Finally -- anecdotal vindication! For years I've been advising friends to avoid listing their Hotmail accounts when applying for jobs. Here's why:

Hotmail users deemed too dumb for employment at firm

"A guy from a Human Resources consultancy says their selection process for one job included a requirement for ample experience in using the Internet (navigation, searches, formats...)

"They received about 50 applications, of which 30 listed Hotmail addresses. All 30 were immediately deleted... why?

"The official reason: You can't be an Internet expert and use a Hotmail account at the same time..."

From Sugiero via Boing Boing Read More...

 
Liz Ryan's presentation last week to the Boulder Marketing Group (BMG) was great, full of useful tips for LinkedIn and other online networking sites. However, she didn't mention one juicy tip -- the presence of a 'stealth' option among the Premium (fee-based) membership plans. Here it is...

The Personal Plus membership option is almost nowhere to be seen on the LinkedIn site, perhaps because it's the most affordable of all the paid membership options. It fits nicely between the free-but-limited Personal plan and the $20/month Business plan.

The Plus plan also qualifies as 'stealth' because its signup link is so low-profile as to be nearly invisible, as the top screenshot shows... the vast majority of people will reflexively click on the large, graphical "Upgrade" button and fail to notice the small Plus upgrade link at the bottom of the screen.

For those who click on that big, graphical "Upgrade" button, you'll land on a page that compares the various Premium plans... all but the Personal Plus plan, that is! Unless you hit your browser's Back button and click on that stealth link at the bottom, you won't ever be shown that affordable, $5/month* upgrade option.

One final detail: Once you've upgrade to one of the mainstream Premium plans, you need to contact LinkedIn's customer service team and ask for the downgrade; you can't do it yourself. You've got to revert to a free Personal plan and then upgrade from there, being very careful to click on that stealth link...

That, my friends, is what's called a "sales funnel" -- carefully tailored choices that lead you down the road to the more profitable selections. And since LinkedIn's paid plans can run as high as $200/month, let's not speak too loudly about that Personal Plus plan, eh?
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At next week's March 22nd meeting of the Boulder Marketing Group (BMG), Liz Ryan will talk about the new career art of online networking. Liz is the author of Happy About Online Networking, a national speaker on the topic, and the CEO of WorldWIT, the world's largest online community for professional women. Here's some of what she has to say about LinkedIn...

"If you are job-seeking, you need to join LinkedIn, an essential job-search tool. If you’re not on a job search but you’re into online networking; or want to acquire new partners or clients; or otherwise want to rev up your networking activity level, you should likewise become a LinkedIn user, in my view. All that being said, there are some iron-clad rules for polite and professional use of the network... Read More...