A couple of years ago, there was a brief discussion on the BlindJobs
mailing list regarding LinkedIn and I contributed a message to the
discussion. As my employer has launched a job placement program, I
decided to send this to our job placement coach in case he plans to have
any of his groups discussing this service, as I thought he might find
some of my experiences to be of relevance. With a few modifications,
here's the message in case anyone finds LinkedIn of interest.
I admit to being a regular LinkedIn visitor and I admit that I
sometimes find it nearly as addictive as some do with Facebook or with
Twitter. However, I am usually willing to accept connection requests
from people who work in my industry or at least from
someone whose profession matches my interests. It's true that the
connection request may only wish to sift through your connections, but
don't forget that you have the same power. If an assistive technology
specialist or product trainer wants to connect with me, I'll usually
grant the request, particularly if he or she works in a location which
might interest me down the line, as this can give me an opportunity to
make connections in that industry for that particular part of the
country.
I'd also like to offer some of my own pointers on how to stand out on
LinkedIn to avoid feeling like just one of the cannibals hunting for
more connections with whom to network.
When you initiate a connection request, you are given a generic
request template which usually says something like "I'd like to add
you to my professional network on Linkedin." You have the opportunity
to use that generic request or you can write your own. Nearly
everyone just accepts the standard template and so all of your
requests will have the identical wording. I always choose to write my
own connection request. Yes, it's a bit more work but you'll stand out
as you may be that only person's connection request with something
thoughtful or original. What I write depends on the person to whom
I'm requesting the connection. As an example, if I were writing to
someone at a company I had dealt with in the past I might mention this
in my connection request. In fairness, I should add that the iOS app for
LinkedIn doesn't seem to allow users to customize the text of the
invitation.
I have found that once you accept a connection request you may never
hear back from that person. I admit to being one of those who used to
send out the generic connection request without so much as a thank-you
upon having my connection request accepted. That all changed. I have
over 500 connections, and one particular connection, whose name I
won't mention in this post, stands out to me. I was sent a connection
request by someone I didn't know and I chose to accept it. After
accepting it, I heard back from my new connection. It was a brief
message. It was professional but very warm and thanked me for the
work that I was doing and the individual also said that it was an
honor to have encountered me. I never, ever forgot this person.
First, it was a genuinely sincere thank-you, but this person was the
only connection up to that point of having over 100 connections to have
sent such a response after I accepted the
invitation to connect. I appreciate all of my LinkedIn connections. I
appreciate the work that they do and I am greateful
that most of them were willing to connect with me, often knowing
little or nothing about me. However, this one, particular connection
was, to my knowledge, the first and one of the few people who wrote such
a warm and
genuine note of thanks upon receiving my connection. I will always
remember that person's name. Therefore, take the time to thank a
connection for accepting your request, or a connection you chose to
accept. I usually include something personal, unique to each person,
such as thanking them for what they do for a specific company or
sharing a memory of some positive experience that I had either with
them or with their company, product or service. Trust me: you'll be one
of the few people to write a thank-you and this will make you very
memorable.
One way to get more connections who are relevant to your
interests or area of expertise is to post on LinkedIn groups. You can
use these groups to either post answers to questions posed by other
users, write thought-provoking comments or questions to generate
responses or you can just post interesting articles from other Web
sites which are of relevance to the particular group. There are many
groups covering a wide variety of interests and industries, so I think
you'll find some which will be to your liking.
Finally, do a lot of work in building your profile. People don't
always choose to add to all aspects of their profile, and this is
certainly a matter of one's own personal choice. I will tell you,
however, that I've received calls from headhunters who were trying
very hard to get me hired at a company who was looking for some of the
skills that I possessed. I didn't get the job because there was one
specific skill that the employer wanted that I didn't have, but my
point is that I was discovered without putting out much effort
because these recruiters found something in my profile which got their
attention. I'm not saying that people will be dropping jobs in your
lap because of LinkedIn, but a well-written, fully developed profile
certainly won't do you any harm.
>
Happy connecting, and all of you are free to visit my LinkedIn profile at
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/david-goldfield/12/929/57[3
>
--
Feel free to visit my Web site
www.davidgoldfield.info
You are invited to visit the moderator's Web site at WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
for additional resources and information about assistive technology training
services.
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