LinkedIn Voice Messages are Much Quicker and Better than Standard text Messages. Try one now!

Welcome back to "Just One Small Thing". My aim is to share short and simple tips that you can implement straight away to start improving your small business today. Would that be useful?

This is another one of those easy, simple tools which takes much longer to explain than it does to do. I have to credit my friend Angus Grady , better known as the LinkedIn Unlocker for introducing me to LinkedIn voice messages . They will save you loads of time and get you better responses.

Many people don’t realise that the LinkedIn messaging app also allows you to send voice messages instead of having to type a load of text.? These voice messages are limited to 60 seconds but, you can say an awful lot in that time.? The number of words I can speak in 60 seconds would take you at least five minutes to type.? It could be even longer if you’re doing it on your mobile.? You also can’t make any spelling mistakes and typos when you speak :-)

There are other benefits.? When you speak your message, the recipient can hear your intonation and the warmth of your voice.? If you’re being humorous they can hear it.? You can even laugh :-)? If you’re somewhere with loads of atmosphere, like a business networking meeting, the recipient will be able to hear the buzz in the background.? Voice messages are just a lot more real and emotional than text based messaging.? That’s why they work better.

So, how do you do it?? Firstly, you can only do this in the LinkedIn mobile app so you’ll need to have that on your mobile phone.? Launch the app and you’ll see the page below.

In the top right hand corner to the right of the search box there is an oval speech bubble with three dots in it.? Tap on that to launch LinkedIn’s messaging app.

As you can see the screen has the word messaging at the top and just under that there is a search box.? Type the name of the connection that you’d like to send the voice message to. Then you’ll see the search results.

You can tap on the name of the person under People or tap on your last conversation under “Messages”.? Either way brings you to your conversations with that connection.

In the bottom right hand corner, to the right of the box which says “Write a message” where you’d normally start typing, you’ll see a microphone icon.? Tap on that icon. You can also hold this down to start recording but it’s more fiddly than using the big blue button in the next step.

Now you’ll see a big blue circular button with a white microphone icon in the middle.? Put your finger or thumb on that button and hold it down.? You’ll see a seconds timer showing you how long your message is.? You have a maximum of 60 seconds which is absolutely loads of time.? Mind you, if it isn’t enough, just send another one straight afterwards as it takes no time at all.

As soon as you “let go” of that button the recording will stop.? Don’t worry if you mess up your voice message as you can always slide your finger away to cancel it.? Even if you let go, you can still cancel it and record it again.

When you let go, as you can see above, a white box comes up in the middle of your screen and asks you if you want to send your voice message.? I recommend that you DON’T ever tick the box to say “Don’t show this for future voice messages”.? I’ve made plenty of mistakes and you will too.

Once you tap send your voice message will go to your connection.? In many cases they’ll feel really special to receive your message in this way as not very many people make use of this fabulous feature.? I’ve found that people find it more engaging and often reply with their own voice message.

You can also play your own voice messages so you can remember what you said which is particularly useful when you receive a reply.? Here’s an animated GIF from LinkedIn to help you understand the process.

So, don’t delay, send me a voice message now so I can see that I’ve explained it well enough for you to use it.? Let me know how useful this was and please share this article with all your contacts.

Thanks for taking the time to read my article.? I hope you enjoyed it and will make good use of it.