42 rules for 24 hour success on linked in

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“42 Rules for
24-Hour Success
on LinkedIn”
Book Excerpt
By Chris Muccio
with David Burns
and Peggy Murrah

ii
BOOK EXCERPT Table of Contents
• Intro
• Rule 2: Answer the Most Important Questions First
• Rule 3: Get LinkedIn or Get Left Out?
• Rule 6: Overcome the Overwhelm
• Appendix C: 42 Things You Can Do with LinkedIn
• About the Authors
• Getting the book and other books from Happy About

C o n t e n t s
42 Rules for 24-Hour Success on LinkedIn iii
NOTE: This is the Table of Contents (TOC) from the book for
your reference. The eBook TOC (below) differs in page
count from the tradebook TOC.
Intro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Section I Setting Up Your Foundation . . . . . . . . . .4
Rule 1 Rules are Meant to be Broken. . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Rule 2 Answer the Most Important Questions
First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Rule 3 Get LinkedIn or Get Left Out?. . . . . . . . . . . 10
Rule 4 Consider the ROI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Rule 5 Optimize Your Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Rule 6 Overcome the Overwhelm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Section II What LinkedIn Offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
Rule 7 Success Starts With a Clear
Understanding of Your Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Rule 8 Communicate Constantly Without
Being Annoying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Rule 9 It's Never Too Early to Build
Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Rule 10 Focus on Career Development . . . . . . . . . . 26
Rule 11 Be Smart When Applying for Jobs . . . . . . . 28

iv Contents
Rule 12 It's More Than a Job Posting . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Rule 13 Precision is the Key to Business
Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Rule 14 Find and Be Found . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Rule 15 Think Outside the Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Section III The LinkedIn Profile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Rule 16 Understand Your LinkedIn Profile . . . . . . . . 40
Rule 17 Give Yourself a Fast, Powerful
Makeover!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Rule 18 You Are Your Brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Rule 19 Promote Your Profile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Rule 20 Personalize Your Profile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Section IV Building Your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Rule 21 Lay the Foundation for Your Network . . . . . 52
Rule 22 Use Invitations to Connect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Rule 23 Understand Invitation Etiquette . . . . . . . . . . 56
Rule 24 Add People to Your Network . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Rule 25 Don't Abuse Introductions and
InMails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Rule 26 Manage Your Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Section V Recommendations and Answers . . . . . 64
Rule 27 Manage Your Recommendations. . . . . . . . . 66

42 Rules for 24-Hour Success on LinkedIn v
Rule 28 Make Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Rule 29 Ask a Question . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Rule 30 Answer a Question. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Section VI Learning the "How-To" for Other
LinkedIn Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
Rule 31 Manage Your Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Rule 32 Get Serious About Search. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Rule 33 Think About Upgrading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Rule 34 Manage Your Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Rule 35 Create Your Own LinkedIn Group. . . . . . . . 84
Rule 36 Companies Can Play Too . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Rule 37 Share, Share, Share . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Rule 38 Connect with Your Existing Tools . . . . . . . 90
Section VII LinkedIn—The Expanded
Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
Rule 39 Separate Professional from Personal . . . . 94
Rule 40 It Changes the Way We Do Things . . . . . . . 96
Rule 41 Beware of Addictive Behavior. . . . . . . . . . . 98
Rule 42 These Are Our Rules, What Are
Yours?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Appendix A Fast Facts—Interesting Tidbits about
LinkedIn. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Appendix B The Crystal Ball – What Might
LinkedIn do in the Future? . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

vi Contents
Appendix C 42 Things You Can Do with LinkedIn . . . . 106
Appendix D 42 Rules In Action—Products &
Services to Help You. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Author About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Your Rules Write Your Own Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Books Other Happy About Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

42 Rules for 24-Hour Success on LinkedIn 1
I n t r o
We all continue to hear the same phrases over
and over again—I'm too overwhelmed, I'm too
busy, I can't put my full attention to that, etc. To
be honest, if you ask my family, I am right in there
with the "time challenged" too. It seemed that in-
creasing business success and finding more
time went hand in hand…or so I thought. One
day, when I met my buddy Pete at a coffee shop,
he talked about a certain type of success and
described it in rather simple terms. He described
a little kid, sitting on a dock with his fishing rod in
the water. The kid fishes for some time, but
nothing happens. So at some point, he gets
bored, decides to lay back and takes a nap while
leaving his baited hook in the water. When he
wakes up, he excitedly finds that he hooked a
fish while he was sleeping. The reason why he
was successful without having to be actively
engaged was pretty straightforward. He
prepared himself for success by doing the simple
things—baiting the hook and putting the hook in
the water.
I think that is a great metaphor for this book and
social networking. This book is not about
achieving success in 24 hours, rather it is about
doing the simple things that set you up for the op-
portunity to achieve success 24 hours a day.
Social networking occurs globally, 24 hours a
day, 7 days a week. I know that I have arisen on
multiple occasions to find that people I used to
work with from outside the USA had found my
profile and were interested in reconnecting with
me. Now that is what LinkedIn is about; a place
to find people and a place to be found. It's all
about leveraging a communication tool and it is
up to you to determine how you will use this com-
munication platform to create your success. This

2 Intro
might range from the simple connecting with people you've lost contact
with, to finding a new job, to finding new talented individuals to add to
your business, to creating a new revenue channel.
Given the tough economic times and the hype of social media, social
networking and of course, LinkedIn, there is a certain curiosity about
this business potential that seems to be only lightly addressed. Since
LinkedIn or any social network is a 24-Hour tool, to most effectively
position yourself to achieve your success any time of the day or night,
you need to be like the little kid who took a nap while fishing. You need
to "bait your hook and put it in the water" and, to help you, we offer you
our 42 rules. As there are a variety of users with a variety of ideas for
their success, some of the rules we offer may apply to you while others
may not. These are by no means the only rules, so feel free to share
them, discuss them, refine them and create new ones. Most important-
ly, please keep in mind the most basic rule—simple preparation, just
like our little fisherman learned, enhances your chances for 24-Hour
success!

42 Rules for 24-Hour Success on LinkedIn 3

4 42 Rules for 24-Hour Success on LinkedIn
R u l e
2 Answer the Most
Important Questions
First
LinkedIn is a
communication
tool. It is a place
to find people and
be found.
Let's start with a question, Why are you on
LinkedIn?
On the surface, this seems to be a simple
question: only five words and none were more
than 10 letters long. But it seems that whenever
we ask that question, we're asking something on
par with an existential question like, "What is the
meaning of life?" because the response we get
nine times out of ten is a contemplative silence.
So we try to break the uneasy silence by asking
another question, "What was your encourage-
ment to register on LinkedIn?" and with that
usually a big smile appears and they say, "Oh, I
received an invitation to sign up." To which our
reply is, "That's great, what are your goals for
being registered on LinkedIn?" This time the
responses range from that contemplative silence
to the ambitious, "Gain more clients."
LinkedIn is a place for business professionals to
be "found" and "to find" people. It is a vehicle to
communicate. It is a tool to use with your
business, in your career management, your edu-
cation, your social endeavors and probably a
whole lot more. Yes, you can turn contacts into
clients and yes, you can turn prospects into
customers but by itself, LinkedIn is not a magic
elixir.

Rule 2: Answer the Most Important Questions First 5
In simple terms, LinkedIn is a conduit; it is a connector. The people who
receive the greatest results understand this and use LinkedIn accord-
ingly. If you asked some of the people who have achieved successes
with LinkedIn how they would define one formula for LinkedIn success,
it would be similar to the following:
So as we begin this book, we pose some questions for you to think
about.
• Why are you on LinkedIn? Do you understand how you can most effective-
ly benefit from it?
• What are you looking to achieve with LinkedIn? Are your goals realistic?
Have you created a strategy and supported it with realistic action items?
• How are you showing initiative? You are reading these rules, so that
indicates that you have the drive and commitment to learn. What else are
you doing to enhance your ability to achieve the goals you've established
on LinkedIn? For instance, if you are on it to network, are you networking?
What have you been doing to build relationships?
• How much time are you fitting into your schedule to properly participate
and execute on your strategy? Unfortunately, this is not the field of dreams
(i.e. build it and they will come). Without allocating time in your busy
schedule to work your action plan, you may end up more like a billboard in
a jungle, bright and shiny but not seen by many people.
To reiterate, success on LinkedIn is not like rubbing the magic lantern
and having the genie immediately appear. 24-Hour success should not
imply immediate gratification. What 24-Hour success implies is literally
setting yourself up for success by doing all the "right" things that will
eventually help you succeed. In the wired world we live in, success can
occur during the middle of the business day, when you are sitting in
front of your computer or while you are sleeping in bed.
LinkedIn
+
Strategy/Action Plan
+
Initiation = LinkedIn Success
+
Allocated Time
+
Execution

R u l e
3 Get LinkedIn or Get
Left Out?
Success is not
based on what
you know, but
rather, who you
know.
The old cliché is that success is not based on
what you know, but rather, who you know. Under-
standing your online identity is critical to creating
success, and LinkedIn is currently one of the
more powerful tools that can help you. The
challenge is how to learn the most effective ways
to use LinkedIn without wasting time navigating
the help functions, the online forums or Googling
the gurus.
In typical day-to-day, face-to-face networking,
when people are asked about their usage of
LinkedIn, it seems that most people share the
same experience. They sign up for LinkedIn,
gather some contacts, and search out people
they may know from schools, prior employers, or
from professional associations. Once they've
tapped that out, they are lost as to what to do
next or how to realize any benefit from being on
LinkedIn.
As successful professionals, your time is
valuable and what you choose to focus on must
provide you with an effective result. Therefore,
as you begin reading this book, let's start off with
some quick and immediate tips to help you dra-
matically improve your understanding of the
LinkedIn experience and build your base of
useful contacts.

Rule 3: Get LinkedIn or Get Left Out? 7
Focus on Relationship Building
The cornerstone for your success starts with ensuring your under-
standing of what successful networking really means. It is not the
sleazy concept of dropping off a business card and then racing to
someone else to repeat the process over and over again. That type of
person merely wants you to hear about them. They could care less
about spending time to get to know you. Pretty shallow, right? Why
would you do business with someone who doesn't care about you? If
that is your idea of networking, don't even bother with LinkedIn.
Networking is about building relationships and getting to know the
other person and how you might be able to contribute to their success.
Successful networkers build their own credibility through their actions,
which in turn builds a comfort level with the other party. This increased
level of comfort leads to a stronger relationship. So, would you rather
have business dealings with someone who is shallow or someone
you've developed a relationship with? Relationship building should be
the focus of your perspective and participation in LinkedIn.
Commit Time Weekly to Participate
This sounds like the most basic concept, but it is very important to
adhere to it. Unfortunately many people join and collect contacts but
invest no time or energy networking, so they gain nothing from the site.
This is a clear example of reaping what you have sowed. Remember
LinkedIn is just a tool to connect and open doors, but it still takes work
on your part. Set aside at least an hour or so each week to invest in
building your network.
Seek and Give Recommendations
One of the hardest things some people find is to adequately "brag"
about their accomplishments. Whether you want to acknowledge it or
not, you have probably compiled an impressive list of career success-
es. Having someone else "promote" your accomplishments is a very
powerful tool. It builds your reputation and strengthens relationships as
well as increases the value of your network to everyone connected to it.
LinkedIn offers Recommendations, which is a function that allows
someone else to describe you and promote you to the world. Request
recommendations from people who know you well and will best
describe your strengths, achievements, etc. On the flip side, make sure
you spread the recognition of people you know and recommend them.
Remember, relationship building is a two-way street.

R u l e
6 Overcome the
Overwhelm
Many people are
struggling to
understand where
to begin and just
as many are
simply trying to
find out how to
properly
participate.
By now, based on the hype, we are all somewhat
aware of the potential that Web 2.0/Social
Networks can offer you. However, after speaking
to various groups of people, two things are
becoming very apparent; many people are strug-
gling to understand where to begin and just as
many are simply trying to find out how to properly
participate. In this rule, we will offer you
"quick-start" guidance to help minimize your
feeling of being overwhelmed, and guide you
through the "participation puzzle."
social networking opens up a whole new level of
contact with your prospects, your customers,
your business partners and your employees. The
elegance of social networking is the way it
enables constant yet non-intrusive communica-
tion regarding literally anything your business
needs to communicate about. So the benefits are
clear, yet many of us are struggling to come to
terms with the following:
ISSUE - Not Sure How to Participate / Afraid
of Being Blackballed – There are many
nuances to participating on various social net-
working sites, and they too seem to change daily.
Most of these sites are communities where
people have invested long hours into participat-
ing. You may even say, they've invested part of
their lives into these sites. Given these invest-
ments, they don't take it lightly if someone jumps
in and doesn't properly participate.

Rule 6: Overcome the Overwhelm 9
QUICK START GUIDANCE – Netiquette is important here. We
advocate taking some time to get the lay of the land. Read through the
FAQs, check out the "power users" and use the search engine to read
up on what others say about the site.
ISSUE - Trying to Figure Out How to Get Positive Attention –
Getting attention is probably the most important thing you can do in this
Web 2.0 world and also the most competitive. Not only are you
competing for attention from the social media world, but you are
competing with the offline world as well. We've already estimated that
there are hundreds, if not thousands, of sites out there with thousands
of users on each site. In addition to that, there are 225 billion pages of
editorial content pumped out every year. Given this, how valuable is at-
tention? Think of Paris Hilton. What exactly does she do? One thing is
for certain and that is—she gets attention. According to Forbes, last
year she made a cool $6.3 million, received 3,600,000 web hits and
was mentioned in almost 18,000 press clippings. Clearly attention is
valuable.
QUICK START GUIDANCE – We advocate following the CAP principle
(see Rule 5)
ISSUE - You Don't Have the Time to Devote to This – It goes without
saying that in today's fast-paced information age, everyone is multi-
tasking and there is little time available for anything new. Need we say
more on this topic? Can you identify with the phrase "I'm in over-
whelm—have to get out of it fast?"
QUICK START GUIDANCE – So is this a deal breaker?
Actually No—you can make time if you step back and think about this
logically. Remember your first step? You were being strategic as to
which sites you participated in. Some sites are more time-intensive
than others. However, if you laid out your goals for these sites and
supported them with realistic action plans, then all you need to do is
"measure" your execution and continually tweak it to be more effective.
Thus what you might be looking at is spending 15 minutes a day on
LinkedIn, or five minutes a day on Twitter or an hour a week launching
videos on YouTube. The point is if you understand what you are
focusing on building, you can maximize your results without sacrificing
more time.

A p p e n d i x
C 42 Things You Can Do
with LinkedIn
Early in the book, we asked you how you were
looking to utilize LinkedIn. To help you answer
that, we have provided a variety of perspectives
from Executives to Small Businesses to Job
Seekers to functional things you can do. So
without further ado, here are 42 things you can
do with LinkedIn.
1. Answer the question of why you are on
LinkedIn
2. Update and expand your profile
3. (Better yet) Do an extreme makeover on
your profile!
4. Create your "3-second elevator pitch"
5. Customize your URL
6. Leverage the power of SEO by filling in your
specialties with effective phrases
7. Write recommendations
8. Ask for recommendations
9. Find an expert
10. Ask and answer questions
11. Ask for an introduction from one of your di-
rect connections to someone they are di-
rectly connected to
12. Educate people on how and why you want
to be contacted
13. Become adept at using the Search Function
14. Join and participate in a couple of relevant
groups

Appendix C: 42 Things You Can Do with LinkedIn 11
15. Organize a group based around an area of interest to you
16. Continue to grow your connections and build a quality network
17. Set up the Outlook Toolbar
18. Leverage the LinkedIn Widgets
Functional Uses:
19. Market your company
20. Use LinkedIn for Market Research
21. Gather business intelligence on your competitors
22. Career Management
23. Job Search
24. Recruiting
25. Keeping in Touch
26. Find Business Partners, Vendors and Clients
27. Revise existing business processes
28. Establishing an introduction that leads to Meeting Face-to-Face
Three ways for IT professionals to use LinkedIn with their Internal Cus-
tomers:
29. Connect with and build relationships within your company
30. Communicate what you are working to your users
31. Generate recommendations from your users – builds internal
credibility
Three ways Executives can use LinkedIn:
32. Job search (just like everyone else)
33. Research and land board positions
34. Conversely, they can attract key employees, partners and suppli-
ers
Three ways Small Businesses can leverage the power of communica-
tion:
35. Use the LinkedIn database to understand more about your pros-
pects and how people you currently know can assist in connect-
ing you
36. Notify your contacts of significant news, prospects, closings,
sales, opportunities, etc.

37. Stay current on what your business partners, vendors, former col-
leagues and potential new recruits are up to in their professional
lives
Three ways for Job Seekers to leverage LinkedIn:
38. Check out LinkedIn jobs
39. Use LinkedIn to find relevant headhunters to talk to
40. Use LinkedIn to expand the network of people you already know
and keep them abreast of your search
And in closing…
41. Play by the rules—don't abuse, don't invent, don't circumvent
42. Lastly, regardless of the preceding 41 things, make time for your
wife or significant other. We won't go into what can happen if you
don't
For more information and tips, please remember that you can always
go to http://www.LinkToProsper.com/24hoursuccess.

Appendix C: 42 Things You Can Do with LinkedIn 13

A u t h o r
About the Authors
Chris Muccio is an award-winning entrepreneur
who draws upon insightful experiences from his
successful career in Corporate America to guide
business leaders on the most effective strategies
to uncover profit and growth opportunities
resulting in rapid and sustainable improvements
within their business. His insight on social net-
working is highly sought after.
David Burns has been the founder of three com-
panies, two of which were in the telecommunica-
tions industry. In these endeavors, he was
instrumental in raising over $15 million in private
equity as well as raising senior debt and working
capital revolvers. David started his career with
Ernst and Young, LLP where he worked on
audits of both public and private companies.

Author 15
Peggy Murrah is the owner of a highly successful web design and
virtual assistance business, providing her clients with resources to
succeed in the online world of business. Through her ongoing network-
ing, she created strong business relationships with entrepreneurs
across diverse industries, and facilitated many mutually beneficial con-
nections among them.

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