I get 6-10 requests a day to connect to people on LinkedIn. One third of them I know from past interchanges, but may not have spoken to them in months. I always ask everyone by return email to introduce himself/herself or update me by phone and tell me how I can help most effectively. To protect my own business value, I want to screen access to my clients, especially if my name is being mentioned at the same time. Few respond.

Consider this. People in an intimate network where everyone knows each other’s agenda and abilities well are much more likely to help each other. This is true in or out of LinkedIn. If you don’t move the relationship beyond a simple handshake, business card exchange, or connection in LinkedIn, don’t expect much assistance in return.

If you want access to someone’s network or other kinds of help from them, first make a case for why you will be a terrific ally. How clever you are and why you are a “must meet” resource. Your thought leadership.

Honor the other person’s business relationships. At a networking event I watched someone share one of his best client’s name at 3M with someone who wanted to interview there. The lead giver – we will call him Pete – with the best of intentions, called his 3M client and made a case for why the 3M executive should see the job seeker – whom we will call Kate. 3 weeks later Kate had not called, and Pete was embarrassed and annoyed that he had misused the 3M exec’s time. The 3M exec sent a negative reference on Kate to 3M HR without meeting her. He also avoided Pete’s next phone call.

If you want someone to share his/her resources, respect and cultivate the relationships that go with them.

Topics: communications, getting ahead, hidden job market, networking, selling skills, visibility | 2 Comments »

I really do believe that most LinkedIn profiles (and resumes) send a more negative than positive message about their owner because not enough thought or positioning differentiation has been put into them. Too many profiles make the owner look like a commodity player, or, even if metrics are provided, don’t leave the reader convinced that this executive was the key to why company sales grew 10%. More importantly, 75% of readers of your LinkedIn profile are not looking to hire you but are looking for someone to answer a question or be the source of a referral. To receive those queries and turn them into networking opportunities, you need to demonstrate EQ or social intelligence in your profile and LI activities. So spend a few minutes re-examining your LinkedIn presence and consider these questions:

• What comes to mind when people think about me as a professional brand? What have been my greatest personal successes or epiphanies? How am I different from others with the same title? How am I better? Have I demonstrated it convincingly?
• When a company has never worked with me or my firm previously, what do they want the most assurance about? Do I reflect knowledge of how my customers measure success and excellent customer service?
• What issues in the industry am I very knowledgeable about or do I want to promote? (Green energy, less government regulation…)
• What business issues do I have a personal passion about? (Ethics, empowering others, world peace…)
• Have I demonstrated my willingness to help others whether it makes me money or not?
• Have I said all of this in a way that identifies for which target audience or company I am most valuable or most interested in for the future (which might be different than my last role?)
• Have I provided references from key customers?

You get the idea. To be seen as the preferred resource in LinkedIn, you need to present yourself as a multi-dimensional executive whom not only has credible technical competency, but can and wants to collaborate, facilitate, and empower the world around you.

Topics: branding + positioning, business skills, communications, getting ahead, leadership, selling skills, technical skills, visibility | 3 Comments »

Most folks only think about their brand when they are updating their resume or marketing plan. Consider this. You are reinforcing your brand positively or negatively, consciously or unconsciously, 24 hours/day, 365 days/year.

If you want to be more memorable and influential in a sea of other executives, separate yourself from the pack at every opportunity:

1. Elevate the thoughtfulness, strategic depth, and currency of all your conversations. Talk more about the latest trends in your industry, and cutting edge technology. Show thought leadership.
2. Demonstrate your ability to sell ideas, build consensus, and grow business. This goes beyond showing you are a good networker and relationship builder. Your community needs to know how well you can influence key decision makers, facilitate across departments, get results, and create revenue.
3. Create opportunities to network with business peers on a deeper-level than possible in a typical monthly networking event or occasional networking lunch. Increase the percentage of people in your network with heavy business influence.
4. Upgrade the quality of your interpersonal interactions. A salesperson I know never ends a conversation without asking “what can I do for you today?” He stands out amongst the thousands of sales people I know because of the way he communicates it. He really does mean it. His customers and network know it.
5. Improve your LinkedIn profile and activities. It says volumes about you. Whether or not you have self-awareness about your value to employers, and can communicate and sell your ideas. Whether you are interested in helping others in the industry, or just want their contacts. Whether you are willing to read and comment on someone’s blog or discussion in a LI group in exchange for reading your sales pitch. I believe most LI profiles are doing more damage than good to their owners.
6. Update your clothing and hairstyle, look less generic. Be more hip. Have a professional quality picture in LinkedIn.  Free, generic business cards are out. Even your email signature matters.
7. Lastly, once you have turbo-charged your brand, create “buzz” and sustain it.

The key is to establish and maintain your brand in terms that are as relevant as possible to current business needs. Your brand needs be memorable and easily repeated by your fans. (Most elevator speeches are not.) Your pitch needs to have focus and a theme offering synergy amongst skills. Emphasize how you are different, not how you are similar. Highlight what is most in demand in the marketplace.

If you don’t groom and maintain your brand image, you may have no recognizable value to the community or a very muddled image that makes people avoid you for fear of a poor return on investment. Establishing a positive brand in the industry for future contingencies takes time and is crucial to long term stability and growth. It takes little time to damage a brand and forever to repair negatives.

Topics: branding + positioning, communications, getting ahead, leadership, networking, selling skills, technical skills, visibility | No Comments »

There are lots of books and courses available on how to use LinkedIn with the standard messages and tools. But those courses tend to produce users who think that if being listed in the software is good using it heavily without further thought is better. I disagree.

1. In the Twin Cities Metro there are 4K LinkedIn listings with “marketing communications” mentioned, 59K with “sales,” and 31K with “engineer.” 65% social media participants users use to stay in touch with friends, 47% use social media “for work” and but only 26-28% use it for “career search.” Read the rest of this entry »

Topics: branding + positioning, career strategy, hidden job market, networking, recruiting, resume + cover letter | 3 Comments »