I’m fairly active on a few social networks, but the one that I tend to use the most is LinkedIn. I try to connect with all my clients, most of my vendors, and a lot of people in my industry. I’m not a completely open networker but I’m not all that cautious about who I connect with. If there is a decent chance someone can either help me or I can help them, and it doesn’t appear to be pure spam, then I opt for the connection.
However, just like in all networks, to get the most from LinkedIn, it takes more than just accepting an invitation. I’ve prepared this post to help people understand how to get the most out of connecting with me. Originally, I had it as a stock response template, but after considering it, I think including too much information in the stock invitation thank you message is a bit overwhelming and is probably ignored by most people anyway.
How to get the most out of connecting with me on LinkedIn
- Tell me why you are networking on LinkedIn. What do you hope to accomplish? Is it social/general business networking? Career advancement? Looking for business prospects? Looking for employee candidates?
- Tell me what type of connections you are looking for. Please be as specific as possible. Certain cities or areas? Companies? Industries? Job Positions?
- Is there something specific I can do to help you? Connect you with someone? Share a link?
If you make it easy for me to help you, chances are good that I might.
For me, I’m on LinkedIn for business purposes mainly. I am seeking relationships and referrals to people that:
- Are in a position to make decisions about training purchases related to marketing/advertising software from Adobe, Apple, Google, etc.or
- Are interested in training for themselves
I try to build social networking relationships on Twitter and Facebook as well. Our company Facebook page where we have contests and specials is at http://www.facebook.com/ledettraining. Our Twitter page is at http://www.twitter.com/sjledet where I tweet, typically a tip or trick related to Adobe, Apple, Web development, but also sometimes a joke. http://www.weteachthecoolstuff.com is our blog. I appreciate networkers who refer me to people in their network, link to http://www.ledet.com (linking guidelines are at http://www.ledet.com/linkguidelines), comment on our posts, make suggestions for improving our various initiatives and generally interact.
As time permits, I’m happy to assist with the blogs of my connections on occasion as well including making myself available for interviews, cross posts, etc. In general, I post on blogs having something to do with Adobe or Apple software.
