Comment by Jeff Weidner on April 23, 2008 at 5:47pm

Great video!!!

Here are some more ideas
How I built my Linkedin Network


OK I've been getting a ton of people asking me how I built my network
on Linkedin up to 4380+. I thought I would share some of my secrets
on how I'm getting so many (which is relative) invites (about 100-150
per week). Though I didn't realize they were secrets.

So here's my basic routine.

FIRST
I started a group on Linkedin called CPD-Candidate Pipeline
Development (TM) http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/44169/3ED8F804D9C7
This is linked to the HTC Research Blog located here
http://htcresearch.blogspot.com which doesn't have that many readers
as I'm not a prolific blogger but this get's me approx 30 requests
per day M-F and about 10 per day on Sat and Sunday. Every request I
send an email to thanking them for joining the group and recommending
that they connect by sending me an invite. Of the 170 requests per
week I'm getting about a 70%-80% positive response rate and those
that don't send me an invite it's usually because they are out of
invites so they ask me to send one to them, which I do.

I recommend either starting a blog on a free blogging site or a web
site on Ning.com and adding some content focused around the group you
want to start. You can't/shouldn't just start a group for the sake of
starting a group to get more connections. My opinion is you have to
add value, so keep that in mind.

NEXT
I joined other groups. This suggestion came from Steve Burda who I
think has over 10K first level connections.
I'm joined up to a lot of groups (about 350+)and I try to add
something to each group I've joined. I may not read or post every
month to every group but I do make an effort. I estimate I get about
10 invites a day (tough to track) from group member invites. I'm
basing this on what people say in their invite requests such as "Hey
Jeff saw you just joined the ____group and I'de like to connect"

THEN
I utilize the Q&A section appropriately.
Ask relevant questions not transparent ones!

A relevant question is a serious question that you really need the
answer to. For example we are putting together a training DVD and I
needed some legal advice so I would know the right questions to ask
an attorney before spending the $250 per hour or whatever so I asked
a specific question to the Legal group and of course I mentioned I
was an open networker and here's my email address. Or I had a
specific question about content delivery and what format people would
prefer, web, dvd, cd etc or we're looking at moving our blog site
from blogspot to a different service so I wanted some advice on that.
All legit reasons and questions I actually needed the answers to and
the people who answered were really quite helpful.

A transparent question is one that was specifically posted to promote
you or your company. It's one where it is so blatantly obvious that
the only reason you posted it was to advertise something. Personally,
I've chosen to just ignore those types of questions and they range
from; "What is the meaning of life?" or "What's your favorite season
and Why?" to "Are strawberries the only fruit with seeds on the
outside?" I used to hit my head against the wall every time I saw a
question like this but I was getting too many lumps.:-)

NEXT
Answer questions.
I find it easier to ask relavent questions rather than answering them
and I've found that I get more invites when asking rather than
answering.
A) you can ask a question on just about any topic and make it legit
and relavent.
b) very tough to answer a question where you don't know squat and
make it legit and self promoting.

Asking and answering questions also helps me build my blog site. It
gets my creative writing juices going and if I find a question
particulary interesting I sometimes choose to write a response to
myself to see what my actual thoughts are. Sometimes I post to my bog
site, sometimes I just hit delete. What the

Comment by Jeff Weidner on April 23, 2008 at 5:50pm

I just hit delete. What the heck, it's only digital
ink and paper it's not like I killed a tree or something.

NEXT
I highly recommend joing the following three immediately (and sending
me an invite)
Toplinked.com
Mylink500
LION

NEXT talk with other Top networkers and ask them what they did. I'm
all about ease and automation, I'm not about to slog through
hundreds, thousand of names on Linkedin to find the ones that are
open networkers, have a valid email address in their profile and are
not already on my first level. Nothing, in my mind could be more
tedious! I've got better things to do as I'm trying to run a Research
firm in my spare time while not building a Linkedin network ;-)
Seriously though I spend about 5 hours a week on Linkedin and the
benefits have been enormous. So thanks Linkedin!

I have 4-5 more things I do but this post is getting long and I've
got stuff to do so I'll post more later.

Jeff Weidner
HTC Research
jeffweidnerlinkedin@gmail.com
Yes I accept all invites

Comment by Sheree Ruland on May 8, 2008 at 12:43pm

Another exceptional instructional video, Geoff. Thanks for sharing and I've sent the link to many friends and colleagues.

Sheree

Sheree Ruland
Open Networker

www.linkedin.com/in/sheree

Comment by Tektree Gopi on May 8, 2008 at 12:56pm

Amazing Video Geoff, I have gone through couple of time to get the pulse of it.

Thanks,
Tektree Gopi.

Link by gopi@tektreesystems.com

Comment by Kara Welsh on June 2, 2008 at 3:38pm

This was a very helpful video. Thank you for putting it together.

Kara Welsh
"Open Networker"
www.linkedin.com/in/karawelsh
kara@tec.biz

Comment by Deanna Buchanan, ACIR, CDR, CIR on September 5, 2008 at 11:13am

Great information, thanks for sharing.

Comment