Many of our clients have yet to explore LinkedIn and understand it to its fullest potential. Many of you ask yourself the same questions, without finding accurate answers for them. I have put together some FAQs that will help answer some of your questions.

Q: Is there a limit to the number of InMails I can send out?
A: In order to send InMails, you need to upgrade your account. There are 3 different packages which have different features that you can upgrade for. Of course, it’s directly proportional to the amount you want to spend. InMails start from 3 per month and go up to 50.

Another alternative would be to purchase InMails without upgrading. InMails are for $10.00 each and you may purchase up to 10 at a given time.

Q: Is there a certain number of Open Introductions I can have at a time?
A:  You may have up to 5 introductions open at any one time. If your introductions run out,  you can either wait for the recipient to take action or upgrade your account.

Q: How many connection requests can I have opened?
A: There is not a limit to how many people you are connected to, however, rumor does have it that you are allowed up to 3,000 invites to connect with others. Each time you are prompted to invite someone from your own personal e-mail and they do not join, you have, in essence, wasted a contact.

Q: When I want to add someone to my network and click on I don’t know this person, what happens?
A: LinkedIn will not allow you to send out the invitation. A warning pop up appears telling you that you are not allowed.

Recipients can indicate that they don’t know you. If they do, you’ll be asked to enter an email address with each future invitation.

Q: Can I search a group for a specific member without going through entire list?
A: Yes, there is a search bar available within the group under the ‘more’ tab.

Q: Can I see the groups my connections are on?
A: Yes, if you go into their profile, it is displayed towards the bottom of the page. It does not however show common groups you share.

Do you have more questions? Or have answers? Share!

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There have been many people across the globe complaining about Facebook’s recent privacy setting changes. As a matter of fact, Facebook has been LISTENING to you! Due to peoples rising concern they have decided to reconsider those settings.

The announcement is expected to take place shortly after 1:00pm ET, on Wednesday.

“I can confirm that our new, simpler user controls will begin rolling out tomorrow. I can’t say more yet,” Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes told CNN in an e-mail Tuesday.

The website also implemented, among other changes, a new tool that spreads user preferences and data across the Web. This tool allows Facebook users to share articles and “Like” pages. In return this had an impact on the privacy settings and some members voiced their concerns to changes that switched their settings to default making their profiles open to the public.

“I know we’ve made a bunch of mistakes, but my hope at the end of this is that the service ends up in a better place and that people understand that our intentions are in the right place and we respond to the feedback from the people we serve,” Zuckerberg said in the e-mail, which Scoble printed after receiving permission from the Facebook CEO to do so.

What kind of changes are you expecting to be rolled out?

CNN Tech was used as a source for the above information.

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When we are asked to perform research, our initial thought takes us out to a search engine (usually Google, Yahoo or Bing) and type in the keywords pertaining to the search. We don’t give it much thought- how is your company ranking within these search engines? Below are a few tips to help improve search engine optimization (SEO) for you individually as well as your brand and products.

Page Structure

One of the most important factors for search engines to determine what a page is about is by looking at the structure. This translates into looking at content that is in bold, in headers, and in titles. Making sure that your keywords appear in these locations is essential to building a good SEO foundation.

Copy Density

SEO copywriting involves taking your already reader-friendly content and massaging it in specific ways so that the search engines can find it. Without copy, you will not rank at all. Search engines look at the content of a page to decide what it is relevant for and what it is about. If you do not have enough copy, it cannot make an informed decision. It is also beneficial to users to have a larger amount of copy, specifically on the home page. More copy also leads to more keyword targeting, which is in turn valuable to everyone.

Inbound Links

Relevant incoming links from other websites that are ‘trusted’ can improve the site’s search engine ranking. At any cost however, AVOID paid link backs and too many reciprocal links.

How are you doing your company’s research? What other SEO tips do you have up your sleeve? We’d be interested in hearing your thoughts.

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Numerous marketing approaches are being used nowadays, how do you know which one is the most appropriate for your organization?

We usually start by breaking down each approach before analyzing and making a decision as to which route to proceed with.

Ask yourself not only what your target market is, but also WHERE they are at. Are they on social media platforms? Are they listening to the radio, watching tv or perhaps just reading the newspaper? Any campaign you decide to run with needs to be carefully thought through. Brainstorm your objectives and set your direction.

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Exporting my contacts from hotmail was completed in 5 clicks. If you think that sounds easy, read on!

I went over to my Gmail account to see how I could import these contacts. To my surprise, it had its own set of steps that were much easier to say the least! One thing that really impressed me are the options it presented me with to further facilitate my transition. It allowed me to import my contacts, import my mail AND import any new mail I receive from my hotmail account for the next 30 days! In addition, once the import started, it let me know that I can close the window and keep using Gmail, or even log out and close my browser. It would still keep working in the background.

Now, I am one of those people who has been using hotmail for the past ten years. Being in the social media and marketing community has proven me otherwise.  A few reasons I have decided to switch over to Gmail:

Google Calendar

Is web based and really easy to synch with your mobile phone. You can also create different calendars and color code them to your needs.

Labs

There are so many features that are being developed by the community everyday that further simplify your life. Two examples I found to be helpful are the Undo Send & The Title Tweaks features.  The latter isn’t as clear so I’ll further explain it. It basically changes the order of the elements in the browser title bar from “Gmail – Inbox (10)” to “Inbox (10) – Gmail” which allows you to see if new mail has arrived even if the Gmail window is minimized!

Labels

I don’t know about you, but I like keeping my emails organized.  You know those emails you get, the ones that have a tendency to fall into numerous categories? With the label feature, you don’t need to assign it in ONE folder! You can have multiple labels for it which is easier to search for should you want to refer back to it.

Archive

If you don’t want to delete the email, yet it is something you have already read, archiving it is the way to go. All archived mail remains in the archived folder and you can use the search bar to find it later.

Reader

Reader allows you to subscribe to websites you frequently visit and brings you their latest updates right to your email! You can also share your entire list with friends.

Documents

With this feature, you can create a word document, excel file, presentation and/or form all within your account! Not only does it allow you to do that, but also, you can share specific documents with friends and co-workers.

Go on, give it a try and let me know what you think!

Now that’s taken care of, I’m starting to buzz! – add me to your buzz environment!

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If you have specific questions and are looking for various answers, why not use LinkedIn Answers? With this feature, you can ask questions within different industries and be sure to find an answer that will satisfy you! Thought-provoking questions that relate to others sharing knowledge they have is always great. This also gives SME’s (Subject Matter Experts) a chance to share their knowledge and will improve the quality of others’ answers.

How do I earn expertise when answering questions on LinkedIn?

This is what LinkedIn has to say:

When you see a green box with a white star on a Profile, you know that person has proven their expertise by answering questions posed in the Answers forum. They have had answers selected as the ‘Best’ answer and are given expert status. Answer experts can be found at the bottom of the Answer home page. To earn expertise:

1. Find questions in the areas you know.
2. Browse questions to find categories familiar to you and answer those questions.
3. Every time the questioner picks your answer as the ‘Best’ answer, you gain a point of expertise in the category of the question. The more points of expertise, the higher you appear on lists of experts. Private answers don’t count toward expertise.

Once the question is closed the member can rate the answers that came in. Answers is a good way to share and exchange information.

What do I benefit if I am listed as an expert?

It is a great way to add value to your Profile by displaying your writing style, personality, organizational abilities and subject matter expertise to those viewing your Profile. If your answer is voted ‘Best’ it is hoped that it was because you provided the best information in a way that helped the member to resolve their query.

This will help you stand out amongst the crowd and will also draw attention to your business. People will keep you in their mind and will know who to not only go to for answers but for services!

Still not sure?

Start by trying to ask a question, yes, you are entitled to ask up to 10 questions per month and see what/how people respond back. And note the amount of time it takes! You will be surprised by the amount of people who are offering their knowledge.

Depending on how specific your question is, you will receive responses. One question I asked received 5 different answers within an hour time span while another received 10 within half an hour!

Keep in mind that questions you ask can also be flagged, reported and removed if they are inappropriate which might lead you to become blocked by LinkedIn from asking any more questions.

Best Practice- Make sure to thank the person who’s answer you ranked as best.

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Facebook’s recent changes have finally rolled out to me just today. Most of us almost always dislike new changes first time round. Having explored the new re-design however, I feel that it is much more user-friendly and has a cleaner feel to it. How do you feel about these new changes?

I like what they have done with the top menu and think it’s a great idea to have those icons up there for easier navigation. Even more, the concept of having the icon light up when a new notification/ message is received is a splendid way to grasp one’s attention.

Explore it and give it time, we only need to adjust to the modifications before being able to accept them!

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Chances are you probably have several potential target customer groups. Have you stopped to think about how you are coming across to your audience? Are you being too sales-y? How well are you interacting with your audience?

A great way to start would be to set your tone to the audience as well as objective.  Whether you prefer to be more professional, casual or a mix of both depends on what you are offering and to which target customer group.

Choose which to focus on by considering the 4 Ps.

Which audience will you be able to offer an eye-catching product to while also charging a competitive price and earning acceptable margins? Will one audience respond better to promotions than another? Are you able to reach some more easily with existing distribution channels such as Social Media than others? Which tone would be most heard within that target group?

By answering these as well as other questions related to the 4 Ps you will be better able to make marketing decisions and choose effective Social Media sites for your marketing plan.

Speak up loud and clear and reach out to your audience!

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Are you utilizing your LinkedIn to its fullest potential and using Groups?

To start off with, there are three different types of Groups within LinkedIn that you can create. The traditional Group, a Subgroup within the Group and Custom Groups.

LinkedIn defines a Group as your destination to find and join communities of professionals based on common interest, experience, affiliation, and goals.  It is an excellent way to stay in touch with organizations, schools, and companies that you are and were a part of, network with professionals with similar interests and goals, and collaborate in a professional community online. LinkedIn does restrict your ownership to 10 Groups at any one time.

A subgroup is a group within an existing LinkedIn main group. The subgroup, or child group, provides you with more tightly focused arenas for professional discussion and interaction among members within the existing main group, also known as the ‘Parent’ Group. Subgroups are smaller than the parent group and have a focus that is more defined. For example you may find a parent group named Social Media Group’ and then subgroups named ‘Email Marketing, ‘Stumble upon your Facebook ‘and ‘Forever Twitter’. These subgroups are more exclusive in their membership and have news and discussions that are of specific interest to them. Parent groups can contain up to 20 subgroups.  Keep in mind that members must sign up to participate within the child groups discussion forums.

Custom Groups is a new feature on the website that allows users to build subsidized collectives. This type of Group is now available for a monthly fee and enables companies to turn their discussions into elaborate marketing sites.

It has been said that businesses that create this type of Group can import content such as RSS feeds and videos within the group. This is also a great new feature since it allows you to better target your audience.

The growth rate of Groups has been increasing tremendously and not only does it allow you to take your online networking to a professional level but it also allows you to further promote your products and services!

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We live in an extremely fast paced environment and the need for virtual meetings has been growing fast. One of the best services I have come across and used is GoToMeeting.

GoToMeeting specializes in web conferencing, online meetings and online training. Some great features GoToMeeting has to offer that have come in handy are;

Desktop Recording which allows you to record your meeting.  I found this a great way to save training sessions and sales demonstrations.

Specific Application Sharing that allows you to share specific applications rather than your entire desktop.

Drawing tools. These are practical when highlighting something of interest to your attendees.  I have found that using these tools increases meeting participation and interaction.

Multiple Monitor Support integrates into GoToMeeting when using multiple monitor systems.

Attendance Reporting allows you to generate reports. This is convenient since you can track when attendees join and leave the session.

A One-Click Meeting button can be integrated into your email application.

Instantly Change Presenters. This is a great feature when you have multiple presenters. Giving another person access allows them to share their screen and thus share information with participants.

Instant Messaging Integration allows you to conduct quick online meetings directly from your IM service.

Chat allows you to interact with a specific participant in private before or during a meeting without disrupting the meeting in progress.

If you are still reluctant about it, you can give it a try for yourself – they offer a FREE 30 day trial.

I am interested in hearing of other online meeting services you use. Please comment and let me know!

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