If you’re not familiar with LinkedIn yet, it’s a social networking site with the overt business purpose of helping businesspeople meet and communicate online. The very popular Facebook was developed to make more purely social connections, but recently, it has begun to be used for some business purposes, too. We’ll examine Facebook in an upcoming issue of the Raphel Report.
You probably have received an invitation from me to join my LinkedIn network (sorry if you didn’t – if you want to be part of my LinkedIn network, email me and I’ll add you to my LinkedIn contact list).
Signing up is a simple process. It becomes more time–consuming as you fill out more LinkedIn forms. Giving more information seems desirable at this site because you are letting other people know about your business. While I probably wouldn’t be bothered filling out my favorite musical selections at Facebook, I took the time to put in some more detailed information about our company on LinkedIn because I knew other businesspeople would be seeing my profile.
For a long time I resisted sending LinkedIn messages to my contact list, thinking that people may view the invitation negatively. When I finally invited everyone on my contact list (which I imported to LinkedIn from my Address Book on my computer – a very fast process), the replies were very encouraging.
Many people actually thanked me for inviting them to be connected with them on LinkedIn (“invitation” is a really nice phrase – sounds like a party). A couple asked how I knew them, and several started business conversations with me. Nobody seemed offended for the invitation. Out of 500 invitations, a little over 90 accepted the invitation to become connected on LinkedIn. I don’t know how a 18% acceptance rate compares with other people’s experience, but I was happy to have so many new LinkedIn contacts.
Another feature of LinkedIn is a place for recommendations, the cyberspace equivalent of testimonials. I received an unsolicited very nice recommendation from Jill Ojserkis (thanks Jill!).
You can also send invitations out to members of groups that have some connection to you. I’m going to try some of my college and law school classmates (Swarthmore 1973, University of Texas Law School 1978) to see if I can drum up some more LinkedIn connections. Other people you can contact include colleagues at companies you’re working at or have worked for.
Another LinkedIn feature is LinkedIn Answers, which is basically a business forum where members help other members with business questions. There are a other applications that work with LinkedIn, including Polls, which lets you ask questions of your connections, a blog link, a way to add a PowerPoint presentation to your profile, and even a way to find job listings in your area.
Right now I just have a basic account at LinkedIn. An advanced account that gives more opportunities to form a network costs about $30 per month for the first upgrade from the free account. An advanced account lets you review profiles of people not in your network and has more features. Because my experience with LinkedIn has been so positive so far, I am considering trying a paid account.
If any of you has more information about LinkedIn that you’d like to share with our readers, please let me know. I’d be especially interested about hearing ways you have used LinkedIn to increase your business.