The WMF Archives: How Writers Can Benefit From LinkedIn's Features

Thursday, March 11, 2010

How Writers Can Benefit From LinkedIn's Features

8:00 AM

LinkedIn is a highly useful social-media site for writers looking to connect with possible editors, copywriting clients, sources and other writers. If you haven't already built a profile on LinkedIn, I recommend it -- it's one of only three or four social-media sites I use with any frequency. Get on, fully flesh out your profile, and start connecting with people you already know to build your links.

LinkedIn has a reputation as a social-media channel with a very businesslike "flavor," and that's one of the reasons I like it. People aren't on there to talk about what their dog ate this morning...they're there to connect with the clients and other resources they need to build their business...as in, freelance writers!

What I like about LinkedIn is that it offers many ways for you to make new connections. Each connection you make connects you to all of that person's connections indirectly. Lots of people spend hours seeking new connections on LI to gain a large network. I haven't done that, I've just let it grow organically from writers I meet on the site, and from sources and editors I'm working with for assignments.

Once you're on, you'll get invitations to connect. There are different schools of thought about how to respond -- some people only connect to people they know well, while others accept anyone who asks. I guess I'm somewhere in between: unless they're really spammy or not remotely someone who would ever be a prospective client or good referrer for either my writing or writing-mentor businesses, I usually approve friend requests to keep my network growing.

Some of the features I like best on LI (in no particular order):

The editor connections. At the speed editors are being laid off and moved around these days, I've found LinkedIn an invaluable site for keeping track of where past editors have gone. Keeping up these connections has brought me literally tens of thousands of dollars of writing work in the past 18 months or so. Phone numbers, email addresses and publications change, but LI is an easy way to make sure you don't lose touch.

The blog tool. You can use LinkedIn's blog tool to pull your personal blog, or blogs you write for clients, onto your home page on your site. All you have to do is list your blog as one of the live links you're allowed in your profile, and when you choose the blog tool it will bring your blog to the site. This is powerful because it not only displays on your site, but on the sites of any of your connections who have turned on the blogroll feature. Great, free way to spread your blog to new readers!

Who's viewed my profile? This tool, which usually shows up automatically in the right-hand bar along with that blog tool (turn it on manually if you don't see it), tells you how many people looked at your profile in the last week or few days, and how many times your profile appeared in search results on LI.

What a lot of people don't realize is you can click on "more" in that box, and get to another screen that lists 4-6 actual results for people who've viewed your profile. Sometimes they're too vague to be useful, but sometimes they give you a full person/company name listing.

Whenever that happens, I check the person out, and if they seem like a prospect I shoot them a message. If their industry is one I have particular expertise in, I usually mention it, otherwise I just say, "Hey, were you looking for me? Let me know if I can help!" I've received frequent responses to these and made some great prospective client connections.

The jobs. LI is becoming a hot place for jobs. I try to do a search on my writer keywords daily. Quite a few of the jobs posted here are exclusive to the site--look for an asterisk by the exclusive listings. Better yet, the jobs also show if you have any connections to the job poster. Sometimes you can reach out through a connection to find out more job details, or to get a resume across in a more personal way instead of through some anonymous job-form site.

As it happens, I used this last week. I saw a company in my market that I'm a great fit for--I have relevant B2B marketing experience even within their industry sector. I found their site clunky and wasn't sure it took my resume, so I looked through my connections and found someone in one of my groups who worked at the company. I sent him a message and told him I was crazy right for the gig, and he was willing to personally deliver my information to the hiring manager! Score. Speaking of LI groups...

The groups. The writer groups on LI are among the busiest I've found, especially LinkedIn Editors & Writers, which I believe is the largest. You can also connect with prospects on city or industry-specific groups. I've connected with wonderful writers, some of whom I've chatted with on the phone and formed friendships with after connecting on LI groups.

The jobs in the groups. Occasionally, there are job listings posted within LI writers' groups. One group, Writeful Share, is actually all about sharing job leads! Aside from that group I haven't seen a ton of listings within groups--far more can be found by searching LI's job tab--but it's a good idea to keep an eye peeled.

News and discussions. The groups are a great place to pose or answer a question, or post one of your blogs as a news item if it's relevant to writers. Sign your posts with your URL and you'll drive traffic over to your site. Week after week, a significant chunk of the visitors on both my Make a Living Writing blog site and caroltice.com come from discussions in my LinkedIn groups.

InMail for prospecting. I haven't used this myself yet, but I'm dying to try it. If you do a paid membership level on LI, you can send InMail to anyone you want, even people you're not connected to. And get this: LI reports InMail has a 30% response rate. Anyone in direct mail will tell you a 3% response rate is ordinarily considered phenomenal. Don't know how long the InMail edge will last, but while it's new and novel, it's a great way to hit companies or publications you're dying to work for. Here's what one copywriter had to say about her success with InMail.

In-person events. My Linked:Seattle group meets in person, and I've got to get to their events! I'm told they rock for networking.

The Twitter link-up. You can now post your status on LinkedIn and it'll go over onto your Twitter page too--so that's a timesaver for me.

If I've missed any of the ways you can use LinkedIn to build your business, please add to this in the comments below!

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn here.

For more social-media tips, see 8 Reasons Writers Need Twitter.

Photo via Flickr user nanpalmero

Labels: Carol Tice, LinkedIn, social media

6 comments:

Alyssa Ast said...: Great information Carol! I've been putting it off long enough, I have to get more involved with LinkedIn; March 11, 2010 10:48 AM
Brian said...: Carol,

You are one of THE exemplars of getting attention by providing value on the web. Thank you!; March 12, 2010 12:58 PM
Carol Tice said...: Thanks Brian! Trying to be of service here...

Carol; March 12, 2010 3:29 PM
johnsuddath said...: I agree with everything except the discussion section. I've found most of these to be self-promotion rather than actual discussion of issues. The groups I belong to also block any controversial issue.; March 14, 2010 9:05 AM
Rebecca said...: I taught a class yesterday on blogging and social media and the class had a lot of questions about LinkedIn.

I disagree about the discussion area. I believe if you have a great blog or article that could lend itself to a discussion, I say post it. I posted my blog post about how to handle personal attacks in the discussion area. The discussions taking place addressed my blog post and what the "discussion" area on LinkedIn is for.

Many, many people post their blogs/articles in the discussion area. I simply view the ones I find interesting. It's a great way for me to gain link backs to my website (and vice versa), comment in the discussion area, and connect with others. As far as I'm concerned, it's a win-win situation.

As a writer, I don't shy away from controversial topics. I think a career as an investigative journalist or reporter could have been a great choice for me. :); March 14, 2010 9:41 AM
Carol Tice said...: Can't believe I forgot to mention THE RECOMMENDATIONS. Quickly becoming the gold standard of what freelance-writer employers want to see before they hire you.

This great article from Social Media Examiner has more tips, including info on LinkedIn's ads: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-powerful-linkedin-marketing-tips-for-small-businesses/

Carol Tice
Make a Living Writing blog: 8 Reasons Why Writers Need Twitter; March 15, 2010 12:36 PM