Let’s take a moment to ring out 2011 and look back at some of the most read articles for the year.
It’s been an interesting one with the release of The Revised LinkedIn Personal Trainer and the public stock offering from LinkedIn. (The later of which didn’t make much of an impact here…)
It’s hard to compare an article written in January against an article written in November – the one’s just been around a whole lot longer to attract attention. So I’ve used a bit of a weighting to try to factor that in.
And so – here they are – the top ten articles from 2011…
Number 10
(Hey – if I gave you the number one at the top here, you might not bother to read all the way through…)
The Hubub About LinkedIn Profile Language
This article was actually published in 2010, but dovetails so well with this year’s version, The Most Over Hyped Advice About Overused LinkedIn Descriptors, that I’m adding the counts together and giving it the #10 spot.
The gist – don’t take someone else’s opinion that certain words are or are not hype or even overused. Take the time to craft your own profile, review it, edit it, and stand behind it.
Number 9
Changes, changes… This article treads into the fickle waters of LinkedIn’s “change methodology”. Yes, they must have one – even if it is “give it your best shot”…
The takeaway – expect LinkedIn to change – frequently. Some of those changes may in fact break other parts of the system. Some of the changes are good. Some we’d rather they hadn’t made. But it doesn’t matter, LinkedIn has responded to user comments and complaints only once or twice in it’s whole history.
Number 8
How Well Do You Really Know And Use LinkedIn?
This post from late in the year has gotten some nice traffic. It’s got a quiz that I’ve used to help people get an understanding of just how much of the LinkedIn system they really know (or don’t).
Top score to date is 94, and my impression is that many people are surprised at some of the questions.
Number 7
This post tackes some consistent questions – and guess what – people seem to find it;-)
Yes, if you want to merge accounts, make profile and account changes, and remove connections, it could well be an article that you’d find…
Number 6
Experienced Users Read The LinkedIn Personal Trainer Blog
This monthly poll results article talks about how much experience with LinkedIn readers of this blog have – as judged by the number of connections.
But yes – more than half of the readers of the blog have 200+ connections.
Number 5
LinkedIn’s New Profile Flagging Feature
I wasn’t certain how this article was going to turn out, but when LinkedIn adds a new feature, I like to mention it here. (and I often mention it before other outlets… hint… hint…)
If you come across a profile that seems to stretch the rules too far, you can flag it for review.
Number 4
Introducing The Revised LinkedIn Personal Trainer
When The LinkedIn Personal Trainer published in 2007, it was the first in the market. Since that time, more than a dozen other books have been pushed out, but none explain the system for the typical user in the same way. It isn’t hyper-markety, and it explains why you want to be taking the actions you take. (and it isn’t a “click this button” sort of book – if you want that, get another title that probably has out of date pictures…-)
In any case – the post announcing the release of the revised edition has generated quite a few reads.
Number 3
Gaming LinkedIn Search Results
Everybody wants to be found at the top of the list. But what happens if the actions that put you at the top of the list also mark you as an idiot?
This article decomposes such an action and gives great advice on doing it better.
Number 2
Opting Out of Mixtent for LinkedIn
A new third party application came out early in the year, and seemed to catch many LinkedIn users.
I say catch because it wanted to get users to rank their connections in certain categories, and sent spammy messages to try to convince others to join in. I didn’t think it was a good idea, and explored it to confirm that. This article will detail one way to respond – opting out.
(If you google “Mixtent LinkedIn”, this article is in 5th position…)
Number 1
AOL and Hotmail Lagging Gmail and Yahoo on The LinkedIn Personal Trainer
Another poll result writeup is the top read article of the year! (Have I told you lately that I really love writing up poll results?-)
In this instance, I just wanted to know what email tools readers used – and apparently hit some sort of search term confluence because this article has been read nearly twice as many times as the more popular articles from the beginning of the year.
The best article that wasn’t in the top 10
This fall article summarizes a whole series on “LinkedIn For The Salesman”.
And should have been in the top 10 – if only for the advice on how to grow business to business sales through LinkedIn.
Perhaps I have more readers that are looking for work, or those that have professional jobs that are not in sales, or all the sales types get hooked on the “use LinkedIn as a phonebook and connect to every person who breathes” line… In any case, I thought this one would get passed around more than it has.
This month’s poll
So – one plug here before the end of the year.
I’m interested in your non-scientific, highly segmented opinion on where the economy is going as we head into 2012. If you could take just a moment to click on one of three very-easy, no-nonsense answers in the poll to the right, I would appreciate it!
Looking forward to 2012
I appreciate all of my readers, hope this year has been good to you, and look forward to an even better 2012 for all of us.
And if you think this blog is a good one to share – you might just forward a link to this post;-)
Happy holidays, and to your continued success,
steve
—
Steven Tylock
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetylock