EXPOSED! LinkedIn Spammers using fake profiles.
We all get spam, I guess it’s just one of those things we have to put up with as we get more active and become more visible on the Internet, LinkedIn is not immune to spammers and I often receive direct messages from people offering me various products and services. Irritating though it is I tend to view these messages as mildly irritating distractions from the ill-informed. What really annoys me is when I receive Spam from people who have not even got the guts to reveal who they really are!
A Tale of Two F’s and a Bunny!
This particular example happened in October when I received the message below;
this is a message sent directly to me from someone whom I share a group with and not a connection. What got me immediately suspicious was that the individual had spelt her name in a rather unusual way, I figured it was possible to spell Jennifer with two f’s, if somewhat unusual but you will note (below) that the message is signed from ‘Jennifer’ spelt correctly!
If you had an unusual spelling of a name, surely the last thing you are going to do is make an error and spell it the normal way in a message!
This seemed very suspicious to me so I got interested and investigated further. The message from Jennifer included a link promoting a webinar, that link was as follows;
At this point it is worth mentioning that Andy Whitehead may have simply outsourced the promotion of his webinar and may not be aware of the unethical methodology employed by his service provider.
I have investigated ‘Jenniffer’ in some detail and can find no trace of anyone of this name on the internet. I have performed an image search and her profile picture appears to be unique as well (the quality of the photo is not great so I am betting that it is a tight crop of a group picture)
She was (her profile has strangely disappeared recently) a second tier connection via two people so I contacted both of them and asked if they knew her…..neither did!
Jenniffer’s Profile
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )New LinkedIn Podcast – LinkedInformed
I was driving my car to a training session, as usual I had my radio on to keep me entertained for the 3 hours I would be in the car. The presenter announced the next song and I thought “Oh no not that awful song again, why do they always play the same rubbish again and again?” so I switched channels…this time the presenter was interviewing an artist who had nothing interesting to say so I switched channels again, this time to a talk station…..they were debating whether we get our bins (garbage) emptied often enough!!
“There must be a better way!” I screamed out loud to myself. “Why am I having to listen to something that someone else chooses for me? My Tony Robbins CD has been played to death and there are only so many CD’s I can carry in my car. I needed a better solution – enter the wonderful world of Podcasts! (more…)
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 10 so far )LinkedIn’s New iPad App is a Game Changer for All.
Don’t be put off reading this if you don’t own an iPad – there is some important information here for anyone using LinkedIn to engage with those that might be using this app (and many people are).
LinkedIn recently relaunched its iPad app, it’s not an update from the previously hopeless version that was unstable and frankly useless. This is a completely new, built from scratch app….and its really excellent!
In the UK, mobile is now responsible for 44% of visits to LinkedIn and this figure is expected to reach 50% early next year.
That 44% is based on a phone app that is nothing special and a truly terrible iPad app – imagine how much more traffic will come via mobile now that they have a really good iPad app?
This isn’t just an interesting stat, it has a fundamental impact on how we should be using LinkedIn. When users access LinkedIn via either mobile apps they are visiting at significantly different times of the day. The graph below shows the amount of visitors at different times of the day (weekdays).
The blue line represents the traditional desktop users, signing in first thing in the morning and peaking at that point but showing consistent levels of activity throughout the working hours.
The orange line represents visitors using the mobile app on their phone, the activity stays constant throughout the working day but also continues into the evening.
The most interesting line is the purple one which represents users visiting via the iPad app, lower numbers throughout the day but it then peaks late in the evening at which point it beats the other two and records the highest number of visitors at any time of the day. Presumably this happens because people relax on the couch after their evening meal and flip open their iPad!
This is a truly remarkable statistic and in my opinion, a game changer for LinkedIn users!
I have been advising delegates in my workshops for years that the most effective time of day to post a status update is first thing in the morning, this is not only when a high number of people are online but it is also the one time you know they are going to have eyes on their homepage and the stream of updates from their connections.
Now we see a massive shift towards 8-9 pm in the evening as the most active time and most of these visitors are viewing on their iPad which is designed in such a way that the update feed is most prominent (see below)
As a test I am going to publish and promote this blog at 8-9 pm initially followed by 8-9 am the next day and continue this schedule for the next few weeks to see how it makes a difference to the number of views, likes and comments.
Another important thing for everyone to know about the iPad app is that website and email links in your profile become active.
When you view a profile on the desktop version or the phone app, the links or email addresses that someone has put in their summary or work experience sections only appear as font (ie you have to copy and paste them into a browser or email)
Desktop View
However on the new iPad app the links now become active.
iPad App View
Again this changes my advice on the information you put in your profile, previously I was ambivalent about putting links in your summary – now its essential to have links high up in your profile.
The new app is far from perfect, LinkedIn have yet again made the decision to severely restrict its functionality, for instance you can’t send Inmails from the app (although you can from the iPhone app) and many other essential features are missing but this is clearly a policy decision rather than a faulty design. Overall I am very impressed, I will soon publish a full and detailed review but for now lets give LinkedIn a big ‘thumbs up’ for a much improved app.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 8 so far )LinkedIn Respond to Charging Allegation
Following my last post LinkedIn contacted me to clarify their position with regards to the issue of charging job seekers to see the salary of an advertised position.
Their statement in response is as follows;
‘LinkedIn works hard to connect talent with opportunity, and our mission is to make our members more productive and successful in their careers. All the information provided by a job poster about a role is available to all LinkedIn members, whether they’re using the free version of LinkedIn or otherwise. Premium LinkedIn subscribers also have access to information about the likely salary bracket for a particular job.’
So to be clear, there is no salary field in a job posting as such but there is nothing to prevent an advertiser mentioning the salary within the copy of their advert (which I would strongly advise). Where it states ‘get salary range for this job’ below it should more accurately say something like ‘see an average salary range for this job’
If you view the above ad from any premium account you will see the following;
So it’s not the actual salary but an estimated figure based on information provided by PayScale and is based on job-specific attributes, including industry, title, location, and other factors.
So to be fair to LinkedIn they are trying to provide the jobseeker with relevant information to help them with their application. This could be a useful guide when a salary is not mentioned and even more useful when a salary is mentioned so that they can benchmark the salary against the PayScale average.
As an example the below screenshot is a live job posting that shows a salary in the copy, the premium account holder can clearly see that they are paying below the average (despite their description of it being ‘competitive’)
I’m not too sure what the company who posted this job would make of this but I guess it could work in their favour if they were offering an above average salary.
So there you have it, it’s not quite what it initially seemed and I must thank LinkedIn for clarifying the situation.
It is an interesting feature and I would welcome your views, especially from the point of view of the advertiser.
Let me know what you think by posting a comment below.
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Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )LinkedIn Charges Job Seekers!
I’m annoyed.
Premium accounts are OK in principle, if you want to pay to use LinkedIn for business purposes then you can make an investment decision. Will you make more money if you pay for a premium account? If not then don’t buy it.
I do however have an issue with LinkedIn showing vacancy ads to job seekers and then expecting them to upgrade their account in order to see the most important piece of information – what salary the job pays!
Not happy with already charging the company to place the ad in the first place, they now want to make extra money by charging the applicant as well!
OK so job seeker upgrades are not the most expensive but its the principle of charging both the advertiser and the applicant that gets me annoyed.
I have advertised vacancies more times than I care to remember in the past and one thing is clear – If you don’t put a salary in the ad’ – the response will be poor, so I can’t imagine the advertisers being too happy about this move either.
This incidentally comes from a company who expect to generate a turnover in the region of $1.5 billion and profits of $364 million this year……it just seems an unnecessary strategy to me that will lose them far more friends than it will make them extra dollars in profit.
Rant over!
What do you think?
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 10 so far )LinkedIn Intro – Security Concerns
Following on from my last blog introducing this new app, it would appear that various security concerns have been raised so I thought I would share my thoughts on this matter.
In my opinion the internet is full scaremongers and security obsessed people who seem to be able to find fault with just about every new idea/product/advancement. I happen to know that Matt Alder is not one of them so when Matt raised security concerns in the comments of my last blog, I took it very seriously.
Matt’s concerns were based on an excellent article by a very credible organisation called Bishop Fox which I strongly suggest you read.
Unusually for LinkedIn they responded to this article by issuing a statement on their blog which I also strongly suggest you read. This is very unusual for LinkedIn, in my experience they tend to keep quiet about negative comments from others regarding LinkedIn – unless they feel very strongly about it.
I must admit that some of the language they both use is ‘over my head’ but my thoughts on the issue are as follows;
- I am not too concerned about email going through LinkedIn’s servers, I am using Gmail after all which is clearly going through Google’s servers so why should I trust LinkedIn any less than Google?
- To use Intro you actually create a new Mail account within the mail app, this can easily be switched off. There appears to be no other reconfiguring of my iPhone going on but maybe this is hidden from me.
- I did have to give LinkedIn my pin to set up Intro, I’m really not sure why this was necessary and that does cause me some concern but LinkedIn strongly refute the allegation that they change the iPhone’s security preferences.
- Bishop Fox are internet security consultants. It is in their commercial interests to write about such issues.
- LinkedIn would benefit from collecting data about us – such as who we are communicating with via email.
I have therefore decided to continue using LinkedIn Intro (which is after all, very useful!) but only on a limited basis as follows;
- The new Intro account is kept live in the Mail app on my iPhone but I do not use it actively and never send any emails from this account.
- My primary app for email is the excellent Mailbox app which I have been using for some time because it has better features than the native Mail app in my opinion.
- When I receive an email from an unknown source I simply switch over to the LinkedIn Intro account on the Mail app and check the very useful profile information of the sender.
I know its not exactly how you are supposed to use LinkedIn Intro but given all the issues, it feels safer to use it purely as a reference aid rather then as my main Mail app.
I am not suggesting you do the same, my only advice is to make sure you read both articles and make up your own mind.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )Introducing LinkedIn Intro!
LinkedIn have announced a brand new line up of mobile apps and for the first time ever, they are worth getting excited about!
I will be reviewing the excellent new iPad app soon, this piece however is focussed on their brand new LinkedIn Intro app for the iPhone.
Firstly let me apologise to all of you who are Android or Windows mobile users (or anything else). This product is currently focussed on iOS only and because it is built into the Mail app, I am not sure when or if it will be available on other platforms – LinkedIn didn’t mention anything about this in their presentation.
Apparently the average professional spends 28% of their day dealing with email, this seems an astonishing fact at first but when you think about it you might find you can relate to it….to be honest I’m probably spending more than that in my email! Another fascinating fact revealed by LinkedIn was that more than 50% of emails are read on a mobile device these days and that number is increasing.
LinkedIn are increasingly focussed on mobile so it made sense to introduce an app that links your LinkedIn account to your email account.
In 2012 They acquired a business called Rapportive which is a Gmail plugin that shows you the latest social network updates from whoever you’re corresponding with. I have been using Rapportive for 18 months or so and found it very useful when dealing with emails at my desk but like most people I am increasing managing email on my phone so I have found I am using Rapportive less and less…..Enter LinkedIn Intro.
Intro is integrated into your Mail so that instead of an email looking like this;
It now looks like this;
The key difference as you can see is that the LinkedIn profile of the sender is now embedded into the email itself.
If you are not connected to this person there is a link (see arrow below) which gives you the option to connect. DON’T CLICK here! As with all mobile apps, LinkedIn just send the recipient the basic and unfriendly “I’d like to add you to my professional network message” which is poor practice.
However when you click on the profile link you get to see more information from that individual’s profile (see below). How cool is that?
It’s not just clever and cool, it’s really useful. How often do we receive emails from people who we don’t really know? This way we can check out more information about them which allows us to respond more effectively.
Of course this also has an effect on the sender in that it yet again proves just how important your LinkedIn profile is. If you need help with that click here.
I had forgotten how much I missed using Rapportive until I started using Intro today, its fantastic!
Unfortunately it’s not perfect, I have noticed some emails have an intro link that is so small you can’t really read it! See example below;
This above screenshot is larger than it appears on the phone and even then its difficult to read! I can only assume this is something to do with the format of the email and may be fixed in future updates, lets hope so.
So if you have an iPhone, open your browser of choice (Safari perhaps) and go to intro.linkedin.com, follow the installation instructions and once you have had a play, let me know what you think.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 16 so far )Invitation Frustration
Firstly I must apologise for the lack of posts recently, I am currently busy writing a book (watch this space) which has been exhausting my writing energy quota. Poor excuse I know but there you have it!
Inviting someone to connect.
Here is the dilemma;
You want to connect with someone on LinkedIn so you click on the “connect” link on their profile, before personalising the message (which everyone should always do) you are required to state how you know someone (see below)
The problem is that they are not a colleague or someone you played tick (you might have called it tag!) with at school, they are not someone you have done business with nor are they a friend. You do not have their email address (which is required for “other”) and you do not share any groups with this person so it seems that your only remaining option is “I don’t know X” which is also not true as you have spoken to them or met them briefly. So what do you do?
Some people decide to lie and opt for one of the first four options.
Some people decide that a less dishonourable lie is to opt for the last one. When they click on “I don’t know” they are confronted with the following abrupt and somewhat annoying message;
I won’t get into why LinkedIn insist on this ridiculous idea of only connecting with people you already know, that’s a different subject but it seems very odd that for people who are not friends, colleagues, classmates or customers/suppliers but who have met (at a networking event for instance) there is no suitable reason to pick.
There are various solutions that avoid having to go through this process as follows;
- Invite via a mobile app
- Click on the “connect” link in the “people you may know” section
The problem with both these options is that they do not allow you to send a personalised message, the recipient will get the lazy message “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” which most people agree is worse than saying you are a friend (when you’re not)!
So what can we do?
Enter LinkedIn Contacts, LinkedIn’s newest and best ever feature which saves the day!
Here is how its done;
Step 1
Go to Network and then click on Contacts
If you haven’t already done so, click on the yellow ‘get started’ link to launch LinkedIn Contacts
Wait for Contacts to ‘do its thing’ and magically transform your LinkedIn account to a free, live CRM (Contact Relationship Management) programme.
Step 2
Go to the profile of the person you wish to connect with and save them to contacts by clicking on the star symbol on the left of their profile (see below)
*UPDATE*
Since publishing it appears that some profiles are no longer showing this star, if this is the case you can ‘save to contacts’ by hovering over the triangle next to ‘Send InMail” and save from there (see below)
Now click on “Tag” and then “add new tag”.
You will only need to add a new tag once, from this point onwards you can use the tag you have created. In the box type in an appropriate name i.e. “connect” or something similar, then click save.
Step 3
You will now see the new tag showing on the profile (see below), click on this and you will be taken into LinkedIn Contacts and a list of everyone who you have assigned this tag to (if you remember to delete the tag after sending an invitation then this list will only be the one profile).
Step 4
Once in the list of contacts you can see (once you hover over the contact) a link to connect. Click on this and you will be able to personalise the invitation, without the need to state a reason.
The best of both worlds!
If you want to be tidy you can now go back to the contact and delete the “connect” tag (this can done in LinkedIn Contacts).
So there you have it. A bit long-winded? Maybe but I think it is a good discipline to tag everyone you are interested in any way. You can create up to 200 of your very own tags i.e. “prospect” or “potential employer” etc.
I hope that is of help to you.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 10 so far )10 Mistakes that drive other LinkedIn Users mad!
1. Inviting a complete stranger to connect.
Whilst I’m not a fan of LinkedIn’s mantra “only connect with people you know well” it is even worse to invite people with whom you have had no contact. This is the equivalent of going to a networking event and walking around the room shoving your business cards into people’s hands without even saying hello or introducing who you are! The key to successfully growing a network is to always engage in some manner before connecting.
2. Failing to personalise an invitation to connect.
There is nothing worse than receiving an invitation to connect (even from someone you know) that reads “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn”. Everyone knows that this is the default message and therefore the person sending it has not bothered to give it any thought or consideration. A personalised message takes literally seconds to write and to not do so is just plain lazy!
3. Profile picture.
It is shocking to see how many people use inappropriate photographs for what is a professional networking site. Your picture is effectively your personal brand logo and is a critical part of your LinkedIn profile, It is almost certainly the first thing people notice and therefore creates that all-important first impression. Your photo should be an up-to-date close-up headshot, period. We do not need to see your partner, kids, pets or a slice of the face of the person next to you who you have attempted to crop out! Do not wear a hat or sunglasses and make sure the quality is clear. Avoid using ridiculous avatars or cartoons, they lack credibility and LinkedIn may suspend your account as this breaches the user agreement . The worst mistake of all however is to not have a profile picture at all, this will result in less profile views and more importantly it significantly damages your authenticity.
4. Anonymous visibility.
This is one privacy setting that everyone should change from the default. You can either be fully visible, largely anonymous (the default setting) or completely anonymous. The default setting makes no sense because you either want people to see that you have viewed their profile or you don’t, tempting their curiosity with a loose description such as “someone in the X function of the Y industry” is pointless! Deciding to be completely anonymous is also a strange decision, this is a networking environment so choosing this setting is effectively the same as going to an off-line event wearing a hoodie and mask! I can accept that there may be a rare occasion where it is clearly commercially unwise to reveal that you have viewed someone’s profile, in which case you can change your settings prior to viewing the profile and then change them back to fully visible again afterwards.
5. Direct selling.
Whilst it could be said that everyone is selling something on LinkedIn (even if it’s just themselves for that next career move), that doesn’t mean that this is a place to directly sell. There is nothing worse than accepting an invitation from somebody only to find that this is swiftly followed by numerous direct messages selling you the latest thing! This may be irritating for the recipient but it is far worse for the sender who is damaging their personal reputation as well as the company they work for and their chances of succeeding to sell anything this way are remote at best.
6. Inappropriate contact having not read somebody’s profile.
This is similar to the above but may not involve selling as such, receiving a direct message informing me about something that is not relevant to what I do or where I am based merely proves that the sender is blindly sending this message to many people without having read their profiles. I often hear from users who are tired of constant approaches by recruiters so they amend their headline to state that they are not interested in job opportunities…..and it doesn’t make the slightest difference, they still get as many approaches!
7. Lack of background information in profile.
We live in an information rich world and we expect to find it easy to gather information about people, places, products etc. When somebody views your profile they are doing so because they want to see more information about you (including your back story). So why would you deny them that opportunity by revealing little about yourself? LinkedIn is not a one way street, if you view somebody’s profile they are likely to view yours and this presents a great opportunity for you to be open and authentic and show them that you are the kind of person that they would wish to do business with. The more you reveal about your background the more likely it is that they will see you have something in common and this can only work in your favour.
8. Inactivity.
This is one of the most common mistakes I come across. Many users sign up, create a basic profile and maybe join a group or two and then…… nothing! This is the equivalent to going to a networking event and sitting in the corner with a cup of tea and not speaking to anyone! LinkedIn is a live and active community of business professionals throughout the world and this presents you with such an exciting opportunity to widen your network, engage with more people and ultimately achieve greater success.
9. Posting links without comment (especially in groups)
This is usually an innocent mistake made by people with the best intentions. They read an article online and decide to share this with their connections and/or fellow group members, the problem is that an article without a comment just becomes noise in a stream that people tend to ignore and the more this happens the more people become disengaged. This can also be as a result of one of the worst things you can do with social media…….. automation! Social media is supposed to be social (strangely enough!) and it is only effective when people talk to each other, not when automated processes fire countless streams of information/articles at people. The solution is very simple, read the article and take a view then post the article with a comment expressing your view and asking for feedback. This works, automation doesn’t.
10. Dodgy Recommendations.
Many online businesses have learnt that customer reviews are an incredibly powerful marketing tool (Amazon, Tripadvisor etc) and LinkedIn provides you with a similar opportunity via recommendations. The problem is that people obtain recommendations from the wrong people. A recommendation will only influence the reader if it is written by somebody that they consider to be credible and credibility comes from you knowing the person well and by them being in a position of authority i.e. a satisfied customer, and ex-boss etc. Too many recommendations on LinkedIn are from colleagues, family members or worst of all, complete strangers! One dodgy recommendation can ruin a profile, so be careful to only seek testimonials from the right people.
What other LinkedIn behaviours drive you mad? please feel free to comment below.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 33 so far )Keeping In Touch With your LinkedIn Contacts
Today I received a message from a LinkedIn connection of mine. He is a really good bloke who has referred several clients to me in the past. This is the kind of LinkedIn connection I know I should keep in touch with more regularly and this message today has made me feel guilty for not being in touch more often! The problem is that I don’t really have a system for keeping in touch.
Can you relate to this?
LinkedIn is a great tool to find out about someone before meeting them and (once connected) a great way to keep up to date with what they are up to (via updates) but it’s not a great tool to help us remember to keep in touch with someone. Some well-known CRM products integrate with LinkedIn but for many of us a sophisticated (and expensive) CRM tool is overkill – enter FIVEHUNDREDPLUS! (500+)
Last week a contact of mine introduced me to a new, basic but very useful CRM tool for LinkedIn called Five Hundred Plus. After just 30 minutes of playing around on the site I was so excited I decided to contact the developers to understand more about the product, its history and where it was going.
500+ works in a very simple and effective way. Initially you sign in with your LinkedIn account, this way it can look at your network on LinkedIn. Once logged in you just search for a connection (see below) and ‘drag and drop’ them into the relevant column for the frequency of contact.
This however doesn’t have to just be for a connection, you can schedule contact reminders for other LinkedIn users outside of your network. You can even add more contacts who are not even on LinkedIn from the ‘new contact’ button.
Once this is done you will receive an email reminder every Monday morning with details of who you need to schedule contact with that week. If that contact is by email you can even bcc your 500+ account (see below) so that it automatically logs that the email has been sent – genius!
Here is a copy of my first email from 500+;
OK I’m not wild about the use of that awful ‘touch base’ phrase but its a pretty handy feature to have this weekly reminder!
You can also manually log an interaction and 500+ will then reschedule your next reminder;
Once a note has been added the due date will automatically change to the next scheduled contact (depending on which column it was entered into, see below) and as you can see you can make notes about the interaction as well as making notes about the contact.
This product is still in its alpha stage of development so there are a few little glitches (nothing major) and some functionality that could be added – for instance the site does not give you a link direct back to a contacts LinkedIn profile and it doesn’t pull across information from the profile (such as contact information, background etc). I also think a tagging feature would also be useful (especially as it looks like this feature may be under threat with the new LinkedIn profiles). These are all areas for development and I know that Geir Freyson the developer is currently working on some of these improvements.
*UPDATE 28th November – Geir has now updated the site so that contact details now link directly back to the profile and location information is included.
In my experience some of the best app ideas come from developers who themselves find an ‘itch’ and decide to develop a product to ‘scratch’ it – this is a classic example of this as Geir told me that this was developed purely as a way to help them to keep in contact with their connections, they found it worked so well for them that they realised they had a product worth developing for a wider audience.
Overall I think this is a fantastic application and the best news….it is completely free! I can imagine an enterprise, team based paid version being a good way to monetize this in the future although I expect this single user basic edition to remain completely free.
Thanks to Geir for taking the time to talk to me about the product and also a quick mention to Mike Watson for introducing it to me in the first place….well spotted Mike!
I strongly suggest you give Five Hundred Plus a go, it could be the missing link in making LinkedIn a more powerful business development, recruiting & networking tool.
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