Would Being Recognized as an Expert Bring Success to Your Ministry?

It is usually a tremendous advantage to be recognized as an expert, especially in some fields of ministry.  Being an expert can bring clients and ministry receivers directly to you; and can encourage friends and other ministers to refer their contacts to you for your expertise in a specific field.  Of course the first step is to make sure you are an expert, that step is up to you.

Once you have the expertise, how do you tell people without sounding arrogant or elite?  With today’s online resources you can build trust and exhibit expertise in your field in many ways.  A little planning will help you put your time and resources where they will help you the most.  Skipping the planning can likely cost you extra time and delayed success.

First begin by identifying your ideal business or ministry “target audience”.  That target audience might be customers, counseling clients, ministry receivers, students, pastors and church leaders, or even publishers and distributors for your products.  Then identify where your target will likely spend time, such as reading the newspaper, trade journals, brochures, websites, blogs, social networks like LinkedIn and facebook, etc.  You can begin by asking your current friends and associates what they recommend.  Finally, identify the media outlet that is likely to get you the best or largest return and find resources that will help you take advantage of that outlet.

Since Linked4Ministry started out primarily about LinkedIn, I’ll start with that.

Your LinkedIn Profile – Since LinkedIn was designed to be a professional network, a good profile can exhibit a real level of trust and expertise with the right elements.  You can find additional information about the LinkedIn elements in past blogs and articles from Linked4Ministry but here are the minimum recommended elements:

• A professional head shot photograph.
• A good “headline” that tells people what you can do for them.
• A summary that tells what you’ve done for others.
• References that exhibit trust, reliability, and success.
• Educational references that add expertise to your field (can be seminars etc.)
• Apps that show Books & articles that you’ve written or read in your field.

LinkedIn Groups – Identify what groups your target audience might join.  If you have identified targets in LinkedIn, you can view their profile to see what groups they are in that might benefit you, and might help establish your expertise, and join them.  You can search for people with key words (i.e. pastors, authors, publishers, etc.) to see what groups they are in.  Once you identify the groups that will help you, and you join the groups, read through the discussions to see what the ‘tone’ of the comments and articles are.  Identify existing discussions or start new discussions that you have real expertise in and contribute things that will add true value to the discussion.  Look for things that might have been overlooked in the discussion that will shed new light on the conversation or provide solutions not yet mentioned.  Make sure all your posts are well thought out, spelled correctly, and supportable if you are asked.  When you see a target contact that you’d like to be connected to, you can search their contributions in the group and either add to that discussion, or communicate directly with them.  Start with things that add value or ask their advice or input.  Once a relationship has built value, you can invite them to be directly connected.

Other Media to consider

Blogs – It’s amazing how many blogs there are today, and sites like WordPress.com and WordPress, Blogger.com, Tumblr, Textpattern, and Posterous are all free and about as easy to use as a word processor.  Once you have a blog, you’ll need to promote it until it takes off.  Post new blogs in your LinkedIn status updates, in LinkedIn groups (that allow blog links), on your facebook page, on Twitter, in Google+, and everywhere else you can find to get the word out.  Make sure your blog has a place to allow readers to subscribe to future additions, and include icons for sharing on LinkedIn groups, Facebook, twitter, WordPress, StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, and any other link your blog host has available.  If you have a website, you should either imbed your blog or make it a very visible link on your home page.  Finally, ask your blog readers to share your blog with friends and associates they believe might be interested.  A good blog with valuable or helpful information can establish your expertise in your field.  Keep a list of your blog topics handy with the URL (internet address) that you can refer others to for answers.

Answer or Ask Questions – You can scan LinkedIn questions to find ones in your field of expertise, or start new ones that will attract attention.  Follow the same guidelines as group discussions to build value before asking for return.  The same goes for other sites like Yahoo Answers or Answers.com.  LinkedIn allows readers to vote on the most influential answers, Yahoo gives you points if your answer is selected as best., and Answers.com identifies the most answers with a ‘top contributor’ title.

Polls – You can start LinkedIn Polls (in the general LinkedIn polls or in specific groups) that will ask intriguing questions that will challenge people to stretch their thinking or beliefs around your expertise.  Use the group discussion guidelines.

Conclusion – If you take time to provide true value without an expected return your expertise will be noted and shared, but obvious self promotion or blatant bragging or selling will backfire.  Include links to your own resources and to other resources in comments and answers that give readers additional value.  Give away free advice that demonstrates your expertise, but never give a half answer with a “buy this” for the rest of the information.  My suggestion for the key to success in God’s Kingdom is “pay it ahead” and you will receive God’s blessings, which includes the monetary success you need to live.

As always, thank you for reading Linked4Ministry.  If you are new here, the best way to receive all the new posts is to subscribe for e-mail updates at the top right.  If you have been following Linked4Ministry and find it helpful, please consider sharing it with other ministry partners that it could benefit.  It’s easy to do by clicking on the following buttons, and it’s OK to click more than one !

Blessings,
Bill Bender
Linked4Ministry & Anothen Life Ministries

12 Ways to Promote Your Ministry or Business with a Web Presence

In today’s world, a business or ministry must have a “Web Presence”.  Not necessarily a web site, but a web presence.  A web presence simply means you, your ministry, or business can be found by an online search.  You don’t have to be active on the internet to have a web presence, you might just be listed in an online membership directory, or you might have a website, and a full array of social media profiles.  The best way to be found is to be listed in as many things as possible, and include key words that you want to be identified with.  See What Gets You Found for additional details on key words.

Your web presence certainly includes a website, a LinkedIn profile, a facebook page, and a twitter account.  Those might currently be the “big four”, but there are many other ways you should consider.  Here are a few suggestions:

Website – A website doesn’t have to be expensive, I’ve used Network Solutions and 1&1 for under $150 a year.  Although they can take a while to set up, it’s not much more complicated than using a word processor if you use their templates and backgrounds.  Keep in mind, the most important thing is to make them appealing and compelling (both visually and content) so visitors will stay there to read a bit, before moving on.  If the home page isn’t captivating, I move on in 5-20 seconds.

Blog – A blog can give you great exposure, and keep readers tuned in for more.  A blog can build your online trust, credibility, and reputation, as well as build your brand.  Several to consider are WordPress, BlogSpot, or Blogger.com.  They are free and offer ready to use templates, or you can build your own.  You can have a free standing blog, or incorporate it into your web page as a link or a tab.

Email newsletters – If you already have a big following you might consider an email newsletter.  There are several services that automate them like constant contact for a small fee.  The fee includes maintaining your mailing list and allowing readers to subscribe and unsubscribe without you having to maintain the list.

Video newsletters – With today’s society that loves to ‘watch’ rather than ‘read’, a video newsletter can be very powerful if it’s consistent and professional.  It doesn’t have to be expensive with flip type camcorders that make it easy to post a YouTube video.

LinkedIn profile – I’ve written lots about LinkedIn, but having a detailed profile not only gives you a great reference site, and search ability, it can be used as an additional resource on business cards, emails, and correspondence, by including your LinkedIn Public Profile (your LinkedIn profile’s URL).  Be sure to customize it first, so it will look professional, and be easy for readers to enter.

Business Cards – Everyone needs a professional looking business card with your contact information.  You should give two to everyone you meet (one for them to keep, and one to share).  Check out VistaPrint.com for low cost or free cards if you pay the shipping, or search for “free business cards” to find other options.

Facebook – Facebook isn’t only for reporting what you ate for breakfast, you can build a fan page or business page.  There’s lots written about facebook, and I’ve included several great guides in the “Linked4Ministry” LinkedIn group.  You can also see LinkedIn vs. Facebook Business Pages for additional details.  Just remember to keep your facebook page totally professional, or remember to keep your personal page and contacts separate.

Twitter – A Twitter account can help followers keep up with you, your blog, newsletters, etc.  Twitter doesn’t have to take much time, with one click you can have your LinkedIn Status changes automatically post in your Twitter account.  Twitter done right can greatly add to your exposure.  You need followers, so you will need to invite them to get started, then add a suggestion to “re-tweet” at the end of your posting. 

Referrals – Having your clients and ministry receivers recommend you is huge, but sadly widely ignored in ministry.  Consider it akin to witnessing to someone with your testimony; it adds believability and reliability to your witness and your ministry.

Liking & Sharing – To increase your exposure, you will need help.  Today’s term is ‘going viral’, or spreading your message like a virus spreads.  The easy way is to get your friends and readers to “Like” or “Share” your content with their friends.  See The Reality of Liking and Sharing for additional details.

Business (Ministry) Plan – Have a clear (written) business plan including your target market (watch for future articles on this).

Other Ministries – Look at other websites and social media pages to see what they are doing.  Don’t forget to check out what your competition and companion ministries are doing for additional ideas.  Check out How BackLinks Help for more info.

As always, thank you for reading Linked4Ministry.  If you are new here, the best way to receive all the new posts is to subscribe for e-mail updates at the top right.  If you have been following Linked4Ministry and find it helpful, please consider sharing it with other ministry partners that it could benefit.  It’s easy to do by clicking on the following buttons, and it’s OK to click more than one !

Blessings,
Bill Bender
Linked4Ministry & Anothen Life Ministries

 

The Reality of “Connections”, “Liking”, and “Sharing” in Social Media . . .

What do we need to consider when we make or accept connections, how we build value for our network, and what should be expected in liking and sharing posts on social media?  The way we handle these things can help assure our success in what we desire to accomplish using social media, so it’s important that we spend a little time in planning how we will handle them.

Your Connections

Most of us understand connection quality vs. quantity.  We should each have a connection strategy, something that outlines who we will invite, and who we will accept invitations from (see my strategy below).  This strategy will be based on who your “target connections” are (the people you want to connect to).  You might want to identify your strategy on your profile to limit unwanted invitations.  If you want to maximize the value of LinkedIn, you will want to have a way of allowing or encouraging desirable invitations, so be sure you allow invitations in your security settings (In LinkedIn, go to “Settings” “Email Preferences” & “Select who can send you Invitations”).  You might also want to include an email address in your Contact Settings or in your Summary (I still recommend a dedicated email address for LinkedIn or even social media in general).  Of course there will be a few exceptions, but hundreds of unknown or unrelated connections don’t help much, and might even discourage people from connecting to you because they can presume you won’t be able to help them as you can’t possibly know all your connections.

My Connection Strategy

My personal LinkedIn connection strategy is to: (1) personally know my connections including family and friends, (2) worked with them in previous jobs, (3) have common ministry goals including deliverance, inner healing, and career coaching, (4) they are members of my LinkedIn groups.  If I receive an invitation, and it includes a personal message of why someone wants to connect, I almost always accept.  If the invitation is not personalized, I take the following steps; (1) look at their profile to see if common values or goals are indicated, (2) look at their groups to see if they indicate common (or conflicting) values, (3) look at their websites and links to see what they tell me about the person, and finally, (4) check out their work, education, recommendations, and the apps they use for additional input.  My connections either contribute or detract from my personal brand, and the value of my network.  I respect and value my connections as valuable resources, and generally will go out of my way to help them if I can.  My connections move from valuable to questionable if I get a message from them days after connecting, asking me to engage in some type of business with them.  Take time to build trust first, and make sure you only offer things that they have indicated they want or need.

Group Connections

Joining Groups is one of LinkedIn’s important benefits if you want to connect to people you do not currently know.  You will want to join groups that have common values and goals, and groups where your “target contacts” will be members.  If you join a group and immediately try t sell them something you will lose any credibility before you begin.  By participating in group discussions with valuable input, you can create your personal value and credibility to those that you want to connect to.  If you started a group, it’s a good idea to let potential members know what any membership qualifications might be.  Be aware joining a LinkedIn group can contribute to your personal brand, so always be cautious that the group profile is consistent with your values and goals, as well as the group’s rules are what you want to accept.

The Value of Your Connections and You

Your network is only as valuable as you make it.  It takes work to build that value.  One of the best ways to add value is by adopting the “pay it ahead” philosophy.  You can do this by sharing valuable and interesting information that you believe they will benefit from, and help them solve problems they might have.  As I mentioned above, that does not include selling your services to a new connections before you get to know them.  To my connections, I do recommend my two groups to those that I feel might benefit, but the groups are strictly voluntary and have no expected monetary return.  I fully intend both groups to be a “pay it ahead” gift, but I do occasionally sense reluctance that there is a catch coming.  There is not a catch, and there never will be in my groups.  Recommend books (keep these to other authors unless directly asked for your publications) and recommend groups that will help them succeed in their business and ministry.  We all have unique experiences, knowledge, and wisdom that can help others.  As a trainer recently told my son, you are a truly unique creation that will never happen again, not sharing your talent and gifts will keep others from ever having the opportunity to receive them and grow in the path that God desires for them.  Those more active on the internet will frequently find valuable articles and web pages that our connections could miss.  Finding a way to share those things should be a continuing goal to build our relationships and the value of our network.  A great way to add value is starting a LinkedIn group that has a focus to help your connections (preferably one that doesn’t already exist), and frequently start and contribute to the discussions.  That was exactly the goal for both my “Linked4Ministry” and “Anothen Life Deliverance and Inner Healing Network” LinkedIn groups.

Expectations of your Connections

What do you expect your friends to do when you write an awesome blog article, update your LinkedIn status, post a photo or story on facebook, or share a link on Twitter?  Should your friends read it, or comment on it?  If they are really friends, do you expect them to “Like”, “Share”, or “Re-Tweet” it?  Living in today’s Entitlement Society certainly gives us some expectations of our social media connections, but are our expectations realistic?  Actually, our connections don’t owe us anything just because they accepted our invitation, or we accepted theirs.  We must earn their respect and trust before we can expect them to help us.  When we consistently “pay it ahead” by contributing things that add real value, we build our credibility, trust, and respect.  Is that enough to get them to “Like” or “Share” our ‘stuff’ to help us reach a larger audience?  If you are connecting on social media to help people without worrying that it will have an ROI (return on investment) then you will most likely be successful.  If your goal is to monetize everything you do, then you won’t garner much support.  Expecting reciprocity on social media is just like life, it doesn’t happen without relationship, and happens frequently for those who ‘pay it ahead’ without regard for personal gain.

Liking and Sharing

When you “Like” an article or posting by a friend or connection, it is generally noted on your home page or status, and it raises the awareness of the posting, giving it additional exposure to your connections.  When you “Share” an article or posting, you can add your own comments (which is actually a recommendation or critique), and your comments will be seen by your connections giving them the added incentive or warning to click on the link or support the cause.  If the posting adds value to your connections, consider liking or sharing it with your connections, but always consider what type social media you are using.  I believe too much liking or sharing by a single individual too close together on LinkedIn degrades the value of my network updates, causing me to be frustrated with having to scroll through too many updates that don’t interest me, and possibly causing delays when I have to click on “more” to see the rest of my network updates that moved off the screen.  Facebook has some of the same issues but is sometimes less offensive because of the ‘social’ slant.  Twitter, on the other hand is all about lots of liking, sharing, and re-tweeting to help the postings gain large amounts of additional exposure.

In LinkedIn, the two extremes of not liking or sharing anything on social media, or liking or sharing so much that it looks like a Twitter stream does not provide value to you or your network.  A proper balance of liking or sharing to highlight things that others will benefit from, or will enjoy, adds value to your network.  When it’s done without expecting anything in return, increases your value, trust, and credibility to your network.  We still shouldn’t expect others to like and share our material just because they are connections.  If we ‘pay it ahead’ and ‘do it without expecting reciprocity’ as a way of life, we work toward gaining other’s support in a natural and easy way.  When and if our connections do reciprocate, and like or share our material, we know we are working in the right direction to building a valuable network that everyone benefits from.

Reciprocity in social media games

A final (and perhaps extreme) lesson in reciprocity on social media, and a good lesson in marketing, comes from the use of social media games like Farmville.  A lot of action in these games is all about reciprocity.  People give you things in these games, and they expect you to return the favor.  Ernst Fehr, an economist, did a study where players are asked to choose between keeping $10, or giving $40 to another player.  The expectation was that if the second player chose to accept the $40, they would split it with the first player, but knowing the second player could just keep the $40, might cause the first player to just keep the $10.  In the study, people were found to be generally trusting, and usually willing to take the chance of giving the second player the $40.  This strategy in marketing Farmville has made it extremely successful, and many players spend a great deal of time playing it.  I’m not sure how we apply the Farmville marketing strategy to ministry, but the strategy of providing value, and providing more than others expect, is always a good marketing plan.

 

As always, thank you for reading Linked4Ministry.  If you are new here, the best way to receive all the new posts is to subscribe for e-mail updates at the top right.  If you have been following Linked4Ministry and find it helpful, please consider sharing it with other ministry partners that it could benefit.  It’s easy to do by clicking on the following buttons, and it’s OK to click more than one !

Blessings,
Bill Bender
Linked4Ministry & Anothen Life Ministries

 

Preventing Someone from Tagging You in Photos and Videos on Facebook

Of course if it’s good, you want everyone to see a photo or video with you in it, especially if it might be a good advertisement for your ministry, business, or service.  How about something that you’d rather not be seen by some people, or even anyone?  Maybe the photo doesn’t flatter you, perhaps it could cast a poor image on what you are trying to present on facebook, or maybe it’s even offensive.

If you would rather not be tagged in a photo or video on Facebook, here’s how to prevent it:

1. Click on “Account” at the right side of the Facebook menu bar.
2. Click on “Privacy Settings”
3. Click on “Customize Settings” at the bottom left of the “Sharing on Facebook” section.
4. Click on:”Edit Settings” for “Photos and Videos You’re Tagged In” in the “Things Others Share” section
5. Select who (if any) can see “Photos and Videos I’m Tagged In” from the dropdown choices of: Everyone, Friends of Friends, Friends Only, or Customize, where you can further chose “Specific People”, or the “Only Me” which maybe the Best Choice!

The above steps will apply to “all future” photos and videos that you might be tagged in. 

Another approach is to wait to see what you are tagged in, and if you find something that you want to eliminate, you can un-tag yourself from that specific photo or video and remove the specific posting.  The danger there is what you don’t know or quickly see might be seen by others before you can take action.

As always, thank you for reading Linked4Ministry.  If you are new here, the best way to receive all the new posts is to subscribe for e-mail updates at the top right.  If you have been following Linked4Ministry and find it helpful, please consider sharing it with other ministry partners that it could benefit.  It’s easy to do by clicking on the following buttons, and it’s OK to click more than one !

How to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile

When is your LinkedIn Profile truly “optimized”?  The good news is, it doesn’t have to be fully optimized, but the bad news is it’s an ongoing process that done right, it never ends.  Just like your life changes, so will your LinkedIn profile likely change.  You begin with developing your strategy, what do you want LinkedIn to help you with?  Are you growing a business or ministry?  Are you looking for a new job or career change?  Do you want to build your trust and credibility in your profession?  Are you building your personal or ministry brand, or promoting brand awareness?  Is your goal to establish differentiation, or to stand out from similar businesses or ministries?  Are you trying to increase sales by generating leads?  Are you recruiting talent to help expand your business or ministry in new directions?  Defining your goals and strategy will help you focus on what must be done to optimize your profile so it will help you accomplish your goals.

If you are looking for a job, your profile will more closely resemble your resume.  Your summary should begin by saying what you will do for your prospective employer.  If you are trying to attract ministry clients, your profile will exhibit your experience and training, and establish your trust and credibility.  If you have little brand awareness, and need exposure, you need to tell people exactly what you do and why you are the right one to meet their needs.

Photo

Don’t omit adding a photo to your LinkedIn profile, it makes your profile personal and adds credibility to who you are.  It should be a professional looking headshot that doesn’t include additional people or articles, unless of course your identity is enhanced by including something like a pet if you are a veterinarian or a fancy car if you are an exclusive automobile salesman.

Headline

A LinkedIn headline is too often left to your job title.  If someone looks at your profile, they will see your most current position and title under experience, so you can use your headline as an additional way to attract people to your profile.  To take advantage of this feature, a good headline (1) will get people’s attention, (2) tell people who you are, and (3) what you can do for them.  When people see your status, discussions, answers, comments, and connection to their friends, they first see your photo, your name, and your headline.  A good headline will draw people to view your profile to find out more about you.  Your headline should also support your overall strategy.  Take note if you add a new position, your title will automatically become your headline, so you might have to update your headline after a position is added.

If I left my headline the same as my title of director of Anothen Life Ministries, someone viewing it would not know what I did and what Anothen Life is.  By making my headline “Anothen Life helps you eliminate things you thought you had to live with”, I’m hoping people will be intrigued enough to check out my profile or go to our website.  The additional line “Linked4Ministry extends your ministries reach” gives an idea of what Linked4Ministry is.  The number of characters in your headline is limited so you might have to play around with it to make it fit, but it’s worth the additional effort.

Connections

Your connections are usually at the center of your LinkedIn purpose and goals.  If you don’t believe you need connections, you might be missing major opportunities.  Likewise, too many of the wrong connections could hurt your efforts or add confusion and waste your time.  The number and type of LinkedIn connections you make should support your overall goals and strategy.  A large number of unrelated or unhelpful connections can detract from your purpose and even keep the right connections from seeing any value in your connection.  My connection strategy is to personally know all my connections, or have a common vision and goals so that we can add value to each other.

 

Summary

Your summary should tell people what you can do for them in the first several sentences.  Be sure to include “key words” that your target audience might search for in the first paragraph and your ‘ranking’ in LinkedIn search results will improve.  Saying you that were responsible for something doesn’t tell anyone how well you did at your assignment.  Including ‘quantitative” statements tell people what you’ve actually done.  Grew a youth group by 200% sounds good, but was it increasing from 1 to 3 members, or 25 to 75?  Speaking to large audiences is nice but a quantity and the event tell a more complete story.  Try to use the entire space LinkedIn allows, as long as it is all strategy or brand focused.

 

Recommendations

Recommendations from the right connections can help people quickly make a decision.  A recommendation from a co-worker or manager can help if you are looking for a new position, but might not help a potential client recognize how you can help them.  A recommendation from a client or ministry receiver that tells how you helped them will give potential ministry receiver additional third party information to help them make a decision and build their trust before they ever meet you.  The best recommendation strategy is quality, not quantity.  One recommendation that tells how you helped them, or the kind of person you are, is better than ten that are generic in nature.

Ideally, your recommendations will come from a variety of people and a variety of dates.  If you send out 100 recommendation requests on the same day, the dates of your recommendations will show that.  A good strategy is for you to send 2-3 recommendations to people you personally know each week.  When they receive the unsolicited recommendation, they will be pleasantly surprised, and LinkedIn suggests they might want to send you one.  It’s just a nice way of asking people for their help.

Applications

One of LinkedIn’s powerful features is all their applications, but deciding which ones to use and how to use them must align with your objectives so they don’t over confuse your profile.  I’ve purposely chosen to use every application I can as an example to give Linked4Ministry readers examples that they might consider. 

The Reading List by Amazon is great, but if you don’t know about the Publications application, you can’t use it to help promote your material and build your expertise. 

SlideShare is a great way to exhibit your presentation skills and can add to building your brand.

TripIt might look good but you might not want to tell the world that you are away on a 2 week mission trip to China.  (Notice I didn’t publish any dates until I’d returned). 

The blog applications can help expose your writings to a larger audience, but be sure your blog aligns with your LinkedIn objectives. 

Finally, don’t use every possible application so you don’t dilute your message, unless you have a specific purpose like I did, and you don’t believe it will hurt your overall strategy.

LinkedIn Answers

The reason to use LinkedIn answers may be a little tougher to define.  Unless you have great answers and believe others will “vote” for your answers, and you feel being tagged as having the “best answers” in a category will help your strategy, then you probably don’t need this one.  If you want to do research and collect other’s insights and opinions, then this might be a good option for you to consider.

LinkedIn’s resume building tool

LinkedIn has built a good tool to help you put a good resume together, but having an experienced resume writer help you focus your resume and choose the right words is invaluable.  This is a tool that’s probably only valuable to those looking for employment.

Status

A status update is a great way to share what you are working on or an article of interest.  Your status should still be considered part of your overall strategy.  When we were planning on our China mission trip, I changed my status to “preparing to present our deliverance program in China”.  That let my connections know what I’m up to, it let new viewers know that we do mission trips, and reminded viewers that we do deliverance training.  I did not include dates as I didn’t want to advertise that I was away from home for several weeks.

If your connections frequently view their network updates, they will see your status change and might even want to help you or support you.  Of course if your status updates are trivial and you constantly tell people what you are thinking or doing, the extra information might detract from your brand or even your credibility.  Those kinds of updates are better left to your “personal” facebook page.

Contact Information

Be sure to include contact information, especially if you are looking for employment.  I’d usually recommend a professional email address from one of the free services like Gmail from Google, Live from Microsoft, etc.  By professional, it should not include nicknames or cute titles; this is a professional networking site, stick with your name.  If you use your current employer’s email and you leave, you could miss some messages until you remember to go into LinkedIn and update your address.  I’d also recommend including any possible email address that someone might use to invite you as a connection.  LinkedIn allows multiple email addresses and you can choose the ‘primary’ address that you want LinkedIn to send you notices on.  Including all your common email addresses keeps you from inadvertently starting several LinkedIn profiles by accident.

Miscellaneous Notes

Who are You Connected to – Under Settings, you should consider letting your connections see who you are connected to.  This is a good way of finding lost friends, and it is rarely abused if your connections are the right ones. 

Who Viewed my Profile – Under Settings, you can choose to totally hide, give only company and title, or tell exactly who you are when you view someone’s profile.  I’ve received some great invitations just by letting people see that I looked at their profile, and I’ve invited several people that I noticed viewed my profile.

Other Social Media – Don’t fall victim to believing no one will look at your facebook personal page, so what you post (or allow others to post) won’t detract from your professional brand.

When will my LinkedIn Profile and my On-Line image be Optimized?

The quick answer is it will never be, because your life focus changes, LinkedIn and the on-line community changes.  The good news is you have started.  In today’s society and culture, we no longer use phone books to find businesses and ministries, so your internet presence is a critical factor to your success and growth.  Most people learn by making mistakes and correcting them, not getting it right the first time and possibly not even realizing it was right.  Linked4Ministry’s goal is to give you what I’ve learned (some from my own mistakes) and help you get up to speed quickly so you can truly “extend your reach into the kingdom”.

As always, thank you for reading Linked4Ministry.  If you are new here, the best way to receive all the new posts is to subscribe for e-mail updates at the top right.  If you have been following Linked4Ministry and find it helpful, please consider sharing it with other ministry partners that it could benefit.  It’s easy to do by clicking on the following buttons, and it’s OK to click more than one !

Blessings,
Bill Bender
Anothen Life Ministries

What LinkedIn Apps Should You Use?

There’s an APP for That! 

(well, almost).

LinkedIn has quite a few apps that can make your LinkedIn profile look more professional, give your connections and viewers additional information about you, showcase your work, promote your services, products, and events, and help establish your expertise and credibility.

LinkedIn Apps as of February 22, 2011: (found by hovering your mouse over the “More” in the top tool bar, and clicking on “Get More Applications”)

• Reading List by Amazon – You can share the books you are reading and what you think about them with others, as well as see what others are reading and sharing.  This can give others another view of who you are and what you believe so be cautious about comments and listings.
• SlideShare Presentations – You can share your presentations and videos, as well as see what your connections have created.  You can set a video to ‘auto-play’ when someone views your profile so they hear your voice and can see your video introduction.  This isn’t used much and can set you apart from others if done well.
• Google Presentation – This is a second way to add .PPT files to your profile or use Google’s online application to embed a presentation on your profile.
• WordPress – You can connect you WordPress blog to sync with your LinkedIn profile so your recent blogs are displayed on your profile and are quickly available to viewers.  This is a great way to advertise your business, ministries, and blogs.
• Blog Link – This is a second way of connecting your blog to your LinkedIn profile.
• Box.net Files – You can add word processing, spreadsheets, and pdf documents to box.net and make them available on your LinkedIn profile for others to view, share, and collaborate on.  This is a great way to post your resume (in pdf format) to your profile.
• Huddle Workspaces – This is second way to list documents and projects that your connections can share and collaborate on.  Huddle says their workspace is private and secure.
• Events – You can list your events and conferences, find events, and find out what events your connections are attending.  Listing an event allows other attendees to show their attendance and help promote events.  This also allows you to see who and how many have RSVP’ed for your event.  You can see their name, photo, and how you are connected.
• Tweets – You can share and view tweets directly from LinkedIn.  Caution, LinkedIn’s “professional” persona isn’t always the place to flood your connections with your every thought, but sharing comments, articles, and events that many people would be interested in can be a great tool for staying connected with your network.
• Polls – You can compose your own polls to collect actionable data from your connections and the professional audience on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn gives you additional statistics on the responders that can help you better understand the responses.
• SAP Community Bio – You can display your certified SAP expertise and add your SAP contributions and credentials to your LinkedIn profile.
• Company Buzz – This allows you to see what others are saying about your company on twitter.
• Portfolio Display – You can showcase your creative work on your LinkedIn profile with this application that supports unlimited multimedia content.
• E-Bookshelf – You can read the insights and concise business and career lessons from the top experts.
• Projects and Teamspaces – This allows you to share and track unlimited tasks, projects, documents, and Google Apps with your LinkedIn connections.
• Legal Updates – This gives you legal news that matters to your business.  Lawyers can upload articles and other content to make them easier to find.
• Lawyer Ratings – Professionals can showcase their Martindale-Hubbell^® Peer Review Ratings^TM and Client Review Ratings^TM to further validate your stated credentials on LinkedIn.
• Real Estate Pro – You can access your local real estate and office space market, follow active brokers, agents, and professionals, as well as track new property listings and available spaces.

 

More Great LinkedIn Tools (New Sections)

LinkedIn has several ‘default’ sections that are obvious like Experience, Education, Summary, Websites, etc., but they have just added a couple more that you might have missed.  Just after your basic info block, and just before your Summary, you will see a new line that says “NEW Add Sections to reflect achievements and experiences on your profile.  + Add Sections”

 

By clicking on the blue “+ Add Sections”, you will be given an option to add the following:

• Languages – You can highlight your language fluency to others.
• Patents – You can list patents that you have received to show others your area of expertise and innovations.
• Skills – You can highlight specific skills that have are not included in your experiences (jobs).
• Certifications – You can list certifications that you have received.
• Publications – You can list publications that you have written, with explanations to describe them to others.  You can include an unlimited number of publications on your LinkedIn profile, in lieu of the two that the Reading List by Amazon allows to be visible on your profile.  I’d include all publications and highlight the latest and most important in the Amazon app.

Taking advantage of these LinkedIn Apps allows you to more completely represent who you are, what you have done, what you do, and what you can do for those that contact you.  By including as many Apps as are appropriate, your profile will stand out from the others, giving you better exposure and gaining you better connections.  As you add connections and your profile grows, you will find that others will “want” to be connected to you and will send you invitations.

As always, thank you for reading Linked4Ministry.  If you are new here, the best way to receive all the new posts is to subscribe for e-mail updates at the top right.  If you have been following Linked4Ministry and find it helpful, please consider sharing it with other ministry partners that it could benefit.  It’s easy to do by clicking on the following buttons, and it’s OK to click more than one !

Blessings,
Bill Bender
Anothen Life Ministries

LinkedIn vs. Facebook Business (and Ministry) Applications

LinkedIn and Facebook might seem very different, but both are seeking to build their business followings with new applications.

Facebook has over 500 Million users and an estimated value of $50 Billion dollars compared to LinkedIn’s 85 Million users and a value of only $3 billion, but is that all that matters?  Let’s compare some features and benefits of each.  This is not meant to be an all inclusive comparison, just my opinion of how I believe they stack up to our needs today.

Focus, Following & Purpose:

LinkedIn is known for being a professional network, a closed platform, and a trusted place for professionals to network.  Facebook has been more of a social open network that began with college students, and includes a huge base that uses it for everything from sharing photos and messages with friends, following companies and ministries, subscribing to religious and political movements, to playing games for entertainment.  Neither LinkedIn nor facebook have an overt focus on ministries, but that doesn’t mean ministries cannot take advantage of this media to help them ‘extend their reach into the kingdom’.

LinkedIn certainly has a dominant presence with professionals, job seekers, and recruiters that focus on the member’s experience, education, and recommendations.  Facebook has been successful at attracting many corporations, businesses, and ministries, largely because of their tremendous personal/consumer following and has recently launched a career networking site called “BranchOut” http://branchout.com/#st for sharing career data only.  This social media growth opportunity hasn’t gone unnoticed by the news media or LinkedIn.  Both companies are seeking to capture what they believe will be a shift in corporate advertising from traditional media to social media.  Both facebook and LinkedIn offer their own version of advertising that appears on users pages.

Business & Ministry Pages:

To combat facebook’s dominance in business pages, LinkedIn recently announced enhanced company pages that include a business (ministry) overview, employee listing, services available, analytics, and career listings.  The services can be “shared” (similar to “liked” on facebook); users can comment and post recommendations for specific services, as well as see what their connections said.  The analytics give the company an idea of how they compare to similar companies, and for larger companies (i.e. Target http://www.linkedin.com/company/target/statistics , Best Buy, etc.) can show lots of details about employee experience, education, and universities attended, as well as who you might know and how you are connected.  LinkedIn also has a new widget that can be added to a web page allowing a company’s products and services to be recommended without going into LinkedIn.  This is in addition to LinkedIn allowing companies to be “followed” last year, similar to facebook allowing users to see their connections who “like” a page.

With LinkedIn’s base less than 20% of facebook, it’s interesting to compare various companies that have pages on both sites;

• Proctor & Gamble (P&G) has 13,000 followers on facebook and over 50,000 on LinkedIn,
• Hewlett Packard (HP) has a little under 200,000 followers on facebook and 180,000 on LinkedIn,
• Coca-Cola has 18,000 on LinkedIn and almost 21,000,000 on facebook,
• Apple has less than 100 on facebook and over 75,000 on LinkedIn. 

While Ministries don’t overwhelm either network, facebook seems to be the leader; Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church has 1,100 followers on facebook and 300 on LinkedIn, T. D. Jakes, The Potter’s House has 5 LinkedIn followers and over 150,000 in facebook.  It’s clear that facebook holds the consumer lead, but LinkedIn still dominates the professional numbers.

Personal Profiles:

LinkedIn’s personal profiles still appear more like a professional profile or resume by including experience, education, personal recommendations, connections, websites, twitter, your public profile URL, a summary, interests, groups & affiliations, honors & awards, and contact information.  LinkedIn just added new categories to highlight skills, certifications, and publications raising the bar just a little higher.  The applications on LinkedIn’s personal profile allow you to post your reading lists with recommendations, SlideShare and Google presentations, box files for document sharing, events, blogs, portfolios, and travel planning.  Facebook isn’t letting LinkedIn profiles have the upper hand; they recently have added profile additions that allow you to share your classes & education, work, projects you’ve worked on, interests, activities, your philosophy, religion, and political affiliation.  LinkedIn allows one profile photo and a corporate logo, while facebook allows profile pictures and multiple albums of photos.

LinkedIn’s Groups:

Facebook has 300,000 Business Pages.  As stated earlier, that leads LinkedIn’s Company Pages by a good margin, but LinkedIn’s real strength is in its 800,000 Groups, and they constantly add new options to their already powerful groups.  Until now, LinkedIn groups have been private, allowing only members to participate.  LinkedIn recently announced that groups can become public.  Making the group public or ‘open’ to the web, would allow web search engine to find them, and allows the new LinkedIn widget to share on your profile and the LinkedIn group too from anywhere.  LinkedIn added new moderation tools last year that allow the group managers to screen submissions before they are posted.  That gives the group moderators the ability to eliminate inappropriate material before it’s posted to a group discussion.  One facebook equivalent to a group discussion is under their ‘notes’ tab.  There lots of differences but two of the major ones are LinkedIn group discussions allow more room than the facebook status update boxes, and subscribers can choose between a daily or weekly notifications to new discussions or comments, more overtly encouraging participation.  LinkedIn also allows group leaders to send announcements to all group members at once, and group members can communicate with other members if the members choose that option. 

Companies and ministries that have a facebook page should certainly consider expanding their reach into the kingdom by starting a Public LinkedIn Group, and depending on the strategy, might want a private group too.  In the case of my “Anothen Life Deliverance and Inner Healing Network” LinkedIn Group, the purpose was to allow deliverance ministers of all backgrounds to share articles, teachings, questions, discussions, experiences, and events with each other.  Some of those discussions might not benefit from being open to the public, so it will remain private, but a group to allow the public to ask questions and receive input might also be a good idea.  In the case of my “Linked4Ministry” LinkedIn group, its mission, along with the blog at http://Linked4Ministry.WordPress.com , is to help other Christian ministries use LinkedIn and other social media to “extend their reach into the kingdom”.  Since the blog is public, making the LinkedIn group public wouldn’t add any value so I’ve chosen to keep the LinkedIn group private, at least for now.

Conclusion:

It’s clear these two social media giants have historically had different strategies, features and strengths, but how you can use them to best benefit your company and ministry is a challenge that we all must consider to succeed in the 21^st century social media advertising phenomenon.  I clearly don’t have all the answers, in fact I’m not sure I have all the questions, but waiting until you have all the answers will probably mean you will never get started!  The best way to learn is by diving in.  We learn best by making mistakes and correcting them.  When you do everything right you really don’t learn, in fact if no one says anything, can you really be sure it’s right?

As with most things you do, the first step is to develop a strategy (what you want to accomplish), then determine the steps you’ll need to do to accomplish your strategy.  Beginning without a strategy will likely help you learn a lot along the way, but will probably take additional time and effort, and may not help you end up where you want to go.  Linked4Ministry’s goal is to help you plan, give you tips and alternatives, and teach you what we’ve learned to hopefully shorten your learning curve and help you reach your goals in less time, as well as reducing your frustration and effort along the way.

As always, thank you for reading Linked4Ministry.  If you are new here, the best way to receive all the new posts is to subscribe for e-mail updates at the top right.  If you have been following Linked4Ministry and find it helpful, please consider sharing it with other ministry partners that it could benefit.  It’s easy to do by clicking on the following buttons, and it’s OK to click more than one !

Have You Published a Book? Here’s a new way to list it on your LinkedIn Profile!

Image via Wikipedia

Have you published an article, a research paper, or a book(s)?  Do you have Certifications, Languages, Patents, Publications, or other Skills that you don’t know how to highlight on your LinkedIn profile? 

LinkedIn has just added a new, more visual way, of highlighting these activities and letting your LinkedIn connections and profile viewers know what you’ve done.

I first noticed the new Publications category on the well known business and leadership author, John C. Maxwell’s LinkedIn profile.  The clip on the right is partial of what John’s included on his LinkedIn profile.

Why add your Publications to your LinkedIn Profile?

It could help you sell more publications.  If you are active on LinkedIn, as people view your profile, they will see what you’ve written.  The more your publications are advertised, the more potential sales you will have.  If you are actively increasing your LinkedIn connections, and “extending your reach into the kingdom”, the more potential new customers you will reach.  This involves sending quality invitations, joining and participating in appropriate group discussions, asking and answering questions, and sending and receiving recommendations.

The better your LinkedIn profile exhibits your expertise, the more attractive and interesting your publications will be to those that don’t already know you.  This means your LinkedIn profile must be great.  If your profile includes just the basic information, you should consider adding additional information and applications in every category.  I’ve made some suggestions in my “LinkedIn Quick Start Guide for Ministries” that you can find in the box files of my LinkedIn profile at http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/billbender.

Having publications adds to your credibility.  It certainly matters if the publication is credible, but assuming it is, those familiar with it will gain additional respect for you and your work, possibly recommending it to others.  LinkedIn, facebook, and twitter are great places to talk about your publications, allowing your connections can “Like” or “Share” them with their connections.

It’s all about exposure, and asking your connections to “Like” or “Share” your posts with their connections multiplies your exposure exponentially.

How to begin:

Let your mouse hover over the “Profiles” tab at teh top of your LinkedIn page, then click on “Edit Profiles”.

Just under your “Information Table”, before your Summary, you will see the following line “Are you published? Own a patent? Display it on your profile”

.

  

.

Click on the   “+ Add sections” button on the right.

This allows you to add multiple sections including; Certifications, Languages, Patents, Publications, Skills, as well as new applications.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Click on Publications to add the following:

• Publication Title
• Publication/Publisher (if appropriate)
• Publication Date
• Publication URL – if it’s an e-book, on-line publication, or a web address to order
• Author –  you will automatically be listed as the Author, and you can add another author
• Summary: – You can add a summary description to help others know more about the book.

 .

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

If you want to add additional publications, just click on the “+ Add a publication” button.

Your Publications will appear on your profile between your Experience listing and Education.

Don’t forget to consider adding appropriate Certifications, Languages, Patents, Publications, & Skills.

As always, thank you for reading Linked4Ministry.  If you are new here, the best way to receive all the new posts is to subscribe for e-mail updates at the top right.  If you have been following Linked4Ministry and find it helpful, please consider sharing it with other ministry partners that it could benefit.  It’s easy to do by clicking on the following buttons, and it’s OK to click more than one !

Blessings,
Bill Bender
Anothen Life Ministries

Are Photos and Personal Information Important on LinkedIn and Facebook?

The simple answer is, there isn’t one.  While we must be cautious about what kind of personal information we share, we cannot let fear dictate our actions.  What kind of personal information you share depends on the social media and your strategy.

If your strategy is to “extend your reach into the kingdom” (beyond your current friends and acquaintances), then it’s going to be tough to “hide” your identity and all personal information.  If your strategy is just to connect to your friends, then you can be more open, but you must still be cautious as your connections might make the information you share with them, available to others.

Let’s start with LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a “professional” social network, and therefore should have a different strategy.  The largest users of LinkedIn consist of Industry (and Ministry) Leaders, Professionals, Recruiters, and Job Seekers, and most utilize Basic (free) Accounts.  The features and benefits of LinkedIn are diverse.  LinkedIn is a great tool for building, managing, and maintaining your network of contacts.  LinkedIn gives you visibility from other influential users in your field (and ministry), allowing you to make contacts that otherwise would probably be out of your reach.  LinkedIn makes it easy for your contacts to share your postings with their network.  LinkedIn groups allow you to learn and share in discussions with people with like interests and ministries worldwide.  If you put the time and effort into LinkedIn, it allows you to build trust and credibility. LinkedIn gives you the ability to restrict your personal information, they way you can be contacted, and your location.

Adding a Photo to your LinkedIn profile is “generally” the right thing to do, unless your photo might be detraction, and leaving it blank can cause doubt that you might not want.  LinkedIn photos aren’t generally about seeing what your high school friends look like after 10-20 years; they are about who you are now, and who you want others to see!  If you are looking for a new position, try to select a photo that complements your age and decreases any issues that might cause a decision based on a prejudice.  If you are trying to build a network with other professionals in your field, unless you are already well-known, most connections will feel better about connecting with someone they don’t know if they believe they can truly tell who you are, and what your motives are for connecting.  Lastly, a LinkedIn photo should be a professional looking head shot of just you.  Don’t include your car unless you sell cars or a pet unless you are a veterinarian, and LinkedIn doesn’t allow logos.

For Personal Information, if you want new contacts to reach you, you should make it easy, be sure your e-mail address is obvious, and you might even want to include who you want to be connected to.  Check out the end of my profile summary for one option.  If you are looking for a new position, an e-mail address isn’t enough; you should always include a phone number.  I usually recommend using a dedicated ‘social media’ e-mail address as your primary address, and be sure to include all your other ‘commonly used’ e-mail addresses as alternates in your LinkedIn settings.  Including all your e-mail addresses allows everyone to easily connect with you, as well as keeping you from inadvertently setting up two LinkedIn profiles, (which is not recommended).  With many of today’s e-mail programs and systems, you can forward multiple e-mail addresses so you only have to regularly check one place to see them all.  LinkedIn only shows geographic areas in lieu of specific cities, so including yours allows people to more easily know they’ve found the right person.  Having a Private or un-detailed profile with a somewhere in the United States address provides little benefit for anyone.  Including your website is a great idea, but including your street address is probably never recommended; unless it’s a business or ministry address that is open to the public.

Another decision you might make is to allow your network to view your connections.  While this is a personal decision, and should be based on your strategy, understand that many of your connections might benefit from seeing your connections and recognize others they also know, allowing them to more easily build their network.  Since anyone can search LinkedIn for people to invite, unless your connections use your list inappropriately, allowing them to see your connections is a courtesy that you might want to extend to your network.

In short, the internet makes deception much easier to accomplish, and your profile should provide enough information to show your professionalism, your seriousness, your true identity, and your reality.

Now let’s look at facebook.

Once again, you must consider your strategy, and not just for facebook.  If you want your web appearance to be professional, or you are looking for a job, understand that many employers and internet savvy (or skeptical) connections will also look at your facebook profiles.  If anything on your facebook profile doesn’t portray the person you want others to see, you should avoid it, and remove anything that detracts.  If your facebook profile is for family and friends, then obviously the content is less restricted.  Your photo should always be tasteful as you never know who might see it.  Your security settings dictate who can see what, but be aware that your posts can be seen in your connections profiles that might not carry the same restrictions. 

Casual activity on facebook, like games, should be limited to non working hours as your connections can see when you are playing games by the update times.  If you want to make your profile more professional, you can choose to not show games, polls, etc. that your connections are playing from displaying on your profile.

In summary, make sure you have thought out your social media strategy, weighed the options and alternatives, and your participation and profile fit that strategy.

More details about what you might want to include in your LinkedIn profile can be found in my “LinkedIn Quick Start Guide for Ministries” in the box files on my LinkedIn profile at http://LinkedIn.com/in/billbender .

As always, thank you for reading Linked4Ministry.  If you are new here, the best way to receive all the new posts is to subscribe for e-mail updates at the top right.  If you have been following Linked4Ministry and find it helpful, please consider sharing it with other ministry partners that it could benefit.  It’s easy to do by clicking on the following buttons, and it’s OK to click more than one !

Blessings,
Bill Bender
Anothen Life Ministries

Top 5 Points from “How to Avoid the Great Social Media Crash of 2011”

The bottom line is Social Media is here to stay.  It will surely undergo many changes as technology and users change, and our challenge is to keep up with what’s available, and understand how to utilize the tools made available to us so we can “extend our reach into the kingdom”!

Here are 2 excerpts from a blog (link below) that I found interesting and valuable to us all:

1.  A realistic Social Media “time vs productivity” chart.  This chart shows how our initial excitement can lead us to unrealistic expectations, not only in social media but many things in life.  It also warns us not to get discouraged, that productivity will increase as we learn how to better utilize them:

 

  

 

.

.

.

.

.

.

2.  Analogies for the Big Five Social Media platforms:
Facebook = Social Event (casual)
LinkedIn = Trade Show (formal)
Twitter = Cocktail Party (energetic; many conversations)
YouTube = Times Square on New Years Eve
MySpace = Woodstock

Here’s the link to read the entire blog: http://linkd.in/9raRYF 

As always, thank you for reading Linked4Ministry.  If you are new here, the best way to receive all the new posts is to subscribe for e-mail updates at the top right.  If you have been following Linked4Ministry and find it helpful, please consider sharing it with other ministry partners that it could benefit.  It’s easy to do by clicking on the following buttons, and it’s OK to click more than one !

Blessings,
Bill Bender
Anothen Life Ministries