Month: May 2013

You’ve probably gotten those emails suggesting that “some Minister died and they need to give money to you.”

It’s the typical Nigerian “419” scam, named after the Nigerian Penal code number.

Well, those emails are coming to your LinkedIn Inbox, and soon!
The worst part, is they are much harder to spot, as the scammers are imitating Real, Senior Bank Executives.

Here’s what the guys at HotforSecurity.com reported when they found this strange email in their LinkedIn Inbox.

Be careful out there, and remember to mark those profiles as Spam as well as the emails. I don’t know if anyone at LinkedIn is looking at these, but if the trend continues, at least there will be a log of profiles and emails.

If you heard any of the political news in the last election cycle, you might have come across a news story where the reporter states something like…
“Politician’s LinkedIn Profile says…“, or “According to his/her LinkedIn Profile...”

As a LinkedIn speaker and trainer, I read a lot of articles about LinkedIn profiles.
Today, I came across an article from the Chicago Tribune, from Reuters, where the author used information found on a LinkedIn profile, as part of the article:

“Ernst had worked at Deutsche Bank for 9 years, his LinkedIn profile showed.”

Times have changed.
More and more reporters are using LinkedIn as a go to reference point.

That being said, if you’re looking for a job, think of what a Hiring Managers might see.
Or, if you are in Sales and Marketing, what are your Prospects and Buyers going to see?
(You know they’re looking at your LinkedIn profile before your meeting… Right?)

From the Sales and Marketing fields, I’ve seen some pretty bad profiles.

One of my favorites:
“The Quota Killer”
Go ahead… look it up “quota killer” in LinkedIn:

I found 136 profiles that included the term “Quota Killer” listed in them…
I’m not too sure a prospect is going to be really excited to see that in your profile before your next sales meeting.

What are they going to find?
Is your profile accurate and up to date?
Is your story compelling, or does it read like a resume?
Does it sell your strengths?

Your LinkedIn Profile is now your online business card… but free to access by almost anyone.

What message does your LinkedIn Profile say about you?

LinkedIn Profile Tips:
Check your profile job titles and timelines.
Are they accurate?
Are they descriptive of your roll?
Or they the official titles pulled from your companies “Human Resources Pay Grade System” (ie. Programmer IV, Systems Engineer II, Account Manager”)

Will someone reading your job title know what you do?

I get a lot of email and spam from my LinkedIn connections.
Unfortunately, LinkedIn doesn’t seem to do much about spam. I really wish they would. At least that would control the spam that I get from within LinkedIn.

Today, though, I got an email from one of my first degree connections.
It was sent directly to my LinkedIn email address (I maintain a separate email address for all LinkedIn connections, so I know where the email is coming from, and if it’s from LinkedIn Spam, etc.).

This was one of the weirdest emails I have ever seen from a LinkedIn connection.
It was so strange, and just wrong, that I just can’t imagine what was going on in the writers head.

Here is the email that I received: