Getting LinkedIn: Growing Your Network

After much nudging from various colleagues, I've finally begun to use the professional networking service LinkedIn. (See my profile.)

I thought now would be a good time to get more connected with this service. One of my New Year's resolutions is to be more focused and systematic about how I build my conversational media consulting business. I like the LinkedIn model because it focuses on personal connections -- which is also the foundation of conversational media. Seemed like a natural place for me to start.

Here's what I've been doing so far, including six tips for building your LinkedIn network...

HOW LINKEDIN WORKS

The premise of LinkedIn is simple: In most fields, your personal network of contacts is your most valuable asset. It's how many people (especially consultants like me) find work or gain access to people with complementary skills, expertise, or situations. Also, personal introductions that come from people you already know tend to get more attention and respect than cold calls from strangers.

Also, there's the "six degrees of separation" factor: Personal networks overlap. Already, almost every day I introduce people I know who might benefit from knowing each other. I typically just handle this by e-mail. LinkedIn augments this common practice by letting you see how many degrees of separation there are between you and someone you wish to be introduced to. Then you can ask the person on your side of that chain to arrange an introduction.

...There's a lot more to LinkedIn, of course, but those are the main points.

LinkedIn has been around for a few years. Recently it seems to have gained the kind of critical mass that can make it useful to more than just technogeeks. I started my profile there about a year ago, but didn't do much with it until recently.

FIRST: COMPLETE YOUR PROFILE

A couple of weeks ago, I spent about an hour completing all the sections of my profile. A LinkedIn profile is basically an online resume. As far as I can tell, it helps to make your profile as complete as possible -- you'll be sure to turn up in relevant search engine results then. I've listed most of my major clients already, and I'm going back as time permits to list more.

What do you think of my profile so far? Please comment below. I'd love to get some guidance from LinkedIn veterans.

NEXT: CAPTURE YOUR NETWORK

The key to making LinkedIn work effectively is to capture as much of your professional network as possible in their system. This takes time and must be handled with great care.

Here are tips I've picked up so far for building my LinkedIn network:

1. Start slowly: There's no need to rush. You can -- and probably should -- expand your LinkedIn network a bit at a time. This is about personal connections, and people hate to be treated like commodities. Begin with people you know well, especially current and former colleagues with whom you regularly correspond or converse.

2. Check who's already using LinkedIn: Currently, LinkedIn claims to have 8.5 million users from around the world. That's a lot of people, and you probably already know some of them. You're more likely to gain new connections from existing LinkedIn users -- although you can invite anyone to join your network. (If they aren't already on LinkedIn, they'll have to sign up in order to accept your invitation to join your network. Not a big deal, but any extra step becomes a hurdle.)

3. Always create a custom invitation: The standard form-letter LinkedIn invitations are pretty lame, IMHO. I figure, it's just a waste of time (and can undermine your professional and personal reputation) to send an invitation that looks like spam. When I craft LinkedIn invitations, I treat them as e-mail -- that is, I include some relevant personal or professional conversation. Because of this, I generally issue only one invitation at a time. For instance, a typical invitation from me might be: "Hi Joe. Great job on your latest podcast. It reminded me of that conversation we had at the SPJ conference earlier this year. I noticed you're on LinkedIn and I thought we should connect there. I look forward to hearing from you."

4. Only accept invitations from people you really know: I've received several LinkedIn invitations from people I don't know at all. Typically, I ignore these. In my opinion, including someone in your LinkedIn network implies at least a minor level of endorsement. I am unwilling to convey that courtesy to strangers. That said, if someone takes the time to send me a custom invitation that demonstrates value to me personally, I might engage that person in conversation. From there, I might be inclined to connect.

5. Don't send invitations to people you don't know: This is the flip-side of the last point. If you don't know someone, your first contact with them shouldn't be a LinkedIn invitation. Try initiating conversation or contact through other means. Or, if there's a good chain of connections between your LinkedIn network and theirs, use the "introduction" feature to try to arrange a personal introduction.

6. Make invitations a habit: Every day I converse by e-mail and phone with lots of people. So I keep in mind: Is this someone I should add to my LinkedIn network? If I'm on the phone, I'll ask them right away if they used LinkedIn. By e-mail, I'll search LinkedIn to see if I can find them there. Then I issue LinkedIn invitations as appropriate. I end up sending a few new invitations almost every day. It's become a habit.

MORE TO COME...

So far, I have 31 connections in my LinkedIn network, and they're all good people. I'm aiming for consistent quality, rather than sheer numbers.

Next, I'll start leveraging that network to make connections that will build my career or allow me to help others.

I'll keep blogging about my LinkedIn adventures as I continue. Also, I have some ideas for how this service could be more useful, and I'll write those up too.

What do you think of LinkedIn? Love it? Hate it? What tips do you have to offer LinkedIn users, especially newbies like me? Do you disagree with any of the tips I offered here? Please comment below.

Comments

[Lucas]

Amy:

LinkedIn can offer a number of benefits, many which you have listed. Additionally, sites like SimplyHired (www.simplyhired.com) can help you to use the network you have built up to find a new job. It's simple--find a job that catches your eye among the 5 million + on our job search engine and simply click on the LinkedIn button and you can quickly find out if someone within your network is connected to the company in which you are interested (helpful for internal referrals or simply to get more information about the company or the position).

[Kare Anderson]

Amy
I, too, was pulled into LinkedIn aand think it has reached a tipping point - and noticed that the men in my work and personal life were more likely to ask me to be a part of their network. And, from doing a story about these services over 2 years ago I viewed them as more of the "get all the contacts you can" kind of business networking.

You've inspired me to go back and look at it again and reach out to people I already know in a similar, low key way. Also, I have a dear friend, Janine Warner, who is writing a book on our online identity so it has been more on my mind.

It will be fascinating to see if women use these systmes differnetly than men - or if different age groups approach "linking up" differently
- Kare, SavvyHer

[Amy Gahran]

Lucas -- yes, I think there are lots of opportunities for other services to build upon LinkedIn and similar networking services. In fact, on Dec. 4 in Poynter's E-Media tidbits I speculated that news organizations might explore possibilities to leverage LinkedIn for local business networking services:

http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=114797

- Amy Gahran

[Amy Gahran]

Kare wrote: "It will be fascinating to see if women use these systems differently than men - or if different age groups approach 'linking up' differently"

That's a great question. Come to think of it, almost all of the LinkedIn connection invitations I've received from total strangers appear to have come from men.

I wonder -- are there gender differences in what's considered appropriate grounds to initiate a networking service connection? Maybe sending connection invites to total strangers works better with/for men?

I'd love to hear others' thoughts on this.

- Amy Gahran

[Robert Andrews]

I'm on LinkedIn and I'm a journalist - http://www.linkedin.com/in/robertandrews. I can certainly see its potential for this use.

[Mark Figart]

Like another user said, you have, at least, inspired me to go back and re-visit the potential of this network. I've updated my profile and hope to remember to initiate a few invites over the coming days and weeks. Still, how to best leverage my investment seems unclear at this point.