
If you hang out in any online business circles, you probably know Viveka from… well, everywhere. As a self-professed LinkedIn LION, Viveka will connect and engage with you wherever you cross paths.
She also knows a boatload of everything about LinkedIn, which she shares, among other places, on LinkedIn Chat on Twitter. If you’ve never participated, it’s a good time and great for connecting and learning.
So when I heard about her book on LinkedIn marketing I immediately added it to my “must reads”.
You may notice the publication date on the book – September 2012 – and wonder why it’s been on my bookshelf this long.
The truth is, LinkedIn is a little intimidating. I use it – sort of. It’s one of those must-have social profiles for a business person. But it always seemed a bit more “official” than other social networks; bigger, more serious, harder to manage than any of the other quadzillion social spaces I work and play on every day.
So I admit to taking a bit of a head-in-sand approach to LinkedIn and to reading this book, but I needn’t have worried. This book is 100% accessible and breaks LinkedIn down into completely manageable chunks that even the hesitators can use.
An Actual “Hour A Day” Book
Plenty of books promise to make us pros at something in an hour a day. We can become social media experts, Facebook magicians, Pinterest masterminds, email marketing whizzes.
It sounds very attractive until you pick up the book and either read washed-over advice that you could’ve found with a two second Google search or good advice that’s just too cumbersome to implement.
The great thing about this book is that if you truly devote yourself to a single hour, you can do wonders with your LinkedIn presence.
The best thing is that the book is literally broken down into day-by-day and week-by-week activities that build on each other to take you from “Now what?” to “I’m a total LinkedIn marketing genius.”
Now, I admit the table of contents is a bit intimidating. It spans 23 weeks, times 5 days a week at an hour a day… that’s some serious math! You may think you don’t have that long to perfect your profile, that you need a job or references and leads now.
But come on. You know you’ve been sitting on that “update LinkedIn profile” to-do for at least as long. Mine’s been on my list for about a year now.
If you promise yourself to spend an hour a day working on yours then the next 23 weeks will pass… and at the end of it you’ll not only have a great presence but you’ll have discovered a stack of networking resources and tips that you can use every day.
Or, you could just let another 23 weeks pass.
Some Things You’ll Learn
Here are just a few of the more eye-opening things I learned. And if you, like me, are 21 ½ weeks shy of being competent on LinkedIn, I bet you’ll find these interesting too.
You can upload your résumé to LinkedIn – but you shouldn’t – not with the upload tool, anyway. Viveka explains about the glitchy nature of the tool and gives us advice for how to create a LinkedIn-worthy résumé.
You can only invite 3,000 people ever via the connection tool that allows you to upload your contact list. Only Viveka gives you that important tidbit, because LinkedIn has left that out of its documentation completely.
LinkedIn search works! That’s something you might not expect if you come from a Facebook world, and it means that you need to optimize your profile to be found. Viveka will tell you how.
There’s a way to send InMail to people without paying for it. Viveka describes this “reverse- engineering” trick in Week 17, so skip ahead if you must… but be sure that if you’re going to go through the effort, you’d better have a good profile in place first!
All caps get a pass when it comes to adding your personal experience. Since LinkedIn doesn’t give you any other formatting options, Viveka explains how capital letters – in conjunction with white space – can make your profile easy to read and draw the eye to things you want to highlight.
I could go on all day with these little “huh” moments, but that’s what the book is for. Just make sure you’ve got a highlighter handy.
And once you’ve got the basics down, there’s plenty more to learn and implement when it comes to networking, making connections and actually using LinkedIn for your business benefit. After Week 23 is when the real work kicks in, because the last quarter or the book is dedicated to helping you actually leverage this powerful resource.
You’ll learn how to manage your time on LinkedIn, what to do once you’re there and what you can do within your role as a job seeker, employer, recruiter and more, to take advantage of the myriad ways to make positive business connections.
What This Book Is… And Isn’t
This book is a fantastic resource for anyone who’s been putting off dealing with Linked In, for anyone who isn’t sure where to start, or for anyone who has been around the block with LinkedIn and is looking to take it up a notch.
It’s well organized and written in a friendly and readable way that doesn’t make you feel like you’re reading a text book and won’t make you run for your coffee every five minutes.
This book is an action book. I love idea books and concept books as much as anyone, but sometimes I just want someone to tell me how to do it. There’s a perfect balance of “how” and “why” in this book. Viveka gives you a rationale for doing things a certain way, but then she gets right to the actual how.
This isn’t the kind of book you sit down and read by the fireplace on a Saturday night. In fact, it isn’t the kind of book you read cover-to-cover at all – not if you really plan to use it, that is.
It’s broken down into weeks and hours for a reason. Because there’s just too much to learn and too much to do at once. You don’t become a LinkedIn marketing genius in a day!
If you want to get the most out of this book, commit to reading a single chapter and then taking action immediately. If you read the whole thing then stop to think about it for a while, I guarantee it’ll go back on your shelf and LinkedIn will still be just another to-do.
Plus reading the whole thing can be a little overwhelming. Reading about how to moderate a group sounds big and scary if you haven’t even gotten your profile right yet. So save yourself that angst and take it a step at a time as it’s intended.
This book also has a few outdated sections, but that’s the nature of being in an online world. Things change by the millisecond. For example, there’s a section on using LinkedIn Answers, something LinkedIn just recently did away with.
The good news is that Viveka isn’t called a LinkedIn Expert for nothing. I’m sure there will be a revised edition when the time comes. In fact, I did find a Bonus Download on the book’s sales page, which includes updates to some recent changes to LinkedIn’s profile.
The 10-Second Wrapup
LinkedIn has always felt a bit distant to me. It’s on the “have to” list but not necessarily on the “want to” list. But Viveka makes it a whole lot more accessible and you can’t help being charmed by her enthusiasm. Sometimes all you need is a great advocate and you can start to feel some of that excitement wearing off on you, too.
A lot of effort went into putting together a book that won’t make you fall asleep into your soup, and will also give you the feeling that yes, you can do this. It’s not so hard, when you have a well-versed and personable expert leading you and a clear path to follow.
I’ve highlighted this book six ways to Sunday and I promise you’ll be seeing a heck of a better LinkedIn profile when you visit mine over the next several weeks!
If you want to make more out of LinkedIn then I highly recommend this book. It’s available in paperback and Kindle format so go read the sample chapter if you still need convincing, then buy it right now. (And yes, that’s an affiliate link… this is such a great book that I know for a fact so many people are going to buy it that I’m going to get at least a whole slice of pizza out of it!)
And if you’ve read this book already, I would love to know what you think!
Sadly your link to buy the book is broken
Sorry about that Liza. WordPress has had a nasty habit the past few weeks of messing up my HTML. It should be fixed now. Thanks for the heads up!
No worries Carol. Have added to my wishlist. looks good.
Thanks you SO SO much for this amazing review! I’ve already passed it on to my editor – and of course will splatter it all over Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I REALLY appreciate it!!!!
Thank YOU – this is a great resource! I started using different color highlighters to differentiate things for later, there was just so much good stuff! I really have been a bit intimidated by LinkedIn and I’ve been ignoring it but you made it a lot less scary. Feel free to splatter all the high praise anywhere you want 🙂
On The Bookshelf: LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour A Day By Viveka Von Rosen
I’ve highlighted this book six ways to Sunday and I promise you’ll be
seeing a heck of a better LinkedIn profile when you visit mine over the
next several weeks!.
Hey Carol, LinkedIn Yes I have started working on my profile and I do have a few contacts as well but as you said in your post it just all seems more official so like you I really haven’t used this a whole lot. I will put this book on my to do list Thanks for sharing.. Chery 🙂 ( HUM??I just noticed I cannot log in with LindedIn?)
Ha, well I can’t speak for the LinkedIn login! Put it in the “glitch column”? I’ve started working on my profile so hopefully LinkedIn won’t be such a big, scary place any more 🙂
Wow, Carol, you’ve sold me.
I’m lot like you, I am on LinkedIn because I feel that I have to, but I’ve never been motivated to dedicate too much time to this social media.
Well, I’ve just purchased three books that I’ve got to read, and now you make me want this one too. I will definitely bookmark this and get back to it. I would love to learn how to master Linkedin and in the meantime maybe develop some more like and interest in it.
Thank for this info.
You’re like me, Sylviane, a stack of books to read and never enough time to do it! I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while, glad I finally did. I wasn’t really planning to read it end to end but then I decided it was the best way to do a review, although I really went back to the beginning to follow along with the instructions. I’ll have to announce the unveiling of my new LinkedIn look in a few weeks 🙂
Hi Carol,
This post reminds me of how much I have to learn regarding social media as a whole.
I’m like you…I have a profile on LinkedIn, but have never done anything with it.
It’s on my to do list this year to become somewhat proficient here, because it’s a great networking tool.
Thanks for the post! Hope all is well with you!
George
Hi George, glad to see you again! I always felt like LinkedIn was a little outside my circle – not really for me. But why not? It’s a business opportunity so I may as well use it! No sense in having a profile and leaving it there to look half done. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you’re doing well also!
I wasn’t logged in before. There’s my avatar.
Hi Carol. Interesting. I’ actually working on my next project which is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is intimidating and yes you’re right – it’s about serious folks (not that other marketing is not serious). But all about career choices there and the atmosphere is more professional as in corporate professionalism. Doesn’t mean there are others there, but that is the crux of the clientele although it’s changing. Daunting as it is, I have used it quite effectively which is why I’m been documenting how to use it. I’ll definitely check out her book. We can always learn additional info that will help us use LinkedIn easily.
Good for you! yes, it does seem a lot more corporate and that’s part of the reason I avoid it. Marketing is marketing wherever you go, but it’s more “fun” and less “serious” elsewhere. So I have to get myself on track there! Join the club!
Hi Carol
Thanks for the awesome review. Funny LinkedIn was the first social media I joined way back when it started. I have a professional background so it made sense then. When I moved into home based business for some reason I neglected it. This book really sounds like a great resource.
Thanks
Sue
It’s pretty common, Sue – I have had a profile there forever but never bothered to do much with it. But it’s been “on my list” so long that I feel like I finally have to do something about it.
Hi Carol
I am like many others with regard to LinkedIn, I set up my profile, have many contacts but hardly every go to it and do anything with it! This book sounds exactly what I need to get me started again, I always have it on my to do list but don’t DO IT
Thanks for sharing this, have a great day 🙂
Pauline
I know what you mean, it stays on the list but doesn’t seem to get done! I’m doing mine right now because it’s been bugging me for a while that it’s not as good as I want it to be. Good luck with yours!
LinkedIn was one of those sites I joined Carol because I was told to yet found very intimidating. Last year I jumped into it a little more and did my dead level best to connect with people. I had success with a few but I prefer a more social site.
LinkedIn is not a social site, not like the others. It’s way more professional and although that is a good thing it’s not always the best.
I have no doubt her book is helpful but my goodness, you need to invest 23 weeks, five days a week at an hour a day! That’s not going to happen because I just do not enjoy that site. We should spend time on the ones we have the best success with right!
Thanks for the share though Carol because there are a lot of people who would like to know how to use this one much better then they are now.
~Adrienne
Same with me Adrienne. I joined up, joined some groups and never felt it was all that great. It’s definitely a different type of “social”. You really have to find the right people and mostly it’s about the groups where you can make those connections, if you’re lucky to find the good ones.
It’s definitely a professional network with a different purpose. You go there to make business connections for business opportunities. Other social sites are a lot more about branding, relationships and sometimes fun.
For me it’s a good opportunity to generate business and I’ve seen some results when I do pay attention but unfortunately I don’t pay as much attention as I could. I’ve ignored my profile and probably haven’t filled out half the information I could. So I’m fixing that!
For you, if it’s not a place you want to be then no sense in being there, right? Part of good marketing is finding the best places and not just jumping on the bandwagon. You have to do what’s right for you!
Great review Carol. I’ve been using LinkedIn for awhile, but I’ll be the first to admit it took me some time to “get it” but once I did I became a fan. My primary focus is networking with other authors and those in the publishing industry and I’ve found some wonderful resources in the groups. I can see this book would be an invaluable tool to take the experience to the next level so thanks for telling us about it!
The one thing I’ve noticed is that we do get a bunch of traffic to our blog here through LinkedIn. Other than that I haven’t given it much of a chance. I plan to change that and get better acquainted with it over the next few weeks.
Carol, this book looks like it covers it all! I used to call LinkedIn my “secret weapon” but yes, I am guilty for not spending too much time on it because of all the changes. I know…that is a good excuse isn’t it.
I do have to put more time into this platform because it worked well for me in the past. I do have to re-do my profile and make a few changes from what I read in this review.
Now it is time to roll up my sleeves and get back in the game. I do have emails from LinkedIn pending and haven’t check them…..Oh my am I guilty today!!! lol.
Thanks for this review, Many things have changed and there are also things here that I needed to know.
Donna
I have a lot of work to do too, Donna, and I’ve been putting it off for the longest time. I thought this book was great and a simple kickstarter. It seems long (23 weeks!) but I don’t think most people will find all 23 relevant since some are about features you may not use. I’m working on my profile so hopefully I can stop feeling guilty about ignoring it!
Hi Carol,
Thank you for this great review! I agree with Donna that it does seem to contain everything that one needs to know!
I joined LinkedIn a while back but, like you, it is on my priority “have to” list. One of the reasons is that there are always other top priority tasks that we need to focus on. It is still a great way to connect with others business-to-business. Recently I have attracted a few quality friends from within Australia. Today I am actually meeting up with one for a coffee chat!
I agree that we need is a great advocate! It seems that Viveka can to make one’s learning journey so much easier!The last thing is to start it in a messy way and come back to clean up the mess!
Thanks, Carol!
Viola The Business Mum
I’m glad to hear you’ve actually made connections there, Viola! It’s funny how many people think of LinkedIn as some “other” network that’s a little off the beaten path. And yet so many people do use it successfully. I intend to make my profile shine a little bit more and see what happens!
nice blog!!!!! Thanks for posting!!!