Don't Be a Lazy Stranger

Why do people send generic requests to make social/professional connections with people they don’t know?  The charitable way to look at this is to assume that they actually have a good reason they would like to develop a relationship.  My more cynical side knows that there are people who have less legitimate motives, such as (A) Oddballs that “collect” connections, trying to reach some silly, arbitrary number, or (B) Leeches that want to grab onto your coattails to gain benefit secondhand from your connections.

You CAN reach out to people you don’t actually know, if you have a legitimate reason to do so.  Here’s how:

1.       ALWAYS ADD A COURTEOUS NOTE explaining why you want to connect.  I can’t count the number of LinkedIn connection requests I have received from strangers who do not provide that courtesy.  I purposely ignore them.
2.       MAKE IT PERSONAL.  Your request to connect should always be personalized.  For example, you could point out that you are fellow alumni, explain that you follow their blog and have learned a lot from it, say that you are looking for a contact within their organization because you are applying for a position, or that you appreciate them for providing a thoughtful answer to a question you posted to LinkedIn.  Pointing out commonalities and/or employing a little sincere flattery can go a long way.
3.       GIVE A LITTLE of yourself.  Remember that your target will be thinking, “Why should I connect with this person?”  What do you have to offer that may enhance their network?
4.       PROVIDE A REFERENCE.  Do you have a friend/colleague in common?  If so, refer to the nature of your relationship with that person.
5.       ASK FOR AN INTRODUCTION through a common connection.  It is not always appropriate or effective for you to approach a stranger directly, especially when the person is a high-profile professional.

I enjoy meeting and corresponding with professionals with like interests, but I will continue to ignore requests to connect that come from lazy strangers.

A LinkedIn Primer for New Graduates

You have graduated (or are about to graduate) from college, and are hunting for a job. You already know that you need to create a professional profile in LinkedIn. Unfortunately, you don’t have much of a meaningful professional life to describe, yet. Nevertheless, you need to proceed with the task. Think of your LinkedIn profile as a work in progress – continuously. It’s crucial to keep your information fresh and up to date. But you need to start somewhere. Here are some tips:

1. YOUR NAME: Everyone searching for you or connecting with you will use this information. If you have always been known by a shortened version of your first name (e.g. Tim vs. Timothy), you should continue use that name. On a Search, LinkedIn knows enough to return Timothy for Tim, William for Bill, Richard for Rick. (Note that it doesn’t seem quite as smart in regard to shortened versions of women’s names, e.g. it did not list Kaitlyn for Kate.) If you have a very common name, you will need to provide other information in your profile to facilitate an Advanced Search, such as your Alma Mater and your Location.

2. YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS: Not only will you use your email address to logon to LinkedIn, but your email address will be visible to all of your LinkedIn connections. It will also be used to notify you of important LinkedIn updates (including requests to connect and incoming messages). Many students have been using a university-provided email account. If you are about to graduate, you may need to create a new email address for yourself. Using gmail is a good, free option. Make your email address moniker a version of your name, so that people can easily recognize it as yours.

3. PHOTO OR NO PHOTO: Having a photo on your LinkedIn account is optional, but I believe that it is beneficial. However, a bad photo is worse than no photo. Change out of your T-shirt, put on a shirt with a collar and/or a jacket, and have a friend take a decent head shot of you for your profile.

4. YOUR AVAILABILITY: Your profile should include your graduation date and a statement regarding your availability – both in terms of timing and location. For example: “Available for employment immediately after June 2012 graduation. Currently living in Chicago, IL, but open to relocation anywhere in the continental U.S.”

5. CRAFTING THE SUMMARY: Tell us what you have studied, what your degree is in, and how you hope to apply your education (what kind of job you hope to find). This isn’t a resume. You can be a little creative here and give us a glimpse of your personality.

6. YOU DO HAVE EXPERIENCE!: A big part of your LinkedIn profile is the enumeration of your experience. You may require some help thinking about this from the perspective of a potential employer. It’s certainly easier to detail the experience you gained from an internship related to your field of study than it is to find the relevance in other types of summer jobs, but you can always focus on the responsibilities with which you were entrusted and the skills you gained. If you closed up a pizza joint after the manager went home, you were entrusted with the security of the premises and the cash register – AKA “Management Experience”. If you were a camp counselor, you were entrusted with the development and safety of children – AKA “Mentoring”.

7. RECOMMENDATIONS: You need several professional recommendations on your profile. Tap your connections while they are current! If you have had an internship, as for a recommendation from your Supervisor(s). Consider approaching other past employers and professors as well. For more tips, read my April 2010 blog on Collecting Recommendations.

8. HELP US RELATE: LinkedIn Profiles can be very dry and technical. Your profile will most likely be viewed by related professionals who understand your field, and by Human Resources professionals and other acquaintances who do not. The wording and terminology you use needs to generate universal interest. If you are in a technical field, use of specific terms may be necessary – but you also need to offer a translation for people who don’t know the lingo, so they can relate to your skills and experience in some way.

9. WELL-ROUNDED: Something prospective employers consider is whether you will “fit in” to their team and work environment. Give them a glimpse into who you are by adding a little information about your interests and extracurricular activities. LinkedIn also allows you to add a “Reading List by Amazon”. Use this if you are reading books that highlight your interest in continued learning and professional growth.

10. START CONNECTING: Send out invitations to connect to past employers, fellow students, friends, relatives, etc. The real value in LinkedIn is your network. You’ll be surprised how quickly it expands once you get started.

Once you have a draft of your LinkedIn profile – ask trusted, experienced professionals that you know to review it and give you feedback. Make changes. Look at other people’s profiles and adopt good ideas for your own use. A healthy majority of employers now search social websites to research job candidates. You can make a good impression by having a well-developed LinkedIn profile.

Other recommended reading:
Advice for Newly Hired Graduates
10 Ways to Screw-Up Your LinkedIn Presence
10 More Ways to Screw-Up Your LinkedIn Presence
Are you Purposefully Positioning Your Online Identity?

10 More (Proven) Ways to Screw-Up in LinkedIn

My original “10 Ways to Screw-Up Your LinkedIn Presence” article has had hundreds of readers internationally since its posting on 10 June 2009. If you haven’t read it, you can get to it via this link: http://habaconsulting.blogspot.com/2009/06/10-ways-to-screw-up-your-linkedin.html

Over the past 15 months, I have continued to witness glaring issues with how people disrespect their own online profile in LinkedIn. Since so many people are still being lazy or foolish, or simply stubborn procrastinators, it’s time to add more cautionary advice about what NOT to do when maintaining your LinkedIn presence.

1. SKIP PROOFREADING FOR SPELLING/GRAMMAR, especially for your title or headline. This makes a very bad impression on the legions friendly with the Spelling and Grammar Police. No, LinkedIn doesn’t have a facility to help – do your homework yourself.

2. PASTE YOUR RESUME INTO YOUR PROFILE, because you’ve already spent a lot of effort crafting your resume. It’s lengthy, structured, full of technical language specific to your industry, and… woefully devoid of your personality. The purpose of LinkedIn is to connect and interact with all sorts of people, so be more personally engaging in how you present yourself so that people will be interested in getting to know you.

3. LIE ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYMENT STATUS. Some who are unemployed leave their previous employment information in, perhaps because they don’t know how to represent a status of being unemployed. This is not simply lazy; it’s lying. There are many pointers available for truthful alternatives. Search Answers in LinkedIn for creative solutions.
4. INAPPROPRIATE OR TOO FREQUENT STATUS UPDATES drive some people (like me) to hide all of your status updates, forever, out of irritation. I don’t need my LinkedIn page to be “Starring You” every day.
5. SPAM FELLOW LINKEDIN MEMBERS with relentless promotion of yourself or your business. When you need to ask for something, always counterbalance your request by giving a gift of information or assistance.
6. DUELING LINKEDIN & FACEBOOK PROFILES. Prospective customers or employers are going to Google you to find out more about you. When your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles make it seem as though you are two separate people, searchers will wonder who you really are. Are you the experienced and grounded entrepreneur, or the neurotic and scattered hedonist?
7. HIDE YOUR PERSONALITY behind techno-speak and bullet points. Without going too overboard, make sure your profile information reflects your personality. Your headline should be succinct, but attention-getting. Read your summary aloud and consider whether it sounds like how you would speak, or if it is too stilted. Ask a trusted friend/mentor for objective input.
8. CONNECT WITH ANYONE WHO SENDS YOU AN INVITATION merely to pump up the number of people to whom you are connected. Connect only with people you know and respect, through positive face-to-face or online interaction. What good is it to either of you to be connected to a stranger?
9. LET YOURSELF GO STALE. You have a profile in LinkedIn, but haven’t developed it or kept it current. You never log in, and don’t reach out to make connections. Make a decision. You are either all in or all out. You’re not doing yourself or anyone else any favors with halfhearted participation.
10. DISREGARD LINKEDIN RULES AND GUIDELINES as detailed in their User Agreement (which is legally binding).

Now go review your LinkedIn profile again.

Networking Stories

Most of us know how important it is to network, although we sometimes don’t feel like we have time – especially when we have a demanding job. But introverts can find the process of initiating contact with people – even friends – a little difficult. Here are a few of my own experiences in networking over the past year that I hope will inspire:

• Last year, I connected through LinkedIn with “Carol”, a fellow Alum from Northwestern University. Carol is active online on LinkedIn and via several professional blogs. I found her writings interesting, and sent an invitation to connect and get to know each other. We actively communicate, and I am attending a networking teleseminar of hers (for free) because I gave her feedback on a draft version of her material (a favor).
• I keep in touch with many friends and former colleagues from Hilton, through LinkedIn and Facebook. “Tracy”, who I helped with her resume, called me last week with a lead for a possible consulting job. I am now in contact with the placement company who is trying to fill a strategic planning position for an important client.
• When I first became active on LinkedIn early in 2009, I reached out to a former co-worker who is now an executive at a local strategic meeting and event production agency. “Carolyn” and I always admired each other and enjoyed working together. It turned out that she was working on a project for a major hospitality corporation. My experience was a good fit for her needs, and her company became the first client for my services through Haropulos Bailey Consulting.
• Another NU Alum, “Howard”, is an executive with a local graduate school of management. We connected through LinkedIn, and I was invited to join the Advisory Committee for consultation on development of a new teleseminar on Managing Global Virtual Teams. Through this activity, I have expanded my network by connecting with the other committee members. Howard and I follow each other’s blogs.

Networking isn’t a task, it’s a path to new relationships and experiences. Sometimes those experiences result in exciting new opportunities. Give first - with no expectations in mind - and doors just naturally open now and again. Good luck, and have some fun!

Collecting Recommendations (+LinkedIn-Specific Tips)

Your professional reputation will be affected by other’s opinions of you and your accomplishments. Your work relationships will be important to your short and long term success while you are employed, and when you are searching for work.

Don’t wait until you are in a crunch situation to line up recommendations that will enhance your opportunities. Collect written recommendations as references throughout your career. Here are a few tips:

• The best recommendations and references come from people who have their own professional credibility. Who do you know well, whom you admire? (Google them to make sure they have a positive online presence.)
• Don’t be afraid to ask. Most people are flattered to be asked to provide a reference – as long as you are sure they know your work and respect you for it.
• You can suggest the points on which you would like the recommendation to focus. For example, “It would be great if you could comment on how successfully I managed that big project last year."
• Ask superiors, peers, former employees (whose careers have blossomed), and even clients and service providers with whom you have developed positive relationships.
• Select the best recommendations you receive to actually use. When read serially, they should give a well-rounded and impressive picture of who you are professionally.
• Keep your file of recommendations fresh and current. That nice letter you got 15 years ago will have lost its punch by now.

Special hints for LinkedIn recommendations:
• They should be brief; no more than 2 to 4 sentences.
• Target your requests to people who have good LinkedIn profiles and lots of connections.
• LinkedIn provides a means not only to approve recommendations you receive, but to ask for them to be edited. Ask for an edit if content, grammar, or spelling isn’t correct.
• Return the favor when you can. Write thoughtful recommendations for people you admire. (It’s another way to get visibility on LinkedIn and enhance your network.)
• If you get a recommendation that falls flat with you, or is too much like another you already have, you can choose not to show it on your profile.

Weak Ties - Strong Benefits

Back in 1973 a groundbreaking study about networking was published by Mark Granovetter in the American Journal of Sociology. The title was “The Strength of Weak Ties”. It introduced the now widely accepted theory that weak (or less direct) relationships in our personal network generate results more effectively than direct or strong ties. A broader network results in exposure to more diverse ideas and opportunities. Granovetter wrote another study in 1983, expounding on his original theory. If you are interested, I located his paper online at "The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited". In my corporate days I was “too busy to spend time on networking”. Therefore, my network was very dense, in my case meaning that I knew few people outside my work environment. Most of us knew the same people and a lot of the same things in the narrow sphere of business in which we normally operated. Busy people like me didn’t spend time purposefully developing relationships with acquaintances or friends of friends. We had our noses to the grindstone, safely within our comfortable, dense little network. I didn’t see the issue at the time, but I do now. In today’s economic climate, if you need to find employment or want to improve or upgrade your current job, the people closest to you in your network are the least likely to be in a position to help. Your close friends often travel in the same circles, but a friend of a friend is privy to a whole different network of people and information. A whole new world can be opened up by expanding your list of contacts and communicating effectively with them. How do you expand your network into a “low-density” network? Cultivating a broader network takes effort and focus, and a spirit of giving. To begin with, get to know people that are connected to your job more tangentially than your co-workers, such as contractors, consultants, or vendors. Keep relationships alive that were born during cross-functional projects. Stay in touch with people you meet at conferences or in training classes. Connect meaningfully with people you meet in religious and/or community organizations. Search out others with passions and interests that overlap yours, and develop a connection. Get out and do new things. Be free with help and advice. Exchange phone numbers and email addresses. Make a phone call just to stay in touch. Drop someone a note or contact them online. A healthy network requires constant work. Reach out and expand your network through your weak ties. I guarantee you will realize benefits you never expected.

10 Ways to Screw-Up Your LinkedIn Presence

Social networking is great – I am a devotee of LinkedIn and Facebook. I haven’t Tweeted yet, but will probably have to go there sometime. If you participate on LinkedIn, you have to be consistent in your participation, or your online presence (so important in a today’s professional world) will have negative impact instead of positive impact. Here are 10 ways I most often see people screw up their LinkedIn presence:

1. “CURRENT" EMPLOYMENT INFORMATION IS OUTDATED. You wouldn’t stretch the truth on your resume. Don’t do it on LinkedIn either. It’s inaccurate and shows people that you are lackadaisical about your employment status.
2. EMAIL ADDRESS IS OUTDATED. LinkedIn updates and notifications are emailed to you. You will not receive them if your email address is incorrect.
3. PROFILE LACKS DETAIL about your employment experience. This is what LinkedIn is all about. People will be interested in who you are and what you have done. That’s the whole point of being on LinkedIn.
4. INDISCRIMINANT INVITATIONS to connect to people you don’t really know, just to raise your Connections count. Before sending an invitation to connect, think about WHY a connection to that person will be valuable (to you and to them), and include verbiage about that in your invitation to personalize it.

5. UNFORTUNATE OR UNPROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPH. If you choose to upload a photograph (which is not required), it should be reflective of the professional impression you want to impart. Avoid use of a mug shot or a mobile snapshot taken at a drinking party.
6. ABSENCE OF RECOMMENDATIONS. Professional recommendations/endorsements are an important aspect of rounding out your profile. Don’t be afraid to ask people with whom you have had good working relationships to provide a recommendation.
7. POORLY WRITTEN RECOMMENDATIONS. Following up on the previous point, it will not reflect well on you if someone writes an inarticulate or poorly edited recommendation for you. Do not hesitate to ask for a revision, or do not publish a recommendation that does not suit your needs.
8. JOINING FRIVOLOUS GROUPS. Remember, this is a professional community. Join groups that will provide professional updates and growth to enhance your career and network connections.
9. FLIPPANT OR RUDE POSTINGS to Discussions or Questions posted by other members. If you don’t have anything of value to add, then pass it by. You don’t do your reputation any favors by providing unprofessional input.
10. TAKING WITHOUT GIVING. LinkedIn members are a generous group, on the whole. If you ask for a recommendation, be prepared to offer one in return. If you submit a question and receive helpful answers/advice, be sure to thank respondents and to rate Good or Best Answers. LinkedIn is a community, and the benefits received should be gratefully accepted.

If you are a LinkedIn member, full and professional participation will make the best impression.

© Laurel Anne Bailey 2010

NEW!  10 More (Proven) Ways to Screw-Up in LinkedIn

LinkedIn - A Networking Must

Nothing gets accomplished in the business world without some form of networking. Within a work environment, the relationship you build with each co-worker is a very basic form of networking. Your professional reputation is based on your ability to interact and collaborate effectively with your colleagues. Positive relationships will grow when founded on honesty, reliability, and your dedication to successfully contributing to common goals. But Wikipedia brings to light an interesting and not always recognized aspect of networking. In their definition of “social network” they say, “Smaller, tighter networks can be less useful to their members than networks with lots of loose connections (weak ties) to individuals outside the main network. More open networks, with many weak ties and social connections, are more likely to introduce new ideas and opportunities to their members than closed networks with many redundant ties.” Consider the value of LinkedIn for professional networking. LinkedIn allows you to connect not only with direct and current professional colleagues, but also with “looser” connections, such as vendors, friends, former colleagues, college alumni, and casual acquaintances. Studies show that more career opportunities come from networking with people outside your close sphere of connectivity. It may be that people you work with have you and your abilities pigeonholed, based on their perception of your current job. Acquaintances sometimes find your experience and expertise more interesting and impressive. They can help you make additional connections with professionals with common interests and/or a business need for which you are well suited. Approach your LinkedIn profile as a self-promoting marketing exercise. This is an opportunity to brand yourself. Minimally, provide the facts, just as you would in a resume. In addition, feel free to be creative and let your personality show, by expressing your passions and interests. Take care when establishing your Profile and Contact Settings. For networking purposes, you should allow people to see your Connections, and to send you Introductions and InMail. To further flesh out your profile, consider joining Groups in your areas of interest. (Some of my best networking experiences to date have come from joining my Alma Mater’s Alumni group, and being active in Discussions.) Peruse the questions posted in your areas of expertise and provide value with substantive answers. Sign up to follow blogs that you find enlightening. Share your book reviews and recommendations, using the Amazon Reading List application. In short, participate actively and help people get to know the professional you. Today, a presence on LinkedIn is a must for anyone managing their career and/or a business. This is only one aspect of social networking, but an important first step for those looking to enhance their career profile. For more ideas, see Guy Kawasaki’s blog post: http://blog.linkedin.com/2007/07/25/ten-ways-to-use/