Making Connections With People
When it gets down to the root use of LinkedIn, its making connections with people. My philosophy with establishing connections is pretty simple. If I’ve meet you through networking, I will connect with you on LinkedIn. I do have one requirement, when you ask to link with me you have to state were we meet.
If you have been using LinkedIn for a while you have seen that there is no way to delete messages that you have received. Your only option is to archive the messages to remove them from your Inbox. I mention this to explain why I request that you tell me where I meet you. It allows me to go back at anytime and search my Inbox for people that I meet at a specific event. What a great way to recall how you met someone when that name is on the tip of your tongue.
So lets talk about the options that you have when connecting with people. The key as you may know, is knowing someone’s e-mail address in most cases. Connections or links are defined by how you know the connection. These connections are Classmate, We’ve done business together, Friend, Group and I don’t know… All of these options require a sub selection with the exception of Friend and I don’t know…
I find for most of the connections that I do, that I use the Other option. This option requires an e-mail to complete the connection. Secondarily, I make a lot of my connections via the Group option.
The personal note section is where we can type a personal note to the person that we are wanting to connect with. I always encourage making the note personal. Again, tell them where we meet them this makes it easier for the other person to recall where they meet you. After all not all of us have photographic memory and remember everyone’s name and face.
Every now and then, you may be wanting to connect with someone that you don’t have their e-mail address or have a direct way to connect with them. This is when you may need to reach out using your network to get in contact with someone. This generally happens when someone is two degrees of separation from you. At this point you will be required to connect with someone that would act as a middleman. You will be required to not only type a note to the person you are trying to connect with, but you will also have the opportunity to send a note to the middleman. Please note that both notes will be seen by all parties. So keep the note to your networked acquaintance professional.
When establishing this multi-degree connection, it will take sometime and require the middle man to forward the request. When typing your notes, tell everyone why you are wanting to establish the connection.
If you are ever in a position that you are unable to find a way to connect with someone, remember to Google them by name and company. You never know, you might find their e-mail address in this manor.
In summary, tell everyone how you know them when establishing a connection. Know the people that you connect with. Do your part in helping to establish connections between people.
Next time we will be moving away from LinkedIn and start looking at tools for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
And if you are your company is needing help with your internet marketing contact us at NosalCentral for all your Internet Marketing Solutions.