Here is what I used to believe. I believed that protecting the value of your network required that you know or have plans to get to know those that you were connected to. I believed that it only made sense to add new connections as I met people within my chamber or other offline networking. Since my prospects are in Georgia I believed that there was limited value in connecting to other outside of the state. I was wrong.
connections
Wednesday Comic 06: Duplicate LinkedIn Accounts
Ever feel like you’ve connected to someone previously? Deja Vu? No, they probably just have two LinkedIn accounts. If you are one of the duplicate accounts folks you’ll have to contact LinkedIn to have one of the accounts removed. Click on the Help button at the top of the LinkedIn page and under the FAQ’s you’ll […]
The Average LinkedIn Network
Numbers are always interesting to consider. Take for instance the 40+ million users on LinkedIn (not an official number but an educated guess). That’s a pretty impressive number. But, more important is the number of people that are active. The value of one member in your network is not equal to the value of another.
But how do you place a value on each member?
On the Path to Lionhood
In my last post I described the three types of networkers, or networking strategies on LinkedIn: LION, Turtle and Hound Dog. For the last 18 months I’ve pretty much considered myself a Hound Dog. I connect to those I know and those I would like to know.
y job is helping people find the best option for their health insurance needs. Specifically in the state of Georgia. While connections outside of the state might help my network in terms of size, it really wasn’t that relevant to business. Plus I figured that the more connected I was to my network the more valuable it would be to my connections.
I’m beginning to think that while the thought was well intentioned, it was also flawed.
The Lion, the Turtle, and the Hound Dog
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.