2012 LinkedIn Guide from Counsellors Title

LinkedIn Guide for

2012 How well you use LinkedIn in 2012 is likely to contribute

10-20% to your business This guide has been written by Ralph Aponte with Anthony DiMaio with the intent of serving the New Jersey Real Estate Professional. It is a free resource and shall not be reproduced or sold without written permission of Ralph Aponte.

Here is your LinkedIn Guide for 2012 From Counsellors Title Agency

Counsellors Title Agency, founded in 1996, is one of New Jersey’s most respected title agencies, serving all 21 New Jersey counties with title insurance, closing, settlement and escrow services, It also features its own Attorney Settlement Assistance Program™ (ASAP), which specifically fits the needs of real estate attorneys, including documentation, preparation, disbursement of funds, attendance at closing, HUD preparation or post-closing matters. CTA, headquartered at 504 Hooper Avenue, Toms River, NJ 08753, maintains an impeccable customer relations standard with hundreds of attorneys, loan officers and Realtors statewide.

© Copyright 2011-12 Counsellors Title Agency. All rights reserved. Go to www.counsellorstitle.com or follow us on www.twitter.com/titlewise.

Introduction The #1 social network for business professionals is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a MUST for the real estate profession especially. The way that you understand LinkedIn is critical to what it can do for you over the course of time. Don’t think of LinkedIn as the sign in front of a business: it’s not. LinkedIn is more like an electronic billboard: constantly changing and updating itself, the look and even the message to match the time, season, the need and even the news. Clients, as well as potential clients, and vendors need to be reminded that you are on your game; and for the few, that you are at the top of it. Unfortunately, once the accounts are set up, it seems for most it is a static storefront, without too much activity except for the addition of new contacts. So take advantage of some great tools out there to keep your profile as relevant and active as possible.


Part 1 LinkedIn is not a stand-alone social media platform. It functions best by integrating other features.

NutshellMail First is Nutshell by Constant Contact. Nutshell Mail sends you a daily recap of all of your updates, notifications and messages neatly summarized in a single

email. Take it all in at your leisure, without getting in the way of the workday.

Google News Alerts Google Alerts are emails sent to you when Google finds new results -- such as web pages, newspaper articles, or blogs -- that match your search term. You can use Google Alerts to monitor anything on the Web. In the case of LinkedIn and your effective use of the platform, create a Google News Alert that alerts you to news in your industry and how people are using LinkedIn to help them. The way you would do that is create an alert with the following keywords included: “real estate, using LinkedIn.”

You should also create Google News Alerts to monitor: • When your company or products are mentioned • Your industry news • What’s up with your competitors • What’s being said about you

Slideshare Links with LinkedIn Use your SlideShare to link in with the world's largest community of individuals sharing presentations on the Internet. Over 60 million people use SlideShare every month for research.

You can upload and share on blogs, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, and videos.


Part 2

Your Approach to LinkedIn Breaking News

One of the cable news networks began to brand their style of news with a visual and audio footprint: they would always initiate any news story with the alert: Breaking News. The Web is not just a visual medium; it remains and is always the greatest compendium of accessible and instantaneous information. One of the things about the Internet: it makes news instantaneous,

and the one who has it first is something of a news maven. So it is not so much a matter of your industry knowledge, but your Breakthrough Industry Knowledge. Always try to maintain a present-tense tone in your communication. LinkedIn must continually: DEMONSTRATE YOUR KNOWLEDGE BASE AND YOUR INDUSTRY L EADERSHIP! Always think about your Demonstrate-able Knowledge. Pay attention to ways that you can “demonstrate” knowledge – and for the real estate professional, LinkedIn is a great tool to do just that. When a property closes, make a point about how your approach brought about this event.


Part 3 Foundations of a Strong LinkedIn Presence

Why You Should Develop a Strong LinkedIn Presence Stand Out: What Your LinkedIn Profile Says About Yo u! Your ‘who’ – general but important and specific details that characterize you must be covered. Make sure that you have covered everything; and after reviewing, give it to someone to review for you. But the most important part of the Profile is your ‘why.’ They say people don’t buy what you do, but rather who you are. After you create that Stand-Out Profile, make sure you look for ways that you can tweak it to sound stronger and compelling. If you are in sales and are not as famous as Harvey Mackay, I suggest that you insert some kind of a modifier. THINK about the main keywords you want to be found with, such as Real Estate Agent, New Jersey Realtor, etc. Tackle the following eights sections of your profile over the next few weeks. • Your Name : Your name field is the first and primary field you want to tackle, and make

sure you think before you leap on this one. I have certain preferences on this, such as if you have designations, accreditations, or degrees that relate to what you do and how well you do it, please insert. This is NOT THE PLACE TO BE FLAMBOYANT.

• Your Profile Photo : Make sure that your photo tag is your name, and include your company name in the tag as well. Also have a couple good headshots, and change regularly; at least twice a year.

• Your Professional Headline Description : This section appears directly below your profile name. The contents of this section are “searchable,” so take some serious care to what keywords you use. DON’T CRAM KEYWORDS HERE. It’s not the place for it. Be sure to be cogent, result-focused, an advocate for your clients. They are not customers, remember; they are your walking billboards and expert witnesses.

• Your Websites : Under websites, you are permitted to list your main three URLs. Don’t use the My Blog, Personal Website.

The trick here is to select: Other instead. This allows you to select and enter the name you would like to use for each of your links. This is another means of making your profile Stand Out!

• Your Twitter : Definitely use the Twitter field to add your Twitter profile link. Remember,

your Twitter handle should do more than inform people as to your name; unless your name is famous, select what ‘’result’ you look to deliver to your prospects. Your Twitter handle is in


addition to the above three websites.

• Your Summary : Your summary is where you can definitely ‘spread your professional wings,’ so to speak. Take the approach that you are at a cocktail party, and you are trying to provide people a handle as to who you are and why you are there. You can explain (not tell) people ‘at the party’ why you are good at what you do. This is another place you should salt the content with the preferred keywords that best frame your business and how you work.

• Your Specialties : Your specialties are areas where you list specialization and certain expertise in keyword-like form.

• Your Experience : Now my approach to this would be to frame or characterize experience with an eye toward those facing issues that are problematic and need the answer to a number of questions. The experience is where you include your current and past job data and information. Titles, according to a number of LinkedIn experts, are especially important for keyword to optimize your profile in LinkedIn and Google search.

Don’t Forget to Save Your Profile After you have completed your profile, DON’T FORGET to make your profile public! Go to the dropdown with your name at the top right, then select Settings, then click on the Edit public profile link to make specific areas of your profile visible to everyone, which also makes it visible to search engines.

Your Recommendations Potential clients like to hear from people who have tested out the waters. Testimonials are a great way to give people a sense of what they can expect when they work with you. Unfortunately, people have treated testimonials like Girl Scout Cookies: the more you have, the better you are. Not so: first, get your testimonials from credible sources. Never ask someone to recommend you who is not familiar with the quality of your work or your product. People can sniff out the LinkedIn grifters The way to approach your Recommendation Plan has four parts:

Who: who is already referring you business? [Look through your contacts on LinkedIn] What: what is it that people are saying and recommending about you? When should you ask: usually within a week of completing a project or making a sale. Why: why is it in the customer’s interest to refer you? Have you over-delivered, or even delivered on time?

Update your Status You should always be active on your LinkedIn. • Post Business Updates : Share professional updates and links you find of interest.


A LinkedIn Activity Flow Chart

Join LinkedIn and complete the overview information

https://www.linkedin.com/ Include all the emails you use (personal and professional) as this is how other LinkedIn users you know will find you.

Complete employment and education history

Be complete and accurate. This is how potential business partners will evaluate you in their search for customers and vendors.

Add a profile summary This is a great way to profile what your company does and what you do in it. Consider adding the URL to the top of your profile.

Select an industry and specialties Reflect your specialties as key word phrases (better for SEO).

Add your website(s) Choose the “OTHER” setting so that you can name the links (better for SEO).

Create Public Profile URL You can use a company/your name for a LinkedIn public URL profile.

Acquire a Public Profile URL We recommend you set your profile to complete view and show all sections you have completed (especially websites for SEO purposes).

Set your Contact Settings This is where you determine your contact settings (introduction only or introductions and emails), about what subjects you are most interested, and how you want to be contacted (some rules of engagement).

Upload your email Contacts LinkedIn has a tool to upload the contacts you in your email accounts and matches them with other LinkedIn users. You can add contacts manually.

Start Linking

Use the built in tool to invite your contacts you’ve uploaded to accept a “connection” via LinkedIn. We find the best way to do this is to include as personal a message as possible! This may take a little more time, but it is well worth it, as it improves the response of those who accept your connections, as well as improves the quality of the connection itself. You should also do a search on the LinkedIn site for those users who were employed by your past employers during the same time you were. These are connections you can make and rekindle via a LinkedIn invitation. This is an ongoing task that needs to be redone every month or so.

Collect at least 3 recommendations from your “network”

After building your contact list, request a recommendation from at least 3 to “complete your profile”. Try to ensure you have a few for your current company and at least one recommendation for each past position.

Give and you shall receive! Networking is largely a give/grow process. When someone gives you a recommendation, return the favor! Also, be proactive…give the recommendation to some of your connections before they ask.


LinkedIn character counts for each field in the Lin kedIn Profile 1

1. Company Name : 100 maximum characters. 2. Professional Headline : 120 character limit. 3. Summary : 2,000 character limit. 4. Specialties : 500 maximum characters. 5. Website Anchor Text : 30 maximum characters. 6. Website URL : 256 maximum characters. 7. Position Title: : 100 characters. 8. Position Description : 200 minimum and 2000 maximum characters. 9. Interests: : 1,000 Characters 10. Phone number : 25 character limit (Viewable only to 1st degree connections if

populated). 11. IM (Instant message) : 25 character limit (Viewable only to 1st degree connections if

populated). 12. Address : 1000 character limit (Viewable only to 1st degree connections if populated). 13. Skills : You may add up to 25 skills using 61 characters per skill. 14. LinkedIn Status Update : You can use up to 700 characters unless you want to update

your Twitter status at the same time. Twitter® updates are limited to 140 characters. If you go over the 140-character limit, only the first 140 characters will be visible on Twitter.

For more information, Please contact Ralph Aponte at Counsellors Title Agency, 732-914-1400 or

email [email protected].

1 Donna Serdula


This is your personal 2012 LinkedIn Guide I would like to invite you to invest the time to read the information contained about LinkedIn. As is the case with any social network, LinkedIn is a changing and evolving environment, and in order to engage it at a purposeful and functional level, certain habits are best practiced. In addition to providing you with this guide, Counsellors Title would like to consider learning more about the Seventeen Services that we offer every New Jersey real estate professional. For more information please contact me either at the office, on my mobile or by email: Phone: 732-914-1400 Mobile: Email: