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Using LinkedIn Groups

December 15, 2008 by

LinkedIn Groups connect people who have a common history/interest:

·         Former colleagues from a specific employer (e.g. Arthur Andersen), colleges, etc.

·         People within a state

·         Same profession (marketing, sales, teaching, etc.)

·         On-line communities (e.g. ExecuNet) or Professional Groups

·         Entrepreneurs

·         Non-profit/Charity

A LinkedIn Group is essentially an on-line networking group – the tools for the group (discussions, etc.) allow you to begin to connect with individuals.  Also, as you look at the profile of an individual within the group, LinkedIn provides how you are connected.

Many people in a group will allow other group members to contact them.   This openness is great for networking and researching a firm or person. 

I am amazed at how many people I rediscovered by paging through the group members.   For yourself, these groups may lead to finding people with a vested interest in you.

Filed Under: G. You're Rolling Now! Tagged With: , ,

Preparation for a Meeting

December 15, 2008 by

Think of every networking meeting as a sales meeting.  You’ll never catch a good salesperson just ‘winging it’ – they plan every meeting.   They find out what they can about who they are meeting (this is where LinkedIn comes in handy).   They plan the outcome and how to reach it.   They respect that someone has granted them time and use it effectively as possible.

You are competing against budget requirements, project deadlines, and anything else that is filling your networking contact’s day.   Good advance planning will help cut through all of this and help you make the most of each meeting.

Before each networking meeting, plan the following items:

·         Purpose of meeting – what do you want the person to do for you (provide some contacts, connect you into a specific firm, etc.)

·         Connections with this contact (your colleagues, same school, etc.)

·         How do you want to position yourself to this contact (e.g. role in large company, role in start-up, etc.)

·         Contacts you can provide

·         Contacts this person can provide to you

I wrote down these items and brought them with me to the meeting – nothing too fancy, just a few items for each item.

To help you understand more about the company the person you are meeting does, see “The question that ends a meeting quickly”.

Filed Under: E. Meetings: Before, During & After Tagged With: ,

How to use LinkedIn for networking & preparation

December 15, 2008 by

I love LinkedIn for networking.    The first time I read Guy Kawasaki’s overview of using LinkedIn (See www.guykawasaki.com – search his Blog for ‘LinkedIn’), it was real eye opener. 

For networking, the tools is great for finding people who have a vested interest in you (usually the most powerful connection) and connections into people you want to meet.

Where Guy expanded my view was how to use the tool for researching a person you will meet and the role that you will interview or would like to have if they had an opening.

In researching someone’s background you may find:

·         Common points of interest:  These items help get the conversation started (schools, work, travel, interest, boards, organizations, etc.)

·         Commons contacts:  LinkedIn shows how you may be connected to this person.  Many times there may be someone in your network who is directly connected to the person you will meet.

·         Work history:  Knowing a person’s work history can tell you quite a bit about the level of responsibility, types of work cultures they prefer (or not),  how long do they stay at a firm, etc.

Each of these items help you prepare for a networking meeting or interview.   You avoid asking questions that take up valuable time.   More importantly, the greater your knowledge, the better you can prepare, connect with the person and anticipate questions.

Filed Under: E. Meetings: Before, During & After Tagged With: , ,

LinkedIn Research – Who’s been in the chair before?

December 15, 2008 by

One of the cool functions in LinkedIn is being able to do a company and position search to see who has been there before.  You can search on the title and in the advanced search you can uncheck “Current Positions”.  

If you just do a search on the company, you can see if there has been a significant turnover within the company.

You can learn quite a bit from talking with people who have been in a company – validity of business model, available funds for growth, management style (or lack thereof).

Filed Under: K. Do the Due (Diligence) Tagged With: ,

LinkedIn – Find people with a vested interest

December 15, 2008 by

Besides talking with former colleagues, my favorite method of finding people is LinkedIn.  I cannot tell you how many people from 10+ years ago who I’ve found on LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn has a number of great tools to help you find former colleagues from work, school, etc. – all the type of people who might have a vested interest in you.

The key to making the connections is creating a full profile.   See the tool “How to Use LinkedIn” for other tips.

Filed Under: C. Getting Started - Your Network Tagged With: , ,