The Three Things You Can Do Better on LinkedIn

Networking on LinkedIn is a little old-hat, isn’t it? Receive a contact request, accept it, and the person is instantly shuffled off into the ether of your digital rolodex, never to be seen again. Send a contact request, and face the same thing from the other side. It’s a sort of choice paradox redux, wherein the sheer number of your contacts decreases the value of each of them.

What’s in it for you? How can you make your social networking experience on LinkedIn easier, from start to finish? How can you make yourself more visible to your contacts? Let’s walk through three things you can consider before you click “Connect”.

Keep Things Simple

Brevity is a tricky thing - As you might see from my blogs, it’s a difficult thing for me to work on, as well. The idea of brevity in this case is a little more complex than it sounds. Let's take a look at some things you can do to keep things simple:

Do Your Research

When you want to connect with someone, or someone wants to connect with you, take the time to look up their LinkedIn page. it’s a small step that can get lost in the noise, but looking through their LinkedIn page gives you a good idea of whether or not their addition to your contact list will help you.

When sending a contact request, target it as much as possible. If you’re looking to expand into a certain field, look up companies with positive reviews on Glassdoor for a particular position. Send targeted contact requests to people within those departments or in human resources for the organization (Hiring managers or related personnel).

Research the company, even if it’s as superficial as going to their webpage, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter accounts. Is there anything new or interesting happening that you can use as a lever to open a discussion?

When you get the inevitable follow-up, be prepared with questions to ask, whether they’re general to the position and challenges, or specific to the organization’s processes: Don’t. Waste. Their. Time.

The more targeted and specific your contact request, the less likely it is to be turned down.

Use The Message Box

When receiving a contact request, nothing turns me off more than a blank message. Who are you? How did you find me? What do you want? I feel like Liam Neeson in Taken.

If I don’t know anything about you, and you’re not willing to volunteer, why are you sending me a contact request?

All this to state a very basic principle:

Use. The. Message. Box.

You’ve got 160 characters to explain who you are, what you want, and why. Start with their name. Don’t worry about yours, they already know it. What do you do? What do you want to do? What do you need from them - Contacts, an informational interview, job opportunities? Ask and ye shall receive, but don’t leave the message box blank.

All the research you’ve done should be boiled down into that little white box. If you can’t boil it down, either the request is not worth your time, or you won’t get accepted.

Embrace the box. Use the box. Be the box.



Next time, we’ll talk about my other two points in this series, Embracing Broadsides and Providing Bite.

What are some strategies that have worked for you? What are your biggest gripes and pleasures about networking through LinkedIn?







As always, I’m happy to hear comments and start a discussion on LinkedIn or through Twitter.  @LnDGuru.

Have a great day!