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LinkedIn Background Banners: How to Use Canva to Make It Easy

October 13, 2020 by Anita 2 Comments

LinkedIn backgrounds are boring by default.

They recently “improved” from the blue “solar system” graphic to a very bland, pale greenish-gray banner. Yuck.

Could it be worse? Why, yes, actually it could be. Look at the attractive taupe now sported by many LinkedIn Company pages.

Do you suppose this is LinkedIn’s way of prompting us to add custom background banners to our personal profiles and Company pages? Hmmmm.

🍀Luckily for you, and for me, Canva–a free graphic software website–has lots of pre-sized templates for all kinds of social media purposes. 🍀

They even have background banners for LinkedIn, that you can use as-is, or edit and modify to your heart’s content. It’s easy once you use it a few times.

You do not have to be a graphic artist or designer. (Let them keep Photoshop or whatever they use, I’m happy enough with Canva.com.)

There ARE people who teach tricks and hacks to make it easier for you to get going on Canva for your own websites or products. One of them is Angelique Duffield, a Web Designer and Online Strategist from British Columbia who is an amazing teacher of all things Social Media. She will be presenting “Attract Your Ideal Clients Using these Canva Design Secrets” at the Virtual Assistants Virtuosos Summit
on Tuesday, October 20.

I’ve seen some of her teaching online; it’s no-fluff and very practical. I urge you to get a ticket NOW (they are $37 but USE THIS CODE: anita100 and the fee will be waived.)
Oh, yeah, I will also be presenting that Tuesday at the VA Virtuosos Summit on “How to Get Noticed by Your Ideal Clients on LinkedIn.” So another reason to HURRY and buy your free ticket, and clear your calendars for next week. (Remember coupon code anita100 .)

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And here’s some examples of what I’ve been playing around with on Canva for my new LinkedIn background banner. I decided to use it to temporarily promote the VA Summit because I think a lot of my freelancer friends will find it helpful for their work.

I encourage you to see Angelique’s presentation if you can; meanwhile, why not dip your toes into Canva and look around!

Here is my new banner as of tonight. See it at linkedin.com/in/anitahampl !

I started by searching in Canva.com for “LinkedIn banner.” I was happy to see that they offer that as a selection, which should mean they have it sized optimally. (1400 x 425 pixels.)

Scrolling through the banner templates, I observe that there is literally something for every kind of taste, genre, and business. Remember that everything on there is editable. (Relax, it’s easy! Your 11-year-old nephew can help you if you’re stuck.)

I was drawn to the clean desk. since it’s a completely foreign concept to me. But since I intend to place text over this, I decided to lighten the transparency a bit within Canva. Easy!
(I’m think I’m sounding like one of those Facebook Dollar Tree craft video ladies. “I decided to use a Q-tip instead of a paintbrush …”).

But stick with me a few more minutes.

This design was great because it had a blank laptop screen just begging for text. So I complied.

You always have to watch for the left side of your banner — especially if you are inserting text or phone numbers — because the round headshot takes up a lot of that space on a laptop/desktop LinkedIn profile. Actually, now that I glance at my own iPhone, I see that my head circle partly obscures the dates of our VA Summit.

“Do as I say, not as I do.” 🤷‍♀️

I was also interested in this banner template, but not the colors. So I changed the colors within Canva.

This may be a little too bold for me to use on LinkedIn, so I had fun and made a snarky caption.

Here it is “live.”

Yeah, a little too strong for me. But it was fun changing the colors in Canva to match my brand.

One more fun banner, which was more challenging to play with. It was not designed to have “instant” color change like the one above, but each element had to changed individually.

It would be a heck of a sobriety test, or cognitive skills evaluation. I’m not even sure that I got the pattern right.

Yikes. “No rules, just right!” Right?

Anyway, I hope I have piqued your interest enough to:

Update your LinkedIn background banner,
Check out canva.com (sadly, only design pros get referral commissions on that …), and
Get a ticket to the VA Virtuosos Summit which starts next Monday, Oct. 19. Coupon code, while they last: anita100

See ya there!

LinkedIn Skills: Misunderstood but Mikey (Microsoft) Likes Them

September 21, 2020 by Anita Leave a Comment

Skills, or Skills & Endorsements, might be the most controversial or misunderstood aspect of a LinkedIn profile.

Questions abound and usually center on numbers:

✔ How many Skills should I have?
✔ How many Endorsements do I need?
✔ Do recruiters look at this section?
✔ Are Endorsements meaningful?
✔ What Skills should I highlight?

and so on…

Ten years into its existence, in 2012, LinkedIn proudly introduced “Endorsements: Give Kudos with Just One Click.” It was designed to let you recognize and affirm your professional colleagues for their skills and expertise.

You may remember the colorful format, with miniature square headshots of every person who endorsed you for each Skill.

You might also remember seeing people whose brand-new profiles had one headshot (one endorser) for every skill … and often it was their well-meaning mother!

It did not take long for this to become a meaningless mess. LinkedIn bombarded you with “would you like to endorse this person for these Skills” and “suggest more Skills for this person” every time you looked at a profile. It was easy to send requests to your contacts to endorse you. And everyone endorsed everyone else, because why wouldn’t they? It cost nothing but a mouse click.

Still, it was a vanity exercise and people scrambled to get the maximum displayable endorsements (99). Some people hired 3rd parties (Fiverr.com) to place endorsements to reach that magical number of 99.

There’s more to this story, especially after Microsoft bought LinkedIn and invested heavily into this part of the system. But save it for another blog post 🙂

The best advice for most users today is to populate your Skills section with as many relevant skills (keywords) as you can.

If you are jobseeking, they will show up in the recruiters’ search results. If you are simply improving your presence for general reasons, it will show “human” readers the skills that you want to be known for. You are allowed up to 50 Skills, and the Top 3 will always display without the reader needing to click anything.
So …
How many Skills should you list? Weak answer: just enough.

Use terms that relate to what you do now and would like to do next.
Purge any obsolete skills or things that you are no longer interested in doing.
Look at job postings and make sure that you have captured skills that they request (EVEN if you are not in jobseeking mode.)
Look at your competition and peers for ideas.
Some skills may have two spellings, such as webmaster and web master. It’s OK to use both, or whichever seems more popular in LinkedIn.
And remember that LinkedIn has an auto-suggest feature; when you start to type in a skill, it will offer several more for your consideration.

How many Endorsements do I need? Weak answer: only LinkedIn’s algorithm knows.

Expert observers disagreeon this issue.
Many think that recruiters care more about the actual Skills listed–perhaps the quantity of Skills–and not the numbers of endorsements.
This may be partly because of the original messy model and its remnants.

Finally, why should you bother getting (or giving) Endorsements? Strong answer: visibility and generosity.

Some viewers of this section may still consider numbers important.
Gives you a sense of what your colleagues and customers admire in you.
Helps you identify which keywords you should emphasize in your About section or Experience sections.
Shows viewers some of the impressive people who you are connected with.
Simple way to “say hey” to connections with whom you haven’t talked in a while.
Entice their connections to look at you.

Sorry that it all seems so anecdotal! That’s the beauty and mystery of the top-secret LinkedIn search algorithm, which changes frequently.

If you decide you’d like to revamp or increase your own Skills & Endorsements section, consider jumping on a Zoom call with me and I’ll guide you through it, help you look at other peoples’ profiles, and rearrange your Skills section to put the most important Skills near the top. At $77 for a 45-minute call, you can get way ahead of the game so click here to choose your appointment time.

LinkedIn Recommendations: I Found a Typo, Is It Too Late?

September 6, 2020 by Anita Leave a Comment

Ugh. The dreaded typo that you notice AFTER you’ve gone to press (or in the case of LinkedIn, hit the Save button.)

For most of LinkedIn, including posts and articles that you have created, you can easily edit your work. But Recommendations are in a league of their own.

Remember that Recommendations must be created through the LinkedIn platform itself, and reviewed and accepted by the Recommendee. If they disagree with something that you offered in your Rec, they can send it back to you for changing. Then you may edit as you wish, send it to them again, and once they accept it, you may tell LinkedIn to publish it.

Why would someone send back a well-meaning Recommendation that you wrote for them?

Reasons vary, but these are top ones. They:

don’t want to be associated with you (but in that case, they would be more likely to simply ignore the Recommendation),
didn’t agree with the facts as you wrote them,
preferred to de-emphasize particulars that you wrote about, maybe due to confidentiality or change in business focus, or they
found typing, spelling, grammar, or language errors in what you wrote.

Since the published Recommendations must be approved by the Recommendee, it serves them well to have proper grammar, spelling, and typing on each one. So if they send it back to you to correct any of those, consider it a favor. The goal is to have it reflect well on the professionalism of both parties.

By the same token, when you are on the receiving end of a Recommendation, please review it for those elements and don’t be afraid to send it back. I always send it back with “there’s a typo, I think you meant xyz.”

In the case of a writer whose first language is not English and the grammar or word usage may be non-traditional, be kind or respectful and say something like “there’s a few typos, I hope you don’t mind the way I rewrote this.”

How to avoid publishing Recommendations with errors?

Simply ask a colleague or relative to review it before you send it. Fresh eyes are more likely to spot any errors, especially in a piece that you may have been stressing over.

What to do if you notice an error after it has been published?

The mechanical answer is to delete the Recommendation (copy & save it first!!!) and copy & paste a new one, correct any errors, then send it to your Recommendee again. You might send them a separate message alerting them to this, making a weak joke about your typo, depending upon the relationship you share.

What to do if that would be too awkward?

Make your decision based upon:

how old the Recommendation is,
how far down it appears on your Recommendee’s profile, (at this writing, Recs appear in reverse chronological order, with most recent on the top),
how far down it appears on your own profile, and
how glaring the error is.

If the other person has had numerous Recs since yours, you could simply delete yours if you don’t want to contact them. Or you could leave it as is.

Not everyone is like your old English teacher whose weekend entertainment was catching spacing errors and incorrect grammar on your term papers!

Would you like some help understanding Recommendations, with step-by-step instructions and ideas how to craft Recommendations that will delight the recipients? I have a special report, “Q & A : Recommendations on LinkedIn” for $37 . For a limited time, you may get a copy for half-price, or $18.50 at this link:

Do-It-Yourself Public Relations For Entrepreneurs

June 24, 2020 by Anita Leave a Comment

In business, clones and copycats make it hard to get noticed. It’s expensive to get noticed. It’s time-consuming to get noticed.

But man, is it worth it!

Print and broadcast professionals are deluged daily with pitches from all directions. Well-paid, experienced Public Relations professionals work hard to get their clients discovered by the news media. Frankly, it’s hard for a small business with limited time and money to compete with the big boys.

But business owners who want to increase their prospect base do have options. If committing to a PR firm retainer isn’t practical, they can focus on credibility marketing in their quest for attention.

Customers want the freedom to make their own selections. This is the concept of “Credibility Marketing,” as outlined in a book by Larry Chambers. Customers do not want to be sold to. But when they encounter experts who distinguish themselves, they are likely to initiate contact that leads to business.

Most credibility marketing tactics depend more on time and persistence than on spending money. The explosion of social marketing combined with a slower economy make now the perfect time to explore the key elements:

1. Speaking to Groups
2. Getting Published
3. Becoming a News Source
4. Developing an On-Line Presence

These concepts will help you become recognized as the expert in your niche.

Speak to Groups

Unpaid speakers educate or entertain members of civic (Kiwanis) or professional (Georgia Association for Women Lawyers) groups.
Typically 20 to 40 minutes are allotted, during or after a meal.
Volunteers (“Program Chairs”) who line up speakers welcome fresh voices with new material.
Speeches can never be sales pitches. Ever.
Invite further contact: sell books at a back table, or collect business cards or email addresses for your newsletter.

Get Published

Trade journals are geared to professionals in very specific fields (cosmetic dentistry, mortuary science).
Their subscription base is usually limited to trade association members.
Short, relevant articles are used as “filler” among ads and feature articles.
The resource box at the end of the article includes your name, contact information (website or email) and a reason to contact you, such as a free bonus report.

Become a News Source

Sending one-page briefs to news reporters and producers can help you become known as an expert.
It may take months of persistent effort to be recognized.
Repeated exposure to your name may spark recall when a busy producer needs a source for a breaking story (foreclosures, tornadoes).
Being quoted in a news story brings priceless attention.
Be different: consider sending your briefs ON paper IN envelopes–ideally brightly colored–with stamps.

Develop an On-Line Presence

The gold standard of course, is your own website or blog. But you have other easy options to consider:
Right now, submitting on-line articles is sizzling hot. Among dozens of websites that will accept and publish articles, medium.com and LinkedIn “Publisher” are the most popular.
Smart use of keywords, and submitting articles in quantity, will yield high search engine rankings.
The resource box should include a call to action with a clickable website link.
Appropriate use of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn can propel your reputation. Giving advice, giving answers, giving kudos all earn you credibility online.

There is always a market for excellent business and professional service providers. I hope that the above ideas will help you get noticed and known as the expert!

LinkedIn CONNECTIONS: How to Easily Get to 500+

February 28, 2020 by Anita Leave a Comment

The intent of this article is to help you reach the coveted 500+ Connections in your network on LinkedIn. But I’ll start with an explanation of what Connections are and why they are important to pursue.

What Do LinkedIn Connections Look Like?

LinkedIn displays the number of your 1st-level Connections right under your profile photo.

Henry has 397 connections. But once he reaches 501 connections, it will only show 500+. Even when he approaches 10,000, this line will still show 500+.

On my own profile, I have over 1800 connections yet it shows here as 500+. Viewers have to dig a little deeper to see how many I actually have, but 500+ tells them that:

I am serious about LinkedIn as a networking vehicle to help grow my reach and therefore my business, or
I am a collector of connections, or
I’ve been on here so many years that it’s inevitable I’d hit 500.

Why Should I Care About LinkedIn Connections?

LinkedIn is more than an aggregator of resumes. And it’s more than “Business Facebook ,” “Instagram without Selfies,” or “Twitter sans Breakfast!”

LinkedIn is one of the largest search engines to focus on business and professional roles. Purchased by Microsoft for $26 billion in 2016, LinkedIn is increasingly becoming more innovative and popular.

It is one social network that is here to stay.

The foundation of LinkedIn potential is the interpersonal Connections.

The myriad of ways that YOU can utilize LinkedIn include:

Networking
Career planning
Connecting with past colleagues
Vetting people and companies
Reconnecting with college friends
Seeking referrals or recommendations
Finding joint-venture partners
Researching career paths
Identifying potential clients
Snooping on competition (as if you’d never!)
Checking out romantic interests (your own or your children’s)!

Wait. Exactly what ARE LinkedIn Connections?

Just as it sounds, connections on LinkedIn are formed when two people agree to connect, to be associated with one another and to (usually) reveal all of their other LinkedIn connections to each other. It is similar to friends on Facebook, where one person initiates the connection and the other person agrees to it.

(p.s. If you are my brother Mike reading this blog post, do me a solid and do NOT fill up the Comments section with our ongoing arguments about 4th-cousin three times removed. Save that for the next funeral or family reunion, please. Love ya!)

First-degree Connections

When people refer to connections, without specifying a numerical level, they mean “first-degree connections,” that is, where the two individuals have agreed to be connected on Linkedin. Privileges that come with first-level connectivity include leaving or receiving Endorsements for Skills, writing or receiving Recommendations, and messaging through LinkedIn. Sometimes people will set their privacy settings to hide personal information, such as email addresses or phone numbers, from all except 1st-degree connections, who have access to any information you’ve displayed on your profile.

You can invite people to connect from several locations on your profile! Things change on LinkedIn, but as of November 2020, LinkedIn provides this list:

A member’s profile – Click the Connect button on their profile page.
The search results page – Click Connect to the right of the member’s information.
The Grow Your Network page – Search your email address book to find contacts or invite them using their email address.

(Frankly, I never use that one. Maybe because 15 years ago they sent requests to everyone in my email list: friends, foes, and others!)
The My Network page – If you have any pending invitations, they will be displayed near the top of the page.
The “People You May Know” feature – Click the Connect button below the member’s name. If you have any pending invitations, they will be displayed near the top of the page. After accepting a pending invitation, connections you may know from that member will appear as suggested people for you to connect with. Check out more information on Connections You May Know.
The LinkedIn mobile app – You can browse to find people you’d like to connect with. Tap the Connect button located on the profile of any LinkedIn member you’d like to send an invitation to, or you can tap Connect below a member’s name on the My Network tab.

Second-degree Connections

Best thought of as “a friend of a friend,” a second-degree connection is someone whose professional information is visible to you. Typically you have access to their list of connections/contacts. When you ask them to connect with you, they’ll see who you have in common, making it more likely that they will accept your invitation.

And a benefit of having second-level connections is that they lead you to …

Third-degree Connections

This crowd is where the search engine magic happens. People who are connected to your 2nd-degree connections are third-degree connections. These are important connections to have, because they seriously expand your reach, that is, the number of people who potentially can find you (or who you may find) in a search.

Translated: there are a lot of people in there who don’t know your name yet but probably would love to hear about your product or service offering, or to consider you for a new job.

When you view a profile for a third-level connection, you will not see any connections in common. Depending upon their individual privacy settings, you may or may not be allowed to directly send them a connection request.

But they are out there in LinkedIn World. And the more of them you have, the richer your potential will be!

LinkedIn Groups Members

This is cool. People who are in the same LinkedIn groups as you are also considered part of your network! I can’t guarantee that Tony Robbins will necessarily accept your request to connect simply because you are both members of the Harvard Business Review Group (ahem, HBR to the 1.1 million members). But he could!

But you can’t win the Lottery if ya don’t buy a ticket …

Meanwhile, I’ll bet that Joe Bob and Suzy Q from your local Greyhound Rescue Group on LinkedIn would happily connect with you if you asked them. Think local!!

Plain Ole LinkedIn Members (Out of Network)

People who have LinkedIn accounts but are not connected to anyone who you are, are “the rest of the world.” You may or may not be able to see their profile information, depending upon their privacy settings.

There are ways to find and even reach out to them for connections (besides borrowing your well-connected buddy’s LinkedIn password for a few hours) but for this exercise (getting to 500+ connections), let’s concentrate on the first four categories listed above.

How do LinkedIn Connection Requests Work?

Similar to requesting a friend on Facebook, a connection request on LinkedIn is made, and once it is accepted, the two people are connected.

When you submit a connection request, the word “Pending” will show up on their profile in a grayed-out appearance, and you will not be able to resubmit. But you may remove your request at any time.

And if you ever want to disconnect from a connection, you may and they will NOT be notified.

Why Do I Want 500+ Connections?

It is widely believed that 500 connections is a threshold in the top-secret LinkedIn search algorithms. Reaching 500 opens you up to a higher ranking within their search engine.

Because LinkedIn has been around now for many years, most users expect to see 500+ in all but recent college graduates.

Having 500+ Connections shows that you are serious about your business or profession. It can make you look trustworthy and worth getting to know.

When competition is an issue–such as in hiring for corporate positions or local services–having a higher placement in search results will get you looked at sooner. This is particularly important in recruiting situations, where a client may query for the “top X” candidates with keywords of A, B, and C.

For example, a recruiter using LinkedIn Recruiter (a premium service) may ask for the top 7 individuals within the LinkedIn network who have Chemical Engineering degrees, are fluent in German as well as English, and have more than 10 years experience. If you fit those qualifications (even if you are not consciously job seeking), having 500+ Connections will open this threshold for you.

OK. How Do I Get My 500+?

Start with Your People

When you are first trying to build your network, go for the “low-hanging fruit.” That means you should start by connecting with people who you encounter in your daily life (even if you have no expectation of ever dealing with them in a business or financial way):

family
friends
neighbors
classmates
co-workers
vendors
clients.

These should be the easy people, the ones who will connect with you quickly without question.

Once you have identified them, just ASK.

Ask them at lunch, ask your Mom on the phone, ask the guy at the next cubicle, ask the salesperson lounging around your desk. Request a connection with other friends through the LinkedIn network. Basically ask them to connect with you right away.

Everyone is always near their computer or mobile device so the only reason one of your people would say no is probably they don’t have a LinkedIn account, or more likely, they DON’T KNOW THEIR PASSWORD!

Other People

This comes into play when the person who you are asking is not one of your low-hanging fruit. It might be a director at your company who does not know you well, or an authority in your field who you admire, or someone whose position requires a more formal request.

It might also be someone whose path you have crossed in the past (positively, I hope) but a reminder of who you are will be more effective in catching their attention when they see your request.

Examples include parents of long-ago teammates, past college professors, and former colleagues.

Do you need help with LinkedIn basics or want a private lesson? Join me for a 1-on-1 “Ask Me Anything” session where you can literally ask me anything … and if it’s about LinkedIn, I’ll get you the answer! We’ll meet virtually, we’ll look at your LinkedIn profile [confidentially, of course] and I’ll point out areas where you can make quick improvements, show you some features you may not know about, help you update your presence, show you how to find people to connect with … pretty much anything you would like help with! [$77 for a 45-minute session.]