Linkedin SitRep: Group Grope (The Waldo Factor, part 24)

So what is the Situation Report on LinkedIn? What new changes have come down the pike to confuse and abuse members?

When they changed the look and feel of the groups, they sent out this infographic as part of the announcement. While it didn't explain why the changes were made, or how they might help you (as opposed to confuse you), it did offer some data.

 

Actually, some useful data, as well as some misleading data. While over 2 millions groups have been started, not all of them are still there. Currently there are about 1.8 million active groups.

 

The average number of groups is also a little misleading. Many people belong to no groups, which brings the average down. Others, like me, belong to 50.

 

Posting in groups makes you more visible- this should be no surprise.

 

8,000 groups are added weekly. This is a healthy number, but would be in better context if they mentioned how many people joined every week.

 

200 conversations per minute is also a neat stat until you figure that with 230 million members, it is not a high percentage on a daily basis. But is certainly explains why those posting are more viewed than those who don't - the % is not that high.

 

While the sudden changes are annoying, and seem to occur with no member input, LinkedIn remains vital for business professionals.

 

Hang tough. LinkedIn is still a great investment of your time.

 

And remember, if you need some help navigating LinkedIn  and making it pay higher dividends, help is only a click away!

 

http://nsp.performedia.com/amtower/alt13/welcome

Are CEOs exempt from participating on LinkedIn? (The Waldo Factor, part 23)

Many CEOs feel they are absolved from participating on LinkedIn and other social networks. They ignore it, post a minimal profile, or have someone do it for them.

These are all poor strategies.

Ignoring LinkedIn or taking it lightly is akin to ignoring all of the people in your niche, including your customers and prospects. By any measure, LinkedIn has become one of the most viable and accessible business marketing tools available – and it is largely free to use.  

A minimal profile buys you absolutely nothing and offers no reason for anyone to pay attention. It shows a lack of respect for yourself and is a waste of time for those viewing the profile. It offers absolutely no reason for people to connect with you.  The assumption seems to be that as a CEO, the “right” people will want to connect with you.

Having someone manage your profile for you runs the risk of statements that don't reflect who you are and what you think, and eliminates the interaction of discussions on any social media platform.

I have discussed this with CEOs that fit into each category and they gave a variety of "reasons" for non/minimal participation. Among these are the time factor, the relevance factor, and the "I think it's a waste of time" factor.

The time factor is simply that they feel "too busy" to do it, so they put up a minimal profile, join no groups, and wait for something to happen.

The relevance factor goes a little deeper. They don't feel that social media deserves attention as it is not relevant to 'their circle" and/or their niche. LinkedIn is a business network that proves over and over Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail” theory (you can find virtually any niche group on the web).

The "waste of time group" is identical to the "relevance" group, just more blatant, though still very wrong. This group feels that online social networking is nothing but a complete waste of time.

My friend Carl Dickson (www.captureplanning.com) takes the sarcastic, contrarian point of view: CEOs should not be involved in marketing, business development, sales and other granular activities, so they don't need to be on LinkedIn or any other social media. Carl feels that if they believe any of the above reasons, they really shouldn’t be allowed online or perhaps out of the building.

Many studies over the past few years from Forrester, Market Connections and others indicate the importance of leveraging social media, especially LinkedIn, in B2G.

LinkedIn affords savvy users the ability to position themselves and their companies as thought leaders in virtually any niche. It provides a platform where you can reach out and build a network of those important to your success: partners, prospects and customers. It delivers the venue where you can stay on the radar of the network you build. All this if you take the time to learn how to use it well.

Those government contractors and CEOs not leveraging LinkedIn will lose new business in direct proportion to their inactivity, because your competitors will be here taking that business away from you.

If you need a little push to really start to leverage LinkedIn- go here:

http://nsp.performedia.com/amtower/alt13/welcome

 

The Real Estate Analogy (The Waldo Factor, part 22)

I was talking to my friend Roger Dunbar of Industrial Medium (http://www.industrialmedium.com) today about an upcoming presentation for the Northern Virginia Tech Council (www.NVTC.org). We were discussing  the particulars of what I should speak about.

The general topic was leveraging LinkedIn and Roger made an interesting analogy, one that really resonated. He said, "Using LinkedIn often reminds me of real estate agents. About 80% of the listings go to about 20% of the agents."

BINGO! What a great analogy to illustrate the point of standing out on LinkedIn.

Regardless of where you go in the DC area, and probably across the country, in every piece of turf, be it a county, city, but a defined region, you will see a small group, of realtors who seem to dominate the listings. When I drive around Howard county in Central Maryland, there is one dominant player, a strong (but small) second tier, then everyone else.

The same is basically true of LinkedIn. While no one "owns" the market, certain players in each business niche tend to stand out because they have figured out how to leverage LinkedIn. From what I see, less than 10% have figured this out.

The main way you see these people is in the groups. Group discussions are open to all group members but used only by a few, and those that use them well stand out and stand well above the crowd.

The more value each of these people add in the discussions, by posting pertinent information or commenting on ongoing discussions, the higher they become on the radar of that group.

Name recognition, standing out from the crowd, should be one of the goals you have on LinkedIn.

So what is your level of activity?

The Amtower Uncertainty Principle (The Waldo Factor, part 21)

The Amtower Uncertainty Principle, or the Law of the Food Chain

             The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states the more defined the location of an object, the less certain we are about the momentum.

The Amtower Uncertainty Principle states that most people do not accurately know or define their real market position, their position in the food chain. Some publicly and privately overstate their position in the food chain and their respective momentum, thereby misleading potential friends, employees, employers, partners, prospects, customers – even their family.

This will inevitably lead to poor delivery on the promises and to the slowing of whatever momentum that person might have, thus deteriorating their market position.

Each of us has had the co-worker who claims responsibility for anything that goes right, the hindsight prescience to humbly seek kudos for work performed by others. I have seen resumes that could indicate the Second Coming.

Most of us recognize hype for what it is, but there is always someone willing to buy the Brooklyn Bridge. Unfortunately, some of those in the gullible category are in positions of responsibility.

On LinkedIn this principle comes into play in a couple ways. If your profile is stagnant, everyone knows where you are and can assume you do little or nothing.

Or, if your profile is full of hyperbolic assertions, people will assume your methane production is much higher than your work output.

State your market position clearly. Knowing and accepting your current market position allows you to accurately plot a course for higher things.

Connecting Dots in the Dark: The Waldo Factor, part 20

Recently I recorded an interview with Mike O'Connell for www.itsalljournalism.com. I know Mike from Federal News Radio where he is the web editor and he is adept at social media. The interview focused on the many uses of LinkedIn, including why it is important for journalists and others.

During the interview I used a phrase that shows up in many of my live presentations on LinkedIn: connecting dots in the dark. The dots are things you know or suspect are "out there", you are just not certain where and who.

Even by itself, this is an interesting metaphor. In the context of LinkedIn it means several things, among them-

   * the ability to find people who share their discipline, but people you did not previously know

   * key people at companies you want to do business with

   * finding people you have not seen in years

   * finding groups (communities) of like-minded thinkers

   * ideas - coming across interesting discussions that are pertinent to what you do, started and commented on by people you probably need to know

   * and so much more.

I view LinkedIn as one of the coolest, most useful and versatile marketing tools I have run across in my thirty-plus years of marketing, with literally something for anyone in business.

You can read the interview (it's not long) at www.itsalljournalism.com.

SmartPay Update on Amtower Off Center

David Shea, Director of the Office of Charge Card Management, FSA,GSA appeared on Amtower Off Center on May 13 (Federal News Radio, 1500 AM) to discuss the state of the government charge card, SmartPay(tm).

If you have an interest in the government charge card program, listen to this show. Here is the link:

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=45

During the hour long show Mr Shea shared the following:

- during 2012 the card was used for $29.3 billion (this includes purchases, travel and fleet). Of that, $18.1 billion was on the purchase card.

- 2013 year-to-date (first two quarters reporting): $18.1 billion

- Top agencies using the SmartPay cards:
     - VA
     - DOD
     - DOJ
     - HHS
     - DHS

- top merchant categories (a merchant category is how the credit card companies categorizes vendors):
     - Miscellaneous retail
     - Dental, pharmaceutical
     - Industrial supply
     - Office supplies;
     - Education/colleges;
     - Business services not elsewhere categorized;
     - Health practice;
     - Government services;
     - Computer/IT.

- Level 3 processing on cards is required for all Strategic Sourcing Initiatives on the GSA Schedules;

- 20% of the purchase card activity in 2012 was over $10,000 per purchase, well above the "micro-purchase" level;

- There are approximately 280,000 purchase cards in use;

- Due to travel restrictions, there is a migration of charge card training programs to virtual training events.

Advice for vendors from Mr Shea includes:

- shop around for your acquirer (card processor) to get the best rates;
- make certain you get the proper merchant (MCC) category when setting up your account;

And much more.

You can find more information on the SmartPay program at

http://smartpay.gsa.gov

Broadcast media web sites, including www.federalnewsradio.com, hacked

In case you've missed it, you can't listen to Federal News Radio on the web, at least through Internet Explorer. In order to access the site, it is recommended that Chrome, Firefox and Safari be used.

Here's the message from www.FederalNewsRadio.com

If you are getting this page, you are using the Internet Explorer browser to reach FederalNewsRadio.com.

FederalNewsRadio.com is currently dealing with a malicious cyber attack, which attempts to use our site to infect computers with malware when using the Internet Explorer (IE) browser.

To help protect our website visitors and prevent any further damage, we have blocked access to FederalNewsRadio.com from Internet Explorer. We believe Chrome, Firefox and Safari are safe alternatives, and suggest you use one of these browsers to access the Federal News Radio website.

Federal News Radio's sister website, WTOP.com, was also affected by the attack in the same manner.

The cyber attack that compromised our web servers injected code into FederalNewsRadio.com and WTOP.com, redirecting vulnerable browsers to rogue websites, which spread the FakeAV malware or a variant of it.

If you have been on either site recently using IE, you should perform a malware scan to check for an infection and get it cleaned.

Additional information on the malware and how to respond to an infection can be found here and a removal tool, which may help, can be found here.

Federal News Radio is still in the process of performing a thorough analysis to ensure our systems are free of malicious content. We will update readers and listeners with new information on the situation as soon as it is available.

"We take cybersecurity very seriously, and ensuring that our listeners and readers can safely come to our site is of the utmost importance," said Lisa Wolfe, program director of Federal News Radio. "Federal News Radio has been and will continue to be the most trusted source of federal news for more than a decade."

Federal News Radio is one of several media websites that "were compromised and redirecting user traffic to an Exploit Kit serving the same FakeAV malware variant..." according to a blog post by Eddie Mitchell, a security engineer with Invincea.

Mitchell wrote the attacks against Federal News Radio and its sister station, WTOP, are "likely an indicator of a larger more widespread attack against online media sites."