WILL KINTISH EXPLAINS WHY LINKEDIN TAKES NETWORKING TO ANOTHER LEVEL FOR BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS
Networking and referrals are the strongest marketing tools we have at our disposal. If you have a great reputation and profile you are likely to be in demand.
For many years I have been a participant, trainer and evangelist of networking for all professionals, including those in tax and related fields. Even tax professionals who work internally or in the public sector need to raise their career profiles or have connections to key people.
With social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, offering more opportunities to get connected, surely it is time to explore some exciting opportunities.
There are three stages to building relationships: know, like, and trust. It would be possible to challenge, on that basis, every advocate of social networking by asking, ‘how can you create mutual liking and trust through the medium of the internet and the keyboard?’
Liking and trusting
We really need face-to-face contact to see if we like an individual. See the colour of the eyes, feel the firmness of the handshake, glow in the reflection of the smile and feel comfortable with the body language.
It is through these interactions that we can decide if we like someone sufficiently to move the relationship forward. We build rapport through topics of common interest, listening carefully, showing genuine interest in your new found contact and generally finding out how the other person ticks.
Trust takes time to build, so I have been saying this relationship building simply cannot be done online.
LinkedIn
Why then have I become an avid fan of social media and in particular LinkedIn?
Simply because in the case of LinkedIn, a process has been developed that is as near as makes no difference to live networking. Indeed it has many additionally favourable aspects. For the last three to four years I have been shouting, ‘for it to really work you need to have built an offline relationship in the first instance’.
Well I am now a convert! I accept that a relationship can be started online and then progress from there. The information LinkedIn makes available and the use of testimonials substantially reduces the risk of building a relationship with the wrong sort of person.
Reciprocity
The first principle of networking is the law of reciprocity.
When you have a generous spirit and a giving nature you will be rewarded. Go through life asking, ‘how can I help you?’, ‘who would be a good referral for you?’, ‘tell me what type of challenge you have and let’s see how I can support you?’ and your generosity will be returned.
Consider how valued you feel when you’re asked for help.Furthermore, after we have been able to help, we feel good about ourselves. This all results in the building of even stronger relationships.
This is where LinkedIn works. It has many benefits and uses, but let’s focus first on its contact and referral system. In a world of 6.6 billion people, it does seem hard to believe, but the theory of six degrees of separation contends that we are all linked by chains of acquaintance and therefore are just six introductions away from any other person on the planet.
How it all works
Forget six degrees; LinkedIn uses just three (they call them levels) and unless you’re going to live and work until you’re over 200 you won’t need more.
You join the LinkedIn club and either ask people to join your network or they invite you into theirs. They become connections in the LinkedIn world.
These become your level 1 connections. You can then see who their contacts are and they become your level 2 connections. After you have done some homework you can then search their contacts and they become your level 3 connections.
To emphasise the power of the numbers let me give you my network statistics at the end of 2008. I have 479 level 1 contacts. That leads me to over 95,000 level 2 connections and, wait for it, more than 5,550,400 level 3 connections. I told you that three degrees was enough.
When you know, like and trust level 1 connections they will want to help you and vice versa. This means you can check out their contacts to see if you’d like an introduction. If there is a genuine relationship with your level 1 person he will try to open the door for you.
LinkedIn will help your career, practice or business if you want:
To get the best out of it
When you attend events you generally give up three or four hours from the time you leave your home or place of work. Much of that time can be wasted travelling.
When you invest time using LinkedIn you will find your investment of time can be far more productive. I am not advocating that you stop face-to-face networking; all I say to people who claim they haven’t got time for this ‘social networking stuff’ is find the time – it will pay big dividends.
