Apologies for the English readers of this blog, exceptionally this post is in Dutch.

Ben je zelf op zoek naar nieuwe klanten of prospecten of wil iemand uit je omgeving meer verkopen, dan is deze Mindmap “Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken om nieuwe klanten te vinden” een handige tool.

Succes !

Jan

Auteur van de netwerk boeken Let’s Connect en Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken (van beide is er een gratis light versie beschikbaar)

Sorry for the English readers of the blog, this one is in Dutch.

Deze week kreeg ik een email van Joris Nees. Hij had vroeger een open “Proactive Networker” training gevolgd en vroeg me of ik al van De Beursvloer had gehoord.

Dat was niet het geval en aangezien ik altijd interesse heb in verschillende vormen van hoe de kracht van een netwerk wordt ervaren, ben ik direct op de website gaan kijken. Het is een heel leuk concept. Niet meteen supervernieuwend van werkvorm, maar het idee om verenigingen en bedrijven bij elkaar te brengen om zo win-win situaties te creëren is schitterend.

Dit is een stukje tekst dat ik van Joris kreeg wat het hopelijk wat duidelijker maakt:

Een concrete deal met een win-wingevoel, daar gaat het om bij de Beursvloer. Op dinsdag 15 december gaat de tweede editie door in de Lessius hogeschool in Antwerpen, en komen verenigingen en ondernemingen terug samen om de handen laten schudden boven een winwinovereenkomst.

De Beursvloer is een evenement waar verenigingen en bedrijven elkaar twee uur lang ontmoeten en ‘matches’ maken tussen de vraag van de enen en het aanbod van de anderen.
Wat de Beursvloer origineel maakt, is het wederzijdse karaktervan de matches. Aan de verenigingen wordt gevraagd om een tegenprestatie te leveren voor de diensten aangeboden door de bedrijven.
Alle partners ondersteunen de beurs ook omdat ze in duurzaam ondernemen geloven, ondernemerschap dat oog heeft voor omgeving, mens en milieu. Een Beursvloer is goed voor de lokale samenleving door partijen uit verschillende sectoren bij elkaar te brengen.
Met concrete matches. Met als resultaat: winst voor de samenleving.

Aangezien ik helemaal voor dit initiatief gewonnen ben omdat het toont wat de kracht van een netwerk is en omdat het niet gaat om sponsoring (wat vaak eenzijdig is), maar echte win-wins (lees de cases maar eens op de website), raad ik iedereen aan om op 15 december naar de Beursvloer te gaan.

Have a great networking day!

Jan

Time for busting another LinkedIn myth: why should I use LinkedIn when I have Google (or other search engines)

My answer to this one is very short:

Google is an excellent resource to find information. So use it when you look for information.

LinkedIn is a collection of people and the relationships between them. Use LinkedIn when you are looking for a person. You won’t only find out more about this person (what you also might have been able to do with Google), but you also will discover who can help you get in touch with them.

To your success !

Jan

PS: this is an excerpt from the book How to REALLY use LinkedIn (of in het Nederlands: Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken). Make sure you download your FREE light version.

If you are working on a project and you need information, knowledge or any other form of expertise outside or inside your own organisation, these are the benefits LinkedIn can bring you:

1. Getting answers to your questions (via Answers or Discussions)

2. Identifying the experts (finding their profile via a search or via the Expert rating)

3. Receiving introductions or referrals to experts (via the introductions tool or outside LinkedIn)

4. Discovering the relationships between experts and other contacts (see the connections in their profiles)

5. Discovering the relationships between your colleagues from the same and other departments and experts (see the connections in their profiles)

6. Discovering information about experts which makes the conversations online and offline easier (reading their profile)

7. Maintaining relationship with experts (Personal contacts, Discussions in Groups and answering questions in Answers)

8. Visibility for you and your organisation which might attract the experts and Personal Branding (your profile not only on LinkedIn, but also in the Search Engines like Google, contributions in Answers and in Discussions)

9. Make yourself be perceived as an expert as well (contributions in Answers and in Discussions and Expert points)

10. Finding the right groups and organisations where the experts gather to be member of yourself, both online and offline (via the profiles of people from your network)

11. Picking up trends in the marketplace (Discussions in the groups of the experts)

12. Getting notifications when someone changes jobs, this is a trigger to contact them to see if they became an expert and if they leave the organisation to get introduced to the one who will replace them (network updates)

To your success !

Jan

PS: this is an excerpt from the book How to REALLY use LinkedIn (of in het Nederlands: Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken). Make sure you download your FREE light version.

No interview with a fellow networking expert this time (but watch this blog in the future for an interview with him), but a link to a very interesting speech of Martijn Aslander.

Martijn lives a very extraordinary life completely built on the idea of a network that helps and reinforces itself.

Watch and listen to these thought provoking ideas and the explanation of how Martijn makes his money: http://vimeo.com/6858692 (in English; 50 minutes but worth the time)

Have a great networking week !

Jan

Time for another “LinkedIn Secret”: LinkedIn helps to increase the ranking of your websites in search engines.

Without making it too technical: websites get better rankings if they get links from popular websites. So what you need to do in your Profile is list one, two or three of your websites.

To increase the chances for a high ranking put the words you want to be found with, in the name of the description. How to do this? Choose “Other” and then give the website the name you want it to have. This doesn’t have to be the official name of the website. So you can use keywords you want to be found with. Always make sure that it is still readable.

Apply this same tactic on all the other online business and social networks you are a member of.

To your success !

Jan

PS: this is an excerpt from the book How to REALLY use LinkedIn (of in het Nederlands: Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken). Make sure you download your FREE light version.

There are always many discussions about what is most important in networking: quality or quantity. In “Let’s Connect!” I wrote about this discussion. Since it is pretty fundamental I repeat it here and then discuss the strength of weak links.

Actually the discussion is about a “wrong” topic. It is not quantity that is important, but diversity. The consequence, however, is that the more diverse your network is, the more people will be in it.

Let’s look at both quality and diversity a little bit closer.

The Importance of Quality

Let me start by asking you a question: what is quality? How do you define it?

Many people perceive people with a high position in a large and well-known company as “high quality”. Let’s call such a person Mr. Big Shot. And they do everything they can to come into contact with her when they see her at an event. But when they get a few minutes of this person’s attention they don’t know what to say and focus on exchanging business cards. Afterwards they send emails and start calling Mr. Big Shot, only to be blocked by her secretary. And then they are disappointed in Mr. Big Shot, the event where they attended and in networking in general.

Do you recognize this situation? From your own experience or from someone you know? Then it might be a good idea to look differently at “quality”.
For me “quality” can only be measured when compared to your goals. A person is of “high quality” if she (or her network) can help you to reach your goals better and faster. Mr. Big Shot could be high quality, but he is also very busy. So it might be a good idea to look for other people of equal quality that are easier to approach and who have more time for you.

So quality is definitely important in networking. But so is diversity. Why?

There are 4 reasons:

1. Your goals change over time: someone who is now of “low quality” to you might be of very high quality three years down the road.
2. More opportunities
3. Value for your network: someone might not be of “high quality” to you for the moment, but might be of very high quality for someone of your network.
4. Diversity creates a larger safety net when circumstances change: the more diverse your network the more opportunities when you need a new job.

Since both quality and diversity are important, key is to find your own balance between them.

To your success !

Jan

PS: this is an excerpt from the book How to REALLY use LinkedIn (of in het Nederlands: Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken). Make sure you download your FREE light version.

Apologies for the English readers of this blog, exceptionally this post is in Dutch.

Ben je zelf op zoek naar een nieuwe baan of wil iemand uit je omgeving een nieuwe job of nieuw werk vinden, dan is deze Mindmap “Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken om een nieuwe baan te vinden” een handige tool.

Succes !

Jan

Auteur van de netwerk boeken Let’s Connect en Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken (van beide is er een gratis light versie beschikbaar)

Time for busting another LinkedIn (or networking in general) myth: I am happy with my current professional situation, I don’t need to build a network on LinkedIn (or elsewhere).

Let me start by answering you don’t have to do anything. All the tips in “How to REALLY use LinkedIn” are suggestions and tips that are derived from my experience with giving hundreds of training courses and presentations about networking or referrals and from using LinkedIn myself.

So why build a network on LinkedIn? For starters almost everybody needs some expert advice once in a while or new connections inside or outside a company. LinkedIn helps you to find these experts and the people who can introduce you to them. So that is one reason.

The second and maybe even more important reason is that I see too many people only start building their network when it is too late. People who got unexpectedly fired and needed to find a new job suddenly realized they needed a network to help them. Then they get on LinkedIn and start building their network, which takes time. Many times time they don’t have.

The same applies to entrepreneurs. I meet so many people who have a great idea, leave their job, start a company, invest a lot of money and after a few months they realize they also need customers. And a lot. And fast. Why? Because the monthly costs and investments are high. Then they realize they need to start building their network while they should have done that months ago.

In these two examples they start building the network when they NEED it URGENTLY. This creates an energy of despair, which turns people off instead of making them interested to help you.

So start building your network before you actually need it. You can then interact in a normal way with the networking attitude of sharing without expecting anything immediately in return.

To your success !

Jan

PS: this is an excerpt from the book How to REALLY use LinkedIn (of in het Nederlands: Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken). Make sure you download your FREE light version.

If you are a recruiter or are responsible for hiring new employees, these are the benefits LinkedIn can bring you:

1. Identifying the right people (finding their profile)

2. Receiving introductions or referrals to potential employees (via the introductions tool or outside LinkedIn)

3. Discovering the relationships between potential employees and other contacts (see the connections in their profiles)

4. Discovering the relationships between your colleagues from the same and other departments and potential employees (see the connections in their profiles)

5. Discovering information about potential employees which makes the conversations online and offline easier (reading their profile)

6. Maintaining relationship with potential employees (Personal contacts, Discussions in Groups and answering questions in Answers)

7. Visibility for you as recruiter and for your organisation and personal branding (your profile not only on LinkedIn, but also in the Search Engines like Google, contributions in Answers and in Discussions)

8. Make yourself be perceived as an expert (contributions in Answers and in Discussions and Expert points)

9. Word of mouth publicity (receiving recommendations and people telling about you in Discussions, mention you as the expert in Answers or talking about you outside of LinkedIn)

10. Getting recommendations which are visible to potential employees (recommendations written by other people which can’t be modified by you which makes them stronger)

11. Finding the right groups and organisations to be member of, both online and offline (via the profiles of people from your network)

12. Picking up trends in the marketplace (Discussions in the groups of your peers and in the groups of people with the profile you are looking for)

13. Getting notifications when someone changes something in their profile, this is a trigger to see if a contact who didn’t qualify for a job in the past, might be a good candidate now (network updates)

14. LinkedIn has also special tools for recruiting

To your success !

Jan

PS: this is an excerpt from the book How to REALLY use LinkedIn (of in het Nederlands: Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken). Make sure you download your FREE light version.