LinkedIn Rule Breaker?

There was a big stir in the LinkedIn world Thursday; we received calls from friends and clients about an unusual number of invitations in their LinkedIn inbox from people whose names were in all caps. In looking at the profiles, we discovered that they are nearly identical, right down to college degree, or lack thereof… and groups represented by each profile. Thanks to Rob Hayes at Cynocast for the initial heads up!

The company “Social Media Magic” seemingly put up dozens of profiles of individuals with no pictures, with identical profiles, different colleges and no degree, all showing a concentration in marketing and each have different groups. Without looking at everyone, the only profile that seems to have a photo is that of John Souza, and he actually has two—profiles that is. John is listed as CEO or Chief Strategist at Vertical Partners and other companies. There is also no company profile on LinkedIn. One would think that a company touting to provide expert social media services for others, they’d have their own presence up to par.

Brent Jordan did a little digging and learned Souza has at least 269 domain names including socialmediamagic.com, verticalpartners.com, and dedicatedrep.com. Looking at his websites, we’ll grant that he is evidently an Internet Marketing Wiz.

As we continued to dig, we learned that Souza was the only member of the Toplinked.com Group, which is a network building group dedicated to helping people build opportunities and resources. It appears that he, or someone representing him, downloaded the weekly list and used it to send invitations from all of the company’s profiles. This is a Toplinked.com service agreement violation and he was immediately banned from the group and the service. He made a huge mistake by not understanding how the program works, or he might not have been caught so fast. Because he didn’t follow the rules or the standard protocol, his company profiles represent the majority of the invitations that showed up on Thursday in the inboxes of people who use Toplinked.com.

Screen shot of suspicious invitations from Social Media Magic

So, we dug a bit further, asking LinkedIn for assistance. It takes a while for them to respond, so we have delayed our own response via blog. We also began tweeting about the issue and had great feedback from people like @DenverPete, who was on a webinar by Social Media Magic while this was going down. They offered a free webinar to describe how they can provide “Managed Services” for people. If they were to build my social media presence like they built their own, I don’t want or need their service!

Brent Jordan described the issue well at lunch on Friday… compare a quality G2 Pilot pen to a store brand knock-off. They look almost identical until you use the pens and compare the results. Then the difference becomes clear and you either use the better quality pen, paying a little more for the difference, or you just put up with the poor quality.

Until the investigation is complete and we have an idea if these guys are legitimate connections, we have instructed our Managed Services team to ignore the invitations and recommended that our friends and LinkedInsiders do the same. The bottom line is that it looks as if these profiles are not for real people. Avoid them.

Ask an @LinkedIn Expert Q/A Webinar – Behind the scenes

This is actual video of the weekly Integrated Alliances Ask an @LinkedInExpert Q/A Webinar here the audience asks questions for the panel of experts.  In this case it is Mike O’Neil, Founder of Integrated Alliances and Lori Ruff, VP of Operations for Integrated Alliances.  This was shot May 18, 2009, Noon Eastern.

See the Video

TweetDeck and Twitter from a LinkedIn User’s Perspective

In this video I start a discussion around LinkedIn Groups.  We’ve had lots of questions on our last several shows about that topic.

I also explore the world around Twitter and the place that TweetDack plays in.  It walks through the deck, @replies, Direct Messages, keyword searching and more.

Twitter: @mikeoneildenver All sites at http://www.mikeisonline.com

LinkedIn Groups Training June 3 Video Promo

Linked Groups training is Wed. June 3, July 1, Noon Eastern.  This is 75 minutes of expert training on LinkedIn Groups.

Just $69 ahead of time, $79 the final week. Handouts provided.  Recordings will be available for sale.

More Information and Registration

Why in the world would I want a big network full of strangers?

I get asked this question a lot in our LinkedIn trainings, especially in our LinkedIn Webinars. I have seen many of the benefits and even a few of the drawbacks.

Approx. 80% of those on LinkedIn really benefit from a big network. They are business owners, entrepreneurs, sales professionals, marketing professionals, SMB executives, recruiters, HR professionals and many others that are “customer facing”. Smaller networks apply best to Fortune x000 executives and those that are just not serious about using LinkedIn for business.

A big LinkedIn Network has a lot of advantages:

1. Helps make the phone ring (E-Mail, InMails, etc.) with more opportunities
2. Let’s you find a lot more of what you are looking for
3. Places you higher in LinkedIn search listings
4. Lets you be more helpful to others
5. Gives you credibility, lots more

To get a big network take some work but there are shortcuts. At Integrated Alliances we teach LinkedIn Network Building Training and it gets attendees to about 2,000 direct connections (12M+) in about a month.

We use the best practices and methodologies we have developed around TopLinked.com and LinkedIn LION’s. It even includes strategies for accepting LinkedIn invitations and turning them into business opportunities. See more on the Network Building Training.

Opinions on “How I built LinkedIn by Reid Hoffman”, Inc. Magazine, May 2009

Inc Magazine Logo

I was so excited when I saw “How I built LinkedIn by Reid Hoffman, page 82” on the cover of this month’s Inc. Magazine. LinkedIn’s CEO, Reid Hoffman, (whom I have met personally) is rightfully considered by many to be the ultimate visionary in social media. He lives at ground zero of the social media movement – the San Francisco Bay Area – and is one of social media’s top angel investor.

What a lot of people don’t know is that he was an early investor in some of the most commonly known social media platforms including Facebook.

So, excited to read what Reid had to say about LinkedIn (a social media platform I have devoted the past 6 years of my life to sharing with others), I went straight to page 82. There was a picture of Reid – not at work, but in a pretty autumn scene with leaves a fallin’ in the background.

I’d liked to have seen him in action, on his iPhone, or in some cool hybrid car – but no worries. I knew the article would have some great insider information from the CEO of LinkedIn. Some cool stories about its inception, some insights into his frustrations and celebrations. I read on and on – and on and on – and it wasn’t until the very end of the article that LinkedIn even came up as a topic of conversation. LinkedIn is first introduced on paragraph #13 and ends at paragraph #16, where it just ends.

What the….!

This article is less than 20% about LinkedIn and 80% about what happened prior. Reid is a very interesting guy, but this is supposed to be an article about “How I Build LinkedIn”. I guess somebody else will have to write that story.