Having fun with LinkedIn!

LinkedIn and Facebook are most popular social networking sites when it comes to connecting with your Current and your Ex – girlfriends or colleagues. I know some people do get mixed up but it’s preferred to connect with girlfriends / boyfriends on facebook and leave LinkedIn for colleagues or other professional contacts. ( In case you have a relationship in office, God Bless you)

Like all of you, even I used to think that LinkedIn is for serious kinds till I figured out some interesting ways to have fun ( and get noticed ). 

Recently, I noticed that there was a typo in my designation on LinkedIn and corrected that. Next day, my LinkedIn mailbox was flooded with these:

Hello Vikas, 

I saw you added XXXXXXXX to your profile, and wanted to drop you a note of congratulations!

Thanks to LinkedIn notifications, my contacts would have got a message that –

Vikas Goel has an updated current title or Vikas Goel is now XXXXX . Send Note

And knowing people, they would have clicked on “send note” to congratulate me. So, even if your job/designation doesn’t change – keep editing your profile and baffle your contacts.

Other fun feature is - Who’s viewed your profile? tab on the right side. 

Yes, now it's possible to find out who's stalking you. Click and you may be surprised to see that pretty marketing lady in office you met in the elevator, was checking out your profile.So once you know, who was checking you out, see if it works to your advantage. 

Have fun !

( If you know more of such ways to have fun on linkedin, drop me a note, will be glad to share here.)

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LinkedIn – The Blunder years !

As of 1 January 2011, LinkedIn had more than 90 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries. You can be proud that You , Your neighbor , and the society watchman, all are one in 90 million.

 

Let’s get started .

 

Profile

It’s first and the easiest step , all you need to write is your education( if any) , Past and Current ( no no not girl friends ) Employments , and it’s ready . It also allows you to give a brief summary , that’s where many of us try to be creative.

 

Sample Summary of Vencut Sobbo

“I am a vibrant , creative and hardworking young professional with a sharp focus on quality tasks. Other than BAU am also good at multi tasking and have accomplished a robust culture in current organisation. My goal in life is to scale new heights and take my organisation to even higher height. If given a chance , I would prove an ASSet to your esteemed organisation , together we can achieve even newer heights – you can see that I am not scared of heights"

 

This will ensure that your summary appears in every possible search , by any damn consultant , MBA or a wanna be MBA cum Consultant.

 

Sending Invites

First and foremost , use LinkedIn special feature to send auto invites to all your gmail, rediffmail and yahoo mail contacts , this will ensure that your invite reaches atleast 749 people. Now it’s time for sending some personalised invites.

 

Sample personalised invites :

First , to that pretty HR lady who hired you.

“Dear SunderLuxmi , I would like to invite you to my LinkedIn because I like the way you helped me in filling all the 19 Joining Forms including my hobbies , I still remember the way you smiled listening that Orkutting is my hobby”

 

Second , to the Head Marketing , whom you met in the LOO.

“Dear Sunderassan Sir, I am working with despatch department , as a junior vice executive – outgoing emails , please accept my invite. In case you don’t remember , we met at the place where all bodily fluids meet , and I liked your tattoo”

 

Making Recommendations

Now , it’s time to make some recommendations. By now , you would have received at least 19 messages asking for your recommendations.

 

The typical message would look something like - "I'm sending this to ask you for a brief recommendation of my work that I can include in my LinkedIn profile. If you have any questions, let me know. Thanks in advance for helping me out"

 

Now seeing this , don’t waste your time in remembering who’s this guy. All you need is to dust off your old “wren n martin “ , see what is an adjective – pick any one at random and make a sentence and Bingo .

 

Sample Recommendation for an Ex

“Nymphia and I go a long way , I still remember her first day in our office , also when we met at the “Annual Forward Looking Strategy and Looking Back Meeting”. She is very well dressed and has an eye for detail , she quickly spotted the mole and some hairs on my left ear lobe”

 

That’s it for this time , keep licking linking.

 

Disclaimer: Names have been changed on requests, If still it’s your name you better change it. 

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If Bollywood was on LinkedIn ?

First thing, it would no more be called LinkedIn , it would be LinkedUp – and you know why !

Now let’s explore some popular features of LinkedIn.

Profile :

That’s the first step for any LinkedIn user, and knowing Bollywood they would hire script writers for it. Chetan Bhagat would be the busiest person on earth and the first one to approach him would be one film wonder Sonakshi Sinha and no film no wonder Shazahn Padamsee.

Shazahn Padamsee : Current – Doing nothing , Past – Did nothing except a blink and you miss kinda role in Rocket Singh.

Shazahn Padamsee through Chetan Bhagat’s pen.

"Shazahn Padamsee, a theatre artist , a successful model turned actress is the daughter of renowned ad guru / theatre personality Alyque Padamsee and prominent pop singer Sharon Prabhakar.  She made her feature film debut in 2009 in the Hindi film Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year opposite Ranbir Kapoor, which opened to critically acclaimed reviews ( by both Alyque and Sharon), and now she is working with critically acclaimed , national award winner , eminent director – Madhur Bhandarkar."

Add Connections :

Now as you know , typical LinkedIn user connects with people he/ she has worked with or studied with. But, Bollywood and studies hardly go together except Tusshar Kapoor who has graduated with a BBA from the Ross School of Business ( Now you know why Bollywood doesn’t pursue education).

So LinkedIn would come up with a new tab , “People you have partied with”, and Kishen Mulchandani would be the most connected man. Bombay Times and HT Cafe would sponsor this section , and would provide data and photographic proofs. So, the people you partied yesterday night , would automatically appear today in “People you may know”.

By the way, unlike tattoos , connections are not permanenet . So Deepika can always block Ranbir and reconnect with Sid.

Who’s viewed your profile:

This feature tells that “Your profile has been viewed by 14 people in last 15 days” and it further tells that who all viewed your profile. Now this would be most used feature , as it would tell that Deepika and Sonam have viewed each other’s profile 19 times and Shakti Kapoor has viewed both of their profiles 190 times. Surprisingly , Katrina has never viewed Salman’s profile.

Recommendations:

Well , this has got nothing to do with casting couch , and I repeat there’s no casting couch in this industry. So Aditya Panchssholi would self-lessly recommend Kangna but Kangna would never display that recommendation on her profile. Karan Johar would recommend every damn person except Ram Gopal Verma . Uday Chopra and Harman Baweja would love to recommend people , but LinkedIn won’t allow them to recommend.

Morani Brothers and Wizcraft would start “Paid Recommendations” where for a measly sum of INR 2 crores , you can get recommendations from Shahrukh Khan , Salman Khan or Akshay Kumar.

Aamir Khan won’t recommend any one except Kiran Rao or Imrran Khan .

Some day , I’ll also talk about premium features of LinkedIn. 

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AntiSocial Networking – LinkedIn Special

LinkedIn has more than 70 million registered users, spanning more than 200 countries , and that’s more than enough reason to be proud of – One in 70 million , that’s YOU and this also gives you a very prestigious social status – Man is a social animal.

Lets see how collectively we can abuse this whole thing and get antisocial – am sure you would have done this at some point or other but lets do a recap for benefit of the antisocial network at large.

Never Say No

I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.

I know you are trying to remember the title of the book which was something like “Never say No , When you want to say Yes” . So the moment you see “I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.” – immediately say YES. You may not recollect now who’s the person then do you know who stays on 5^th floor , flat number 501 of your society . So just click confirm – anyhow always remember “Atithi Devo Bhava”

Endorse all n sundry

“Can you endorse me” –

Dear Vikas,

I'm sending this to ask you for a brief recommendation of my work that I can include in my LinkedIn profile. If you have any questions, let me know. Thanks in advance for helping me out.

What What ! you don’t know him enough , just worked with him for 2 days or he was just a passing acquaintance in your last job . Come on , don’t be a snob – all that guy is requesting you is a “recommendation” . So just go ahead and do it . What , Come again – you don’t know what to write . Now that’s the real challenge if you are not good at words , okay let me give you a hint . Dust off your old “wren n martin “ , see what is an adjective – pick any one at random and make a sentence and Bingo .

Never be negative in making any recommendations , even if you hated that fellow , control your emotions and say

"I am happy to say that this candidate is a FORMER colleague of mine." Or

"I can assure you that NO person would be better for the job."

People you may know

Trust me , LinkedIn goes all the way out to find out this list , its handpicked for you , so never insult that and invite every body featuring in this list .Its displayed at the Right- Top corner of the your profile page . Initially you ‘ll think that “what if” if other person doesn’t accept your request . Remember , Atithi Devo Bhava and by now he / she also has read “Never say no” , so just invite . The more you do , more confident you’ll feel.

Happy Abusing , Man is a social ANIMAL.

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