I recently have been studying how to use LinkedIn better and have been improving my profile. If anyone has any suggestions or feedback on it let me know. You can find me at
  http://www.linkedin.com/in/abundantmichael
And if it makes sense to you, you are welcome to link to me too!

Things I have been using LinkedIn for in the past few weeks

• finding subcontractors
• researching a business expansion in Singapore - finding connections with experience of the business culture there
• re-connecting with old college friends
• making new folks aware of me and my businesses by posting useful questions and comments on groups related to my niche (large associations)
• connecting to people who know a lot of C level people in my niche - I have connected to several book authors rated number one in Amazon for a certain niche
  • Many authors will accept a message out of the blue if you are respectful, say why you like their book and offer to connect if it makes sense.
  • I plan to interview the authors and other players in the field (using Skype), get the recording transcribed using Quicktate and publish the interview back on my TeraTech blog and link from my LinkedIn profile
• I am planning to use LinkedIn to promote some tele-class events too using the event feature and relevant groups
• I may start my own group if there is a gap in the groups around a niche I am interested in
• I upgraded to the paid business LinkedIn account so that I could message anyone on LinkedIn using inMail, save interesting people I find in the profile manager, see who has looked at my profile and get better searching capabilities. I also decided to turn on free messaging to my account from any one on LinkedIn to make it easier for folks who find me by search to connect.

This entry was posted on October 14, 2012 at 3:44 AM and has received 1390 views. There are currently 1 comments. Print this entry.

A friend was concerned about LinkedIn stealling email addresses. I have been a on linkedin for years and not had a problem with stolen email addresses. At the time I joined you had to explicitly upload your email address book or enter your gmail userid and password to give them your emails. I imagine that is still the case today otherwise how could they get your address book.

Additionally once you are a member you can adjust your bacon preferences (bacon is like spam in that there is more of it than you want but it is coming from a service you signed up with) to reduce or eliminate notification email. The same is true for Facebook.

I have used linkedin in the past mainly as a souped up address book for my contacts that is automatically updated by them when they move or change jobs. If  friend is not getting my emails then sometimes a message via Linkedin or Facebook will reach them when my real emails have not. I have used the search feature sometimes to find a friend of a friend with a certain skill or interest with some success. I also know people who like it's lists feature and the job advertizement feature. When I did more sales I would also use it to research background info on a lead or to get a referral to them. When I was running the CFUnited event we used Linked, Facebook and Twitter to promote the event using the events feature and fan page, with some success.

I am now exploring more ways to use LinkedIn. View Michael Smith's profile

I used to get invitations to joint some other social network (Plexo) but I got tired of them and I think I joined the network and then opted out of all the bacon. Worked for me. Alternatively when I have been getting more bacon than I want I have set up an email filter to automatically file the emails in a subdirectory so that I don't have to read them (unless I get curious again). I know this is easy to do in both Thunderbird and gmail and I imagine most other email programs let you do that do.

This entry was posted on October 14, 2012 at 3:21 AM and has received 1359 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.

I use Earth Class Mail  to handle my postal mail. I signed a form and the post office redirects all my personal and business mail to them. I get an email every time I receive a letter and I can control what happens with my mail - open, scan, shred, recycle, forward or store. They can even deposit checks. It is not the cheapest such service however I have found it to be efficient and reliable. It works better for me than having a friend deal with mail because it is available 24/7 and doesn't make mistakes.

I save all the scanned PDFs of mail in a folder in Evernote so that I can easily search for mail on my laptop, web or smart phone plus it provide a second backup of the scans (they are stored by ECM too).

This entry was posted on October 14, 2012 at 1:59 AM and has received 1348 views. There are currently 0 comments. Print this entry.