As I pull data for clients this month (and my websites) I have noticed a trend. Over the last 3 months I’ve seen the quality of traffic increase to almost triple the amount.

Many of my clients are starting to use social media and they are beginning to see the payoff. More quality traffic to their websites & blogs.

Here are some numbers from one of my own websites:

LinkedIn traffic has increased by 320%, time spent on site up 224% and bounce rate has gone down 34% over the past three months. Those are amazing numbers!

Facebook traffic has gone up as well, but not as much as LinkedIN.

Many businesses I know have seen great numbers coming from both LinkedIn and Facebook. Is your business seeing the same thing?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed some strange emails coming via LinkedIn for people looking to connect. I wanted to pass along this information and see if anyone else is seeing the same thing.

Here is what I have seen over the last 2 weeks:

“Bob Jones” has indicated you are a Colleague at college:
I have seen about 5 of these over the past few weeks. Another one is people looking to connect because we worked together at Xerox, Kodak (for me) or somewhere else. When looking through their profile it’s obvious that we never worked together and they may have never worked for that company.

Have you noticed any of these messages over the past few months? I’d love to hear your feedback.

Vinny D’s stance, just say no to spam!

Say no to SPAM on LinkedIN

I have been on the subject of LinkedIN for the past few postings, so I thought why not talk about 5 changes / suggestions that I would make to LinkedIN.

5. Applications – There are so many (really just a few), but how do I use them. I found the application “Company Buzz,” but I would love to see it more in action. Why not have a few videos on how to use these apps. It would really help me see the value of using these applications.

4. Search – When searching on a company or person I find it at times, either unreliable or frustrating to go through all the information. Updates to this area would make LinkedIn even more powerful.

3. Job area – It would be great to have the functionality to save searches. I have heard this from many people as most of us search on the same criteria everyday and it would be great to save these searches.

2. Home Page – At times I feel like there is way too much going on here. I wish it was organized better. It maybe the status area linked with Twitter (multiple updates from my contacts during the day) but for me, I know I don’t feel as connected to my network as I used to.

1. The biggest one right now, is the changes they made to the groups area.
If you read the my posting last week (LinkedIn Recommendations by Vinny D), you may remember that I mentioned that I don’t like the changes. I liked the way the area was before, as do many other LinkedIn users. With the new updates it seems to have lost the true value of the discussions. I’m hoping they make changes to correct this.

There you have it, just some of Vinny D’s suggestions for LinkedIn. What would you add to the list?

The past few weeks I have talked a lot about Facebook and not as much about LinkedIn. I feel like I have left out one of my favorite tools for the past few months and thought that I would write about some of the new features within LinkedIn.

If you haven’t been on LinkedIN in awhile then you should visit LinkedIN.com. Really, you should! There are a ton of changes and they are great.

Here is a run down of five changes over the past three months:

1.  You can finally delete emails. Before you could only archive the messages, but now we have the functionality to delete the message. Awesome!

2. The front page has a different look to it. There are two tabs now on the top left corner. One is messages and the other is for invites. It feels much more organized now.

LinkedIn Home Page - New message area

3. You can link your twitter account to LinkedIn and vice versa. I love this feature. I try not to post everything I post on Twitter to LinkedIn because it can get somewhat annoying, but I do try to update my LinkedIn status once a day.

"LinkedIn status bar with Twitter feature"

4. You can now follow companies! It sounds strange, but let me explain. If you are looking for a job and you have a few companies that fit what your looking for, then you can follow them. As an added bonus, anytime there is job status change – hire, departure or department moves or job opening … they will show there. What a powerful feature. Check it out! If you’re looking for a job, you will be glad you did.

"Company updates on LinkedIn"

5. New group layout. You should probably just visit your groups to find out what I’m talking about. Honestly, this one is still growing on me. I do miss the old group layout but the new layout is growing on me. See “What’s new in groups” for more information.

"LinkedIN new group features"

There are just a few of the things that LinkedIn has changed over the past few months. I am very impressed and looking forward to more changes coming this year. Like I said, if you haven’t been on LinkedIn for awhile, check it out and let me know what you think of the changes.

Recently LinkedIn made some updates to their website. If you have visited the site you may have noticed changes with the groups page and various other areas. A bigger change is the functionality with Twitter. Now you can add your Twitter account and then all of your twitter updates will show up on your Linked status.

Now, this can be good and/or bad. I know many of you tweet throughout the day, with information you probably do not want to show your LinkedIn connections. Luckily there is an option to include with your tweets that will help with that. If you select the option in LinkedIn to only show tweets (in your status) with the tag #in, then they will only show there. For me this is great because I do not want to post all of my tweets on LinkedIN and I am sure my connections don’t want to read them all.

As far as the new group features, here is a full description of what has changed.

For me, I am still getting used to the new group features. I do like a few of them and some of the add-in features. Seeing new discussions right from the main groups page is very nice. Being in 50 groups, I can now see easily what new discussions are in each group. Very nice! All actions are much easier to get to as well.

What do you think of the new features in LinkedIn? Do you like or no? Tell us what you think of the new features. And no, I don’t work for LinkedIN

As you know I am a huge supporter of social media and wanted to post a short article about a great experience I had with LinkedIn.

Recently, I noticed an issue with LinkedIn. One of my favorite features wasn’t working. After I posted a tweet, many other people told me they had the same issue. A few days earlier I sent an email to LinkedIn tech support and received no answer. After receiving the feedback from others, I decided to DM the LinkedIn account. Within a few hours I received a message that it was a known issue and it would be resolved in a few days. Within the next day or so, I received another DM message that the issue was fixed. I love that! I hate that I did not get a response via email from LinkedIn, but I love the fact that they responded via Twitter. I was then able to send to others that the problem was resolved.

Do you have any similar experiences with companies responding to you via Social Media? I’d love to hear your comments.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I just read the book, Linked Working by Frank Agin & Lewis Howes. However I never wrote a book review about it. So here it goes.

I love books that I can finish in a few days. This was an easy, but fun and detailed book. I enjoyed how they apply a LinkedIn event to a real world situation and how they link together. It was great to see different perspectives on the authors use of LinkedIn.

I have been using LinkedIn for some time now, but I really enjoyed reading this book. I learned some great ideas that I’ve already applied. They work really well! Have you read this book? What are your thoughts on the book?

I would suggest reading a few other LinkedIn books first and especially if you are a LinkedIn newbie. This is really a great book to read after some basic understanding of LinkedIn.

I hope you had a great holiday weekend! Last week I ran a poll on LinkedIn to see if my findings were happening to others. I’ve noticed over the course of the past six months that a few of the FB groups I created haven’t been getting much attention and the people who joined them have more or less forgotten about it. I have created many LinkedIn groups and it seems that these groups continue to grow and there are great discussions within them.

I setup a survey last week to see what others where finding. The question, “Do you have better participation with your LinkedIn or FB groups?” I had about 40 to 50 people respond with great feedback. Many of the people that responded (about 90%) said they have more luck with the LinkedIn groups. I think one of the major issues with the FB groups is that they are very hard to find. Many of my FB friends and connects don’t know where to find groups. On LinkedIn, you are able to find the groups much easier. It is too early to report the status of the newly created LinkedIn group because of the holiday weekend, but I’m very happy with the results so far versus the Facebook group that I created a few months ago. I’ll keep you posted on the results.

Here are my questions to you: Have you had the same results with LinkedIn and Facebook? Have you had success with Facebook groups? If so, any suggestions to the other readers out there? It would be great to hear your feedback on this. Like I said, I will also do some follow-up as I get more results from the LinkedIn group.

As I was reflecting back on my LinkedIn posting earlier this week (Five Quick Tips for using LinkedIn), I am amazed by the amount of emails and tweets I received. I had some great feedback and even the authors of the two books I recommended left comments. Thanks again Jason and Jan.

I think I am graced that I found these two books (I’m on LinkedIn Now What” by Jason Alba and “How to really use LinkedIn” by Jan Vermeiren) months ago for now I understand the power of networking on LinkedIn and how to connect with others. Just the other day I saw the power of my network and was able to help a friend out. One of my new connections was extremely helpful and it is all thanks to the power of LinkedIN.

I am truly blessed to have a great family, awesome friends and many connections through LinkedIN that I can call “good friends”. In all honestly, I am glad we had our wedding last year because if we had it this year, I would have to invite another 200 people JWith that being said, I love networking and helping others out. I am learning so much from others and am grateful for that. Thank you.

I want to wish you and your family a very happy 4^th of July. I hope you have a great Holiday. I am looking forward to the Holiday weekend to relax with friends and family and celebrating our independence together. A special thanks to our service men and women for defending our great nation.

Do you network on LinkedIN? Have you been able to use your network to help a friend, co-worker or somebody else? I love to hear about it here.

As many of you know, I enjoy using LinkedIn and have met many great people through it. On a daily basis I come across many profiles and am amazed at times when I read some of them. I have to admit, when I first started using LinkedIn, I just copied and pasted my resume, but over time, learned that it should be web friendly. So, since then I have updated it.  My profile isn’t perfect, but I wanted to give you some tips that will help you with yours.

Here are my five quick tips:

1. Write a good summary of your experiences. Many people do this and it really stands out from other profiles.  Highlight some major points in your career, ie. “Implemented a new system that saved my company X amount of money over x amount of years.” Not sure how to do this, ask a friend to help you. It will really pay off!

2. Like I said before, I copied and pasted my resume when I first started using LinkedIn. Over time, my LinkedIn profile evolved into something much different. Think of your LinkedIn profile more like an online portfolio. This will help you in setting the difference. Also, having a “web friendly” LinkedIn profile will help you be found by companies looking for somebody with your skills.

3. Recommendations! Recommend a few of the people you know and they will in turn recommend. Many profiles I come across do not have any recommendations. If you’re looking for a job or more clients, having a few recommendations will help and make you stand out from your competition.

4. Groups! What more can I say! This is the real power of LinkedIN. This is where you’ll meet new contacts, find tons of helpful information and help people find you by posting and answering questions. Many of my connections and friends always ask me how I have so many contacts and my #1 answer, is because of the groups. This is an awesome place to meet new people and I feel it’s still not utilized as best as it can be.

5. Use your full name! Many times I have seen something like “Doug M” instead of the persons full name. This wouldn’t help you if somebody meets you at a networking event or a potential employer is searching on your name. Use your full name, so people can find you.

I’ve been using LinkedIN for a few years now, and I am amazed by how much more I use it everyday and how much it has helped me network. Many of my friends who are either looking for employment or looking to expand their network for their businesses always ask me for tips, so I wanted to write a posting about using LinkedIn. I hope you find this information helpful.
Here are two books that I really enjoyed reading a few months ago. If you’re new to LinkedIn, read this book first – “I’m on LinkedIn Now What” by Jason Alba. Order the book now and you can read it over the holiday weekend. It’s a great book and it really helped me to utilize the power of LinkedIn.  The second book I recommend is, “How to really use LinkedIn” by Jan Vermeiren. This book is for both newbie’s and people that have been using LinkedIN for years. It will really help you.

Have you found a job using LinkedIN? I’d love to hear your feedback and any pointers that you have on using LinkedIN for either finding a new job or meeting new people.