a few times). Our phones* devices are constantly chirping at us. I realize that sometimes things happen and we need immediate notification. The school nurse might be calling you about a problem a child is having, or you could get a call from a parent or an in-law with an urgent situation at hand, or you could be waiting for a call from a health care professional with test results. Sometimes we NEED to get found.
But then, sometimes we don’t need and don’t WANT to be found. What if you could turn OFF the notifications for those silly Facebook games.
I ran across this article by Ryan Neal in International Business Times. ‘Candy Crush Saga’: How to Turn Off Facebook Notifications for the Popular Social Media Game, Forever
(*Yes, I still call the device I carry in my pocket a “phone” even though I use it for so much more. Some habits are hard to break.)
Thursday Tip – The Why and How of LinkedIn Recommendations
If you’ve done business with a person and are extremely satisfied, you may want to tell the world. There are a number of ways to do this:
- You can pick up a megaphone (which will only tell a few neighbors).
- You can pick up a phonebook (that might take a while – heck in 2015 it might take a while to FIND a phonebook).
- You can post on their Facebook page (which will soon disappear further down on the timeline).
- You can post a recommendation on their LinkedIn Page. This will be permanently on their LinkedIn Profile page and easy to find for anyone wanting to use their services.
Click here to go to a page (on LinkedIn) that gives details on how to give a recommendation.
Let’s say you’ve given a colleague a recommendation but there’s something you want to change. Perhaps you’ve done more work with a person and you want to change some details, or maybe you were looking at their profile and noticed that you made a typographical error.
Click here to go to a page (on LinkedIn) that gives details on how to EDIT or REMOVE a recommendation.
NOTE: O
n the above link step 1 reads “go to your profile” and step 2 reads “scroll to the recommendations section.” This is missing step 1.5 which is “enter edit your profile mode.” If you go straight to your recommendations without entering “edit” mode you will not be able to edit.
Whether you want to give your colleague some “stars” or a “thumbs up,” LinkedIn is the place to go.