Over time I have encountered different people with different strategies, but I finally narrowed it down to three types of networkers on LinkedIn. In addition to the LION, we have the Turtle and the Hound Dog (keeping with the animal theme).
LinkedIn Benefits Don’t Follow a Straight Line
Most of us joined LinkedIn because we hoped that it would somehow impact our bottom line. That at some point down the road we would be rewarded with some economic return. I’ve been fortunate in that it has generated business for me. Just as important, it has helped me provide value to those that I have connected to.
Straight line benefits include developing new partners or alliances and developing new client’s. Crooked line benefits include introducing connections, writing recommendations, and simply helping others.
How Can I Help You with LinkedIn?
Over the last year I’ve written a book about LinkedIn, written over 70 blog posts, presented numerous talks on LinkedIn, created a tool to grade your profile and presence on LinkedIn, and used LinkedIn to enhance my networking and grow my business. If I am to be considered a LinkedIn expert, I’m not your typical expert.
The Linkulator: How Good is Your LinkedIn Presence
Have you ever wondered how your presence on LinkedIn compares to the average LinkedIn user. Last year I created the Linkulator to allow people to score their profile and presence numerically. You simply answer some questions about your profile and participation in things such as Answers and Recommendations. It then calculates a score and displays the average score of everyone who has computed a score. It also classifies your presence based on your score and offers some tips to improve.
LinkedIn Part 8: Find a New Job
If you were a fan of baseball during the Sammy Sosa / Mark McGuire homerun love fest, you remember watching both sluggers knock balls out of the park night after night. McGuire’s forearms were bigger than my legs. Have you seen a picture of Mr. McGuire lately? He looks normal. Today McGuire would likely be a slap hitter, dinging base hits just over the second baseman or shortstop.
That’s the difference between looking for a job using LinkedIn to see how you are connected into opportunities and just looking for a job.
LinkedIn Part 7: Research Potential Partners and Alliances
our world has expanded. Five years ago it evolved around the places you networked and the people you interacted with in non-work situations. LinkedIn changed the rules.
LinkedIn wasn’t the first social networking site, but it was the first to expand business connections in a large enough way to be meaningful. I have a Facebook account and it has been great to connect with old friends from college. I have a Plaxo account, and I love that it includes contact details, but not enough people are really using it.