Blog

Getting around the LinkedIn Navigation Bar

April 15, 2011 Comments(0)

One of Alterra’s specialities is helping businesses develop really powerful strategies using LinkedIn. This is fast becoming one of the most useful research tools for companies to use to find new clients and more importantly to find the right person in the right place.

To use LinkedIn effectively, members need to understand the Navigation bar. This video shows you the way around LinkedIn. So once you have an account, this is the way to get started.

Posted in Uncategorized

The Easy Way to Join LinkedIn Groups

April 10, 2011 Comments(0)

Groups are a great way to read and join in interesting discussions on a particular subject. There are over 100,000 groups on LinkedIn and you usually search for them using the Groups tab on the Main navigation bar. But there are 2 other ways to find potentially interesting groups.

The first is from your Home page. On the right hand side, LinkedIn makes suggestions on the Groups you may be interested in based on your profile and your activity on the platform.

Next to the Group’s logo is the title of the Group and a lock symbol. This shows whether the Manager has to approve your membership of a the Group. Underneath the title of the group there is a Join button – click this to join.

Groups you may Like

The second is from the Profile page of one of your connections. Scroll down to the list of groups your connection is a member of and you will see the following:

A Connection's Groups

You will see on the above image that I already share 2 groups with this connection as it is telling me ‘Already a Member’. Underneath groups I am not a member of, there is a blue circle with a plus sign and the word Join. Click on this if you wish to be a member of the Group. Remember you can only join 50 groups and the are usually managed by a member who approves new joiners.

We will be taking a closer look at Groups in the coming months. Here is a short video to get you started.

LinkedIn Groups – An Introduction

Amanda Brown Alterra Business Consulting Ltd

Posted in Blog

How to use Twitter on LinkedIn

March 28, 2011 Comments(0)

Here is a set of instructions on how to add and set Twitter for use in conjunction with LinkedIn. The reason for doing this is that it will save you time if you only post an update once and let your links do the rest.

Set Up

From the LinkedIn Home page, click on Profile and select Edit profile from drop down menu
The LinkedIn Twitter Set Up Screen
In the blue box under Website you will see Twitter edit
Click and the pop-up shown here on the right hand side will appear
You can add, edit or remove a Twitter profile here and also select who can see your updates and tweets.
It is important to think about the messages you want your LinkedIn and Twitter followers to see.
If you have more than one Twitter profile then LinkedIn can be set to send updates from a specific Twitter account.
When you post an update in LinkedIn you can choose at the time whether that particular update is to be shown in Twitter by checking or unchecking the Twitter box.
In the check box “share only tweets that contain #in” you effectively disassociate Twitter from LinkedIn apart from when you actively choose to include #in or #li in your tweet.
Tick the check box for the rich display
Click Save Changes

Each time you post a LinkedIn update or tweet consider the question, “Which of my connections will be interested in this post?” Some people use Twitter for personal updates which would be completely inappropriate for LinkedIn whilst other have 2 Twitter accounts one for personal and the other for business. Their settings on LinkedIn reflect the purpose of their different Twitter accounts.

In the end, if you make a mistake, updates are only a fraction of the use of these platforms, and although they are on the web forever, they pass through in a flash.

Posted in Blog Tagged Alterra, connecting, facebook, linkedin-for-business, social media marketing, twitter

Good Morning. How may I help?

March 25, 2011 Comments(0)

This week I have had to make numerous telephone calls to local companies. They were all business calls to companies offering services to the SME sector. It was a frustrating exercise, not because no-one answered the phone, but due to the fact that I was given the impression that my call was completely unimportant.

I could have been an important potential client or someone offering the dream, money-making system but my needs were completely irrelevant to most of the people answering my call. No cheery, “Good Morning, XYZ Company, how may I help?”, no “I am sorry Mr A is busy at present but I will get him to call you as soon as he is off the phone”.

Hardly anyone took my name, telephone number, and email address or asked the reason for my call. I know we are all busy but if I were an existing client I would have been appauled. Customer relationship management isn’t just a computer system, it is every interaction a company has with their client or potential client.

So, if you are unsure of how your telephones are being answered, give your office a call. Owner-managed businesses have to use mobiles to remain in touch and to keep costs down but larger companies have a duty to train their staff to present the company in the best possible light at all times – even on the phone.

Posted in Uncategorized

LinkedIn News

March 23, 2011 Comments(0)

Start each day with the most important news – right on your LinkedIn homepage.
LinkedIn News provides you with the most important articles about your company, competitors, and industry.

* Discuss interesting news privately with colleagues from your company
* Submit new articles that you find online and share news with the rest of your network

The news module collects news about the company you have listed on your profile. If you are not receiving news, please make sure that your current organization is listed. If you still don’t have a news module, please be patient as LinkedIn is still working on rolling out news to include all companies and users.

The news module appears on your Home page under the More tab. It updates you with the latest news relevant to your company and industry categorized by:

* Most Read: articles that have been viewed the most by members of your company
* Company: articles that are about your company
* Other Companies: articles that are about similar companies and competitors
* Industry: articles about your industry

If you are interested in researching news in a particular industry or on a special topic then a Search will take you to LinkedIn Signal which streams topics in real time.

Posted in Blog

LinkedIn Facts and Figures – the local and international membership

February 22, 2011 Comments(0)

A New Member joins every second!

I live in between St Albans and Welwyn and within 10 miles of the AL1 postcode there are over 78,000 members on LinkedIn. My network of over 700 connections gives access to over 185,000 people. Consider the impact on your networking time and budget if you use LinkedIn efficiently.
LinkedIn Facts

The world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 100 million members in over 200 countries.
More than half of LinkedIn members are located outside of the United States.There were nearly two billion people searches on LinkedIn in 2010.
LinkedIn is currently available in six languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
LinkedIn started off 2011 with about 1,000 full-time employees located all around the globe, up from around 500 at the beginning of 2010.

Worldwide Membership

20m+ members in Europe as of December 2010

5m+ members in the UK as of December 2010

1m+ members in France

2m+ members in the Netherlands

1m+ members in Italy

1m+ members in Spain

8m+ members in India

3m+ members in Canada

1m+ members in Australia

1m+ members in Brazil
More than 1 million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages

Posted in Blog

Welcome to our new blog – all about LinkedIn for Business

February 21, 2011 Comments(0)

LinkedIn for Business is one of the services offered by Alterra Business Consulting Ltd. It has grown out of our clients’ needs for using the Internet to grow their customer base. From financial services, accountants and solicitors through to photographers, trainers, graphic designers and health professionals – they have all found that LinkedIn has helped:

Establish connections with existing and potential clients
Showcase their expertise and display recommendations
Carry out competitive analysis
Research candidates for jobs
Find strategic partners
Search for business support professionals

We focus on how to use LinkedIn as part of a well thought out marketing and business development strategy.

For owner-managed businesses and small companies, 1-2-1 training gets the key decision makers up and running in a fraction of the time it would take them to do it themselves. For larger organisations, we put together bespoke solutions.

Over the coming weeks and months, the blog will provide you with all the LinkedIn News and advice on ways of using the platform as part of your social media marketing.

Posted in Blog Tagged Alterra, connecting, facebook, LinkedIn, linkedin-for-business, networking, social media marketing, twitter

Sensitivity Analysis – one of the many decision making tools

February 20, 2011 Comments(0)

This week’s challenge was to deliver a 10 minute presentation to my networking group on a useful topic which demonstrates one of the skills I use in the course of my work. It really helps your network understand in greater detail the way in which you work. The difficult part is to make it interesting to the whole audience.

I chose the topic of Sensitivity Analysis which is one of the tools I use when helping businesses through periods of change. It helps clients focus their minds on the numbers. It’s all very well having a great idea but if the figures don’t stack up, the impact on the business may be disastrous. Assigning probabilities to different outcomes helps us consider what might happen to the bottom line if sales fall below expectations or costs exceed estimates.

The video shows the charts I used to help explain my points.

Posted in analysis, decision making, forecasting, probability, profits

Blog

Getting around the LinkedIn Navigation Bar

The Easy Way to Join LinkedIn Groups

Good Morning. How may I help?

LinkedIn News

LinkedIn Facts and Figures – the local and international membership

Sensitivity Analysis – one of the many decision making tools

Archives

Categories

Tags

SHARE

FOLLOW US

Quicklinks

Contact

Blog

Director Profile