Smarter Networking - Secrets of a Professional

I have spent a lot of time networking on LinkedIn. So, I thought it might be useful to some people, especially new people, to share with you some of my secrets on being smart about networking on LinkedIn. Enjoy.

Be Real

People appreciate it when you are upfront and transparent with them. Let people know what you are doing and why you are adding them. When you add someone, let them know how you feel about the connection, what you would like to get out of it and how you may be able to benefit your new connections. This is a great way to break the ice without asking for anything, leaving the door open for your new connection to reach out to you, knowing what you are expecting and what you are looking for.

Be Honest

People appreciate it when you are honest with them, whether it is your employee or someone special you are reaching out to on LinkedIn. Always be honest and let them know what you're up to and what you hope to get out of the interaction. If you feel disrespected by someone on LinkedIn, stick up for yourself, but don't get angry, always stay professional no matter what you are doing.

Take Chances

Always strive to go higher, keep on the lookout for valuable connections and approach them properly. There are lots of powerful and influential people on LinkedIn. It's all about who you know, there are valuable contacts out there who can and will help you. If you are content with your network, that means you are stagnating. Keep on the move, actively network with people in higher positions than you, these people will be able to help you move higher.

Maintain Relationships

It's not enough to simply create relationships on LinkedIn, you should always be looking to maintain your network and keep it growing constantly. If you find people who you like, let them know how you feel and try and build relationships by maintaining contact, wishing people a happy birthday or congratulating people on their new position is the simplest and easiest way to do this. When you end up asking these people for help, they will see the effort that has gone into maintaining a professional relationship and will be more likely to aid you with your efforts.

Endorse Heavily

Every time someone new looks at your profile, make an effort to go to their profile and endorse that individual for every skill they have on offer. People consider other users, who have 99+ endorsements for all their skills, super employees. If you endorse lots of people, more people will endorse you in return. Make sure you have the maximum amount of skills available and that you position your skills in such a way where skills that are already 99+ will not be automatically endorsed. This means keeping track of your endorsements and their location and order on the page.

Be Professional and Personal

People like it when they experience professionalism, they also like it when this wall is broken down, gently over time, to reveal a more meaningful personal business relationship, which is still professional, but where a certain amount of commitment has been made that separates the relationship from just any they have experienced on LinkedIn. It's always better to have got to know someone before you ask them for advice or assistance. If you have created a caring relationship, with respect to your connections, this leads to more valuable business relationships.

Don't Fight

Of course some people are going to rub you the wrong way, it comes with LinkedIn being on the internet. What is important though, is that you never lose your cool and treat people, especially people with different opinions, with respect at all times. If someone disagrees with you, by all means respond, but don't take anything personally and approach every challenging situation as a something to be learnt from. People can give really good advice on LinkedIn, take everything with a grain of salt and don't get offended. You must learn to be unflappable, polite and courteous to even the most horrible trolls.

Build Teams

Anything is possible on LinkedIn, you have the opportunity to make contact with exactly the kind of people you need to do virtually anything, build a business, receive mentorship, get advice ect. One of the most powerful and effective things you can do on LinkedIn is to team build. Find out the kind of people who you need for your project, reach out to them and ask for help. You would be amazed what you can accomplish without even having a budget if you are dedicated, up front and honest, people will help, and you will be surprised how far you can get into projects by just using teams which you have built on LinkedIn.

Offer Help

When you are asked for help by another user, you should strongly consider helping them to the best of your ability. If you expect others to help you, people notice what other people do, especially work they do out of the goodness of their heart. It goes a long way to building reputation and receiving help yourself. Valuable experience, working relationships, can be formed from working for someone else for free, so if you have the time, it's worthwhile, even if you can only spare a few hours, this kind of thing is what gives people hope and could end up being extremely beneficial for both parties.

Network Using Keywords

Use LinkedIn search options to locate people who might be helpful, if you build a relationship with them, all the better. You can search for appropriate people by using key words. Make relationships with people and keep doing it, this is a great way to get your name out there and help you to move up in the world of LinkedIn and your particular industry. You don't always have to let people know why you're adding them, if they don't ask, just having them around could end up being useful at some point, especially if they see that you are using an appropriate strategy.

Burning Bridges

It's not healthy to have people in your network that you genuinely don't like, you don't have to please everyone and it's important to know when to say goodbye. It's often better letting someone go rather than continuing to associate with them if they are continually hostile or they lose control. At the same time, you should place enough value into every connection, that you give people a fair go and give them a chance if they step out of line, no one is perfect, so give people second chances and hear them out. You never know if you will need them later and it will not be helpful if you have blocked them.

Moving to Email

It's always better to communicate via email after the relationship has been solidified on LinkedIn. LinkedIn doesn't exactly have the best messaging service around and it is hard to keep track of people and multiple conversations using their platform, so move to email as soon as possible, this will make it more likely people will get back to you and engage with you. If you are always trying to contact via LinkedIn, for business purposes, people can lose interest because it looks amateur. So, as soon as you have become acquainted, drop them a friendly email to say hi and proceed to contact only by email, for important business contacts.

Progression of Relationships

When you first contact someone it's best to use "Hey" "Hello" "Hi" to address the other person. As you begin to get to know them more, you should start to change how you address people, it's only natural. Once you get to know someone on LinkedIn, start addressing them as "Dear" and give different types of goodbyes, like instead of using "Best regards" like you would in the beginning of the relationship, you can start using "Best warm regards" "Best wishes" "Yours" ect. So, there is a progression in the relationship that is measurable in the language. People like to know that they are getting to know you, when they see a progression in the language in this way. It is a very good tool to remember if you want to have strong and valuable relationships on LinkedIn. Get close, get snugly, let people know you care about them and you will be surprised at the outpouring of help, generosity, companionship and worthwhile relationships. Good luck, stay focused and you might even be able to go professional and be paid to know, who you know...

If you follow these recommendations you'll get a lot more out of LinkedIn and the relationships that you'll make on here will be more helpful and meaningful to you as a professional, helping to build your confidence over time.

Thanks for reading my article, remember to like and share this article with your network if you enjoyed reading it, or if the article has helped you in some way. This will help create more positive, professional and healthy spaces on LinkedIn.

Written by Joshua Forbes