Getting the most out of LinkedIn

Posted by: | Posted on: January 2nd, 2008 | 19 Comments | Posted in: Events, Networking online, Personal branding, Personal Branding Tips, Social media, Social networking

I often get asked questions about how I manage the fact people who you don’t always know may want to connect to you on LinkedIn and then may want to be connected to your own personal network.

For quite sometime I did look at my LinkedIn network as one that was effectively a group of people who were my closest business contacts and therefore I took the approach that:

1. I never asked someone to join me on LinkedIn if I were not prepared to endorse their work so I would always be happy to refer them

2. I never responded to a request to join someones LinkedIn network unless I knew them.

However with the increase in social networking and more people inviting me to connect to their network on LinkedIn, I realised that perhaps I was being too strict in my self imposed guidelines.

But how could I ensure that the quality of the connections stayed high and that I could ensure that I referred people to others in my network only if relevant?

Well here are a few things to remember in any social networking community:

1. you are always in control of who you invite to join your network

2. you can always decline an invitation to join someones network

3. you are rarely inundated with invitations to join someones online network, so screening  invitations takes little time.

I took things a step further and have now updated my LinkedIn profile with specific guidance on how best to connect with me on LinkedIn after listening to an interview with LinkedIn expert Shally Steckerl – this is how it reads (feel free to model your profile on this but please DO NOT copy my profile word for word):

GUIDANCE FOR CONNECTING TO MY LINKEDIN NETWORK

Please read the following so that we can ensure that our connecting will be of benefit to you:

1. I love connecting people to great resources and other people that can assist them in achieving their professional goals, so yes please feel free to connect – I always try to respond to emails within 48 hours

2. I will always accept invitations from friends, business acquaintances and clients to join my network on LinkedIn

3. If we haven’t met, I am open to connecting but please send an introductory note providing a little information about your background and how we would both benefit from connecting – a standard LinkedIn request to connect won’t be responded to

4. As I consider connecting people in my network to others as a recommendation and therefore want to ensure a quality connection for all concerned I will not usually forward requests to connect you to members of my LinkedIn network if I do not know you and your work

5. Please ensure that you spend a little time writing a thoughtful and detailed requests as to the benefit to the person in my network and why they would benefit in connecting to you. In return I promise to only send you relevant, well written requests.

So if you have been hesitating about joining LinkedIn, I do hope that these tips might help you overcome your fear of joining a great business networking community, helping you build your personal brand online.

And if you have any tips on how you get the most out of LinkedIn or guidance on how to ensure that you manage your online network effectively, perhaps you’ll share them here with our Biz Growth Community.

UPDATE 19 OCTOBER 2008: If you update your profile and would like to share it, don’t hesitate to send me a link or add a comment below. As I mentioned I am delighted if you find this information of guidance and feel free to model your profile on mine but please DO NOT COPY my profile word for word.

I have just added a copyright footnote to my profile at LinkedIn which I would not have expected to have done – because I noted an ‘online marketing expert’ had taken copied my profile word for word. Mouse on forward to October 2008 for an article on why you need to be vigilant about your online identity and the reasons you should ensure you monitor for people plagiarizing your online profile.

Additional Resources:

  • Read a recent article about how to choose if LinkedIn or Facebook is the right social networking platform for you

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  • http://www.AfterTheLaunch.com Shama Hyder

    Great post Krishna! I love the “informal rules” of connecting on LinkedIn.

  • Krishna De

    Shama – thanks – I hope this helps others – and I love the idea of them being “informal rules” as you put it.

  • http://babyboomerinsights.com Marilynn

    Great post, Krishna! I agree with you 100%. I’ve blogged about this very topic myself at http://www.RemainRelevant.com. I think your informal “rules” make a lot of sense and I hope people will pay attention to them. Have you noticed a big uptick in the number of folks inviting you to join Pulse on Plaxo? I’m a very active LinkedIn user and don’t see the point of connecting on multiple networks. (For the record, I have no interest in LinkedIn beyond being a user.)

  • Krishna De

    Marilynn – thank you so much for stopping by and commenting.

    Actually I haven’t found too many people asking me to join Plaxo Pulse. If I’m honest I don’t really like Plaxo – not that I’ve used it – more from a recipient’s perspective.

    Getting requests from people to update their Plaxo account details with my most current information feels cumbersome and pushing responsibility to me to spend time to update their data base. May be I’m old fashioned in terms of customer service and client relationship management, but that doesn’t feel like “making it easy to do business with me”.

    Oh and if anyone has not visited Marilynn’s blogs do mouse over to both http://www.remainrelevant.com and http://www.babyboomerinsights.com – there are some great articles that I think you’ll find of interest and relevance if you like reading Biz Growth News. Here is the link to her article about Plaxo Pulse: http://remainrelevant.typepad.com/remain_relevant_in_changi/2008/01/networking-onli.html

  • http://www.sallygardens.typepad.com/ Rebecca (living sustainably in lovely Leitrim!)

    Hello Krishna,
    Many thanks for your phone call the other day about my blog, already working on it … phone number up!
    I use LinkedIn with local and internet work colleagues. I find it useful to link to people I know because I often find when looking at their profile that they have skills I previously never knew about. It opens a whole new world of possible joint ventures.

  • Krishna De

    Rebecca – thanks for stopping by and I hope you get profiled by the press! I look forward to reading the article this weekend.

    Any time you have a question about blogging strategy don’t hesitate to call me – you might find our podcasts of interest too – for the best in the series click on the link in the left hand side bar.

    Happy business blogging!

  • http://www.imcbrokers.com Remco

    Thank you Krishna for this very useful post.

    I have immediatyle implemented these guidelines into my Linkedin profile.

  • Krishna De

    Remco – you are most welcome. Delighted the tips are of use.

  • http://blog.swoda.com/2008/02/links-for-200-4.html Steve Woda’s Blog: buySAFE, eCommerce, Trust and Safety

    I’ve included this article in my daily round up of articles for 25 February 2008.

  • http://www.krishnade.com/blog/2008/linkedin-endorsements/ 3 Keys to Effective LinkedIn Endorsements – Krishna De: Branding, Personal Branding, Employer Brand, Internal Brand, Social Media Marketing

    [...] Read a recent article about how to get the most out of your LinkedIn network [...]

  • http://www.krishnade.com/blog/2008/boost-your-business-results-with-linkedin/ Biz Growth Live: Boost Your Business Results With LinkedIn – Krishna De: Branding, Personal Branding, Employer Brand, Internal Brand, Social Media Marketing

    [...] Perhaps you have even developed your own professional profile on LinkedIn. [...]

  • http://www.krishnade.com/blog/2008/friend-on-facebook/ Who Should You Friend On Facebook – Krishna De: Branding, Personal Branding, Employer Brand, Internal Brand, Social Media Marketing

    [...] always recommend that when you look to connect on Facebook or LinkedIn where you have the opportunity to customise a message to the person you are connecting with that [...]

  • http://markmccluretoday.com/losing-my-linkedin-virginity Losing My LinkedIn Virginity | Mark McClure Today

    [...] Well, that’s going to change by the turn of the year because I’ve come across the excellent work of ‘brand engagement strategist’, Krishna De. [...]

  • http://markmccluretoday.com/linkedin-lock-and-load LinkedIn Locked and Loaded For Mark McClure Today | Mark McClure Today

    [...] I just spent a couple of hours doing that – following the guidelines laid down by Krishna De. [...]

  • http://www.krishnade.com/blog/2009/linkedin-connections/ LinkedIn: A Connection Tip For Nurturing Your Network – Krishna De: Branding, Personal Branding, Employer Branding, Social Media Marketing, Communications, PR, Online Identity

    [...] I’ve written about this before, and I am sure I will continue to say it again and again and again….. LinkedIn is NOT like Twitter. [...]

  • http://twitter.com/britstakston/status/1263318028 Brit Stakston

    @soffiley read this http://bit.ly/aeyLG

  • Mercy Okooboh

    Hi Krishna,

    Thanks for the guidelines on getting value out of LinkedIn. I recently joined and have been wondering what is the next step? I have now gone to update my profile following the guidelines you proposed.

    Thanks.

  • Krishna De

    Mercy – now you need to start to develop and nurture your network. Updating your profile is only the beginning!

  • http://twitter.com/construcjobsire/status/4491033805 ConstructionJobs


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