LinkedIn and other Social Media invite Organizations to Think about Human Relationships

Many companies are realizing: LinkedIn and other social media are here to stay, but how can they benefit us as an organization (versus as individuals)?

The answer is: by tapping into the power of the second degree!

In this case the first degree is the management team of an organization (or other central departments like marketing or recruiting).

The second degree: all the employees of the organization.

The task at hand for the “central” unit is to help the rest of the organization by OFFERING them good content for their individual LinkedIn Profiles. When all employees put this content on their Profile their network (and people who visit their Profile) will see this. Do you see the exponential power?

If you want to be successful with this, it’s important to remember that it’s about OFFERING them content, not FORCING it upon them. The latter will create more resistance than gratitude for help.

This is how LinkedIn for example can be beneficial, but this is only the end of a process, not the beginning. And that’s where many organizations drop the ball.

Being successful with social media starts with creating a great working environment in which people are empowered and trusted. Only then organizations will really benefit from the tremendous power of LinkedIn and other social media.

Employees have always been the ambassadors of an organization. In the past it was at parties with friends, in the gym and in the pub. Now it is also on the Internet, which makes it more visible. The latter makes organizations that are more hierarchical or “dictatorial” nervous. They are loosing control over their “slaves”.

LinkedIn and other social media invite organizations to look inside again and work on human relationships first. They invite organizations to rethink why these people are working together and how the talents of each individual can be recognized and allowed to show and grow for the greater good of the organization.

In other words the “new” media invite us to connect with each other again as the wonderful, talented and inspired human beings we are and to invite each other to live up to our potential.

And isn’t that what it has always been and always will be about?

To your success !

Jan

Best of the Blog 2010

In the beginning of this new year I would like to look back at 2010 by sharing the top blog posts of the past year. For your convenience I have divided them in four categories.

Category Networking Insights

• What I learned from my taxi driver
• 7 Types Of Conditioning that Might Destroy Your Networking Results
• Listening is the Most Important Networking Skill
• The Power of Classmates

Category Networking at Events

• 9 Tips To Make New Year’s Receptions and Events a Success
• Why Many People Are Frustrated When Going to Events (and What to Do About It)

Category LinkedIn

• Company and Personal Branding Tip for LinkedIn: the use of Summary
• Why LinkedIn is important for Job Seekers and Recruiters
• 5 ways to use LinkedIn Companies to find more customers
• My personal policy regarding accepting LinkedIn Invitations

Category Networking Tools

• Track The Response To Your Tweets and Status Updates in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo and other Social Media
• HootSuite Makes Your Professional and Social Networking Life Easier

Enjoy !

Jan

The Bank of Facebook

Social and business networking are changing the world.

Watch this video to hear Thomas Power’s look on what one of Facebook’s benefits/features might be and which consequences it might have.

The 2 Biggest Problems When (Online) Networking

If people have already given some thought to networking, many times they start going to events, make a profile on a website and start connecting with people.

Then there comes a moment most of them say something like: “I have put some time and effort in it, but I don’t have the feeling I get much out of it.”

The reason is that they have never thought about:
1. What their goal is.
2. Who the people are who are in the best position to help them to reach that goal.

These are the 2 biggest reasons why networking seems to not “pay off” for many people.

But when you reverse it and set your goals and ask yourself the question who might the people who are in the best position to help you reach them, it becomes so much easier. It becomes clear which organizations, online networks and which Groups on those online networks to join. It becomes clear who to reach out to and whom to ask for help and support.

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.

The Single Most Important Benefit of LinkedIn

For me the most powerful concept behind LinkedIn is that it finds the right people AND the connections you have with them. It makes the networks of the people we know visible. LinkedIn shows us our second and third degree networks and the paths towards them. This has tremendous value.

Why? Many people already have difficulty keeping track of their own (first degree) network. It is impossible to know who our network knows. LinkedIn makes this visible. This is extremely powerful especially if you start with the end or goal in mind. Many people make the “mistake” to only look in their own network when they are looking for someone to help them. In this way they are limiting themselves tremendously.

What if we start with defining the best person, find them and then find out via whom we can get introduced to them?

For example let’s suppose you are looking for a job at Coca Cola in your country (or you want to do business with them as a supplier or partner).

What most people then do is think of who they might know at Coca Cola. Then they can’t think of anyone and give up. Or they call the front desk, ask for the HR Manager and are stalled by the receptionist. Or the HR Manager says she is going to call back, but never does. Frustration!

Let’s now start with the goal in mind. You define the HR Manager as the person who can help you best reaching your goal (a job, a contract or expertise). Then you use LinkedIn and do a search with “HR Manager, Coca Cola, and your country”. The result is that you don’t only find the exact name of the person, but also the connections you share with this person.

When you then look at the mutual connections you have, you might discover that this person is connected with your neighbor. You didn’t know this because Coca Cola never has come up in your conversations. He has never mentioned anything about it and you never told him that you were interested in working for or with Coca Cola. After discovering the connection on LinkedIn and talking to your neighbor about it, you find out that he has worked together with the HR Manager in the past. When he hears about your goal he agrees on writing an email to introduce you to the HR Manager. Five days later you are invited to have a talk with the HR Manager and land the job or contract.

Without LinkedIn you might never have known that they knew each other!

Jan

PS: this is an excerpt from my new book “How to REALLY use LinkedIn“. In Dutch it is called “Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken” (there are free light versions available)

Online Networking Tip: LinkedIn explained in 3 minutes

The guys from Commoncraft have built a reputation in making things clear in a very short time using video.

In this short video (2.38 min) they give a good basic explanation of what the power of LinkedIn is. Of course LinkedIn is much more than that, especially now with the group discussions, but this is a good start if you have never heard of LinkedIn before.

A good networking practice is to share relevant information with your network (and in the meanwhile you keep in touch and maintain your network). So feel free to share this with the people from your network that haven’t heard of LinkedIn yet.

Have a great networking week !

Jan

Founder of Networking Coach and author of the network book Let’s Connect

Find a social network

Online networking becomes more and more important.

There are also more and more websites.

To help you find a social networking website where you can find people with the same interests, there is the website “Find a social network”

Let me know which websites you find interesting to be a member of and why.

Have a great networking day !

Jan

10 steps to start with online networking (part 2)

Last week I presented you with the first 5 steps to start networking online. Here are steps 6 till 10.

Step 6: Connect people with each other. One of the best network actions you can do, is connecting your contacts with each other. State clearly why you think they should get to know each other. In the short or the long run they will do the same for you.

Step 7: Start your own club/forum. If you want to go a step further and really want to be perceived as an expert in your field then you can start your own club or forum. Mention this in your profile and invite others to your club. Remember that you as a club leader have the responsibility to contribute on a regular basis and react on the messages from other people.

Step 8: Create an extra presence on the web. A profile on one or more networking websites will increase your visibility on the Internet. The reason is that these websites get lots of visitors and are ranked highly on the search engines. This will benefit you and your organisation as well. If you want to go a step further you can also start a blog like the one you are reading now (via Typepad, WordPress or Blogger for example) or start with a lens (on Squidoo). Visit my lens about networking to see an example.

Step 9: Keep your profile up to date. Modify your profile when something changed on a professional or personal level or if you recommend people, websites or books. This is a small effort for you, but you can help many others in this way. And they will remember it!

Step 10: Give and receive. Think about what you can offer people without expecting something in return and you will see that you will receive a multitude of what you gave. You can start with giving advice or tips in your field of expertise or react on messages of other people in forums and share your experience. In this way you build a good relationship with other members of your network. If they value your efforts, they will definitely help you and recommend you to others !

A few extra tips:
– Take it easy. Building relationships costs time, also via the Internet. See to it that you can integrate online networking with your other daily activities.
– Don’t send unpersonal mass messages. So don’t use the standard invitation messages that these websites provide. Make your own welcome message and add a personal touch.
– And stay yourself !

Have a great networking day !

Jan

10 steps to start with online networking (part 1)

Because many people ask me how to start with online networking, I will give you 10 steps for your online networking strategy. 5 in this post and another 5 in the post of next week.

Step 1: Choose 1 of more online networking websites. The ones I recommend at this moment in time are Ecademy, OpenBC and LinkedIn.

Step 2: Make a profile. Present yourself as a human being, not only your function within the organisation you work for. People tend to establish contact faster via common interests, hobbies, schools or sport than via professional activities.

Step 3: Connect with others. Read the profile of other people and note the things you have in common of that trigger you. And then send them a message about these things. Absolute don’ts: sending “sales messages” and unpersonal e-mails.

Step 4: Invite other people. If you are satisfied with the interactions on the websites you have chosen, invite your contacts who are not a member yet. In this way you will grow your network.

Step 5: Participate in forums/clubs. Focus first on the clubs that interest you in a professional or personal way. Express your thoughts and give constructive feedback. In this way people start to get to know you and the trust of others in you will increase.

Next week you receive steps 6 till 10.

Have a great networking day !

Jan

Online Networking as an aid to get connected

Last week I mentioned that I went to the USA for two conventions. I also visited Los Angeles and surroundings in June this year.
Since I’m from Belgium, my network in the USA is not that large (yet), especially when visiting one specific place. But still I was able to meet many people face to face.

So how did I manage to do this? Via my online networks.

This was my strategy:

1) Define my goals on the trips. It was a business trip and not a holiday.
2) Search in my online networks (www.ecademy.com, www.linkedin.com, www.openbc.com, www.ryze.com) who lives in the neighbourhood of the place I was going to visit
3) Search in my online networks who might be interested in going to the same events
4) Write an e-mail to let them know I was coming over, clearly explain my goals and ask them who they know that would be interesting for me to meet (and also would be interested to meet me). Also ask what you can do for them.
5) Post the same message in forums on the online networks
6) To all the people who responded: ask to write one e-mail to connect me with the person they thought of
7) After receiving the “connection e-mail”: make an appointment with this person to meet each other in person

This approach works fantastic. Try it yourself !

One of the side effects of this approach was that the people I was able to meet, sometimes organised small networking events with other people and/or introduced me to their contacts. So it works exponentially. One of the magics of networking 😉

Have a great networking day !

Jan

PS: you will not be able to meet everybody or some people you initially contacted won’t be able to help you. Don’t consider this as a waste of time. You took the initiative to connect and everybody appreciates that.