I am amazed by how many small businesses do not utilize social media to the maximum.  Think about it: social media, like the internet two decades ago, allows any business to compete with larger, more established entities.  Come on, what are you waiting for?

What further amazes me is how few small businesses maximize their presence on LinkedIn and instead just follow the trend of Facebook and Twitter.  Why would a niche B2B company establish a Facebook Fan Page when their potential customers may not be social on Facebook yet are already used to networking on LinkedIn?  I’m confused.

That’s why, as a social media strategist, I took the approach of first blogging and thereafter writing my first book on LinkedIn, not the other popular sites.  In fact, as I said in my recent speech at Gravity Summit at UCLA, “LinkedIn is Your Hub for B2B Social Media Marketing.”  And I meant it.

Keeping that theme in mind, and combined with a recent experience I had looking for a vendor on LinkedIn, I wanted to share advice with you small business owners of why you’re not getting inbound leads from your presence on the social networking site.  Ladies and gentlemen, this is free consulting, so please heed my advice!

We all know that we are spending more and more time on social media, and thus we are now looking at social media as a huge resource of information.  Going beyond that, when we look for someone to do business with, we also tend to use social media as part of that process.  I personally use LinkedIn over Google whenever I am looking for a new vendor.  Why?  Because at least I know who I am doing business with!  But if you are not displaying yourself on LinkedIn with the utmost in authenticity as a trusted person to do business with, I definitely will NOT do business with you.

This should give you some good background into my thought process.  Let’s move on to the 12 reasons why your small business isn’t getting leads from LinkedIn: (note that this is only advice on your Profile…there is lots more advice that I can provide you if you are interested!)

1 – You’re Not on LinkedIn

How can you, as a small business owner, not even be on the biggest social networking site for professionals?  Even if you are a B2C company, don’t you have partner and vendor relationships with other companies?  Don’t you want to be creating alliances with other businesses? There are many reasons why every B2C company also have a B2B side to them, and this is the reason why there is no excuse for not being on LinkedIn.  You are simply missing out on the potential.

2 – Who are You?

If you don’t have a photo on your profile, you are invisible.  Who wants to do business with the Invisible Man?  Not me!  And not many of your potential customers!

3 – It’s All About LOCATION. LOCATION. LOCATION.

Let me give an example here.  I live in Orange County, California.  I look for service providers close to my zip code.  I only contact those that display “Orange County, California” on their profiles.  Let’s say you live in Los Angeles County but actually have your office in Orange County…which zip code are you using for your LinkedIn Profile?  If you are not using your BUSINESS zip code, you are misrepresenting yourself…and missing out on potential business.  Fix it.  Now.

4 – What Industry are You in?

If I am looking for a bookkeeper, I am searching in the “Accounting” industry.  Perhaps you are a bookkeeper and want to upsell consulting services and choose “Financial Services” or “Management Consultant” for your industry.  You are only going to get the leads that are aligned with your industry, so choose carefully!

5 – Did You Attend School?

It still amazes me how many people skip over this section of their LinkedIn Profile.  Education is another data point that proves that you are “real.”  Especially if you work in an industry where a college degree is important, being skimpy on this section means that potential leads are NOT going to contact you.

6 – What? No Recommendations?!?!?  Really?

Seriously.  You’ve been in business for several years.  You have happy clients that you refer potential customers to.  Yet you don’t have any LinkedIn Recommendations?  You do have clients that would be happy to write them for you, right?  I hope so!  By the way, unless you have 3 Recommendations your profile does not show up as being “100% complete,” so this is another reason why every small business owner should have at least 3 LinkedIn Recommendations!

7 – Why Aren’t You Connected?

I don’t care what your personal policy is: LinkedIn is a database that will help you get found if people are looking for you.  But guess what?  If you don’t have enough connections you aren’t going to be found nearly as often.  Also, as a professional who has a long list of people that you have gone to school with, personally know, done business with, or worked together with, can’t you get your LinkedIn Connections number up to at least 100?  It scares me when I see a small business owner on with only a few connections…are they for real?  Why don’t they have more connections?  It raises too many questions to have an over-limiting policy.  And if you signed up and forgot about it, you might as well delete your profile because an inactive profile is only working against you and is a form of negative advertisement.  Maximize or delete: There is no middle road in social media.  And don’t make me have to pay to contact you by sending you an InMail: You should be paying me for helping you get connected!  Done deal?

9 – It’s All About the Keywords

This is a no-brainer, but let me remind you just in case.  Just as you have a website filled with words to help potential clients find you, you need to do the same on your LinkedIn Profile.  I was shocked by how many small business owners put the absolute bare minimum in their Profile.  Talking about an opportunity loss…  If you don’t have a place for the keywords, your Summary as well as what I write about in 10) are appropriate.

10 – You ARE Experienced, Right?

LinkedIn is giving every small business owner major real estate by allowing you to 1) list the company and title where you currently and previously worked and 2) to write about your experiences with each company.  Why small business owners are not taking advantage of this space to write about their experiences in keyword-rich terms is beyond me.  I am a social media strategist, not a psychiatrist!  And, beyond that, if you say nothing about your experiences, how else do you show off your expertise in your Profile?  And if you don’t show off your expertise, why would I even call you in the first place?  See what I’m getting at?  I hope so…

11 – Don’t You See the Value of LinkedIn Groups?

There are many reasons why small business owners should be all over these Groups.  But even if you don’t participate in them, there are two huge reasons why you should be a member of many groups:

• You need to be where your potential customer is, so find the groups that your potential customer might be in, join them, and ideally actively participate.
• Groups allows potential customers an easy way to contact you: Even if you are not directly connected, the default setting for Group members is that you have the ability to directly message each other.

See my point now?  Even joining 1 of the largest groups as well as 1 of the largest regional groups may be enough to allow tens of thousands of people the opportunity to contact you.

12 – How Do I Contact You?

LinkedIn has a spot at the bottom of your profile for “Contact Settings.”  Most people leave it blank.  If you are a business, and you are listed in the telephone directory, would you only show your name and city?  Exactly!  Why not make it easy for potential clients to contact you?  If you don’t want to show your phone number, a business email address is sufficient.  But write something here, please!

As you can see, optimizing your LinkedIn Profile is not just for the jobseeker.  When you and/or your small business is ready to get serious about social media marketing, make sure you read my LinkedIn Book or contact me to learn more about my social media strategic consultancy services for solo entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Would love to hear your experiences with getting social media leads…have you had people contact you and say they found you on LinkedIn?  Do tell!  If not, how many of the above mistakes are you guilty of?

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Image by Matt Johnston

The never-ending question of quality vs quantity of Twitter Followers is similar to the argument of how many people you should connect with on LinkedIn or “friend” on any other social networking site.  Yesterday I wrote that without enough connections on LinkedIn, you will not show up in as many search results.  With Twitter, the Followers vs Following ratio is an important one that will also speak lots about your Twitter Brand.

Windmill Networking treats all of the social networking sites the same.  It all comes down to your objective, your brand, and implementation of these through the unique functionalities and environments of the different sites.  When I see people who only want to connect to a limited amount of people on LinkedIn yet want tons of Followers on Twitter, I see a contradiction.  Windmill Networking clears up this contradiction with a rational philosophy that transcends the differences in social media.

Why do Followers count on Twitter?  Because the more people that follow you the higher the chance is that more people will read your message.  And if your message is a good one, the more probable that someone will ReTweet it, generating the viral marketing that Twitter is famous for.  Also, people with more Followers seem to have more credibility with some people.  Wouldn’t you rather have 2,000 Followers vs. 200 Followers?

So understanding this, as well as the fact that your Twitter Followers vs Following ratio will affect your Twitter Brand, let’s look at what the different ratios below say about people:

1) 10 Following 100 Followers = 10.0 Ratio

This person has a 10.0 ratio of Followers to Following.  This appears to be an ideal ratio to achieve in that this person evidently has something to say that a lot of people that he doesn’t know find interesting.  Thus the large ratio number.  However, if you are looking for people to follow in hopes that they will follow you back, you may not want to follow this person unless they have something really important to say.  Therefore, because of this fact, it is very hard to achieve this status.  If you tweet good content, your Followers numbers will organically grow over time, but what about the potential opportunity cost of late time-to-market for your message?  So, your Twitter Brand here is either Rockstar or someone trying to do things the old-fashioned way without maximizing what they could be doing with Twitter.  I will also add that this Twitter Brand could be a negative one: Why won’t this person give their Followers some respect in following them back?  Or are all of their Followers spammers?

2) 100 Following 100 Followers = 1.0 Ratio

Some people say, “Yes, of course, they are just following everyone who follows them back, so a 1.0 ratio is an easy number to achieve.”  Well, if you have ever tried it, you will realize that even if you follow 100 people, chances are on average that only 10 to 20 of those people will follow you back.  Add in the fact that many spammers who auto-follow you will stop following you once they have sent you a Direct Message, and you can see how this is not an easy task to accomplish.  I believe that this is a healthy ratio which also tells new people that if they follow you chances are you will follow them back.  It displays a Twitter Brand that says “We are in this together so let’s get to know each other.”

3) 100 Following 10 Followers = 0.1 Ratio

This one is an obvious red flag.  Evidently this person thinks that following many many more people will lead to more Followers, but with this sort of ratio, not only will only the spammers be following back this person, but Twitter may soon close down this account!  Suffice to say this is a lopsided ratio that you never want to display!

So what is the ideal ratio?  It will change depending on how many Followers you have, but it has to be in a range near 1.0 (0.75 to 1.25?) if you want to grow you Twitter Followers.  Anything above that shows that you may not have anything interesting to say and below that range may indicate that you don’t care about who follows you and may not follow them back anyway (of course, if you are a famous celebrity you can get away with following nobody).

For those who scoff at what I say, I ask “You are on Twitter with hopes of increasing your followers, right?”  And there are so many great people to follow on Twitter!  Just as LinkedIn has 45 million people in its network, Twitter also has tens of millions that you can follow.  One Twitter Rockstar, Chris Brogan, who I would consider a Windmill Networker, has some great ideas of who to follow on Twitter if you don’t have any.

When someone doesn’t increase their LinkedIn Connections out of their physical network, I let it be known that they are wasting their time on LinkedIn.  I think the same can be said for your Twitter Following vs Follower ratio.  If your ratio is too skewed from the 1.0 standard, it could be sending the wrong message that will adversely affect your Twitter Brand.  You could potentially be wasting your time on Twitter following too few and be seen as someone with nothing valuable to say if you follow too many.  It is healthy to follow people you don’t know if they are speaking on a subject that you are interested in.  And I assume these are the people that you also want to follow you.  So why not display this brand in your ratio of Following to Followers and attract them?

I’d love to hear about your Twitter Followers vs Following policies!  Please tell!

I am always amazed of the people I meet at networking events or social media conferences that are heavy on Twitter or Facebook but light on LinkedIn. Or others that are on LinkedIn but are not really on LinkedIn. In other words, after realizing the potential value of LinkedIn, what’s next?

I have become good friends with Bradley Will, the role model who is empowering young entrepreneurs, and we have a similar goal of helping others better utilize social media.  My blog post for today I actually wrote for his demographic, the Gen Y entrepreneurs who have been intimated by LinkedIn but now are opening up to it and seeing its value.  But the message is really applicable to anyone who has just gotten started on the social networking site.

Before I give you the link to the blog post, let me summarize my advice briefly here:

1. Brand Your LinkedIn Profile
2. You are NOT Your Company
3. Connect! Connect! Connect!
4. Join LinkedIn Groups & Participate
5. How to Network on LinkedIn

Please see the entire blog post here: Young Professionals Getting Started with LinkedIn

There are many resources on the web for finding people to follow on Twitter.  Just do a search for any particular type of person you want to follow (student entrepreneurs? job seeker advice? etc.) and chances are you will find a list.  But why none for LinkedIn?  Well, just as I have been the first to write on other things LinkedIn-related, I think it is important to introduce people on LinkedIn that I think you should invite and/or connect up with.  These people are either LIONs or “Super Connectors”, people with lots of connections that are open to receiving new invites as well as helping people connect and pay it forward.

The importance of connecting with LIONs and Super Connectors on LinkedIn cannot be understated.

They help you build out the virtual network that you will need for successful Windmill Networking, and it also improves your visibility when searching for others as well as when they search for you.

Now, I do need to point out that LinkedIn caps the number of connections you can have at 30,000.  So those people below that have over 30,000 connections can receive your invite but cannot accept it.  I still think it is worth sending an invite with an introductory paragraph about yourself in the hopes that someday this limit will be lifted and they will be able to accept your invitation.  After all, the new LinkedIn Search now allows you to not only sort by connections but also to see the number of connections above 500 someone might have instead of that old “500+” text.  This is a very welcome modification and gives us all hope that the limitation on the number of connections will be lifted soon.

As a final disclaimer, I am personally connected to all of these people but have yet to meet any of them.  That being said, I have had various communications with each of the people I recommend either directly or indirectly.  When you send them your invite let them know that Neal Schaffer of Windmill Networking sent ‘ya

(guide: Name – Worldwide Ranking – # of Connections – Location)

Ron Bates – #1 – 41,000+ Connections (San Francisco)

Ron Bates is a retained executive search expert and is also the most connected person on LinkedIn.  Perhaps it is his proximity to LinkedIn headquarters in the Bay Area that helped him along the way, but Ron is a great person who I happened to hear speak on a free webinar for executive job seekers several months ago.  Intelligent and passionate, if your company is looking for a retained executive recruiter or if you are an executive looking for guidance, Ron is your man to connect with.

Steven Burda – #4 – 37,000+ Connections (Philadelphia)

Steven is currently employed at The Boeing Company in a financial analysis and management role.  But he is better known for being the “Mother Teresa of Networking.”  Some people love him, others hate him, but I can tell you from my personal experience that Steven is the ultimate pay-it-forward Windmill Networker.  He has been featured in the press of saying controversial things about LinkedIn’s practices and limitations, but like myself, I can not think of anyone else out there who evangelizes LinkedIn more than Steven does.  And, if you don’t believe me, look at the 2,000+ recommendations he has from real people that have been touched by him.  Please reach out to him and experience the warmth of his connection yourself.  If you think that Steven can ever help you, ask him, as I am sure that he will take the time out of his busy schedule to listen and lend a helping hand

Marc Freedman – #5 – 31,000+ Connections (Dallas)

I have never met Marc but I have heard the fascinating interview he had on Stan Relihan’s Connections Show.  Some of you who have been around on LinkedIn hopefully remember the original MyLink500.com database, which allowed us all to openly add our information to a huge database of LinkedIn users for the purpose of open networking (this has now been moved to http://mylinknetwork.com).  Marc is also the founder of the Dallas Blue LinkedIn Group, which has over 25,000 members and has traditionally been one of the largest LinkedIn Groups.  And if that wasn’t enough he also created the excellent MyLinkWiki which contains loads of documentation about LinkedIn.  The amazing thing is that this is someone who apparently had his 20,000+ connections LinkedIn account removed for “spamming” (he was trying to raise money for charity) and then rebuilt it from scratch to be the #5 most connected person on LinkedIn today!  Amazing!

Stacy Donovan Zapar – #9 – 29,000+ Connections (San Diego)

Stacy is located just an hour away from me in sunny San Diego and yet we have never had a chance to meet.  She is in the recruiting industry, but more importantly she brands herself as a “Pay It Forward Open Networker”, a fundamental characteristic of Windmill Networking.  I have recommended friends in San Diego who were in transition to contact her, and she has answered every one of their emails and phone calls.  Stacy, I hope to meet you some day!

Shally Steckerl – #13 – 28,000+ Connections (Atlanta)

Shally is a leading recruitment speaker and consultant, and he is also Chief Cyber Sleuth of what used to be called The Job Machine and is now called Arbita.  I subscribe to his newsletters because he truly is a pioneer in using the Internet to source for candidates.  If you are in transition, doesn’t it interest you to see how recruiters “source” or find you on the Internet?   Reading the annoucements of the webinars that he does for recruiters blows my mind.  Definitely on the leading edge of understanding social media for recruiting and a must person to connect with.

Christian Mayaud – #26 – 24,000+ Connections (New York City)

Christian is the founder of a Venture Capital firm.  But more importantly, he is the founder of the original Linkedin LION Group.  What else can I add?  He is the grandfather of the LinkedIn Open Networking movement.  Please pay him your respect.

Thomas Power – #27 – 23,000+ Connections (United Kingdom)

Thomas is the Chairman of Ecademy, one of the premier social networking sites for business people with 500,000+ members worldwide.  I have exchanged some tweets with Thomas on Twitter, but it is the power of Ecademy that makes his connection so valuable.  I once met an entrepreneur from New Zealand in Japan who was on a several week tour of Asia looking for partners.  He was able to attain all of his appointments and meet many people solely through networking on Ecademy!  Ecademy is a place where there is some serious Windmill Networking occurring, and Thomas is at the helm.  Please connect with him and check out Ecademy as well.

Barack Obama – #28 – 23,000+ Connections (Washington D.C.)

That’s right, President Obama, the first President of the Social Media era has a presence on LinkedIn.  He doesn’t seem to be very active on LinkedIn, but you have to admit he has a busy job.  Will he answer your messages?  Probably not.  But wouldn’t it be cool to have the President as your connection?  I thought so.  Heck, I even wrote a blog post last year regarding how to connect with Barack Obama.  Let me know if that address doesn’t work anymore, OK?

Stan Relihan – #30 – 22,000+ Connections (Sydney, Australia)

It was a sad day when I heard that Stan was no longer going to be doing his Connections Show podcast.  This is someone who I got to know through my ipod and his frequent podcast, and I truly have learned a lot about social networking, Web 2.0, and LinkedIn from him.  Stan, by the way, is a headhunter and is Asia-Pacific’s most connected person.  Whenever I meet someone from Sydney, I always ask if they have ever met Stan, and I always get the “Yes!” answer.  He is a great guy who completely understands the value of Windmill Networking…I do hope to have a chance to meet him someday!

Neal Schaffer – #60 – 16,000+ Connections (Orange County)

OK.  We are probably already connected, but just in case  And if you want to find out the latest on Windmill Networking and find other people that share value in open networking, building out large virtual networks and digging wells before they’re thirsty, please join my spanking new Windmill Networking LinkedIn Group.  Yeah, I know, not so many members yet, but once we all get plugged into the same grid I am confident it will grow and provide tremendous value to all of us!

The minute I post this, some of you are going to start recommending other LIONs & Super Connectors that did not make my list.  I welcome all suggestions!  If you want to be on this list, I do plan to post updates, so please, connect and communicate with me!  I look forward to hearing from you.

Happy Networking Everyone!

Today’s blog post is one that I created for Bradley Will, a self-proclaimed “gnarly entrepreneur” who is also the leading voice for empowering a new generation of young entrepreneurs.  If you haven’t read his blog you need to check it out.  The blog post that I did itself you should read on Bradley’s site here.  But I wanted to give you some background about the post because it explains two important things about Windmill Networking (which will be detailed further in my book to be published in August).

1) Windmill Networking is About Creating Virtual Networks of Real Pay-It-Forward People

I have never met Bradley.  He lives in Chicago, I live in Los Angeles.  So how did I meet him?  I was introduced to him by Joe Stampone, a NYU (read= New York University, where my father graduated!) real estate student and entrepreneur.  Joe lives in New York, and I’ve never met him either.  It all happened on Twitter.  Joe was the connector: he followed Bradley and me.  Bradley, a true embracer of Windmill Networking and extremely intelligent in utilizing social media, reached out to his followers looking for someone to provide a guest blog post on LinkedIn.  Joe spotted it and recommended me.  And the rest is history.  After one Skype chat with Bradley, we both agreed that it would be mutually beneficial to work together, and one week later the blog post was published.  Things happen fast in social media.  And there are a lot of pay-it-forward networkers like Joe out there, providing value in connecting people.  I created the concept of Windmill Networking to help convince those that still don’t embrace social media that they are missing out on a lot.  And networking is natural for humans because we are all social animals. This is just one example of how one simple “tweet” created a solid relationship between Bradley and myself.  We are already looking forward to our next collaboration!  And needless to say I now have someone to look up next time my connecting flight is grounded at O’Hare

Have you created meaningful relationships through social media yet?

2)  Windmill Networking is NOT about Millenials or Gen X or Baby Boomers.  It transcends generations.

A lot of people brand themselves as being attached to a certain generation.  I played around with the idea of becoming the “Gen X Social Media Personal Branding Expert”, but as I was writing the blog post for Bradley, I realized something else about Windmill Networking.  It is for all generations, because anyone can leverage social media for their benefit depending on their objective.  Read my blog post.  Yes, the first few paragraphs are framed for the Millenial Generation.  But the advice on LinkedIn Answers or LinkedIn Groups shows the value that LinkedIn has for everyone.

Are you still afraid to completely embrace social media?

OK.  I’ve talked a lot about Windmill Networking without actually defining it, but hopefully you are starting to get a feel for it.  I will be releasing a crisp definition of it when I release my book, tentatively scheduled for next month (August, 2009).  In the meantime, just remember that:

• There is tremendous value in virtual networking through social media

and

• You are neither too young or too old to be leveraging social networking sites like LinkedIn or Twitter

If you are on Twitter, please make sure you follow Bradley and Joe.  Thanks!  And stay tuned!!!

After networking with several great people over the last several days, which have in essence been conversations that seem more like a veritable cross-breeding of ideas, I believe that more and more people are starting to see the potential value of meeting new people on LinkedIn. Now, just because you are open to doing this does not mean that you necessarily need to become a LinkedIn Open Networker, or LION.

There are many methods to the madness of connecting with new people.  One of these great people that I met recently, Tim Tyrell-Smith, wrote a great blog post about his way of virtually meeting and then connecting with new people on his “The Art of Connecting on LinkedIn” post.  By the way, his blog, Spin Strategy, is a must for anyone who is in transition and looking for wisdom.  You can find out more about his blog in my Resources section.

My method for connecting with new people is using the vehicle of the LION brand, in contrast to Tim’s approach.  You can find out more about my thought process concerning this in my recent blog post of why I am a LinkedIn Lion.

OK.  As I mention to almost everyone I meet, if you are on LinkedIn and not meeting new people, stay off it and delete your account.  If you just want to find old friends, find them, put their contact details in your personal address book, and you’re done!  No need to login anymore.

LinkedIn is a Social Networking site…it is there for you to be Social and Network!

If you feel a little bit intimidated by connecting with new people on LinkedIn, here are my three favorite ways to help you find that perfect person to connect with, regardless of your objective.

1. Join a Group and Participate. Come on, there are more than 300,000 LinkedIn Groups out there.  You put a keyword in the Search box for Groups and voila! you shall find a Group that interests you.  Join it.  You can join up to 50.  And after joining, check out the Discussions boards.  Yes, there is a lot of spam out there.  People selling their wares.  Job posts.  Skip over those and look for interesting discussions.  Participate.  And when you run across someone you respect or a “virtual” soulmate, ask them if they would be cool if you sent them an invite.  Can’t find an interesting discussion?  Start one!  Participate.  And if what you are discussing is on target for the Group mission but no one responds, try a different Group.  You are bound to find one that “fits” you.
2. Ask a Question.  Answer a Question. LinkedIn Answers is awesome.  Have you ever browsed around the different categories of questions they have there?  You can do this by selecting Answers from the top of your Home Page and checking them out.  I am sure there is a category that corresponds with your interests and/or objectives.  Something that you’re curious about that you couldn’t find in the Answers database?  Ask it!  You will be pleasantly surprised by the quality and quantity of people that will answer it, and there will be more virtual “soulmates” that you will find to connect with.  Better yet, Pay It Forward and Answer a Question.
3. Search for and Attend a Networking Event.  Have you checked out the LinkedIn Events database recently?  Do a search for actual networking events or “meetups” nearby you.  I live in L.A.  I did a search and found this great networking event, put on by the Rockstar Lewis Howes.  There are almost 200 people attending this event.  Plus, you can actually see the people (including myself) who have RSVPed for this event.  I am sure that there is bound to be someone out of 200 people that you would like to connect to.  Attend the event and physically meet them. If you mutually agree, connect with each other on LinkedIn.

There are many other ways to connect with people on LinkedIn, but hopefully this will get you out there connecting with and ideally meeting new people.

LinkedIn is the means, not the end.

Your objective with LinkedIn, like with any other Social Networking site, should be in connecting with and meeting new people.

LinkedIn Introductions are an integral part of the social networking platform.  After all, LinkedIn has given us the ability to search for someone and see how we are connected to them, and it is with this information that we can request an Introduction from our connection just as we request a referral from a friend in real life.  Unfortunately, very few people actually ask for an Introduction on LinkedIn in the same manner that they ask for a introduction in a real-life.  And this bothers me.  Thus, I blog.

Because I am a LinkedIn LION, I receive more than my fair share of Introduction requests.  And I don’t mind, because Introductions are an integral part of helping connect people.  But, in real life, if you were going to ask someone for an Introduction to that special person, wouldn’t you go into some background as to how that person can help you and vice-versa?  And wouldn’t you ask for it in a nice manner with a “thank you!” to that friend who is going out of his or her way to make the introduction?  Of course you would.  I call this “The Personal Touch”, and you will hear a lot more about this term in my LinkedIn book “Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging & Maximizing LinkedIn.”

So why is it that so many people, when requesting an Introduction on LinkedIn, lack this “Personal Touch?”  Is it because LinkedIn has made it too easy to do with their platform?  Why in social media would people act any differently than in real life?

For instance, what would you do if you receive an Introduction request from contact A to your contact B that just says, “Can you please introduce me to (B)?  Thanks!”  How do you go about describing contact A who is asking for the recommendation?  And how do you explain to contact B why contact A wants to be introduced to them?  And what does this say about you when forwarding this meaningless message to contact B?

I hope the above example illustrates the problem here.  And, with this in mind, I would like to suggest how you should actually be asking for an Introduction if you want to  1) provide some value to your contact making the introduction, 2) make it easier for your connection to make the Introduction, and 3) increase your potential success rate in actually receiving the introduction:

• When requesting an Introduction, always include a short paragraph of how you would like to be introduced.  In other words, write out your branding message so that the person you forward the Introduction request to has some way of describing you.  In fact, in this way, you can ensure that your brand is not diluted and is portrayed exactly the way you want it to be.  Without this paragraph, how will the person forwarding the Introduction be describing you?  You don’t know, do you?  This is especially important if you are requesting an Introduction from a 3rd degree connection, where the message gets even more diluted.
• Why are you requesting the Introduction?  Did you even bother to mention this in your Introduction request?  Please do so!  And the more details of why you would like to be introduced AND the potential value for the other person in being introduced to you that you provide will ensure a high success rate.  It also allows the person making the introduction on your behalf to look like they are adding value in helping build-up a mutually valuable relationship.  Remember, the person making the Introduction is also putting their reputation on the line.  Make sure it is a win-win-win request!
• Everyone is busy, so request in a nice way.  In real person you would, right?  Well, social media should be no different.  A lot of us networkers try to be Pay It Forward, so we are more than happy to be helpful to those requesting the Introduction.  But if you are requesting one, shouldn’t you be thankful and asking that person making the introduction that if there is anything you can do to help them out networking-wise to let them know?  Wouldn’t this be a common sense thing to say at the end of your Introduction request?  Then why isn’t anyone adding this sort of language to their Introduction request?

Social media has the potential to connect us, but it also has the potential to make us more impersonal through its platform.  Don’t fall into the trap.  Always add “The Personal Touch” in your communications on LinkedIn or any other social media platform.  Never forget that we are not merely a “connection” but a real person.  You will find that you will make a lot more meaningful relationships, and your network will work for you in a more successful way.  Otherwise, do you really think that that blank Introduction request will be a successful one?

After I recently wrote about why I am a LinkedIn LION, I have gotten positive response from a lot of the readers of this blog that they are starting to “see the light” despite the negative wrap that LIONs have traditionally received.  At the same time, for those that want to slowly venture out and start to become a LinkedIn Open Networker, there is still a worry about keeping their private circle private.  Which leads to today’s question: is it right for a truly Open Networker to close up visibility of their connections to others?

Why many people keep their contacts private on LinkedIn was the subject of one of my very first posts in this blog last year.  And I commented on this as well in a more recent blog post concerning how you contact your new connection’s direct contacts.  I would like to add one more reason to my previous blog posts as to why you may want to hide your connections: prevent your contacts from being targeted by potential spammers, those with fake profiles that are increasingly becoming harder to detect.

What is important here is to note the distinction between an “Open Networker” and “Opening Up Your Connections”.  A LinkedIn Open Networker means 1) you are open to receiving invites from new people and 2) you will not respond with an IDK.  Whether you open up your connections or not is your prerogative and is unrelated to being an open networker.  It’s like saying, “Neal, since you are an open networker, will you recommend me even though you don’t know me?”  Of course I won’t!  So if you are in sales, recruiting, or want to try your best to protect the privacy of your trusted direct contacts, I see no problem in keeping your connections browsing closed.

I should note that LinkedIn is about social networking, so even if you close up your connections, they can obviously still be found if someone does an Advanced Search and that person that you are connected to appears in the search results.  In this scenario, you will show up as being the person that can make the introduction, and thus the end result will be the same in terms of your being able to make an introduction despite your connections being closed.  In other words:

Search for someone and if I am connected I will introduce you.

Don’t use my connections database as your virtual address book.

Seriously, if you connect with me and want to browse my connections, why not just give me a call or send me an email stating what types of people you are looking for that I am connected with?  I’d be more than happy to help if it is a valid request.  But more than likely, unless we went to school together or worked in the same company, I’ll tell you to do an Advanced Search and let me know who I am connected to that meets your search criteria.  It’s just much more time-efficient than going through several hundred screens of my contacts looking for a needle in a haystack.

I would like to point out that if you are NOT a LION and personally know all of your connections, then it may makesense to open up your connections because you don’t have to be afraid of spam.  But what happens if you are in sales and your good friend, who is also in sales, works at your competitor…will you still be opening up your contacts?  And that’s my point: it is the same issue and is your prerogative regardless of if you label yourself a LION or not.

To confirm your current Connections Browse status, please visit “Account & Settings” and go to “Connections Browse” which is on the right-hand side in the “Privacy Settings” section.

I always hear of people bashing LinkedIn open networkers or LIONs.  Some people characterize LIONs as people who “amass connections as if they’re Beanie Babies”.  Others think that the intention of open networkers is just to spam you.  For all of those who doubt the intention of open networkers, I want you to see things from my perspective as a LION, and for a moment consider this question:

Why are you on LinkedIn?

And, more importantly,

If  you are only connecting with people that you know, what is the value in LinkedIn?

You see, social media and social networking sites are a godsend for the Gen X generation which I represent.  Why?  Because by the time email and Internet browsing became prevalent, we were already out of college and had potentially lost touch with a huge number of people from our childhood who never had email addresses or cell phones.  Social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn have given us a chance to revive those relationships, some dormant for 20 years!  And we are happy about this and joining LinkedIn and Facebook like there is no tomorrow.

But if that is the only potential you see in LinkedIn, the fact that you can find lost colleagues and classmates, you are missing the big picture.  If you are a professional, the need to “network” with other professionals is more important than ever before.  Regardless of the type of position that you are in, there is always value in being able to meet with people from the same industry, same profession, or even create relationships with others (including recruiters) who may be able to help you out in time of need.  If you need to understand the value in digging your well before you’re thirsty, please read the book.

And that is what open networking is all about, because LIONs like myself see extreme value in this.

Open networking is about exploiting this unique virtual networking capability that social networking sites like LinkedIn has provided us.

Maybe because I am Gen Xer and felt like I missed out on something for the last 20 years, this is an opportunity that I want to cherish and utilize to the fullest.  That is why I openly accept communication from people who may see value in me, because I cannot predict what value they may be able to provide to me in the future.  I don’t send out random invitations myself and only target people that are aligned with my LinkedIn objective.  Yet, by proclaiming that I am an open networker and trying to help people I do not know, think of me as a “Virtual Networking Social Butterfly” (I hate egotistical phrases like this, but I just couldn’t think up a better phrase…).  Meeting new people.  Connecting people.  Helping people if I can add value to them.  Reaching out to my network when I am in need.  Networking in a world of virtual relationships, but always trying to bring those relationships into my physical world.

So.  I ask again.

If you are not reaching out and meeting new people on a social networking site like LinkedIn, why are you wasting your time?

We wake up and visit LinkedIn after booting up our computers.  And before we turn them off at night we are again checking in with LinkedIn.  For the many of us who consider ourselves “Power Users” of LinkedIn, the social networking site for professionals is an integral part of our professional lives.  And because of that, there are particular things about LinkedIn that may annoy us in a peculiar way more than others.

I thought that I would write about this as it came up for discussion the other day at a networking group meeting.  These particular attendees pointed out their favorite LinkedIn pet peeves as:

• People who don’t reveal their connections
• People who receive lots of recommendations but don’t give any

I have different experiences and pet peeves, but let me first comment on the above.  First of all, I covered this topic in a past post called “Why Do So Many People Keep Their Contacts Private?”,  but there are many valid reasons why someone would not want to reveal their LinkedIn connections.  At the networking meeting, the impression was that some people did not want to reveal their connections because somehow they thought that they were special or something, but I have a totally different perspective on this and am not bothered by it.  Do you really want to look at my 15,000 connections for someone you know, searching through 500 screens of 30 people per screen to find one person?  Use the Advanced Search functionality…that’s what it’s there for!

As for the imbalance of recommendations written and received, well, I also have an imbalance, but maybe it’s due to my being in transition recently.  I have never really looked at this before, but if I saw someone who had received 20 recommendations and only written 5, I would wonder what this person is about and if they are a good networker.  Still, this doesn’t bother me as I never really thought about it until that recent networking meeting.

As you can imagine, I have many pet peeves concerning LinkedIn, and they seem to rotate and change with each day.  The fact that I have so many connections means that I probably receive a lot more irrelevant mail than most LinkedIn members, but here is my list with my commentary added for your viewing pleasure:

• People who don’t display their photo (or, better yet, show a company logo) – Come on!  Get real!  LinkedIn is a SOCIAL NETWORKING site, so get social!  Or are you a FAKE PROFILE?
• No profile – Who are you?  And why are you on LinkedIn?  If you registered and created a profile, doesn’t it make sense to fill it up?  Or are you a FAKE PROFILE?
• Ask for recommendation even if I don’t know them – If I don’t know you, how the heck can I recommend you?  Are you for real?  Your recommendations certainly aren’t!
• Invitation to irrelevant LinkedIn Groups- Look at my profile, location, and industry.  Don’t invite me to something that I probably wouldn’t be interested in.  Simple enough.  Waste of time.
• Stupid or totally irrelevant questions in the Answers board – Don’t you have any friends that you can ask your silly questions to instead of parading them to 40 million strangers?
• Slow LinkedIn performance – Have you noticed improvements in LinkedIn performance over the last few weeks?  Or is my browser performance improving?  Or both?  Not so many complaints here anymore.
• People I don’t know who invite me before they have (50 or so) connections - I may be a LION, but I also have real friends. What is the purpose of a SOCIAL NETWORK if you aren’t inviting the people you DO know to connect with you?

I must say that the above are all pet peeves of mine.  But the following is my ultimate LinkedIn pet peeve of recent:

• Adding my email address to your marketing databases after connecting

Look, just because we are connected, it doesn’t mean that you have some right to put me on a mailing list to send me something that I may not be even potentially interested in.  A LinkedIn connection is just that; I am a networker, not a potential customer.  Before you put someone on a mailing list, think twice: social media is a great thing in that you can blast your message to a lot of people, but you can also piss off a lot of people, and their complaints can spread like wildfire, as viral as the best of those marketing message campaigns out there.  Now if you are sending me something that I may be interested in by looking at my profile and further understanding me, I may be more inclined to buy from you.  If not, take me off your mailing list before I start blogging about company names and people who do this to avoid.  Thank you.

Always interested in hearing about your LinkedIn pet peeves, so please feel free to comment!