STRATEGIES OF LINKEDIN AND OTHER BUSINESS NETWORKS

 

STRATEGIES OF LINKEDIN AND OTHER BUSINESS NETWORKS 

 The freewheeling and highly personal nature of Facebook, MySpace, 

and other social networks is an alien landscape for businesses. Your orga-

nization can fi t in and thrive there, but it will take a lot of reconnaissance 

and slow acclimatization. 

 LinkedIn, by contrast, is a natural for you. It is the easiest place for any 

business to begin exploring the social-media landscape because it ’ s designed 

specifi cally as a business-networking tool. And when I say business, I mean 

it in its very broadest sense; anything you do for a living will have its coun-

terpart communities, colleagues, and vendors present on LinkedIn. 

 There are currently 65 million LinkedIn members, hailing from more 

than 200,000 companies, and the rate of adoption is growing at a blistering 

speed. Some of the growth may be coming from the troubled economy and 

job market. Pointing to month-over-month upticks of more than 20 per-

cent, TechCrunch ’ s Erick Schonfeld notes, “When times are tough, net-

working is a survival skill.” 5

 But whether in a good economic climate or bad, the business network-

ing resources on LinkedIn are a powerful help for anyone ’ s career and 

daily productivity. How? 

 You ’ ll notice I didn ’ t say anything about customers. By and large, 

LinkedIn is not a place to go in search of customers—unless, of course, 

you are a business-to-business company, a consultant, or professional ser-

vice. In that case, LinkedIn can be an enormously fertile ground for you.

who, as an early stage angel investor, has his hands in Facebook, Digg, 

Ning, Technorati, Six Apart, Funny or Die, and literally scores of other 

Web businesses. With a BS in symbolic studies from Stanford and a mas-

ters in philosophy from Oxford, Hoffman combines big-picture thinking 

with deep technical know-how. 

 Hoffman, who has invested across the entire spectrum of social media, 

believes that people are likely to maintain two or three relatively distinct 

social-networking personas—and it is the business persona that LinkedIn 

so squarely targets. The clarity and discipline of LinkedIn as a haven for 

business networking is what makes it such an effective place. 

 The two value-added services from which LinkedIn draws its revenues 

are employment advertising placed by companies and recruiters and 

upgraded account fees. LinkedIn ’ s other revenue source is from ads it dis-

plays on the site. 

 “Reid has a belief that every person is his or her own brand,” said Matt 

Cohler, a former LinkedIn exec now at Benchmark Capital. “He means 

that in a good way, not a cheesy way. He believes that we are all our own 

organizations in the world today, and that the things that power and drive 

goodness in the world are relationships and trust.” 6

 “I actually think every individual is now an entrepreneur, whether they 

recognize it or not,” Hoffman told Charlie Rose in 2009. “Average job 

length is two to four years. That makes you a small business . . . You are 

the entrepreneur of your own small business. How do you get to your next 

gig? How do you do your career progression? All these things now fall on 

the individual shoulders. And so, they ’ re essentially an entrepreneur.” 7

 Some 25 percent or so of LinkedIn users are hiring managers or recruiters, 

but LinkedIn is about much more than jobs. LinkedIn also supports person-

to-person networking, a very useful Q&A functionality, and professional 

groups. Not to mention, many business-to-business advertisers are promot-

ing free webinars and other sometimes interesting and relevant things. 

 So you ’ re ready to start using LinkedIn. Here are some tips to make the 

experience successful for you and your business: 

Nine Steps for Making the Most of LinkedIn 

 1. Connect to key people in your real-life professional network —your 

most important colleagues with whom you have a special connection. 

Key vendors or clients. Past colleagues who have moved on to other 

employers, the people you ’ re always glad to run into at conferences.

2. Stay focused . We all have varied interests and a broad range of people 

in our lives. Think of your Facebook network: Aunt Millie, an ex-high 

school sweetheart, some pals from work, college buddies, your 

boss (gulp!). Soon there ’ s nothing you can post on your wall that feels 

comfortable, authentic, and relevant for everybody in your network. 

Don ’ t let that happen to your LinkedIn network. One beauty of Linked In 

is that as a professional networking tool, it ’ s inherently focused, as well 

as more discreet in tone. However, it ’ s easy to get off base in the con-

nections you seek out or the unsolicited ones that you accept. I work 

hard to connect with people I know, and know pretty well, in my indus-

try and who likely share my business interests, goals, conference-going 

schedule, etc. I ignore most connection requests from people I haven ’ t 

met, or who seem only trying to sell me something, or who just seem to 

be obsessive “people collectors.” At the end of the day, I like to have an 

elevator pitch about my network. I can say it is comprised not exclu-

sively but mostly of B2C e-commerce and marketing executives. They 

are a great group for me to ask questions about search-engine optimiza-

tion or who is going to attend the Internet Retailer Web Design show. 

It ’ s probably not a good network from which to recruit investment 

bankers or to get legal advice, but it suits my purposes. And the compo-

sition of your network isn ’ t just for your benefi t, but also to those select 

few you share it with. “Shared connections” is a great indicator of the 

overlap between people in the same industry or job, and it makes their 

connections richer and more useful because you ’ re introducing your 

connections to others like them. 

 

3. Complete your profi le . This isn ’ t number one on the list, because I 

want you to be a little familiar with the platform, and seeing whose 

profi les are most appealing, before you fi nish yours. What you choose 

to include in your LinkedIn profi le, and what tone you adopt, is impor-

tant. This is not a resume, per se. It is a professional biography, a busi-

ness card, selling points, and a subtle window into who you are as a 

person.

 

4. Post your status . LinkedIn lets you check whether you want your sta-

tus post to also go out as a tweet in your Twitter feed. That ’ s a handy, 

laborsaving touch, and it ’ s easily turned off if your LinkedIn post is 

going to be inappropriate for your Twitter feed or vice versa. Letting 

your connections know what you ’ re working on, sharing a new devel-

opment in your industry, or voicing your opinions on a topic of mutual 

interest is a great way to anchor each other in your professional worlds

and keep each other up-to-date. The status bar is also where I publish 

links to any blog post or article I ’ ve written. Without doing that, my 

blog would surely wither into obscurity, but by doing it, I give it a 

chance of getting some attention. 

 5. Ask and answer questions . LinkedIn questions are superpowerful. 

Answering questions well—and being selected as a “best answer” by 

the person who asked the question—is a nice little badge of courage on 

your profi le. 

 

6. Provide and ask for recommendations—but sparingly . A few well-

chosen recommendations from past bosses, employees who reported to 

you, and clients or vendors who worked with you convey a more tan-

gible sense of who you are and how good you are. It feels a bit narcis-

sistic to ask for recommendations, but it ’ s something you have to 

do—you ’ ll never get any unless you ask. 

 7. Join groups . LinkedIn groups are a mixed bag, and the LinkedIn plat-

form does not bestow a ton of useful functionality on groups. But nev-

ertheless, if you can fi nd relevant groups and start posting in discussions, 

you may fi nd that you make connections that are useful and learn some 

useful things. Discussions you elect to “watch” are e-mailed to your 

in-box, which can be zero activity for many groups and can be terribly 

annoying in that rare overactive group that just takes off virally (“What 

is your favorite motivational quote?” was a discussion I was ready to 

slit my wrists over after a few dozen alerts). 

 8. Use Amazon Reading List . This is a handy feature that lets others see 

what books you are reading and what you think of them. If you do a lot 

of business reading—management, marketing, self-help, technical, 

how-to, etc.—share it. It ’ s often a kickoff to some interesting interac-

tions, and at the very least it signals something about what makes you 

tick intellectually and professionally. 

 9. Use TripIt . Another handy and easy to use application, TripIt lets 

you log your business travel schedule. If you travel much, it ’ s of 

interest to your connections (it may cue them to connect with you at 

a shared conference or meeting). LinkedIn also reminds you of who 

among your connections lives in the city you ’ re visiting. That ’ s help-

ful, and it gets to one of the most powerful aspects of social net-

working: these connections are stronger and more satisfying when 

the digital connections are reinforced by occasional face-to-face 

meetings.