To achieve better branding and visibility results on LinkedIn from a company’s point of view, this is a tip using the “Websites” part in the LinkedIn Profile of all employees of the same company or organization.

As we already mentioned in “How to REALLY use LinkedIn“: don’t use “My company” or “My website”, but “Other” together with words that appeal to the people you want to attract with the particular website.

We advise using the websites on the Profile of the employees of an organization in the following way:

1. Website 1: link to the home page of the website of the organization (for example: www.company-abc.com) using the same key words for all coworkers. Remember to use the “other” function to add these key words.


2. Website 2: link to the job openings page on the website. Or if your organization has a separate website for jobs, link to that one.

3. Website 3: “free” link. This can be used to link to a blog, a personal website, or another web page of the organization. For example a page that relates to the job of the individual. For example: www.company-abc.com/products/copiers.html for an account executive for copiers. Also use the key words for finding copiers. This will help the website to reach a higher rank in search engines, and it will make a connection with the expertise or job of the individual.

Remember that every employee is an ambassador or your organization. Even when they don’t have much contact with customers, suppliers, partners or other external contacts. Help them to be the best possible ambassador via their LinkedIn Profile by sharing tips like this one.

To your success !

Jan and Bert

PS: more tips about how to use LinkedIn on a company level, can be found in “Chapter 17: How Organizations Can Benefit from LinkedIn (versus Individuals)” of the book “How to REALLY use LinkedIn”. You can download it for FREE!

Many LinkedIn users wonder how to find potential customers, employers, suppliers and partners using company size.

Since this is not a field in the “Advanced Search” screen it seems like you can’t do this.

Good news! There is a work around.

This is how you find the companies and the people who can get you in touch with the people in that company:

1) In the top menu, choose “Companies”.

2) Choose “Search Companies” (second tab page).

3) On the left hand side, scroll down to “Company Size”.

4) Choose the company size you are interested in (and use other parameters like Location and Industry as well to have laser focused results).

5) On the right hand side you see all the companies that have a Company Profile on LinkedIn.

6) Click on a company.

7) You see the Company Profile with interesting information like an overview of your first degree connections, your second degree connections (and via whom you can reach them), demographics,…

This shows (again) what a treasure chest of useful information LinkedIn is!

To your success !

Jan and Bert

PS: tips on how to find the right people and companies can be found in “Chapter 7: 10 Strategies to Find People Using LinkedIn” of the book “How to REALLY use LinkedIn”. You can download it for FREE!

LinkedIn Polls is one of those features in LinkedIn that is not used that often.

Probably because most people don’t know how they can use them.

Polls can benefit you in several ways:

1.    Get useful input from your own connections for yourself.

2.    Get useful input from your own connections to use in an article.

3.    Increase your “Know” factor (see the Fundamental Principles of Networking in How to REALLY use LinkedIn) among your own connections.

4.    Increase your “Know” factor with people you want to reach (for example, new customers or new employees). This can be done in two ways:
a) By paying—which allows you to select specific functions or roles and consequently access to people whom you don’t know yet.
b) By asking your first-degree connections to invite their network to participate as well

If you use this application, our advice is to create something with the results. Write a blog post, a short article, or create a SlideShare presentation. Then, share your project with your network and the people who responded by sending them the link and showing it in your Profile.

To your success !

Jan and Bert

PS: tips on how to use LinkedIn Applications can be found in “Chapter 9: Lead Generation Tools & Visibility Boosters: Applications” of the book “How to REALLY use LinkedIn”. You can download it for FREE!

In our workshops, webinars and presentations many people wonder: “I have many contacts from years ago. Can I still contact them?”

Yes, you can always reconnect with them. Don’t feel bad that it is from such a long time ago. They didn’t take action either. They probably have the same hesitation as you do.

When you reconnect with them, always make your message personal. Refer to the time you spent together, the projects you worked on or the time in college. Use the name in your invitation message you were known by the time you knew them. This especially applies to women who now go by the name of their husband!

To your success !

Jan and Bert

PS: tips on how to quickly build your LinkedIn network can be found in “Chapter 5: The Fast Way to Build Your Network” of the book “How to REALLY use LinkedIn”. You can download it for FREE!

Many (professional) organisations have a hard time to keep their organisation interesting enough for their members and are also continuously looking to attract new members.

Starting your own LinkedIn Group can both add to the value of the membership and attract more members in many ways:

1. An online presence next to events will help members to keep in touch between meetings.

2. Members who can’t attend many meetings will still be able to contact each other.

3. The LinkedIn Group is an extra platform to help each other and to discuss trends.

4. Some potential members might have never heard of your organisation. They can get in touch with you and become a member of your organisation after finding the LinkedIn Group.

5. It is a good and free alternative to a forum on your own website.

Many organisations have a hard time building a successful community because they don’t have a critical mass of people who participate in discussions. As a result people won’t visit the forum anymore, the negative spiral continues and they also hardly ever visit the website anymore. Since people use LinkedIn also to connect with other people and to build their network with other people than the members of your organisation they keep using LinkedIn and once in a while visit the LinkedIn Group. You can even add the Groups functionality into your own website thanks to the LinkedIn API !

6. Free membership of the LinkedIn Group might generate interest in a (paid) membership and in attending events.

However it is crucial to think this through before you start!

That’s why we have dedicated a whole new chapter to Group Managers in the second, totally revised edition of “How to REALLY use LinkedIn”. It is called “Chapter 12: The Heroes of LinkedIn: Group Managers.” You can download the book for free.

To your success !

Jan and Bert

Time for busting another LinkedIn myth: why should I use LinkedIn when I have Google (or other search engines)?

The answer to this one is very short:

Google is an excellent resource to find information. So use it when you look for information.

LinkedIn is a collection of people and the relationships between them. Use LinkedIn when you are looking for a person. You won’t only find out more about this person (what you also might have been able to do with Google), but you also will discover who can help you get in touch with them.

To your success !

Jan and Bert

PS: more demystified LinkedIn myths can be found in “Chapter 20: Little Known, But Interesting Features and Behavior of LinkedIn” of the book “How to REALLY use LinkedIn”. You can download it for FREE!

If you are working on a project and you need information, knowledge or any other form of expertise outside or inside your own organization, these are the benefits LinkedIn can bring you:

1. Receiving answers to your questions (via Answers or Discussions in Groups)

2. Identifying the experts (finding their profile via a search or via the Expert rating of Answers)

3. Receiving introductions or referrals to experts (via the introductions tool or outside LinkedIn via a Magic Mail)

4. Discovering the relationships between experts and other contacts (see the connections in their profiles)

5. Discovering the relationships between your colleagues from the same and other departments and experts (see the connections in their profiles)

6. Discovering information about experts which makes the conversations online and offline easier (reading their profile)

7. Maintaining relationship with experts (Personal contacts, Discussions in Groups and answering questions in Answers)

8. Visibility for you and your organization – which might attract the experts – and Personal and Company Branding (your profile not only on LinkedIn, but also in the Search Engines like Google, contributions in Answers and in Discussions in Groups)

9. Make yourself be perceived as an expert as well (contributions and Expert Points in Answers, via Discussions in Groups and Status Updates)

10. Finding the right groups and organizations where the experts gather to be member of yourself, both online and offline (via the profiles of people from your network, via the 5 different ways to find Groups and via Events)

11. Picking up trends in the marketplace (Discussions in the groups of the experts)

12. Getting notifications when someone changes jobs, this is a trigger to contact them to see if they became an expert and if they leave the organization to get introduced to the one who will replace them (network updates and “Follow Companies”)

To your success !

Jan and Bert

PS: more LinkedIn tips can be found in the book “How to REALLY use LinkedIn”. You can download it for FREE!

Time for busting another LinkedIn (or networking in general) myth: “I am happy with my current professional situation, I don’t need to build a network on LinkedIn (or elsewhere).”

Let us start by answering you don’t have to do anything. All the tips in “How to REALLY use LinkedIn” are suggestions and tips that are derived from our experience with giving hundreds of training courses and presentations about networking or referrals and from using LinkedIn ourselves.

So why build a network on LinkedIn? For starters almost everybody needs some expert advice once in a while or new connections inside or outside a company. LinkedIn helps you to find these experts and the people who can introduce you to them. So that is one reason.

The second and maybe even more important reason is that we see too many people only start building their network when it is too late. People who got unexpectedly fired and needed to find a new job suddenly realized they needed a network to help them. Then they get on LinkedIn and start building their network, which takes time. Many times time they don’t have.

The same applies to entrepreneurs. We meet so many people who have a great idea, leave their job, start a company, invest a lot of money and after a few months they realize they also need customers. And a lot. And fast. Why? Because the monthly costs and investments are high. Then they realize they need to start building their network while they should have done that months ago.

In these two examples they start building the network when they NEED it URGENTLY. This creates an energy of despair, which turns people off instead of making them interested to help you.

So start building your network before you actually need it. You can then interact in a normal way with the networking attitude of sharing without expecting anything immediately in return.

To your success !

Jan and Bert

PS: more demystified LinkedIn myths can be found in “Chapter 20: Little Known, But Interesting Features and Behavior of LinkedIn” of the book “How to REALLY use LinkedIn”. You can download it for FREE!

A question that is asked in our presentations and training courses a lot is: “What will happen when I remove a connection on LinkedIn? Will he be notified? And how to do that: removing a connection?”

There are occasions you want to remove some of your contacts. The reasons might be that something happened between you and another person, that you are changing jobs or that you are reorienting yourself and don’t want to be associated with a certain industry anymore. Personally only the first reason would be reason enough for us to remove a connection. In the other cases you might never know who they know or who can help you in your new situation.

Before we show you how to remove a connection, let ‘s start with a question that many people have: “I don’t want to be connected anymore to that person, but I don’t want him to know that because I don’t want to get in trouble with him.”

The answer is: no, the person you remove as a connection won’t be notified.

These are the steps to remove someone:


1. In the top menu, click “Contacts / Connections”

2. In the new page you will see at the top right hand side: “Remove Connections”.

3. Choose the connections you want remove and click the button “Remove connections”.


The connections will not be notified that they have been removed. They will be added to your list of “Imported Contacts” in case you want to re-invite them later.

To your success !

Jan and Bert

PS: more answers to frequently asked LinkedIn questions can be found in “Chapter 19: Answers to Hot Discussion Topics and Burning Questions” of the book “How to REALLY use LinkedIn”. You can download it for FREE!

If you are a recruiter or are responsible for hiring new employees, these are the benefits LinkedIn can bring you:

1. Identifying the right candidates (finding their profile)

2. Receiving introductions or referrals to potential employees (via the introductions tool or via a Magic Mail)

3. Discovering the relationships between potential employees and other contacts (see the connections in their profiles)

4. Discovering the relationships between your colleagues from the same and other departments and potential employees (see the connections in their profiles)

5. Discovering information about potential employees which makes the conversations online and offline easier (reading their profile)

6. Maintaining the relationship with potential employees (Personal contacts, Discussions in Groups and answering questions in Answers)

7. Visibility for you as recruiter and for your organisation (employer branding) and personal branding (your personal and company profile not only on LinkedIn, but also in the Search Engines like Google, contributions in Answers and in Discussions)

8. Make yourself be perceived as an expert (contributions in Answers and in Discussions and Expert points)

9. Word of mouth publicity (receiving recommendations and people telling about you in Discussions, mention you as the expert in Answers or talking about you outside of LinkedIn)

10. Getting recommendations which are visible to potential employees (recommendations written by other people which can’t be modified by you which makes them stronger)

11. Finding the right groups and organisations to be member of, both online and offline (via the profiles of people from your network)

12. Picking up trends in the marketplace (Discussions in the groups of your peers and in the groups of people with the profile you are looking for)

13. Getting notifications when someone changes something in their profile, this is a trigger to see if a contact who didn’t qualify for a job in the past, might be a good candidate now (network updates)

14. Posting a Job (via “Post a Job” and in Groups)

15. LinkedIn has also special tools for recruiting: Hiring Solutions.

To your success !

Jan and Bert

PS: an organization gets the best results when combining these tips for recruiters with a strategy to include all other employees as well!

PPS: an overview of passive, active and proactive strategies you can use to find a new job, can be found in “Chapter 16: How to REALLY Use LinkedIn to Find New Employees” of the book “How to REALLY use LinkedIn”. You can download it for FREE!