Tip for connecting on LinkedIn

I receive a lot of invitations on LinkedIn. I also send out a lot of invitations. When you send out an invitation make sure you add a brief personable explanation as to what your purpose is. There's a couple reasons why.

First, it's rude not to. Don't be rude by not explaining yourself. Especially, if the person you're trying to connect with doesn't know you from Adam. Would you go up to a person and talk business without introducing yourself? No. The same goes online. It's no different if you're a professional. So be professional.


Second, how will they know how to help you? I enjoy connecting people with others and helping out where I can. I can't do that if I don't know you or your intentions.


Help yourself out, drop a line to the folks you're connecting with on LinkedIn. You'll get a lot more positive responses.





 

Have an interview? Use LinkedIn.

Playing off my last post, I decided to share an experience I had using LinkedIn to do background research. I had a scheduled in person sales call as a follow up from an event my company held out at the Miller Motorsports Park (What a great venue, by the way).

Before the appointment I googled this gentleman but could not find anything other than his LinkedIn profile. So I followed the link. Once on his profile I payed particularly close attention to his interests. He mentioned his interest in car restoration and racing, etc. There were a few other details I caught also.

When I arrived at his office I spent some time just chatting and let him know that I had reviewed his LinkedIn and saw his interests. We got to talking and connected on a deep personal level. We talked about his father who raced cars and his interest in cars. One of his restored cars broke down the other day and he had to take his wife's car. He was worried because his wife has cancer and goes to treatments. And on and on we got into deeper conversations. By that time he trusted me and shared with me all his competitive details that would take his business out if leaked.

This same idea will work in an interview. Find ways to connect with people on a deeper level and things will go more smoothly because they have a greater opportunity to trust you. Researching LinkedIn profiles can be a great tool for that reason.

Why you need to be on LinkedIn

 

I follow Forbes Tech on Twitter and came across this article that gives some interesting information on why professionals need to be on linkedIn. I don't completely agree with everything in the article, but the fact is most recruiters prefer to use LinkedIn. Like everyone else we use monster.com and dice.com just to stay competitive, but it is the creative ideas of where to search for the great candidates that sets a recruiter apart from the competition. See the link below and see if you agree.


http://onforb.es/knG4Sm