SMarT Marketing

Dave’s Network Status Report:

56 direct connections, 1000+ friends of friends, 210,200+ total network

Dave’s Quick LinkedIn Tip: Be sure to add your photo on LinkedIn. You want people attempting to contact you to know they have the right person.

After sending out the invitations, I heard from some old friends. It was great catching up. In the pile was a very large business opportunity. It was so large we couldn’t even attempt it. What can you say, you can’t get them all. It was an honor to even be considered.

I tried my first shot at using my network for outbound business development. I picked a company we would very much like to have on the client list. I searched for the company in LinkedIn. Bingo! One of my friends knows someone who used to work at this company. It even happens to be the right department. I asked my friend for an introduction. My friend introduced me via email to his friend (that used to work there). She agreed to do some checking to get a contact for me. Not bad!

Perhaps next time I will dig a little harder to find a direct link into the company. I think that would be the ultimate.

I sent out 89 invitations in the first shot. The LinkedIn system is very nice. It shows you if the invitation is undeliverable. A great way to clean up your list. I had to follow up on a few and get updated email addresses. After scaring up a few more email addresses, the total was up to 95 invitations out. The next day, I got a bunch of calls and emails asking… “What is this?” and “Did you really send this to me?” I think after I explained all but one did set up a LinkedIn account. Here is what I sent out if they emailed me…

Greetings!

It is an online tool that helps you build an easy to access network. Done right, it helps you expand the number of people you have access to. The theory is that just about everyone knows 300 people. The more people you know the more people you can help and they can help you.

Here is the power. I am one guy. Right now, I have 26 connections (my friends and business associates 1st degree). Of my 26 connections they have 700+ connections (2nd degree), connections to the 700 folks (3rd degree) - 176,000 connections. I am 3 degrees separated from a ton of folks. I can now get introductions to these other folks. Maybe find employees, find business deals, etc. I paid the $20 a month so I can search for people I wish to know. Odds are they are 1 of the 176,000 people.

If you want to give it a whirl, click on the link and then sign up. Then fill out your profile. It steps you through. I use Outlook. Make sure it is up to date and you can import the names and send invitations like I did. I only included people I am at peace knowing my friends.

Dave

Nine days after sending out that letter those who asked me, I had 45 connections. That doesn’t sound like much, however, my 45 connections know 900+ people and they know 198,000+ people. Not bad for someone getting started. Next, what can you do with all your new friends.

If you need it, here is the start of the blog: http://blog.smtusa.com/index.php/the-linkedin-experiment/

After loading my profile, I needed some connections. Connections are people who have a LinkedIn account and agree to connect to you. How you get people to agree to connect is you send out an invitation. In the invitation, you ask if they will link to you. It is that simple. You send invitations out from LinkedIn. Just go to the button at the top that says “Expand Your Network.”

Who should you link to? Typically, you send invitations to friends, colleagues, business contacts, family members, etc. I decided for me I wouldn’t put in just anyone. I didn’t want people I barely know. Though I did put in one like that as a test. I didn’t want to be seen as a “LinkHo.” I wanted only people I would feel totally comfortable calling for an introduction to someone they know and I am totally comfortable with them calling me for introductions to my friends. That’s what networks are for.

Keep in mind, anyone you are connected to can see your connections and you can see their connections (as long as they haven’t turned this off this feature).

I use Outlook. For me, LinkedIn recommended I upload my contacts. I must confess I was a little edgy about turning over my Outlook address book. After realizing what can really be stolen? Email addresses are public. I have the relationship. I did it. The LinkedIn Outlook upload worked great! It pulled in my contacts. I checked off the people to send to. I used the standard LinkedIn invitation message and out it went. Hind sight is 20/20. Thinking about it now, I might have had more success had I customized the invitation a bit. Oh well! More on creating connections in the next post.

When I first logged in to LinkedIn didn’t seem like much is there. It doesn’t really tell you what to do or why. I think they do that so it doesn’t overwhelm you.

The first thing I did is set up my profile. It is easy. Where you went to school, your job history, stuff like that. Get out your latest resume and you should pretty much have everything you need at your finger tips. Once this info is in the next step is to put in your contacts.

Greetings!

This is Dave Larson President of Sales & Marketing Technologies. I have been hearing for a while now the power of the social networking sites. I have seen my sons using MySpace. I heard of the guy being offered $1 billion for FaceBook and turning it down. Then one of my friends asked me to connect to him using LinkedIn. I had heard of LinkedIn, however, I didn’t know anything about it. Since he was a friend, it was free, I thought… Why not? I signed up. I looked around a bit and left. My account sat there for a couple of weeks. It didn’t seem important. Though I was still curious what everyone was seeing in these things.

Then another friend emailed me to connect. I said “okay.” I looked at his info it says he had 75 connections. I looked and I could see all 75 people he knew. I could see their info… where they went to school, what they do, who they work for, etc. On the list, were a few people I wanted to know. Then it hit me. This could be an unbelievable source of warm referrals. Instead of asking my friend to look in his address book and give me some referrals, I could look who he knows and ask to be introduced. It doesn’t get any better than that. What is in it for my friend? Since we are connected, he can see my contacts too. He does an outstanding job providing us wth connectivity. If he needs an introduction, I would gladly open some doors for him.

I decided I was going to test LinkedIn to see if I could build a powerful network and use it to benefit our company. I told some of the Internet Marketing folks at our company what I was thinking of doing and they put the pressure on me to blog about it. I said it would never come to this, but here I am. I will do my best to keep you up to date on the progress. Here we go…