I have about 600 connections on Linkedin. I value the relationships I have and take every opportunity to help others as they navigate the technology landscape to find help, jobs and companionship. Malcolm Gladwel says you can only get to “know” about 150 people but I challenge that notion with Linkedin connections.
There are 90 million professionals on Linkedin around the world and over 1 million company business pages which include a majority of the Fortune 100. More professionals, companies and connections are being made all day every day. Using Linkedin to develop meaningful connections to solve business issues, find opportunities and jobs takes some thought but can be done with success and without a whole lot of time on your part.
For me, here is how my book of Linkedin connections has evolved. While this is how I approached it in chronological order it is interesting to see your book grow and identify the sources of your connections. The following groups of connections overlap and take on a life of their own as your connection activities yield returns and other people out there find you.
1. People you work with including volunteer and interest organizations. Get connected with those you work with in your current company. As always make sure you know them before you invite them to connect. It can be embarrassing to send an invite and have someone call you out on whether you know them or not. Also, Linkedin limits the amount of invites you can send to 3000, so blasting invites to the world will have no return at some point if you proceed this way. Some people are obsessed with connecting with everyone they can. Most of the people in this category like having a big number next to their name or are trying to collect the connections’ contact information to sell them something. I read recently that Linkedin caps members’ connections at 12 million, beyond marketing and selling I see no use for that many connections. Don’t forget those in the church choir, Elks club or local fire department. These are people who you do some kind of work or activity with and they can be of high value to you.
2. People you have worked with in the past to include volunteer and interest organizations. I pulled out an old resume to help me remember the places I had worked and I thought about all of the groups and activities I had participated with in the past. Use the powerful Linkedin search capabilities to search for old colleagues. As you identify past people you have worked with you will think of others to invite to connect.
3. College contacts were next in my connection crusade. Again you can search for classmates by the schools you attended, years attended and graduation year. You will be happy to find many of your old classmates are out there dealing with the same issues you are and are happy to connect and help out.
4. High school contacts and old friends turned up next for me and it is here that there was an identifiable overlap with Facebook. I try to keep the two separate. Ask yourself if this person can help you or you can help him or her in business. If the answer is yes, then connect. If no, connect on Facebook.
5. Friends and neighbors next turned out to be surprisingly powerful for me. Those people you know from town and sit with at the soccer game or school activity work too. As you get to know them find out what they do and search for them on Linkedin. Some of my best connections have come from this group and they are some of my newest connections as well.
These five groups helped me build a network of pro’s I am proud of. I am confidant I can post most any business issue and get responses from people in my network. In part 2 of this submission I will outline how to drive people to your Linkedin profile page.
My best,
Chris
I have been fortunate in my career and have had many rewarding experiences. After helping start, grow and sell a successful technology company (Albridge Solutions) I decided to take some time off to be with my family. I then became involved in the fight of my life as my beautiful and wonderful sister, Karen Farber Swanson, fought cancer for a year eventually losing the battle in 2009. The experience taught me much about life and how you spend your time. I returned to work with Princeton Financial Systems as the Chief Marketing Officer to help grow the business by managing Marketing and Business Development for them worldwide. Recently, I launched the Karen Farber Swanson Memorial Fund which will award money to gifted and needy young people Karen cared so much about.
My best, Chris
http://www.linkedin.com/in/christianjfarber
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