How To Get the Most From LinkedIn - Part 1: What Not To Do

LinkedIn seems to be the most misunderstood social network. It certainly lacks the flash and buzz that constantly surrounds Facebook and Twitter (and Google+ to a certain extent now).

But everyone seems to be on it. It was the first social network I joined, and I would bet the same is true for many of you.

Estimates put the LinkedIn user number around 135 million (and they're adding about 1 million users per week). Twitter passed the 100 million user number in September of 2011, while Facebook has climbed over 800 million users.

As a green industry professional you can get a lot out of LinkedIn--if you understand the best ways to use it as well as its limitations. I'll spotlight these best practices and limitations in this two-part blog post.

Why use LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a professional social network, meaning business to business (B2B).

LinkedIn is not for marketing your landscape products and services to Mr. and Mrs. Consumer. Instead, LinkedIn should be used to connect with other professionals who can introduce your products and services to Mr. and Mrs. Consumer.

LinkedIn is also a valuable tool for recruiting talent (or searching for potential employers).

But, of course, like with any social network, some users just don't understand many of LinkedIn's best practices. We'll cover these in part two of this series. First I want to focus on what not to do.

7 things to avoid on LinkedIn

If you are guilty of any of these, please stop! They all annoy me :-) Here's my rant...

1. Don't focus on marketing and selling

LinkedIn is all about professional networking. It's about building relationships with your industry peers as well as local allied professionals like architects, builders, property managers, realtors, etc.

If you are a B2B company then you might do a little more "soft selling" but the main focus should be on building relationships (and soft selling shouldn't be confused with spamming. See #5 and #6 below).

2. Don't create a LinkedIn profile using your business name

This is a big no-no. LinkedIn is for professionals, not businesses. Your LinkedIn profile is exactly that--yourpersonal profile, not your company's.

There's no need to hide behind a corporate veil. That might be okay on a Facebook Page or on Twitter, but not on LinkedIn. Use your real name and use a picture of yourself instead of your company logo.

You can list your work experience, position within your company, and link to your company's website in your profile. Don't worry, other professionals will figure out where you work.

3. Don't send boring and generic invitations to connect

This is a big pet peave of mine.

If you are attending a chamber of commerce networking event would you walk up to someone you've never met and say, "I'd like to add you to my professional rolodex", then stroll away? I'd hope not! But this is exactly what "professionals" do on LinkedIn.

When you send the LinkedIn-suggested generic invitation, "I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn", you might as well be saying this: "I don't really know who you are and I haven't done any research on you, I just want to add as many connections as possible and hope something comes of it."

At a minimum, personalize your invitation by addressing the other professional by name.

4. Don't autosync all of your updates from Twitter

LinkedIn and Twitter allow you to sync your updates between accounts. Meaning, all of your tweets can automatically get pushed to your LinkedIn profile for your contacts to potentially see.

It's okay to post the same update to Twitter and LinkedIn occasionally, but don't do it every single time. It just adds Twitter noise (including symbols, @ # RT, that most people don't understand) to the LinkedIn stream.

I'm all for automation, but not when it's abused like this.

5. Don't send mass emails to your LinkedIn connections

Through your LinkedIn inbox you can send a message to 50 of your contacts at a time. Don't abuse this.

I get LinkedIn spam all the time from companies pitching me (and a thousand other people) their products. It's annoying. And it doesn't work.

When is messaging okay? Let's say your company wins a distinguished award. By all means, send a message to your customers and any relevant allied professionals who would be interested. But don't blast the announcement out to all of your connections.

6. Don't spam your LinkedIn groups

***Pet peave alert***

I like to participate in LinkedIn groups occasionally if I can provide some relevant insight into a discussion. That's what they're for.

What LinkedIn groups are not for is posting crap, I mean spam, about your company's products and services or your latest blog post (no matter how brilliant it may be).

Sifting through all of these spammy posts to find genuine discussions can be a real pain in the butt.

Groups can be a great source for helpful advice from our peers. As long as a few people aren't abusing them.

7. Don't solicit your LinkedIn connections for recommendations

The only thing worse then getting a mass spammy message promoting someone's product is getting a mass message from someone requesting a recommendation from all their contacts.

I think it's okay to ask for recommendations on LinkedIn, but only on an individual basis, not in a mass email. I don't mind if someone asks me specifically for a recommendation as long as it is relevant to something we did together recently.

I'm done ranting now. In the next post I'll share some LinkedIn best practices. But for now, if you're doing any of the above, please stop! :-)

Do you share any of these pet peaves? Any others? Feel free to share below in the comments. I'd love to hear them.