LinkedIn 101

I love LinkedIn! To me, as a sales professional, it is a valuable tool that opens me up to opportunities, contacts, and insights, that I probably would not normally have access to.  In fact, I often refer to LinkedIn as a Sales Person's Best Cheat Sheet.

There are two functions specifically of LinkedIn that are the most important and relevant to me: 

1. Getting information and names of key decision makers. There may be a company I want to do business with, and may not know where to start.  All I need is one contact to be LinkedIn with the CMO, VP, or other relevant person I am looking to reach out to in order to now be able to go after that account, and associate a name who I need to reach.

2. Meeting People.  Once I have identified a person, I love that I can reach out to them via a message, and see if they are interested in my services.  

Now the bad news.  I don't understand the motivation of others when adding me as a contact in certain situations.  Let me explain.  

LinkedIn is a networking tool that set the benchmark when it first came out. In most cases when people request I be LinkedIn with them I will do so. I will not accept them if they are some random student from India or China, with 7, or ZERO contacts, or if we have less than 10 people in common.  Also, if I get an invite from a person who is, hypothetically, a teacher in Boise, I don't see the value, for any of us.  

Now, once a person adds me, I am happy to assist in any way I can.  If I get a request for a person's email address, or a contact at a certain company, I will do so, as, again this is a networking tool.  If somebody reaches out and wants a phone number, I am happy to oblige.  I love LinkedIn, and want to make sure all others can benefit with my assistance.

My concern are people who DO NOT answer requests.  I mean, unless you are looking to get as many contact as possible, as you want to collect names like baseball cards, well, then you're doing it wrong.  It is frustrating when I send a request to a person about an introduction, or email address or one of their contacts,  and they either ignore it, or say they do not know so and so well enough.  Ok, but how about that email address?  It is right there, under contact info.  One of my more interesting denials was a recruiter who said they cannot, since it would break client/agency confidentiality.  If it is public, how is that the case?  And, of course, another classic, when I run into so and so months alter, and ask about that request, and they say, "Oh, I don't check LinkedIn that much."  

The other value of LinkedIn is getting to find out more about people, and in additional opportunities.  Because of LinkedIn, I met the people at BWG Group, and am able to be a participant in many of their roundtable discussions.  In addition, just this week, one of my newer contacts asked me to be a moderator at an upcoming mobile conference here in New York.  Hence, the opportunities are huge, and many of them not necessarily what you expected.

LinkedIn is a great tool, and one that will only get bigger and bigger.  I do not know how many people are on it now, but do know I was one of the first million, and that was quite a few years ago.  It keeps getting bigger, and offering new opportunities.  I just hope that as it continues to grow, more people will see the value and importance of using it right, and not as just something they have to be on, because everybody else is.

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