How To Use LinkedIn to Power Your Networking Efforts
Posted by abdul on 06 Jul 2009 at 1:49 pm | Tagged as:
LinkedIn has evolved to be one of the best places on the Internet for business networking and most entrepreneurs seemed to have joined the bandwagon. They seem to have joined and enlisted themselves in it. However, once enlisted, their profile sits there gathering dust and nothing much happens after that. Is there a way to leverage the power of Linked In with its extensive user network and develop your network? You bet.
Here goes:
- Spend 30 minutes a day just to link to others: How difficult can it be? When you wake up every morning, just head over to your profile and see whom you can connect to that day. Make a goal of connecting to at least 5 people within your network (or even outside of your network). Doing this everyday will really bring in results.
- Talk, once connected: Well, just linking or connecting to them won’t do you much good unless you do something about it. Send in occasional messages to someone you think who might be valuable to your business. Starting with your clients, potential customers, existing customers, random professionals, other entrepreneurs and many more. There is a whole world out there waiting for you to initiate a talk with them.
- Develop rapport, don’t pitch: This isn’t a freelance bidding site where you should be batting out there with a pitch. You just have to develop and establish rapport. Maintain and just let them know who you are and what you do. Use an elevator pitch and use that to state what you do and leave it to them to decide what they would like to do with you. Never sell your products and services or pitch aggressively. They are not sitting there to be sold to.
Linked In is powerful. It has a huge network of entrepreneurs and others linking to each other each day. If you get this right, you have more clients you can handle; more potential employees than you can recruit; countless number of vendors for every product or service imaginable.
Are you on Linked In yet? By the way, you are free to connect with me on Linked In at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/abdul-vasi/6/136/6b
