Networking Online Made Easy (part 2)

Now that you have committed to devoting at least 30 minutes each day to online networking (covered in Part 1), you are focused on how to find great contacts and how to engage them with comments and content.

How to Find People to Follow

Following what people are saying and writing about will enhance your knowledge and provide you with a greater understanding of what the key issues are and trends you should be aware of.

In some instances, following people outside your desired industry or function can also enlighten you to future noteworthy changes or advancements to be aware of.

Twitter allows you to follow people without requiring approval and even LinkedIn and Instagram can be set up to allow anyone to follow your profile/account.

When determining whom you choose to follow, use discretion. Conduct some basic research before you follow anyone to make sure they are credible. Whom you associate with online and in person influences how you are perceived.

Here are 10 ways to grow the list of people you follow across any social media platform.

1.     Authors, Experts or Influencers

When you read an interesting article, find the bio and look for links to the author’s website and social media profiles. Next follow the person or and you may want to subscribe to their newsletter too.

2.     Industry Movers & Shakers

You can discover people presenting at conferences or contributing to industry newsletters by researching professional associations, groups and conferences related to your industry and even within your desired geography.

3.     “Top” or “Best” Lists

Conduct a google search for “Top 10 X” or “Best X” lists. For example, Top X in Marketing. Once you find the lists, select people you want to follow and send a message to connect.

4.     Mentions, Tags and “ShoutOuts”

When a respected authority tags, mentions or gives a shoutout to someone, that’s a form of endorsement. Check out who has been mentioned to see if you should follow them too.

5.     Hosts, Guests and Participants

Online chats, webinars, livestream events draw a crowd of like-minded people. Watch or join in on Twitter Chats focused on your industry or area of interest. Not only can you follow the host and guest on the chat, you can follow some of the people participating in the chat. “TweetReports” is a list of Twitter Chats and their information. You will also find experts participating in livestream events where attendees can participate in the chat feature. Often you can meet interesting people with similar interests.

6.    Follow Followers (At your discretion)

When someone new follows you (on Twitter or LinkedIn), evaluate their activity and profile to determine if following them back would benefit you in some way.

7. Use “Who to follow” or “People You May Know”

Twitter and LinkedIn both offer suggestions for people to follow or people you may know based on your recent following/connecting activity.

8.     See Who Others Follow

Check out who others like you and leaders are following on Twitter, and if they have created lists that might be of interest. You can also use LinkedIn’s Advanced Search to search for second-degree connections of people you respect.

9.     Hashtag Users

# (hashtag) is a way of tagging/filtering updates. Twitter, Instagram and even LinkedIn now use hashtags. You can follow and monitor the hashtags that are relevant to your career/job search and then follow people who use those hashtags. For example, search each social media platform for #MBA and you will find all the updates tagged with #MBA.

10. #FF

A specific hashtag on Twitter is #FF which stands for Follow Friday. This is used to call attention to authoritative accounts to follow. You may also see this being used occasionally on LinkedIn. Be on the lookout for this hashtag being used by people you already follow and respect.

How to Monitor and Listen

Social media is a valuable tool for promoting your personal brand. But it’s also used to monitor conversations and watch competitors.

Social listening is the process of tracking mentions of certain words, phrases, or even complex queries across social media and the web, followed by an analysis of the data.

You’ll gain valuable insights to help you evaluate not only your own personal brand but the reputation of companies you are interested in potentially working for.

Social listening lets you track messages across every platform to find the ones that matter the most to you.

People may be talking about you or things you care about like target companies, industry news or other important topics. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to be part of the online conversation.

Most importantly, keep the wise teaching from Dale Carnegie top of mind: "To be interesting, be interested!"

1.     Monitor Your Brand

You must know what people say about you online (and offline). The best way to monitor this is to set up alerts for your name and to search your name within each social media platform. This will give you the opportunity to respond as necessary. Make time to do this regularly to to anticipate and mitigate bad social media crises.

2.     Engage In Real-Time Conversations

Being an expert or providing timely advice is a noteworthy quality. Be the person who offers help by engaging in real- time conversations. Is someone discussing an issue that you can solve? Reach out and help them. Did someone say nice things about you or your employer? Thank them for their thoughts and share them with your audience.

The more you’re able to respond to these conversations as they’re taking place, the more you build authenticity around your brand. You show that you are a real person who actually cares, which is so valuable to employers.

3.     Identify Where People Talk About Companies

Don’t assume LinkedIn is the only place people talk about companies. See what is being said on Twitter, Facebook and even Instagram. You may notice conversations by happy employees on Facebook or candidates griping on Twitter about the interview process.

4.     Assess What Resonates With Your Followers

By evaluating which posts you share do well and gain engagement, you learn what people like and can deliver more. By listening and assessing what people are saying about topics you care about, you can have meaningful conversations and begin building relationships with people who share similar interests.

5.     Respond and Reciprocate

When someone likes, comments or shares something of yours, say thanks. It only takes a second to thank the person for sharing, liking, or commenting. And if you want to take it a step further, ask a follow-up question related to the subject of the post.

Next time you notice the person has posted something, be sure to reciprocate the sentiment by liking, commenting or sharing something of theirs.

6.     Monitor Brands You Are Interested in Working For

Monitor companies to see how people feel about companies you are interested in as customers and employees. This will help you find the right cultural fit. What events and organizations do they support? How quickly do they respond to customer questions on social media? Or do they have profiles that are only self promotional? All your research will help you ask smarter questions when you network and eventually interview with the company.

7.   Conduct Competitive Analysis

Research what other professionals in your field are doing and saying to promote themselves. Check out their LinkedIn profiles and see what their activity section looks like. This is your competition so it’s a good way to understand the skills, knowledge and experience others possess and how they promote themselves. You may even decide to “borrow” some of their ideas.

How to Post Engaging Comments

Building relationships and authority is a key factor in growing your career. LinkedIn is the perfect platform to use to interact with other like-minded professionals. Not only will commenting on articles and posts on LinkedIn help you get on the radar of influencers or thought leaders, it will also increase awareness of you and generate more views of your LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn rewards people who post engaging content and comments. In other words, the reward you get from commenting is more visibility. When you comment or share content from people who are influential in your industry, you get noticed.

And simply liking a post isn’t enough to improve your profile’s visibility. By leaving meaningful comments on LinkedIn posts, you gain the attention of the author, the author’s network and others.

Below are strategies to help you write engaging comments on LinkedIn.

General Commenting Guidelines

There are no rules per se, but there are guidelines or etiquette you should follow. Keep these things in mind:

□  Be professional at all times

□  Be civil. Do not slander, criticize or insult other commenters

□  Check grammar, punctuation, spelling before submitting comments

□  Add value to the post by adding your thoughts on the topic/issue

□  Be sure to keep it relevant to your areas of expertise

□  Be generous, gracious and polite

□  Don’t self-promote

□  Avoid dense blocks of text

□  Don’t use ALL CAPS

□  Remember, your name, picture and headline accompany every comment you make

If you don’t think you can do this from your phone or mobile device, then use the desktop version of LinkedIn.

What To Do Before You Post Your Comment On LinkedIn

Before you leave a comment, make sure you have read the full article. Often headlines don’t convey the article’s full message.

And before you leave your smart comment, review the other comments to see if anyone else has the same thoughts. If so, you can like their comment and reply to the person. (This is a great way to meet new people!)

It’s also important to make sure the article’s topic or subject matter is relevant to your career goals.

Think carefully about the topic before commenting. But also consider the popularity of the poster and the article/post. You are looking to hang with the right people and meet new connections in the right field. Be strategic and invest your time wisely.

Where To Find Articles

Your LinkedIn home feed is filled with articles and updates your network is already sharing. If you want to keep in touch with people, commenting on the status updates they share is a great way to accomplish connection.

You can also look at the recommended top news sections “What people are talking about now” on your LinkedIn home page. LinkedIn also recommends hashtags. When you find a relevant hashtag, follow it so you see more posts using

the hashtag in your home feed. (Consider following the hashtags related to your career goals: #productmanagement #finance )

How To Post A Comment

Once you’ve found an appropriate post/update to comment on, all you need to do is click on the ‘comment’ button immediately under the post.

If you want to reply to a comment, look for the comment bubble under a person’s existing comment. Replying here allows you to respond to that person’s thoughts. LinkedIn will often tag the person you are responding to. If this doesn’t happen, tag the person in your comment to make sure they receive a notification.

What Should You Say

You want your comment to be received as confident, competent, knowledgeable, genuine, humble or some combination of all of these.

Leaving a comment like “Great post,” “Nicely done,” “I agree” or some other trite response doesn’t add value or help anyone. Instead, share your take-away or what your own experience was like.

Never attack or insult the article, author or commenters. Instead of posting something negative, ask a question or look for some point you do agree with. It is possible to respectfully disagree. If you choose to do this, think about how it will be perceived by the different readers/viewers.

On the MBA Mentor Newsletter

The focus of MBA Mentor is to give business professionals guidance and tools to get ahead. Published weekly on LinkedIn, the newsletter will give you advice on professional goals, information on great companies with open positions, industry experience, help to overcome challenges of transition, and help in identifying your skill set and communicating your value.

Roy Young is the CEO of the MBA Hub based in Beverly Hills, CA. The mission of the Hub is to provide career acceleration services to MBAs that help them land high-paying jobs at companies they’re proud to work for. Through online programs and personalized coaching, MBAs learn how to get in the door of great companies, clarify and communicate their value and ace interviews for a new job or promotion.

Beyond B-School -- another division of the company -- provides career services support for more than 50 B-schools so they can help their students compete in the job market after they graduate.

If you think we can help you, call Roy at 310-601-4755. Or you can email him at roy@beyondb-school.com.

Roy Young

CEO

Beyond B-School

437 South Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90212

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