10 Tips For Effectively Using Your LinkedIn Status Update

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One of the features of LinkedIn that tends to be underutilized is the “LinkedIn Status Update” (also called your “Network Update”) in your LinkedIn Profile. Your status update “block” is a white box located just below your picture on your “View My Profile” page. If you don’t see such a block, then you’ve not posted a status update.

From your LinkedIn home page or your “Edit My Profile” page, you can change your status update as frequently as you desire. EVERY time you update your status, the home page of ALL of your network connections is “pinged” with your status update. Status updates are also distributed to your network via email when LinkedIn sends you your weekly “Network Update.” Your latest status update is always displayed on your LinkedIn profile.

Your status updated is limited to 140 characters – just like Twitter – so keep that in mind, particularly when cutting and pasting information into your status update “window.”

Updating your LinkedIn status is a great way to communicate to your network on a frequent and ongoing basis. I update my status at least once each day with different types of information. 10 tips for effectively using your status update to distribute useful information are presented below:

1. Insert the title and a “shortened” URL link to one of your recent blog articles. Bit.ly is a great resource for shortening URL’s.

2. Insert the title and a “shortened” URL to a blog article you read and really liked. Particularly one that is timely, informative and relates to your “brand” or area of specialty in some way.

3. A link to a newsworthy web posting or news item. Include the title and a shortened URL. Alignment with you brand “voice” or area of specialty makes it more powerful. I like to focus on POSITIVE news as opposed to negative news.

4. A great “quote of the day.” A great source of quotes of to search the #quote “hashtag” on Twitter. Since Twitter updates are limited to 140 characters, you’ll find quotes that fit the LinkedIn status update window.

5. A brief piece of advice relevant to your brand or area of specialty.

6. A link to a great YouTube video. I recommend linking only to videos that are less than about three to five minutes in length. The video content should be consistent with your “brand” or area of specialty.

7. A request to connect with you on Twitter. Be sure to include your Twitter URL. I’ve created a “custom” domain for my Twitter URL: www.AndyOnTwitter.com.

8. An important announcement about you or your company. Try a brief “press release” type of communication.

9. A link to an article in which YOU were quoted. I give the title of the article and a shortened URL link to the article. This is a powerful PR and branding activity.

10. Recent results and key activities at work. Something like, “Just landed three new Executive Career Coaching clients this week; excited about launching those engagements!”

Give it a try, make it a habit.

By the way, there are tools available that allow you to cross-post your Twitter updates DIRECTLY to your LinkedIn status updates (as well as Facebook and other social media applications). A couple of tools I really like are Ping.fm and Hellotxt.com.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

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10 Comments

1. 

   fifty shades of grey

   April 4, 2013 at 12:21 AM

   I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your site. It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more enjoyable
   for me to come here and visit more often. Did you
   hire out a developer to create your theme? Fantastic work!

   Reply
2. 

   Sarah Rasmussen

   March 18, 2013 at 4:31 PM

   My coworkers and I have been having problems recently with using bitly links in status updates. Sometimes they work, and pull in the title of the page and the headline (of the blog post), along with an image from the page. Other times, the link doesn’t work and all that shows up in the preview box is, literally, “bit.ly.” Any thoughts on this? Using IE8. Same thing in Chrome.

   Reply
   • 

     Michelle

     May 16, 2013 at 11:56 PM

     No experience with bit.ly, but we use tinyurl.com at my job (One Stop Printing in Fort Worth, TX) and so far it has worked just fine.

     Reply
3. 

   Jonathan Duarte

   January 15, 2013 at 6:03 PM

   Jonathan,

   Yes, it might seem crazy, but if you provide quality content, articles, videos, and free advice and help, people will remember you.

   They won’t remember the “profile updates”, and you can turn that off.

   They will remember that you shared information that helped them.

   Reply
4. 

   Frank

   January 15, 2013 at 7:30 AM

   Here is the thread to the article I referenced.

   http://www.careerealism.com/linkedin-cheat-sheet/

   Reply
5. 

   Jonathan

   January 13, 2013 at 2:57 PM

   (“EVERY time you update, ALL of your network connections are “pinged”. They are also [emailed] to your network [in] LinkedIn’s weekly “Network Update.”
   I update my status at least once each day with different types of information.”)

   Oy vey! Status updates are a real turn-off: They generally have items like: Jon Morris just added a skill.

   And they consume time. Just imagine if even 10% of your connections post these weekly.

   Do I really want to be known for this pestering? Your thoughts?

   Reply
   • 

     Dennis

     January 15, 2013 at 2:01 AM

     Jonathan, I believe there’s a setting in LinkedIn that lets you change it doesn’t broadcast every time you update your profile. It’s under the privacy option in settings.

     Reply
   • 

     Frank

     January 15, 2013 at 7:29 AM

     Jon,

     There is another great article that I saw by J.T. O’Donnell that talks give the top 5 suggestions to a better linkedin profile.

     #1 was turning of profile updates – so this might be a good read and something to pass along to your friends that update their profiles frequently.

     Just sharing…

     Frank

     Reply
   • 

     sam

     February 11, 2013 at 11:39 PM

     In terms of these updates – “Cindy S. added a new skill”… as I see all these – why does one that was updated 11 hours ago – stay at the top of all the other updates?

     “Cindy S. added a new skill” (11 hours ago)

     “Johhny B. is now connected to Sam” (3 minutes ago)

     (In the above – why does Cindy S. update stay at the top while so many others underneath were more recent?)

     Reply
6. 

   Paul P Mosley

   January 13, 2013 at 6:55 AM

   I just shared this to my updates on LinkedIn® so people in my network can be made aware of this.

   Have a Great Day,

   Paul P. Mosley
   Penobscot Executive Search

   Reply