LinkedIn Answers

Linking Mission 2: Taking Over the World with Answers and Groups2011

Time to Conquer!

It’s time to take over the world with LinkedIn Groups and Answers! Your goal is to engage with potential allies and get as many Best Answers Awards as possible. These are your badges of honor and victory to be displayed on your profile. To Answers and Honor!

The honors you will receive are:

•Great reputation

•Potential new contacts

•Learn from the other Answers

What are LinkedIn Groups?

Groups are useful places to meet others from all over the world who share your interests. They can help you extend your network beyond those whom you have directly met.

What Is LinkedIn Answers?

LinkedIn Answers is a Q&A forum on the LinkedIn Website that allows professionals to pose questions to the wider LinkedIn community and your Connections.

What’s In It For You?

Increase Your Reputation

If you engage others well in Groups, you’ll be singled out as a Top Influencer. With Answers, if your Answer is chosen as a Best Answer, you’ll receive a profile badge that is also displayed next to your name with future Answers. Your connections will also be alerted when you make a post.

Meet New Contacts

Find fellow warriors in the fields you are interested. See who is talking and who has good ideas. Make connections with these people to increase the force of your connection army.

Learn from Others

By asking Questions and talking in Groups, you can learn from other professionals, often getting exactly the kind of information you are looking for.

You can also learn from Questions others have posted, and the Answers they have received.

Your World-Conquering Strategy

Groups Best Practices

LinkedIn Groups offer a wonderful opportunity to meet people, but there are too many groups to be active in all of them. Learn a lesson from wars gone by: Don’t split your army up (too much). Be focused and consistent.

•Identify 3-5 Groups to Be Active In•Visit Them Frequently (2-3 Times a Week)•Join In On the Most Active Discussions•After a While, Start a Discussion Yourself•Promote Useful Content to Your Own Network

Answers Best Practices

LinkedIn Answers is an engaging community. Here are the steps to get involved:

1. Start by answering questions and reading other people’s answers.

2. Figure out how often you need to return to your favorite categories to stay up-to-date.

3. Then start asking your own questions!

What Makes a Great Answer?

Great Answers don’t only answer the question, they back it up. This makes you look like an expert without explicitly selling your experience and bragging. Try to support what you say with:

•A personal anecdote

•Statistics or facts

•A link to a supporting piece of content

Sharing links to your personal blog or the FACE blog or website also helps drive traffic and potentially sales. Alternatively, you can recommend other team members as experts when you personally don’t know the answer.

What Makes a Great Question?

Not only can you ask questions whose answers will help you personally, this is a way to engage the community in a debate. Great questions:

•Are clear with an obvious question

•Provide value to the community as a whole

•Are concise – if a question is too long,

people wont read it You can always clarify your Question later if people Answering say it is unclear or the questions are not specific enough.

Answers and Groups Etiquette

Answers and Groups can help you stay in touch with contacts and introduce you to new contacts.

•If you are asking a question your contacts can answer, send them an e-mail alert with when you post it.

•Select a Best Answer when your question closes

•Thank everyone who answers your questions

•Mentor others

•Avoid self-promotion.

Your Reward…

Should you successfully conquer enough Best Answers trophies, you will be honored amongst our warriors. Your progress will be tracked, once a week, as points. You will earn the points by:

WISE ONE – 5 PTS (+2 FOR BEST ANSWER) FOR ANSWERING 5 QUESTIONS IN A WEEK

NETWORKER – 4 PTS FOR RESPONDING ON THE CLIENT GROUP. 8 PTS FOR STARTING A THREAD