I really didn’t expect to get this as a question from a listener, but I did. If there is one inquiring mind, there must be others. The question was “How can I ”IDK” someone sending an invitation to me?”

Well, LinkedIn is always moving things around and, at this point in time, the IDK only comes up when you click to IGNORE an invitation.

When you evaluate a LinkedIn invitation in your InBox, you can get to the IDK component by selecting Ignore (vs. Accept). LinkedIn then provides two options for you:

I don’t know Mike

or

Report as spam

So there you go, the mystery is solved until LinkedIn changes it again and doesn’t tell anybody.  Personally, we don’t recommend that you IDK anyone and would only “Report as Spam” if it crosses that line.

It does not LOOK like there are any real enforcement teeth in LinkedIn IDK’s anymore (like restricting one’s LinkedIn account for getting too many IDK’s), but that can’t be ruled out either. This has been a big bone of contention for many years.  We hope it is gone! 

Has your account been restricted? If so let us know by leaving a comment below.  And then email LinkedIn Customer Service to request that the restriction be removed.

While many adults participate on LinkedIn.com as a site on which to make professional contacts, this social media site can also be quite good for college students to explore possible career paths and to connect with people who might hire them for jobs after college graduation.

Keith E. Petri is a young person who just graduated college himself. As he started his own job search, he began using social media and realized how powerful social media can be for college students.

An enterprising young man, he started his own site — www.ebranding.me — to help other college students appreciate and utilize the power of social media.

I met him through an announcement he posted on www.bloggerlinkup.com (a free resource I highly recommend) and we immediately hit it off.

The first major result of our connecting is that my business partner, Yael K. Miller, and I have begun the blog series “WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP: How to Use Social Media to Get Your Dream Job.”

The series focuses on FICTIONAL CHARACTER Amy H., an English major who will be a senior this fall at the University of Pennsylvania, as she learns how to use social media to explore possible career paths and position her personal brand online.

The first two posts in the blog series are out (new ones appear each Tuesday). And note in the second post – “Setting Up a Professional Profile on LInkedIn” — that the extra credit tip is for Amy to get a copy of Mike O’Neil’s LinkedIn book ROCK THE WORLD WITH YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE.

You can find the links to all posts in the series at http://ebranding.me/resources/curriculum/mmpm/

And for more extra credit — get the eBranding.me grammar cheat sheet to avoid the most common mistakes people make.

(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (www.linkedin.com/in/phylliszimblermiller) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing.

I’m pleased to announce that my business partner Yael K. Miller and I are now writing a new blog series for Keith Petri at eBranding.me

The title of the series is: “WHEN YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP: How to Use Social Media to Get Your Dream Job”

The series is directed to young people who will be seniors in college this fall, although the material is adaptable for people of all ages.

The series provides a step-by-step process to help young people identify careers that may be of interest as well as connect on social media with people already pursuing those careers.

The second post — to go live on Tuesday, July 13 — features getting started on LinkedIn as a professional social media site that you want to be on.

Bonus tip: In this upcoming post we recommend Mike O’Neil’s book ROCK THE WORLD in order to set up a truly effective LinkedIn profile.

Read the first post now and then do the assignment if you want to take advantage of this series.

And here’s the link where you’ll find all the posts in the series — http://ebranding.me/resources/curriculum/mmpm/
(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (http://twitter.com/ZimblerMiller) had an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder with Yael K. Miller of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing. The company offers a monthly mentorship program for keeping up with social media — see www.millermosaicllc.com/join-miller-mosaic-inner-circle

LinkedIn is rolling out a new InBox.  It has been a bit unreliable for me thuis far, but that’s because it is BRAND NEW.

For the first time users can actually begin deleting some communications. It is part of the new LinkedIn InBox design.

This screen shot shows that LinkedIn Messages can be deleted, a page at a time and individually.

This shows that Invitations cannot (yet) be Deleted.

It is a nice start.  Check back as we evaluate the functionality of the new LinkedIn InBox.

We are trialing 2 designs for our Rock The World North American Tour 2010 T-Shirt design.  Can you help us with your comments?  Tell us what you like, what you don’t like, which you prefer, things we might not be thinking of, etc. Estimate price point is $20.

                  Option #1                                             Option #2

These shirts will be available along with our book, Rock The World with your Online Presence, as we inspire, educate, and entertain professionals on LinkedIn and Social Media across North America. They will also be available for online ordering in May.

The current published dates for our IA LinkedIn Roskstar Profile Clinics^© thus far (dozens more to come):

Denver, CO April 21 – Info and Registration

Chicago, IL May 5 – Info and Registration

Charlotte, NC May 15 – Info and Registration

Atlanta, GA May 21 – Info and Registration

Interested in bringing the tour through your town or for a private speaking/training opportunity?  Call us at 303-683-9600.  We are planning the remainder of 2010 NOW, before we take this  tour International in 2011.

Want a Who shirt like Mike’s?  The Hard Rock Cafe has them available as a charity fundraiser.  Sorry, Lori’s Def Leppard was at the concert only!

INFO/ORDER

All of a sudden today, this afternoon actually, I get this new LinkedIn Home Page  look. My business partner, Lori Ruff, does not have this but I do.  Ha ha!

She is usually the one that gets all this new stuff it seems, like when LinkedIn was rolling out their new user interface late last year. In THAT case, we had to halt printing of our LinkedIn book, Rock The World with your Online Presence, as a result of the LinkedIn change then. Fortunately, this has no major affect except for a streamlined interface that I really like a lot.

It shows your the Profile Search Results and Profile Views in a really nice way. It also shows you your Current Tier 1 Network Size and Overall Network Size increase in a really nice way as well. 

The Amazon Reading list is here in updated form it appears. There are other things new here I haven’t touched on, but these are the biggies and they are all part of the RIGHT SIDE COLUMN.

What do you think?

Like many people, I started out on WordPress.com for my blog, it was sometime in 2008.  Built up a business blog too, also on WordPress.com.

Now, most people in the know think of WordPress.com as the “poor man’s” WordPress. They are not wrong. It is WordPress.org where things get interesting. You have to become a bit of an IT Manager, but it is worth it. Some people hire a vendor – even better idea. WordPress provides a basic migration tool that brings much of what you have created over to the “other side”.

Now for the interesting part…

The OLD blog site is still there and is still being found by search engines, by others.  It makes you look REALLY bad, and amazingly bad if you are in the Social Media business like us here at IA.

I had just such an incident happen yesterday so it hits real close to home. We actually had 4 old WordPress.com blogs out there that were like abandon cars. One very insightful individual did the most logical thing in thinking that it was the live site, even though the concert dates on the calendar were all really old.

There are always issues in shutting anything with a URL down.  We still have some hooks pointed back there so this is what we did to solve the problem:

1. For every Page or Post that you think you need to leave a link in place for, do so by making them Drafts and/or Private. The links still work. This might be a time to change/update the Post/Page a bit.
2. Simply delete out the other pages so long as you think their is no linking to preserve.
3. On the Home Page, have links and text and even a graphic to redirect them to the new site.
4. This is a conservative approach.  You can just shut them down if you like as well.

Here is an example of an old site that redirects to the new site.

So – here’s the hard-earned lesson:

Anything that you create – a profile, a blog, a web site, will be there until you do something to explicitly take it down. Be thinking about what YOU might have hanging around out there…

For TiE-Rockies’ Members, this is a FREE event. If you’re not a member, it is just $25 and you can pay at the door.

DATE: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 2-4 pm.

Become a Rock Star on LinkedIn!
Repeat Event—Back by Popular Demand

Mike O’Neil and Lori Ruff, nationally renowned LinkedIn Rock Stars, will share inside guidance on how to extract the very most out of LinkedIn and avoid making costly mistakes along the way. LinkedIn is increasinging recognized as THE tool for business professionals and this event will help you get a real handle on it. This is a FREE event for TiE-Rockies members. $25 for non-members. Pay at the door. Register early – Space is very limited.

Get ready for an afternoon of high energy that, at times, resembles a classic rock concert.

Location:

Sales Productivity Consultants
2727 Bryant Street, Suite 230*
Denver, CO  80211
Phone 303-568-1500

Just West of I-25 near Speer Boulevard–this new facility for our trainings is larger with a more central location.
Parking is available in the main lot and on the street.

Please RSVP to me at RH@RaymondHutchins.com.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Seating for 25 people.

Best regards,

Raymond Hutchins
Chair, TiE-Rockies Mentoring Committee

Click book image to download free report

Yet I also believe that there are some basic elements that, at this time in the evolution of social media marketing, are the most relevant for promoting your brand, book or business.

An effective marketing-driven website as a home base is needed for all online promotion activities. A website you control helps you integrate your social media activities with your overall message.

Given this, I believe Twitter and Facebook fan pages are the top two elements that should be integrated with your website. These three points of an online marketing strategy work well together to promote a brand, book or business.

And because of this belief I offer the free report “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business” at www.millermosaicpowerof3.com

And, yes, I do also participate on LinkedIn, which I believe can have great value. Thus I’d like to share here the following LinkedIn message I received from a headhunter:

“I am curious though, as I was reading through your material and thinking about social networking and its relationship with websites, I was wondering why you didn’t include LinkedIn as one of the “powers.” After all, we are communicating via LinkedIn and came to meet each other via LinkedIn.”

It’s a good question, and here’s the answer I gave:

“Quick answer: LinkedIn can be very good for connecting with people. But in terms of overall power marketing for most people, Twitter, a Facebook fan page and an effective marketing-driven website are the important three elements in promoting their brand, book or business online. For people such as recruiters LinkedIn can be valuable for finding candidates, but that’s a different function than promoting.”

Bottom line? Using social media effectively to promote your brand, book or business requires a strategy. You need to know what target markets you are going after and where you are likely to connect with those markets.

In conclusion, while one size does not fit all, there are some basic elements that form a very good foundation on which most people can build their social media marketing strategy. If you are new to social media marketing, starting with the foundation elements is a good building plan.

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is an Internet business consultant. Her new FREE report is “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business” – grab your report now from www.millermosaicpowerof3.com

Why is promoting your Twitter presence outside of Twitter so important for effective online positioning of your brand, book or business?

Because as Twitter, in my opinion, is the easiest social media platform (of the current most popular platforms) on which to create relationships, you should be maximizing the number of people who check out your Twitter presence because of the link you provide.

If someone clicks on your Twitter link and likes what he/she sees, that person can instantly follow you without waiting for you to agree to be friends as on Facebook or connections as on LinkedIn. This is a powerful potential relationship formation strategy with no barriers to entry.

If you understand using the power of Twitter to connect with your target audiences, then thinking of relevant online places to leave your Twitter username/link should be an important element of your online marketing strategy.

Wherever you are interacting online, if appropriate promote your Twitter presence by including your Twitter username/link. And when you see someone else’s Twitter username/link on a blog comment or a website/blog, click on that link to check whether this is someone on Twitter you’d like to follow.

Here’s a “cheat sheet” to help you include your Twitter username in places outside Twitter:

Your email signature:

Do you include your Twitter username on your email signature? Options include a Twitter image that can be clicked through to your account or the URL link in your signature block.

Blog comments:

When you leave a comment on a blog, do you put your Twitter username at the end of your comment?

Blog posts:

Whether you are writing a post on your own blog or a guest blog post, do you include your Twitter username at the end of the post?

Your website/blog:

Of course your Twitter link should be prominent on any website or blog that is yours. Do NOT put the link at the very bottom of a long page. Put the link “above the fold” and on every page.

FYI — Here is the link to get official Twitter buttons — http://twitter.com/goodies/buttons Note that you must be signed into your Twitter account to access these.

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn has recently put a separate field on the profile page for a person’s Twitter username/link. Have you updated your LinkedIn account to take advantage of this new opportunity?

(c) 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is co-founder of www.MillerMosaicPowerMarketing.com. Her new FREE report is “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business” – download the report now from www.millermosaicpowerof3.com

OK, so most people will not be in the same situation I am in I admit.  It is an intersting story either way.  About a year ago, LinkedIn did a REALLY WEIRD thing. They capped the size of one’s LinkedIn network at 30,000. Now, that is a lot I admit.  It affected about 10 us us super networkers immediately and it is affecting another 20-30 of us here in 2010.

Now, I have a lot of people in my that I don’t know and THAT IS GOOD. They bring in prospects, new relationships, make my searches much more meaningful. More on the ‘Open Networking” element that makes our phone ring with business from NEW customers in another post.

At 27,900 connections and growing by 20-30 a day, I have to do something and relatively quick. I have to eliminate people of little or no value to me so there is room for people that have greater business value. How does one do that?

1. Eliminate people with fake profiles, people that don’t exist, spammers in many cases.
2. Eliminate people that cheat the system
3. Eliminate people that are not using LinkedIn, inactive users

I have developed some strategies in each of these areas and I will report back how it is working so you can see the thought process of a LinkedIn Rock Star, in this case, THE LinkedIn Rock Star (myself).  See My Profile.

Side note…

LinkedIn capped the number of groups you can be a member of as well about 2 years ago. In that case it hit a lot of people REALLY HARD. That cap was 50 for primary groups and 50 for subgroups. This did affect each and every one of us. If there were just 500 groups and you got to choose 50, no problem. Make that 500,000 and you get to choose 50 and you get the idea how DEAD WRIONG they were for doing that. More on this in another post.

I was doing my usual “every couple of days” tour of the LinkedIn Groups I belong to and I saw this.

Since I run 4 LinkedIn Groups myself, I pay more attention to these little details.  This didn’t take much looking to see a problem.  Porn in LinkedIn Groups!

I won’t single out the group since it isn’t fair. These had just been put up so it really isn’t the Group Manager’s fault (yet).  This shows how important it is for LinkedIn Group Managers to monitor and clean up their LinkedIn Groups.

Want to join a really Rockin’ LinkedIn Group?  Try the Rock The World Group.  JOIN