I sent out an email a little while ago to those I’m connected with on LinkedIn letting them know that I would be sharing my LinkedIn connections so that if someone asks for a connection/intro to someone, I’ll make it. The Valley attitude to doing business is taking root in my mentality. Paul Walsh (mynewbestestfriendevur) 😉 had a little to do with it too as he’s been very generous with sharing his address book without asking. Same goes for Fergus Burns who’ll be mentioned in yet another Paddy’s Valley blog post in the next while. Over there introducing people is good for you and good for them. I have about 300ish people connected to me on LinkedIn, most of the people are business people of some sort and are always looking to do business with new people and make connections.
If you want to connect with people on LinkedIn via me, then email me or Facebook me or contact me in any format and ask. You should be on LinkedIn so the person at least knows something about your business background and experience before they say hello back once the intro is made. This is my LinkedIn profile and am happy to do intros for the most part on Facebook too. My Facebook profile.
The exception being recruitment companies or people I don’t know myself. If you’re a stranger to me I’m not going to do intros. Also, quick tip, add your email to your profile name or blurb so it can be found easily by people and they can connect to you that way. Then you don’t need others to do intros, people can come to you.
How we use LinkedIn
I got about 90ish replies to my email to those I connect to on LinkedIn and I also asked them a few questions about whether they use it for networking, had they gotten any business with it, was it more useful than Bebo and Facebook. What I found most interesting was that very few actually used the search function to actively search for connections and find knowledge champions/thought leaders/experts, they instead stuck to just connecting to people they had already interacted with in other circles. A few people suggested a way to improve LinkedIn would be to have groups like Facebook groups so people can chat/discuss issues in their business segment and then meet people in the same area and connect that way. Another suggestion was that organisations should be able to pool/group all their connections together so everyone in the same group can see all their colleagues connections too. Not sure are most businesses that open yet.
Do you find LinkedIn useful or is it just another place to store the CV and your connections?
