LinkedIn is the largest professional (online) network in the world. The majority has 3 questions: “What’s in it for me?”, “I have a profile, now what?” and “How to get more results without spending a lot of time?”
Probably the best way to answer these questions is the book “How to REALLY use LinkedIn“! Together with Jan Vermeiren, I wrote the second edition of this international bestseller.
With this book you will learn:
• 10 powerful ways to find new customers, employees or a new job
• 42 tips to make your profile stand out
• 11 strategies to apply LinkedIn at an organizational level
• 31 answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs)
• 30 lesser-known functions and opportunities
• Plus 53 new pages, including extra tips and timesaving tools
What most people don’t know (yet), is that Jan and I decided to
give away
1 million books
for FREE!
Why?
To actively stimulate the economy! Too many people are looking for new customers, new employees or a new job. They are hardly using LinkedIn, because they don’t know the platform well enough!
At the same time, we are raising 1 million dollar for charity! Check out our website www.how-to-really-use-linkedin.com for more info. And remember to download the book for FREE as well! (English and Dutch versions!)
There is no way around it, so let’s face it: Twitter is one of the top social media in the world! If you don’t have a clue what tweeps or hashtags are, then this article is NOT for you. However, if you have been using Twitter for a while and you want to improve your way of working with its interface, you’ll find several Twitter Shortcuts right here!
The Genius Shortcut to remember them all is “?”. When you have logged yourself into Twitter, regardless of on which page you are, just press ? See what happens…you will get the overview I am providing you below
To be honest, I am not using this interface myself, because I was not a fan of the Twitter interface before. A lot has changed in the last 12 months and I might reconsider if I hadn’t discovered HootSuite. If you want to know more about HootSuite, read this. Back to Twitter now. A lot of people have been asking me to tell them these Twitter Shortcuts, so time to share the Twitter Shortcuts with you. There are 3 categories : Actions, Navigation and Timelines. Of course, I’ll share a couple of extra hidden Twitter Shortcuts too
Actions
f : favorite
r : reply
t : retweet
m : direct message
n : new Tweet
enter : toggle details pane
Navigation
? : overview of the Twitter Shortcuts
j : next Tweet
k : previous Tweet
space : page down
/ : search
. : refresh Tweets and back to top
Timelines
g h : home
g r : replies / mentions
g p : profile
g f : favorites
g m : messages
g u : go to user
Hidden (= not mentioned on the overview)
Enter : to drill down into or close a selected tweet
Escape : to cancel a compose window, dismiss the help window
Shift+Space : to page up
. : to go to the top of the page
Have fun with Twitter! And if you need another hand, just find me and dare to ask : @bertverdonck
Everyone is looking for savings, right? Some go really far to achieve it, while others are looking for a Genius Shortcut to get similar results. When it comes to printing, which savings did you try so far?
I discovered the EcoFont (Dutch indeed ), you know a font with holes in it to save on ink. Personally, I see that you make a statement with it, but frankly I don’t like it! With my background in communication, I support building your brand in a consistent way. And the EcoFont does not fit mine.
So, I did some research on fonts and discovered a great experiment by Matt Robinson. A selection of the most commonly used typefaces were compared for how economical they are with the amount of ink which they use at the same point size. Large scale renditions of the typefaces were drawn out with ballpoint pens, allowing the remaining ink levels to display the ink efficiency of each typeface.
Here are the results for a number of common fonts:
Now you actually see the difference! Impressive, right? I know, we can now start a discussion on our preference of Garamond over Times New Roman
Of course, the most effective way to save on ink is to print less! Do you really have to print everything? Isn’t it time to learn how to read and process info on the screen? We have come a long way and I can safely state that the Digital Era is here already, just in case you weren’t aware of it yet
We all know that one of the biggest strengths of LinkedIn is the visualization of your network. Unlike other business networks, you can actually see how you are connected with other people.
What happens if you would take it one step further and visualize what your LinkedIn network really looks like? In one screen? Right!
InMaps is in fact an interactive visual representation of your professional network. You can explore and learn to understand the relationships between you and all of your LinkedIn connections. Do you have clusters and a certain structure in your network? Or not at all?
How does it work? You go to this link. Login with your LinkedIn account and it will generate your map. You notice that several colors are used. You can choose a title for each color. They represent different affiliations or groups from your professional career, such as your previous work experiences, people you have met at a conference, college classmates, or industries you have worked in.
Some people have a bigger name than others. They represent people who are the most connected within that specific cluster or group. It gets even more interesting: When you click on a contact within a circle in your InMaps you will see their profile pop up on the right, as well as lines highlighting how they are connected to your connections. Like I said, discover the relationships within your LinkedIn network.
Why is that important? If you know how you are connected to the people who are in the best position to help you reach your (networking)goals, you are getting closer to realizing your goals!
Do you also find it difficult to create a new habit? Is it a challenge to stay disciplined? Of course, you are motivated, but we are living in a hectic world and you (sometimes) forget about your great New Year’s intentions?
It takes 21 days to forge a habit. Some say it takes 30 days or more. Others say change happens in a heartbeat. Anyway, it takes quite some discipline to keep up and to stick to your plan.
How does Habitforge.com help you? What do you need to do?
Step 1 : You enroll and share a goal or desire. If you could do one thing every day that would change your life for the better, what would it be?
Step 2 : Habitforge will send you a daily email. They’ll ask you if you were successful the day before at doing that one thing. From within the email, just click “yes” or “no” and Habitforge will do the rest.
Step 3 : Succeed for 21 days in a row. Do that one thing you’ve committed to doing. Skip a day before succeeding for 21 days straight, and Habitforge will start you back at day one (oh yes!). Succeed for 21 days in a row, and you can enter monitoring mode. But by that point the action should seem second nature, right?
Now, how did I do it? Well, there is a Genius Shortcut for writing upside down. Typeupsidedown.com
Typeupsidedown.com is an easy website with 2 textboxes. You fill out the first one with your message. Simultaneously it will create your text upside down in the second box. Now you can easily copy and paste the upside down text to other applications and have fun with it!
What can you use it for?Fun! Ok, I admit, I haven’t found a serious application for it yet. I use it to update my LinkedIn-status, Twitter or on Facebook. I even put it in my LinkedIn Profile and I sure some people will want to know more about it
What’s happening in your life? Are you sharing your important moments with the world? Is it too hard to make a movie about your own life?
Well, there is a Genius Shortcut to create a movie about yourself in no time! How? Just simply go to Pummelvision.com.
What is it?Pummelvision flashes your life before your eyes using photos from Facebook, Flickr, or Tumblr. Of course you need to have an account and some pictures on one of these platforms.
How does it work? Well, in 3 little steps, you’ll create your movie!
More than 70 million people are on LinkedIn. How many of them have a 100% profile? Right! Not enough! Why is this important? Let me answer that with a question: What do people find when they google your name online? For most people, it is their LinkedIn profile. So, if you want to make a professional impression (your personal brand!), you’d better fill out your profile to the fullest, right?
What can you do to have a 100% profile? Watch this YouTube clip and implement it.
Oh, one more thing. You are the only one who can actually see how high your percentage is. Don’t worry, people won’t know, but they might notice. How? Well, if you don’t fill out your profile with your education, your recent position(s) or you don’t even have a photo, how would you look? Exactly, not interesting enough! Whatever opportunity may have come your way will not happen…for a reason.
You are desperately looking for a tool that helps you manage multiple Twitter accounts? Or you want to add another layer on Ping.fm? Or you want to follow up the feed of your friends or colleagues? Or you might be interested in following certain keywords or hashtags on Twitter?
Then, HootSuite is the perfect Twitter tool for you! I’ve using this tool now for more than 1 year and I can honestly say : Wow! Hootsuite rocks! Of course, we all know Tweetdeck and the like, but I tell you, HootSuite has some particular additional assets that might suit you as well!
Like what?
Handling multiple Twitter accounts. I personally am using 4.
You can have multiple people managing your HootSuite accounts. Very interesting for business accounts! Oh, assigning tasks included!
There’s an iPhone and Android version available too
Did I mention it is a FREE tool? Of course, I invite you be generous and donate to the developers.
You see, 10 great reasons for using HootSuite. Even if only 1 or 2 fit your situation, it’s probably more effective than your current way of working (if you are doing everything manually!).
So, after Ping.fm and now this HootSuite, there are no more excuses left for not updating your status on any Social Media! And keep me posted too
Are you spending too much time on updating all your Social Media? Are you also finding it really ridiculous to update your Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, MySpace and LinkedIn status one at a time?
There must be a shortcut, right? Ping.fm is the Genius Shortcut you are looking for! Ping.fm is active in the social network aggregation space and lets you update your status on several sites at once.
I sometimes get remarks from friends that I am so active on Facebook while it has been nearly 2 weeks since I went there…but because my status is updated regularly, most people think I am present and following up in (nearly) realtime. So, now you know that I am using tools on top of those platforms to stay up-to-date and of course I an saving heaps of time!
So, how does Ping.fm actually work? Easy, let me explain in 3 steps:
2. Login and add the various Social Media or platforms you want your status to be updated. This is also called “syndication” of your status. You can actually choose from more than 30 sites, including WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, Yammer, Posterous, Flickr and Delicious!
3. Start broadcasting your updates!
Of course, I need to give you a disadvantage as well : Ping.fm was created with the idea that people want to get their updates out. It is not a tool to follow up on the conversation that happens afterwards. There are other tools perfectly suitable for that (one of the next blogs )!
With this book you will learn:
Posted by bertverdonck 
