A couple of weeks ago my wife and I were looking for a place to eat on Lake Lanier, a lake just North of Atlanta.  I went to Google and searched eventually clicking on a Facebook page link for Pelican Pete’s (PP’s).  I went to their page to find out more information on PP’s and in the process discovered a potential flaw or potential issue to businesses relying on Places and Community pages on Facebook.

As you can see in the video below I had the ability to go into the PP’s page and edit the basic information including Tags, Address, Phone Number, and URL.  Why is this an issue?

For starters let’s look at a hypothetical situation that is reasonable.  Let’s suppose that I make money by using Google AdSense to display relevant ads on pages.  With the ability to go into certain Facebook pages and customize the URL, I can set up a number of money making pages in Facebook by hijacking ignored Facebook Places pages and placing links to my pages with AdSense running on it.

In the case of PP’s, I simply would create a website called LakeLanierToDos.com.  Under the domain I could then create a page called /pelicanpetes and place the relevant information about PP, but in the sidebar include Google Ads for other Lake Lanier businesses. Something like this:

Now imagine if you did that across 1,000 sites how much revenue you might generate by hijacking ignored Facebook places pages.  Watch the Video.

Think its just the little guys who could be hijacked?  Here is a Facebook Places page for a local Starbucks in Alpharetta, GA that I was able to go in and edit their info.

So what can you do to avoid your Facebook presence being hijacked:

1. Create a Company, Brand, or Product page that you have 100% control of.  Avoid Community and Places accounts.
2. Claim you Place.  If you look below the photo in the left bar on the Places Page you will see a text link that asks “Is this your business?”.  Click on the link and claim your business.  From what I have seen verifying the business doesn’t prevent the ability of someone else editing your info and URL.
3. Merge the Places Page with Your Company, Brand, Product, etc. page.  This appears to be a good idea that has disappeared for the time being.   Facebook may be changing the process and planning on reinstating the process once completed.  Last info I saw (on 8/2/11) was that Facebook was not responding to questions sent on this topic.  Google+ anyone?
4. Create a Company, Brand, Product page, then claim your Places page and delete it.  If you can’t merge the Places page then kill it.

I’d like to think that Facebook would see this post and correct the issue.  But in the real world Facebook likely knows about the issue, has decided it doesn’t really care or that it isn’t a big enough issue, and has no plans to address it.  Social networks move at their own speed, based on their own priorities, and I’ve yet to see one that really cares what their users think.  They may exist to help the rest of us be social, but they themselves really are more interested in figuring out how to make money rather than having a conversation with you or me.

Social Media Sonar provides the following four resources for FREE… 1.  The Blog, 2. The Online Marketing/Social Media Blueprint, 3.  Conversion Rate Optimization Guide, 4.  Resource Center.  If these help you implement your own online marketing program, great. We love helping people. If you decide you need some help, great. We love new clients.  Contact Us if we can help you.

I’ve seen a lot of back and forth discussions about the new LinkedIn Open Groups.  A lot of the negatives that I see people mentioning stem from the thought that this will further encourage spammers to post promotions and add little value to discussions.

LinkedIn Rant w/ a Solution

In 2010 LinkedIn decided to remove the New Article board from groups or per what they put out “combine the news board and the discussion board”.  At the time people were pretty good about posting discussion questions on the discussion board and links to blog articles, online news releases, and articles to the news board.

I assume LinkedIn felt it would be natural to combine the two opening up a new board called Promotions to give group members a place to promote products and services.  They were wrong.

The reality is that many group owners faced with an influx of blog posts to their discussion boards, overreacted in my opinion, by taking the draconian steps of banishing posts with Links in them.  Heaven forbid that someone should actually use a “Business” social network to actually grow their business.  Eventually the consensus seems to be that blog posts should be posted to the promotions board, which while some blog posts are blatant shills, the majority are written by people that seek to first share value and then benefit from the goodwill generated by what they shared.

The solution is simple.  LinkedIn should bring back the news article board.  That would mean that within a LinkedIn group your have a place to:

1.  Share Conversations (Discussion Board) – interact with fellow group members

2.  Share Content (News Board) – allow content producers to share content which encourages further content development

3.  Share Value (Promotions Board) – help companies promote their products and services and members to find discounts

4.  Share Wealth (Jobs Board) – help someone find a job

(end of rant)

Back to the Open Group Question

Given that LinkedIn missed the mark on removing the news board, my initial reaction to Open Groups was no.  I have to admit that there was no basis for opposing open groups other than I did not want to open the group to postings by others who are not members.  After reviewing the setting page I changed my mind and have taken my four groups to open groups.

Here are the Group settings and what I selected for my groups.

Section 1: Group Settings – Choose none, some, or all options

1. Enable the Discussions and News features. – YES

Sub Choices:

A. Enable the Promotions Feature. – YES

—– Allow only moderators and managers to move discussions to the Promotions area. – YES

B. Enable the Jobs Feature. – YES

—-Allow only moderators and managers to move discussions to the Jobs area. – YES

C. Automatically remove content flagged by group members. – YES

—-Number of flags: 10 flags automatically removes post

2. Display the Subgroups tab. – YES

Section Perspective: I wanted to enable as many features as possible to provide members options. Also wanted to remove the ability for anyone to move posts to jobs or promotions board. Too many past issues with this.

Section 2: Permissions:

1.  Options for Members of this group: Select only one of the following

A.  Free to post (discussions, promotions, jobs and comments). – I chose this selection

B.  Free to post promotions, jobs, comments only, and submit everything else.

C.  Free to post jobs, comments only, and submit everything else.

D.  Free to post comments only and submit everything else.

E.  Submit everything for approval.

2.  Options for Anyone on LinkedIn – Select only one of the following

A.Free to post comments, and submit discussions for approval.

B.  Submit both comments & discussions for approval.

C.  Submit comments for approval only (no discussions allowed).

D.  No contributions allowed. – I chose this option

Section Perspective: I want group members to be able to post freely.   I only want group members posting in the group

Section 3: Restrictions – Select none, some, or all of the following

1. Require moderation for new groups members. – NO

Number of days that a person is new to the group:  0 days

2.  Require moderation for new people on LinkedIn. – No (not allowed to post per above setting)

Number of days that a person is new to LinkedIn: 0 days

3.  Require moderation for people with few or no connections. – No (I only allow people with at least 10 connections to join my groups)

Section Perspective: Evaluating as I move forward, but I don’t want to limit new member (but if I begin to see a lot of spam from new members I will have to address)

Section 4: Membership – Choose one or the other

1. Auto-Join: Any member of LinkedIn may join this group without requiring approval from a manager. – NO

2. Request to Join: Users must request to join the group and be approved by a manager. – Yes

Section Perspective: My groups are all Georgia based and to join you must reside in Georgia. Everyone must submit a request to join. I make exceptions for recruiters (anyone offering potential jobs is welcome), to people who previously lived in Georgia, and folks looking to move to Georgia.Display this group in the Groups Directory. – Yes

Section 5:  Additional Settings

1.  Allow members to display the logo on their profiles. – Yes

2.  Allow members to invite others to join this group. – Yes

Section Perspective: I’ll take the additional exposure.

LinkedIn Open Groups Wrap Up

Based on my understanding of the setings I can do two things that make it worth moving to Open Groups:

1.  I can restrict comments to only members.

2.  By opening the group I allow members content to be seen by anyone and indexed by search engines

I get to increase exposure to the group and to members who contribute and I get to limit contributions to only group members.  I benefit as a group owner, members benefit, and non-members benefit.  Its a win-win-win solution.  LinkedIn may have missed the mark on removing the New Board but they nailed this on on the head.

What do you think?

Social Media Sonar provides the following four resources for FREE… 1.  The Blog, 2. The Online Marketing/Social Media Blueprint, 3.  Conversion Rate Optimization Guide, 4.  Resource Center.  If these help you implement your own online marketing program, great. We love helping people. If you decide you need some help, great. We love new clients.  Contact Us if we can help you.

If I had Tiger Woods’ golf clubs I would still suffer the same severe handicap. I do have a Ken Griffey Jr. autographed Louisville Slugger but I’m not likely to do more than stir air if I faced even your average major league pitcher. Its not about the bat or the club; its about the swing.

Hitters in baseball have batting coaches and even Tiger has a swing coach. Today we’re going to take a look at some basics to craft your social media swing.

Club Selection
Each hole that a golfer plays consists of weighing different factors to determine which club gives him the most likely chance to succeed. On a par 5 the Driver is likely to come out of the bag first. On shorter holes its maybe a Wood or an Iron.

In social media your club selection includes things such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, You Tube, Flickr, Blogs, Websites, Landing Pages, Digg, Stumble Upon, 4 Square, PR Web, and the list goes on and on. You just need to choose the right club that will help you best put the ball in the cup.

Unless a golfer hits a hole in one each hole is likely to involve multiple club selections. The same is true for social media. When you craft your strategy you should be able to determine which of your social media clubs can help you achieve your goals.

The Right Swing
I normally hit my pitching wedge about 120 yards with a full swing. If I’m only 90 yards out I’m going to go a little easier on the swing. If I need to quickly get over a tree I’m going to play the ball towards the back of my stance. I vary my social media content in the same way, dependent upon the shot or response I’m looking to craft.

You really have a tremendous number of opportunities to craft content. Some of your options include Tweets, Wall Posts, Notes, Events, News Articles, Discussion Posts, Blog Posts, Video, Podcasts, Photos, Press Releases, Apps, and more. In golf the swing is the most important piece and in social media its understanding your communication options and crafting content that allows you to share value.

Ratings and Attendance
Professional athletes earn a lot of money for the skills they have mastered because fans buy tickets or the products they endorse. Look at the attendance differences at PGA events over the last 10 years when Tiger woods entered a tournament verses when he didn’t play in an event. There was a definite difference in perceived value.

In social media people will engage with you or your brand if they perceive value. Your job is to understand the value that your prospects are looking for. It could be white papers, applications, tools, or information presented in articles or blog posts. It also might be discounts, coupons, or special offers to those who follow, friend, or connect with you.

Fail to understand and deliver the value your social networks are looking for and you’ll spend a lot of time with little to show in return.

Be the Ball
If you want to use social media successfully then you need to have a plan. Too often companies simply start tweeting or connecting without a defined purpose. Its easy to be a hacker; being a professional takes a lot more time and effort.

Social media can make a difference or it can be a huge waste of time. Its how you use the tool that will determine if you break par.

Social Media Sonar provides the following four resources for FREE… 1.  The Blog, 2. The Online Marketing/Social Media Blueprint, 3.  Conversion Rate Optimization Guide, 4.  Resource Center.  If these help you implement your own online marketing program, great. We love helping people. If you decide you need some help, great. We love new clients.  Contact Us if we can help you.

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For the last year I’ve looked to change the SONARconnects logo, creating a range of designs. Scott Dunn, the founding partner was happy with the existing logo and more than anything put up with my logo suggestions I think to amuse me.

Here is what the original logo looked like:

Here are two of the mock designs I created changing the presentation and trying out some different color schemes.

In December I won the Blogoff 2 blogging competition and one of the prizes was a free redesign of my blog courtesy of the Yaffe group. When I spoke with Mike McClure at Yaffe I asked if we could substitute some log work instead and he was happy to oblige.

Scott and I jumped on a planing call with Mike and his team and discussed the thoughts and key points behind SONARconnects. The call ended with Mike saying they would have some ideas to look at in the next two weeks. At this point I wasn’t too enthusiastic simply because while Scott was involved, changing the logo wasn’t high on his list of to-do’s

Within two weeks Yaffe came back with three sets of designs that included color variations. Here one logo from each set.

The first set was really a tweak on the existing logo changing the fonts, colors, and tweaking the waves a little.

The second set took my designs and blended it with the original design, once again changing the fonts and colors.

The final set threw everything out of the window and started from scratch. They created a new design, brought in a new font, and a new color scheme.

Looking at the site you can tell that we chose the third option. After a year of working on getting Scott to agree to a logo change, Mike and his team at Yaffe accomplished my goal in two weeks.

The design keeps the SONAR reference intact by using the waves, but done in a more polished and professional manner. If you’re interested in a logo design I would recommend that you contact Yaffe for help.

So getting back to when do you DIY and when do you call in the experts, here are a couple of thoughts when its maybe time to outsource the work:

• If you don’t have the skills to do the work
• If you don’t know what the best way to get from point A to point B is
• If you don’t have the proper tools to accomplish the task
• If its more profitable to spend the time driving new business – remember it will take you 2 to 3 times longer than someone who knows what they are doing.
• If you want it done right the first time

I still suffer from DIY periodically, but as the business continues to grow I find that I’m a little quicker to pick up the phone and reach out to my various resources .

**I have recently left SONARconnects to focus on Social Media Sonar.

Social Media Sonar provides the following four resources for FREE… 1.  The Blog, 2. The Online Marketing/Social Media Blueprint, 3.  Conversion Rate Optimization Guide, 4.  Resource Center.  If these help you implement your own online marketing program, great. We love helping people. If you decide you need some help, great. We love new clients.  Contact Us if we can help you.

I recently posted a question to a LinkedIn group “Is Twitter Noise or an effective Business Tool?” The responses are mixed, though more see it as an effective business tool. But many say they just don’t get it. I think those that don’t get it just haven’t taken the time to think creatively and strategically about how to put to use the ability to communicate and engage with potentially hundreds or thousands of potential prospects, customers, and fanatics.

So let’s look at a success story.

Over the last year and a half we’ve managed  Social Media for the group that owns the Copeland’s New Orleans Style Restaurants in Atlanta. Yesterday I noticed a tweet from one of their followers:

@ShaaMomanger
1:57pm, Apr 28 from UberTwitter

Happy Birthday To Me. I’m At My Favorite Restaurant @CopelandsATL In BuckHead. Think We Should Of Left @KingLilEnvazion At Home. LOL!!

I immediately called the store manager to alert him that there was a person in his store who just tweeted about eating at their favorite restaurant for their birthday. He was in the process of leaving for a meeting but said he would look to see if the person was in the restaurant.

While he was doing that we sent two tweets to @ShaaMomanger:

@CopelandsATL
2:07pm, Apr 28 from HootSuite

@ShaaMomanger If you are still at Copeland’s the manager, Glen, is looking for you.

and;

@CopelandsATL
2:09pm, Apr 28 from HootSuite

@ShaaMomanger Happy B’day to U. Happy B’day to you. Happy B’day dear @shaamomanger. Happy B’day to you!

When is the last time someone tweeted you Happy Birthday?  Unfortunately Glen could not find her before he had to leave for his meeting.

ShaaMomanger
2:49pm, Apr 28 from UberTwitter

RT @CopelandsATL: @ShaaMomanger If you are still at Copeland’s the manager, Glen, is looking for you <-At The Door. Glen Come Back. WaitN

No problem. Glen called me to see if I could help track her down. I made a quick call to the hostess, who actually knew who I was looking for. “She comes here for lunch all the time. I’ll take care of her”, she said.

@CopelandsATL
2:53pm, Apr 28 from HootSuite

@ShaaMomanger Glen left but we have you taken care of. The hostess knows you and should be with you shortly.

One piece of cheesecake later…

@ShaaMomanger
3:14pm, Apr 28 from UberTwitter

No Need For Anyone Else To Buy Me A Birthday Cake. My Friends Sue, Glen @CopelandsATL Took Care Of Dat. http://tweetphoto.com/20271942

How many people do you think she will tell about her experience? For nothing more than paying attention and $5.99 Copeland’s Atlanta just created a fanatic. Twitter is just another tool for you to use. You have to open you mind to discover how it can benefit your business or it will be “just noise”.

Social Media Sonar provides the following four resources for FREE… 1.  The Blog, 2. The Online Marketing/Social Media Blueprint, 3.  Conversion Rate Optimization Guide, 4.  Resource Center.  If these help you implement your own online marketing program, great. We love helping people. If you decide you need some help, great. We love new clients.  Contact Us if we can help you.

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Here’s a press snippet:

“Blog-Off II, a blogging contest offering social media enthusiasts and professionals the opportunity to be independently assessed by judges and statistics on their capability of implementing the fundamentals of social media marketing, came to a close with the announcement of the winner on December 24th.  This years winner, Sean Nelson author of the Social Media Sonar blog, was able to beat out an impressive collection of 28 bloggers representing 6 countries.  During the 12 day contest. Sean’s two posts generated over 8,000 visits and over 200 comments, with an impressive time spent on each post of 6:17 and 5:09 (that’s minutes:seconds).”

What’s not covered in the results above are the several hundred comments that were made in LinkedIn groups where I posted a link to the articles in a Discussion Post and as a News Article.

While I’m proud of the accomplishment and think the articles were strong articles, there’s only one reason I won. I was able to use the various social media tools to tap into the communities I have cultivated over the last couple of years.

The Power of Social Media:
One of the key points that was emphasized in the contest was the power of social media to engage people and get them to take an action. In this case the action was to read the post and add a comment. This was the conversion.

Sure if there was a cost involved the response would have been lower but that would be more of a factor of what’s in it for the end user. If you have the right message, provide the right value people will respond and take action.

Communities of People:
A second key point was that all other things being equal, large communities of people offer more opportunity. Over the last two years I’ve built up a large number of connections on LinkedIn and a large number of followers on Twitter. These networks were invaluable in driving traffic to the blog posts.

Credibility:  Know, Like, & Trust:
The third key point was that Credibility plays an important part in whether someone will act on your message. I’ve been writing the Social Media Sonar blog for two years now and the people in my communities have been exposed to the value I provide in each article. Ongoing readers know what to expect in terms of value when they a new blog post.

So what I had was some great tools, to reach signifcantly large communities of people, that I have built up credibility with, to deliver a message, and to use a call to action to drive responses. This is the same process that businesses should proceed through to grow their business.

Competition:
Finally I had some great competition. You can find all of the posts at the Community Marketing blog under the Blogoff category. Two particular blogs I’d like to reference are those of the second and third place bloggers.

Sam Diener’s Stuff for Success blog

Tim Ruffners Digital Metal Laser Sintering blog

These are just two of the interesting bloggers that competed and I would recommend checking out some of the other folks who submitted articles.  The contest was created by Andrew Ballenthin creator of the Community Marketing Blog.  Blogoff III is in the planning stages so if you’re ready to put your blog and your writing to the test, stay tuned.

Thank You:
Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the posts and a double thanks to those who left a comment.

Social Media Sonar provides the following four resources for FREE… 1.  The Blog, 2. The Online Marketing/Social Media Blueprint, 3.  Conversion Rate Optimization Guide, 4.  Resource Center.  If these help you implement your own online marketing program, great. We love helping people. If you decide you need some help, great. We love new clients.  Contact Us if we can help you.

Your Task:  Visit my new blog post “The 7 Worst Mistakes on LinkedIn and Their Fixes“.  This post will help you identify and correct the mistakes I see many people making on LinkedIn.

VOTE NOW:  Your click is your vote.  *******Comments on tT7he post are a major component of the voting so please consider adding a comment.*******

Thank you and have a great day.

Sean Nelson

It took me about two seconds to fire off an email telling her to ditch the royal reference ASAP.  A lot of people would call me an expert on LinkedIn, its their opinion so they can think or say what they like.  I have a different different way of describing what I am.  “I’m simply a small business owner that learned how to use LinkedIn and Social networking / media in order to network more efficiently and to drive new business.”

The word “expert” is thrown around way too often these days with little to back up the claim.  What does a LinkedIn expert look like?  How do you determine that they are an expert?  The same goes for “social networking/media expert”.

I was looking at my home page the other day and noticed an updated profile for a connection of mine and someone I’ve known for the last couple of years.  Curious about what changed I took a look at his profile and immediately noticed that after years in another field he was now a social media expert.

Now anyone can learn a lot about social media and be seen as an expert or extremely knowledgeable even if they’re not in the marketing or advertising field.  I’m a prime example of that.  I learned LinkedIn and social networking/media through trial and error trying to drive business for my insurance agency.

In this case the person had attended a couple of my LinkedIn workshops, a few other social media workshops, and was partnering with a company jumping from Google Adwords to social media.  It takes more than attending a couple of workshops and working in the industry to be an expert.

So what is an expert and how do you determine if you’re one?  Is it valid to claim that you are an expert or does that title have to be conferred upon you by another person?  I’m not certain what the official definition is but here are some thoughts about what I think it takes to potentially be considered an expert:

Knowledge:
Without knowledge we’re not even having this discussion.  You have to know the subject to claim expertise.  But there’s a difference between knowing something and knowing how to use it effectively.

To be an expert you have to know both the strategies of your subject and the tactics to accomplish them.  There are many people out there teaching others what LinkedIn is, not as many teaching people how to specifically use it to accomplish specific goals.

Be a Teacher:
Some might disagree with this one, but if you want to be an expert you have to not only know your subject but be able to communicate it to others so that they understand it.  One of the interesting parts of conducting workshops is there is often a range of different experience levels in terms of using LinkedIn or social networking/media.  Making sure each walks away with value is a challenge that requires understanding the subject from multiple perspectives.

Create not Regurgitate:
An expert is someone who takes the current discussion and advances it a couple of steps further down the road.  They don’t simply repeat what they have heard or read.  I think if you want to be considered an expert you have to bring a new perspective or approach to the table.

There are many people who are experts at conducting workshops on LinkedIn or social networking/media but they are not necessarily a LinkedIn or social networking / media expert.  You can still learn a lot from these people.  Not being an expert isn’t a black mark, it may simply be that you know a lot about the subject.  There are many people who could benefit from the knowledge of a non-expert.

Put a Target on Your Back:
The final piece of the puzzle is that a LinkedIn or social networking/media expert needs to publish their thoughts, ideas, strategies, etc. for review, discussion, and disagreement.  This might be done through a book, a blog, or other media.  The key is that they are staking a claim and giving others an opportunity to dissect their ideas.

Wrap Up

So back to the original question…”What is a LinkedIn or Social Networking/Media expert?”  Who cares.  It’s not about what you say you are it’s about what those who have relied upon your information and expertise say.

To some I might be an expert.  To others not.   My perspective is that I’m simply a small business person that began learning to use social networking/media to make money.  What I’ve been able to learn simply now is a knowledge base to help other’s do the same.

In boxing, Ali was an expert and one of, if not the greatest.  How would you define a Social Networking/Media expert?

The Social Media Sonar mission is to share with you the knowledge you need to make informed social media and online marketing decisions.

Social Media Sonar provides the following four resources for FREE… 1.  The Blog, 2. The Online Marketing/Social Media Blueprint, 3.  Conversion Rate Optimization Guide, 4.  Resource Center.  If these help you implement your own online marketing program, great. We love helping people. If you decide you need some help, great. We love new clients.  Contact Us if we can help you.

Today I’m excited to announce the first industry specific guide that I have written about LinkedIn.  This guide was developed based on the 8 years of experience that I have as an insurance broker and the expertise I’ve developed since 2006, using LinkedIn to drive new business.

The Insurance Brokers Guide to LinkedIn is relevant to any business person, but the examples and terminology are geared to insurance brokers.  Here is a list of the content:

• Foreword by Jeremiah Desmarais, Vice President Marketing, Norvax
• Authors Note
• Introduction
• Action Step 1:  Understanding Why You Are on LinkedIn
• Action Step 2:  Extending Your Networks
• Action Step 3:  Building Your Credibility
• Action Step 4:  Leveraging LinkedIn
• Bonus Action Step:  Prospecting with LinkedIn
• Wrap Up
• 14 Quick Action Steps
• 6 Social Media Tools You Should Be Using

The core of LinkedIn revolves around connecting to other business professionals, which is primarily networking.  Networking exclusively on LinkedIn, though, ignores the human element of face to face interaction.  Understanding, once again that LinkedIn is a tool, how do you use it to enhance your other networking?

I do a lot of networking in my local chamber.  When I first joined the chamber in the spring of 1996 I had not yet joined LinkedIn.  At meetings I would try to meet as many people as possible, but in a room full of 50 people and only 30 minutes of open networking it was hard to meet everyone.

At each meeting they would  photocopy all of the business cards and each attendee received a copy.   From that I could call those I had not met to try to set up a meeting.  Other than a name on a card, though, there was no connection.  I could also try again at the next meeting if they returned.

LinkedIn changed that.  I found that with LinkedIn, I could connect to those that I hadn’t had a chance to meet.  Then I could review their LinkedIn profiles to determine who were the most beneficial to meet.  I also found that if they were at the next chamber meeting, that the LinkedIn connection provided a great way to break the ice.

In the end it’s a two way street.  LinkedIn provides a level of connectivity until I can strengthen the networking relationship through a face to face meeting.  And the chamber meeting provides a fresh batch of potential LinkedIn connections.

Some of my best networking relationships have developed from simply being at the same networking event, connecting on LinkedIn, and then finally taking it offline and meeting in person.

So here’s what you should be doing.  After every networking event, send a LinkedIn connection invite to those you did not get a chance to meet.  (Here’s where you want to customize that LinkedIn invitation. )  Send the following invitation:

Joe,

We crossed paths at the Chamber (or whatever event it was) today but did not get a chance to meet you in person.  I am using LinkedIn to enhance my Chamber networking and would like to add you to my LinkedIn network.

Sean Nelson (I always add my last name since I do not know this person yet)

More often then not, this leads to a LinkedIn connection.  Now it’s up to you to take it further to develop the relationship.  Remember it’s not about adding just another connection; it’s about expanding and enhancing your network.  Only send the invite to those that you want to get to know.

One of the benefits I have discovered in using LinkedIn is that I am expanding my network beyond my chamber.  I’ve connected to others because a fellow connection recommended them.  By engaging in conversations in group discussions, through news article comments, and through the Answers section I’ve met new people in Atlanta who have never attended my chamber.  Without LinkedIn I would have likely never crossed paths with most of these people.  It’s expanded the borders of my natural network.

Thie expansion to some degree has happened on a national and international basis.  I may never personally have a need to tap into that new connection in London or Australia, but I never know if or when these new connections might be of value to those in my network.

LinkedIn has made the business community a lot smaller.  It’s opened doors to new opportunities.  This week I’ll be speaking at the Norvax University conference for health insurance brokers in Los Angeles.  This opportunity developed because I connected to a fellow health insurance agent, Paul Kaczmarczyk who lives in Chicago.  Paul recommended me to Jeremiah Desmarais who sent out a request to his connections asking if anyone knew of an insurance agent successfully utilizing LinkedIn to grow their business.

I’ve also been able to be on the giving side.  I received a call from someone needing a speaker at an event next month in Los Angeles.  I’m not able to make that conference but I was able to pass along the opportunity to Neal Schaffer who writes the Windmill Networking blog and lives in LA.

Expanding your network will help you and the people you are connected to.  LinkedIn makes it easy to move outside ofyour natural network to discover new opportunities.  How has LinkedIn helped you grow your network?