Sunday, July 09, 2006

LinkedIn ideas

I saw that you updated your profile on LinkedIn.com .  That is a good first step.

I really recommend completing your profile until the system says it is 100%.

I also recommend putting your email address in your name area like I do in mine:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericstandlee

This allows those who are actively browsing your profile to "connect" or "link" with you directly.  That allows their networks to be that closer to you which increases the potential of more connections.  You can also directly invite people to join you.  The easiest way to get the best bang for your time is to search the certain keyword you are looking for in connections like "CEO" or "CFO" or "banking" or "branch manager" and then sort by highest number of connections in that person's network.  Now, go down the results until you see the first person who also has their email address in their profile. Copy their email address.  Click on the link to their full profile. Click the link to invite them to connect, and past that email address into this form and send.  You can of course change the standard invite text if you want to.

If you do this with a large number of people with very large numbers of connections it will make it easier for their connections to find you and soon you will have several hundered in your direct connections like I do (currently 265+).

Now, the next important thing to do is to reply to requests for connections and announcements that a person has connected with you with a simple thank you note.  I am not copy expert, but this is what I am using to thank people for connecting with me:
Thank you very much for adding me to your connections.  I believe in give and it will be given to you, so please let me know what special program or crusade you are working that I can be of assistance in.  I want to help you in any way I can.

Keep in touch,
Eric Standlee
Prospered not to increase my standard of living
but to increase my standard of giving
www.businessconferences.info
www.linkedin.com/in/ericstandlee

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This confirms with that person that they in fact reached a live person and gives you an opportunity to tell them that you indeed do want to help them.  If you are using an email client like gmail, it also adds their email address to your contacts list for later uses.

The trick to replying to those who accepted your invitation is that you have to click on the link in their acceptance email to go to their profile to copy their email address from their profile which is now visible to you so that when you hit that reply button you can change the to: to their email address instead of the linkedin system's address.

Finally, the last little task to increasing the number of people looking at your profile is to join some of the groups on linkedin like I have.  The first one that I recommend is Dallas Blue Execuitves.  This will introduce you to a large number of people who may not be directly connected with you and allow them and you to send invites and get connected.  Remember start with those with the highest number of connections when you invite them as this gives the biggest bang for your time.

I hope this helps you build an amazing network of professionals on LinkedIn.com and I will definitely put up a more complete how-to on my blog in the very near future at http://crusaderx.blogspot.com .
--
Eric Standlee
http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericstandlee
Prospered not to increase my Standard of Living,
but to increase my Standard of Giving
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