If you’ve followed my Windmill Networking blog for awhile or read my LinkedIn book, you’ll know that I’m a huge fan of the LinkedIn Events Application.  Seriously.  I wrote an April Fools’s post back in 2009 complaining why Events wasn’t considered an application with a blog post rhetorically entitled, “What are LinkedIn Applications?”  I was the first one to ask “What Happened to LinkedIn Events?” when they mysteriously disappeared for a day in October of 2009.  So you can say that I have a personal relationship with Events, and when all of the “social media gurus” talk about Facebook Events, Eventbrite, and Plancast, which are all also great platforms for events, I still think they misunderstand or under appreciate the potential for using the LinkedIn Events application.

I’ve been traveling a lot the last few weeks, speaking on social media as well as attending award ceremonies for my social media book.  As I am an avid Windmill Networker, meaning that I see the value of social networking to be of networking outside of my present network, I am always open to connecting with others on LinkedIn.  There is value in plugging our windmills into the grid that is social media and virtually connecting.  But the deep value and trust that comes out of relationships are when they are developed offline in the real world.  That is why, whenever I travel outside of my native Orange County, California, I try to create a LinkedIn Event and use it as an avenue to not only bring together people that I am connected to on LinkedIn but have never met, but also an opportunity to meet new people that may have similar interests.

Through the advice that I present below, I have been able to meet with between 10 and 30 people apiece at networking events that I created in Portland, Oregon, Jacksonville, Florida, and New York City in the past few weeks…and I had never previously met any of these people!  Once you meet new people at a networking events, there are countless opportunities to learn from others, share information, help others, and maybe find a new business partner or even get a new lead either directly or indirectly from your new contact.  Rather than spending time in your hotel room by yourself, it is a way to enrich your professional life and make new friends.  You never know when your connecting with that person will help you or them out in the future.

So the next time you are on a business trip, follow this procedure to create a way for people to meet you through the LinkedIn Events Application and Windmill Network!

1. You first need to create a LinkedIn Event. This is not difficult to do, and step-by-step instructions of how to do so are in my LinkedIn book.  The important things that you need to prepare are a title (“networking event” makes sense), a description which should want to bring people out to meet and network, and you need to find a location.  I do this by going to Google Maps, figuring out both where I plan to be on business as well as where my hotel is, and then find an ideal area which makes logistical sense for the time that I plan to hold the event (late afternoons/early evenings seem to be the best time).  I then go to Yelp and find a location that has a bar/large party atmosphere located in the ideal area.  You can find these by using “large party restaurant” or “large group restaurant” in the search terms so that you can be assured that there won’t be an issue if a lot of people come!  Check out the reviews and take your pick of location.
2. After creating the LinkedIn Event, inform your network. As a LinkedIn Open Networker or LION, I have acquired a lot of LinkedIn connections over time.  When I did a search through my contacts of connections living in Portland, Oregon, I found that I already had more than 130 connections living there that I had never met!  Obviously the larger your network, the more connections you are bound to have in any given city.  Using the InBox feature, send out a blast with a link to the LinkedIn Event to your connections.  You can add 50 connections to the same message for efficiency’s sake.  If your network is smaller…
3. Invite those who are members of similar LinkedIn Groups. You joined a Group for a reason: you want to obtain or share information with others that have a similar interest.  Why not do an Advanced People Search using a keyword (I used “social media”) and look for people in Groups that you belong to that you may want to meet up with?  If you are a member of the same Group, chances are you will be able to send them a LinkedIn Message regardless of your connectivity status.  Go for it, contact them, but be clear as to why you want to meet with them in the first place.  And, remember, it is a pain, but every Message to a common Group member that you are not connected to must be done separately, one-by-one…
4. Send out a reminder to those that RSVP to your LinkedIn Event. This is something that I originally did not do, and I regret not doing it because I think that attendance to my networking events could have been greater had I sent out a friendly reminder to all of those that RSVPed “Attending” and “Interested” on the Event page a few days before the event.
5. Prepare for the LinkedIn Event by checking out the Profiles of those that RSVPed. Better yet, print out their profiles for airplane reading!
6. Enjoy your time with new friends!  You’re Windmill Networking!

You never know how one of these events turn out until you try it yourself.  My event in Portland was particularly interesting, as I met one of the Twitter Rockstars of Portland, @Thubten, someone who is famous in not only the social media circles of Portland but also Denver!  That led to another discussion where I learned a great deal about the LinkedIn Rockstar, Mike O’Neil!  See this video for the details…and should you create your own Event based on this advice, please tell us how it went by commenting below!

In the world of blogging, mommy bloggers are the talk of the town.  You hear stories about how corporations want them to blog about their products.  PR professionals want to know how to engage with them.  And if you haven’t thought about it before, there are some compelling statistics on mommy bloggers which reveal why they are so important:

• Women influence 85% of all consumer purchases in the US
• Mothers who blog have undoubtedly emerged as a trusted source of information for women
• Of the 42 million women taking part in social media, 1/2 of them have children and more than 1/4 of them are active in the blogosphere

Recently, my local freebie community magazine, OC Family, which rarely has much to say about social media, did a cover story on the mommy bloggers of Orange County.  After I saw this I thought, “If these women were so numerous, who exactly were they and why did I never have the chance to meet one?”  I must be hanging out with the wrong crowd!

At a recent local ConnectOC social media event, I had the chance to finally physically meet one of these bloggers who I had been tweeting with for a while: Marcie Taylor aka @SuburbanMama.  I wanted to know more about who mommy bloggers were, why they blogged, and what they really wanted out of companies who were engaging with them.  Are they in it for the money or products?  And from a social media marketing perspective, how should companies best engage with mommy bloggers?

Below is the 6-minute interview I had with Marcie, where she answered all of my questions leaving no doubt about who these women were and what they were about.  Enjoy!

Do you feel that Marcie represents the average demographic of mothers who blog?  Anything new that you learned from the video?  Please share!

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• Do Big Brands Exploit Mommy Bloggers Who Work for “Prizes and Rewards”? (socialmediatoday.com)
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It all started with a secret social media event that was actually held for the publication of my LinkedIn book: the “Hush-Hush Surprise — Networking Mixer, Charity Event & Book Release Party.” 157 people came out for a networking event to celebrate, well, networking! I stood amidst a crowd of people, many of whom I knew, but all of them I met purely through engaging in social media itself. It was at this event that Christine Weijland, Sales & E-Commerce Manager of Hilton Orange County Costa Mesa met Debbie Miller, Information Systems Coordinator for the Costa Mesa Conference & Visitor Bureau.

After the event, Christine approached Debbie to see if they could hold a similar networking event in the future in the lobby of the beautiful Hilton in Costa Mesa.  Debbie contacted the organizer of the social media event held for myself, Paul Tran.  And through the volunteer help of Paul, Debbie, Christine, Marieke Hensel, Courtney Thurman, Tanya Salcido,  Diana Wei, Justin Moore-Brown, Ted Nguyen and the OCTA, and yours truly, a new non-profit movement to bring businesses, non-profit organizations, government, and professional community together in Orange County, California through free networking events was born: “ConnectOC.”

The story doesn’t end here.

The Hilton Hotel makes no money from this event.  Just as I wrote in my blog post entitled How Businesses Can “Share” and be “Social” in Social Media, the Hilton decided to share what it could to be social: the entire lounge of the hotel and a free drink and appetizer to the first 200 people.  In fact, the Hilton hotel is even going as far as waving the parking fees for the event and donating proceeds from parking ($5 a car) to the local Share Our Selves non-profit organization.

As the volunteer group reached out to the community in hopes of getting other local businesses to contribute a product or a service to the goody bags to be distributed or the silent action, proceeds to benefit Share Our Selves, 40+ businesses have now committed contributing something to the event.

This blog post was really written to spread the word about the event and thank each and every sponsor of the event, none of whom are making any money off of the 200+ guests that will be coming but offering to share their products and services without asking anything from the participants.  But you can imagine the tweets that will be coming out of the event that night, talking about the many sponsors and the Hilton hotel itself.  And the products that the guests will be taking home will only help the conversations continue into the future.

Social media events provide a unique way for businesses to engage with local customers.  Rather than putting an ad in the newspaper or sending out a direct mailer, why not utilize social media to actually physically host a networking event and bring people together?  All it takes is some creativity and reaching out to those that are active in social media to make it happen.

ConnectOC will continue to grow and are already looking for sponsors for our next event.  If you are interested please contact me!

Have you been to a local tweetup or networking event sponsored by local businesses?  Has your business sponsored a networking event?  Please do share your experiences!

And, last but not least, here is a list of the sponsors for the event at the time of this blog post: (for an up-to-date list with links to each company’s home page, please visit the Notes Tab of the ConnectOC Facebook Fan Page)

(goody bags)

Costa Mesa Conference & Visitor Bureau

Coworking Fullerton

Genki Living

GrammaBettys

Innovative Results

The LAB/The CAMP

Salon Cashmere

South Coast Plaza

Ultimate Gifts

Yard House Costa Mesa

(silent auction)

Antonello Ristorante

Case Crown

Charlie Palmer at Bloomingdale’s South Coast Plaza

Claim Jumper at South Coast Plaza

Costa Mesa Marriott

DoubleTree Doheny Beach

HIDEit Mounts

Hwy Auto

Hilton Anaheim

Hilton Costa Mesa

Holiday Inn Express Costa Mesa

Innovative Results

Maggiano’s Little Italy

Old Vine Café

Royal Khyber Fine Indian Cuisine

Salon Cashmere

South Coast Plaza

Tercero Wines

Tranquil Tea Lounge

Westin South Coast Plaza

Windmill Networking

Wyndham Orange County

Yard House Costa Mesa

(donations of items or supplies for the event itself)

Design Action Studios

Fountain Valley Dippin’ Dots

Genki Living

GrammaBettys

Hilton Costa Mesa

OCFOODPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

OCTA

Portola Coffee

Smart Levels Media

XT Patisserie

I will start out this post by letting you know that I am not in any way nor have ever been a recruiter or a headhunter.  While I have been a hiring manager for previous companies, my experience in being able to write this post comes from helping out many recruiters looking for candidates on or off LinkedIn.

Because I am a Windmill Networker, I see great value in establishing relationships with recruiters and helping them out when I can.  In fact, my LinkedIn Profile Contact Settings explicitly state:

I also enjoy speaking with recruiters and providing introductions whenever possible as I have a personal database of skilled contacts in the high tech and IT space, both in the US as well as Asia. Please do not hesitate to invite me to connect with you.

With that in mind, today’s post goes out to the wonderful recruiters that I have been able to create a fruitful relationship with, most importantly the great @Animal, @DavidGraziano, and @CincyRecruiter.

The impetus for me to write this post is two-fold.  I had one recruiter recently review my LinkedIn book hoping that it would have more targeted information for recruiters.  My LinkedIn book is really for professionals of all industries and job titles, so the information is obviously applicable to recruiters as well.  But, it is true that I did not have a special “LinkedIn for Recruiters” chapter.

The other reason I am writing this is, just like I get a lot of people asking me for help in finding them jobs, I get requests from recruiters with a specific opening asking me for help in facilitating introductions.  I am going to assume that if you have been using LinkedIn for recruiting for awhile all of my advice below might all be no-brainers; but, just in case, this is how I would use the social networking site to find a candidate:

1) Searching for Candidates Always Starts with the LinkedIn Advanced People Search

This should be a no-brainer.  Put in the territory, industry, company names, keywords.  If you don’t get a lot of candidates, widen the net.  LinkedIn is so incredible because it gives you the ability to do all of this for free!  Today I received a request for help finding a candidate in Malaysia: the process is no different than for looking for someone in Orange County!

Switching keywords or even enlarging areas to get a good number of potential candidates will require experimentation.  This recruiter was looking for a pre-sales engineer.  I tried both “pre-sales” and “FAE” in the keywords but got very little.  Changed that to “engineer” and got a lot more results.  Obviously, not everyone you are going to find are going to be suitable and/or willing to leave their perfect job, but it gives you the opportunity to contact more people with the potential for finding recommended friends of friends.

2) Contact Your Potential Candidates!

This is another no-brainer.  You may not be connected with them directly, so ask for a “warm introduction” from one of your trusted connections.  This is the same advice that I gave in my post on how I can help you find a job on LinkedIn.  You’re not going to get your candidate without trying to contact them!  Obviously, if I am connected, let me know and I shall help make the introduction.  Some people do leave their email addresses and/or phone numbers somewhere in their profile, so don’t forget to look for those or read their Contact Settings at the end of their LinkedIn Profile.  They may very well be open to being directly contacted by you.

3) Connect with Other Recruiters in the Target Candidate’s Industry or Region

Recruiters are often OK in splitting commissions, right?  If you’re out of luck, try connecting with other recruiters in the targeted region and/or industry and create a relationship.  Since many recruiters also Windmill Network and understand the value of being a LinkedIn LION, you don’t even have to tell them about the open position yet.  Because LinkedIn is a huge database, simply connecting with them gives you the ability to cast a wider net.  Obviously, if you can’t contact the candidate directly and need to get an introduction from the recruiter, you’ll need to start your commission-split negotiations.

4) Try Increasing Indirect Connections to Your Targets

Sometimes it’s not about the person that you connect with but with their connections.  Why not try connecting with people in the target candidate’s industry and/or geographic region?  These new connections will help you widen your net and may be able to provide you introductions to candidates that may not even be on LinkedIn.

5) Don’t Forget about Connecting with Local LIONs!

Connecting with LinkedIn LIONs in your target industry and/or geographic region is another no-brainer.  Search for “LION” in the keyword or look for LION-related Groups that they are members of.  Beware, though: not every LION will accept your invitation!

6) LinkedIn Groups: Join, Search, Discuss, Post!

There are tons of Groups out there for you to join.  The objective is not to spam these Groups but to actually engage with potential candidates there.  Think of it as a virtual networking event, a chance for you to make connections with people in your industry or geographic area that may be able to help you with introductions in the future.  And sure, if you have a job opening, it can’t hurt to post it on a relevant LinkedIn Groups Jobs board, can it?

A lot of the above tips involved actively growing your network to be able to search for more potential and relevant candidates.  For more advice on how to do this, please read my blog post which started off this blog: 15 Ways to Grow Your LinkedIn Network.  And if all of this sounds like I am making LinkedIn out to be a huge database of professionals, you are absolutely right: Work the database, and you shall find what you seek.

Recruiter friends, did I miss anything here?  Let me know so this can become a great resource for all recruiters and headhunters!  Thanks!

Are you happy with how the city you live in is displayed on your LinkedIn profile?  I’m not.  Let me explain further.

When you enter your zip code into your LinkedIn profile, LinkedIn will display your city based on its own algorithm and database of metropolitan areas.  Let’s take a look at how these locations are defined.  If you go to your “Connections” screen on LinkedIn and choose the “Advanced Options” to “Filter by Location”, it is interesting what geographies of your connections show up on LinkedIn and which do not.  These are the same locations that will appear when viewing someone’s LinkedIn profile.  Smaller cities sometimes appear as their own location, while bigger metropolitan areas are usually bundled together.

For instance, in my native California, big cities like Bakersfield (315,000+ population), Fresno (470,000+), Modesto (200,000+), Sacramento (460,000+), and Stockton (285,000+) have their own locations.  But so do very small cities like Redding, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara – each of these cities have a population of less than 100,000 but will be displayed if you live near then in your LinkedIn profile.  Why does this upset me?

Well, even though these smaller cities have their own locale on LinkedIn, the three biggest metropolitan areas are all lumped together into one: Greater Los Angeles area, Greater San Diego area, and San Francisco Bay area (hey, why isn’t it called Greater San Francisco area?).  And, although I cannot speak for the demographics of San Diego and San Francisco, I live in Orange County.  Orange County is considered part of the Greater Los Angeles area.  Yet, after Los Angeles County and San Diego County, Orange County is the third most populous county in California with a population of more than three million.  And how can you tell me that if you lived in Redding you will get your city name listed on your LinkedIn profile but everyone in Orange County is lumped together as part of L.A.?  Orange County has its own airport, area codes, sports teams…what does Orange County have to do to be considered a separate location on LinkedIn?

To be fair to LinkedIn, I can understand that they probably modeled this on some geographically-based algorithm.  But if recruiters are one of the main customers of LinkedIn, and if all of the job sites that I see list Orange County as a distinct location, shouldn’t it be in LinkedIn’s interest to do so as well?

LinkedIn has become such a social phenomenon that its users (myself included) are now making requests of it as if it is part of the public domain.  This is a natural reaction to a technology becoming so pervasive in our lives that now its users are certainly making many requests on LinkedIn.  As LinkedIn becomes more pervasive, people will start forming opinions on LinkedIn, both good and bad, in how it responds to user complaints.  And how does LinkedIn respond to such a request, to have Orange County become a specific location, to be put on the LinkedIn map?

“Dear xxxxx,

Regards,

xxxxx
LinkedIn Customer Support”

Responding to someone’s request in such a way makes one feel that LinkedIn really doesn’t care.  And I don’t believe that that’s the case.  I do believe that LinkedIn has evolved from a Silicon Valley start-up to a several hundred person enterprise.  And maybe some of these issues are now slipping through the cracks and not being voiced to the people who matter inside the company, as what happens when small companies become bigger enterprises.

So, if you are a LinkedIn user and are unhappy about this, what can you do?  A local friend of mine in Orange County, Sven Johnston, decided to take the initiative and do something both creative as well as empowering to those who live in Orange County and want to see change: he started his own LinkedIn Group!  His Group, We are Orange County, has now grown to more than 1,250 members since being created on May 20 (that’s less than two weeks ago!), and the objective is to create change by petitioning to LinkedIn to create an Orange County locale through the numbers of members that are requesting it.

Already the Discussions board is filled with people networking with LinkedIn employees to try to convince them to change.  The local Orange County newspaper, the O.C. Register, has also picked up on this and an article has already been published.  In some ways, this group and movement have been created by the existence of LinkedIn itself, and utilizing a LinkedIn-created community is a perfect way to organically gather support within LinkedIn for change.

I would go further in stating that this is a great example of how you can utilize social networking for a good cause, to create positive change for people in your community.  If you don’t live in Orange County this may seem like a trivial thing, but to local residents who are very proud of their large community and want to see it given its due recognition, it is a sensitive issue.

Do you live in a geographic region that is not given its own unique existence in LinkedIn?  Have you done something through LinkedIn for a greater cause?  I am interested to hear other people’s opinions and experiences, as well as any advice that you have for us in Orange County.  And I will definitely update you all on this blog if and when a resolution with LinkedIn is reached.

Today I announced what I believe is the first LinkedIn Group Mashup on LinkedIn!  Giving you an idea of what I did will hopefully give you ideas of how you can collaborate with others on LinkedIn for whatever networking purpose you have.

I am a manager of the Windmill Networking in Southern California “So Cal Sushi” LinkedIn Group, a networking community for those of us in Southern California (Los Angeles & Orange County) to get together monthly for lunch over some raw fish.  My brother just started his first LinkedIn group, Tercero Wines, and he appointed me co-manager so that I can help with the marketing and increasing the membership, which has successfully doubled in the last few days so that his group is now the largest in the category in which he was targeting.

So, the mashup you ask?  The beauty about Web 2.0, social networking, and user generated content is that we are creating the future everyday we network.  Everything is evolving, and only our imaginations can hold us back from our potential.  Since I am having my next So Cal Sushi lunch this Friday, and I have a few bottles of Tercero Wine laying around the house, wouldn’t it make sense to get some of those bottles into the hands of those who enjoy wine and may help spread the word?  So I will be giving away three bottles of wine to those who also join the Tercero Wine group.  And to those in the Tercero Wine group, since many are located in California, they also received an introduction to So Cal Sushi and the same offer.

Networking is about collaboration…sure, it helped that this was my brother, but recently I was approached by Steve Perkins and he wanted me to help out with his Cross Connects Asia LinkedIn Group, and I agreed to become co-manager.  I have never met Steve, but we have communicated several times by email and we have trust in each other as part of our “virtual network”.  The mashup here?  I hope to have our first Cross Connects Asia meeting in person the next time I have an event for my other LinkedIn Group, Windmill Networking in Japan “The Izakaya Club”, which is based out of Japan.  There truly is synnergy in such a mashup, and not only will it increase membership all around but also provide value to those members of each community.

If you are thinking of trying something new with your LinkedIn Group management strategy or have been thinking of starting your own group, think of collaborating with someone and doing your own mashup.  I am in the process of helping a local business start up their group, so I will be looking for mashup opportunities.  If you would like some help with your community or would like to mashup with one of mine, please send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know the details!