Learn the true nature of LinkedIn and how to start really leveraging this great tool.

Visit our brand new website and enter a contest to win a copy of the new course.

http://www.onlinebusinessnetworker.com

The contents of this blog site will remain available to anyone who wishes to view them. You can reach this site via:

http://onlinebusinessnetworker.wordpress.com

The blog will continue at the following new location:

http://www.onlinebusinessnetworker.com/linkedin-tips

Lots of great tips to help you monetize your LinkedIn networking efforts! We look forward to seeing you there. And if you haven’t found a reason to visit the new blog let me recommend the current post which is part of a two part article on monetizing LinkedIn — people are loving it!

Thank you so much for reading…

Regrading Comments

If you like the post and feel like making a comment, you will get more visibility and readership if you go to the new blog and post it there — all of these posts are on the new site.

Flyn

Today I’d like to talk about some very simple and common mistakes that LinkedIners make all the time that you should avoid. The errors I’m going to discuss are little things that won’t necessarily kill you but in the long run could make a big difference if you avoid them.

Mistake #1: Using the LinkedIn Standard Invitation

This is always a mistake even if you are approaching someone you know or an open-networker that is likely to accept anyway. The reason is that it doesn’t further the relationship in any way – it’s cold.

You should always invite people to connect with a person message. I would bet that most of the people that get slapped with an “I don’t know” (IDK) sent a standard LinkedIn form message.

Mistake #2: Not scanning or reading the profile of the person you’re inviting.

This of course goes along with the first mistake I discussed. You should always read or at least scan the profile of anyone you are going to invite to connect.

I get so many invitations from people that clearly didn’t even look at my profile. I recently got a formal LinkedIn invitation that had be passed through two other connections when had the person read my profile the could have invited me directly.

Mistake #3: Don’t “BEG” when inviting someone, give a reason.

When you write in your invitation “If you don’t wish to connect please don’t IDK me…” you are basically stating that you have no valid reason for contacting that person in the first place. If you don’t have at least some reason you shouldn’t invite them.

If you want to give that person an out say; “Please feel free to archive this invitation if you wish.” However, if you just make a good case for the connection you need not do any of these and you will likely never get IDKed.

Mistake #4: Making service or product offers publicly.

This goes for answering questions where the person who posted the question has asked for a service or a product. Why? The answer is a bit subtle. LinkedIn is a networking site and any outward display of trying to get business is something that should be avoided.

I realize that it is simply perception, but if people see you offering your wares on a regular basis they will change their perception of you from a valued resource to a prospector. This is quite subtle but it is very valuable to remember.

Always make offers privately and keep up your image as an invaluable resource and not a prospector.

Mistake #5: Answer the question first.

It is amazing how many people in the Question and Answer forum never actually answer the poster’s question. This is a huge mistake as it serves to undo or reduce your credibility and expertise. No matter what you are going to say about the question you should try to answer it first.

Sometimes people ask the wrong question or one that really cannot be answered. In these cases you have to explain why you are not answering directly before changing the subject.

There’s actually a lot more science to participating in the Question and Answer forum than most people are aware of.

Mistake #6: Don’t ask prospecting questions.

Sometimes you can phrase a question badly and have it come across as “I’m looking for business” so you have to be careful. It is fine to talk about your area of expertise and ask questions about relevant topics. But when the questions ask for the reader’s specific needs it will look like an attempt to get business. You want to avoid this at all costs.

The first problem with these questions is that most LinkedIners avoid them anyway so you won’t get to engage very many people. The second is that you start to get the perception of someone who only participates for a profit. This reputation will kill your ability to monetize your networking efforts.

I hope you found this useful. There two other mistakes that are commonly made but far more serious. I have already discussed them in earlier posts so I won’t include them here. You can get to them using these links: Using signatures and mass mailing.

There is a huge opportunity on LinkedIn that no one talks about. It is probably one of the biggest opportunities besides getting a contract that you could get as a LinkedIn member.

What is it?

It is a “Joint Venture Partnership.”

For those who may not fully understand this concept it is basically a relationship that helps both parties. It is basically the business of cross promoting each other.

There are many ways this can be done but the simplest is if you have great free material that someone else’s clients customers or associates would value. I will share a personal example.

One of my connections put together a book that she was going to give away. The subject of the book was to people who would definitely be interested in networking. So I sent her a note that if she wanted to give away my networking success kit with her book I would set up a page where she would get credit for the extra value.

The above has worked out great. I have gotten people to see my success kit and she has increased the value of her offer. I have now just sent her a note asking if we can give the book to all the members of the OnlineBusinessNetworker site.

All you have to do is be a little bit creative and you can find ways to help each other.

I have another connection who is also a wizard of LinkedIn networking. We both cross promote each other in our thank you for connecting messages.

This is another reason to make sure you look at the new connections profile – you never know what kind of relationship might be created.

Obviously, this carries with it some responsibility as it is against LinkedIn policy to invite people you don’t know. For most people the system simply won’t let them without an email address. But just because it’s policy doesn’t mean you cannot do it successfully – you simply have to know how.

This gives you great power if you understand the strategies and tactics that can be used with the “invitation” feature of LinkedIn. Misused of  course it will be devastating to your account and status on LinkedIn.

For more tips, strategies and tactics grab my free LinkedIn networking success Kit the kit contains 7 videos and 4 reports that will help you succeed on LinkedIn.

First off NEVER respond with and “I DON’T KNOW” or IDK as it is known. There is one exception – that is if the person inviting you has be ignoring your requests to stop contacting them.

If you are on a networking site, punishing people for inviting you to connect, unless you have stated you don’t want any invitations, is simply wrong – even if they don’t know you, just archive the message (Proper invitations are never IDKed even when sent to someone that doesn’t know you. But that’s a different subject.)

Second, NEVER fail to respond with at least a thank you or some acknowledgement of the person’s invite. (See the better way below.)

Third, ALWAYS look at the other persons profile even if only for a minute. You will be surprised how often you find the most interesting pieces of gold in profiles of people you would never think of connecting with.

Personally, I like to go to their website as well. Why? To look for some way I could be of value. If nothing else I will learn who there customers are and maybe I can send them someone.

Fourth, send them a note that does the following.

1. Thanks them for inviting you
2. Offers to help them in any way. One way to do this is to tell them to look through your connections and see if there is anyone they would like to meet. Another would be to offer free advice in your area of expertise.
3. Give them a specific value. In a previous blog post I discuss having free stuff to give away – this is where you use it. Since I have a bunch of great free LinkedIn stuff – my networking success kit – I offer that.
4. Give them a valued connection. In my case I know a gal who is just a wiz at LinkedIn and always willing to connect and help anyone so I include her name, with her permission of course and she includes mine.
5. Ask them how you can help – who would they like to connect with, what are they looking for in their life or business that you might be able to help them find?
6. Finally, let them know it is alright to contact you, I even provide my email and phone in my message. I also let them know that they may give my name and email to anyone they know that would like to connect or feel I could be of value.

This is only the first step of building a great relationship with your network. However it is a very important one. First impressions last – make your first impression with you new connection a great one!!

Your comments on this post are more than welcome!

I would greatly appreciate any promotion of this blog you are willing to do, tell your friends, Tweet it or DIGG it – whatever. My goal is to help others be successful on LinkedIn.

I do my best to provide powerful and practical advice that will actually help others succeed and I seek to share that information with as many people as possible – your help in this effort is greatly appreciated.  Thank you!

There are three things you can do when you really don’t have a direct answer to the question.

Provide a Resource

If you simply go on the Internet and do a search for information on the question, you can then answer the question by providing a resource. Obviously, you may also learn the answer by the route thus allowing you to answer the question yourself.

Provide an Expert

The other option, and of course you could do this with this with the above, is to look through your network for an expert that could answer the question and provide that recommendation to the questioner. This has the added benefit of adding value to your relationship with the expert connection.

Give Decision Advice

Sometimes when you don’t have a really good answer to the question, you can help the questioner with information re the making of the decision.

Example: Let’s say the person asks about web marketing – you could make the recommendation that working with a web designer that knows web marketing might avoid building a site that is not as compatible with the objectives of the site.

Often you will understand the decision process better than the actual answer and can offer good advice for the decision without really knowing the best answer to the question.

The interesting thing is that giving decision advice is often more valuable that answering the question directly. Frequently the questioner doesn’t give all the data relevant to the question and it is truly hard to answer definitively anyway.

When I’ve used this third technique I have received some of the best responses from the questioners I’ve received.

Summary

Using this method allows you to answer more questions and help more people. One of the best ways to build a network is to invite (not using and “invitation,” but within your response) those you engage in the Q&A forum. This allows you more opportunities to do so.

One evening in 2006 I went to a networking event at Bob’s recommendation. About an hour into the event Bob pulled me aside and said:

Flyn it looks like you really know how to work a room. I’ve been watching you and you seem very comfortable moving around and meeting people.

To which I replied, yea, it’s easy, after 20 plus years of sales management and consulting I don’t have any problem starting a conversation.

He asked, when you meet these folks what do you do?

I told him that I simply introduce myself and then usually start with a question about the event; Like “Do you come to these often?” to get the conversation going. After some basic chat I would tell the person what I did and give them a card in exchange for theirs.

He then asked me – “The people who have come up to you, did they take the same approach?”

Yes.

He then said, so everyone in the room is going around to everyone else trying to solicit an engagement – right?

Yea, I guess…

Do you think it is profitable to be one of the crowd or would it be better to differentiate yourself?

Obviously, if I could differentiate myself that would be much better. But how do I do that?

Bob then proceed to explain that what I was doing is prospecting and not networking. He pointed out that it would be unlikely that any of the people I had approached would feel comfortable introducing me to the people they know. After all would you sick a salesperson on your friends and associates? Not likely.

He then told me, if you really wanted to profit  from this effort I needed to provide a value first – without any thought of getting anything back. This is how you differentiate yourself.

He then asked me “What if you could give them something of value – what do you think they would do?” Do you think they’d be more receptive next time you call?

Of course!

Do you think they might be more inclined to introduce you to people they know? Do you tell your friends and associates about things or people of value?

Yea.

He then told me the real secret to networking. Make an attempt when you meet people to provide them with value and NOT talk about yourself. He said if you can meet ten people and none of them know what you do at the end of the evening – you’ll be a hit. This is especially true when you follow up, not trying to sell them anything, but to help them out by providing them with some value.

I told this story from the point of view of a networking event as that is how it occurred. But the truth of the matter is that if you drop the prospecting and work the relationship first, you will profit far more than if you take the “prospecting approach.”

You will find that the natural universe hates an imbalance. If you outflow enough value, it will soon start to return in even greater proportions and from the places you’d least expect. This is not only the secret to working a live event but also the secret to LinkedIn.

It is so common for those of use with sales skills to “sell” instead of network, and it simply doesn’t work. Become invaluable and you will find all kinds of opportunity.

Not only will you save them and introduction, you will improve the introduction they receive.

Here’s How

First, tell your connection to withdraw the introduction they have sent you.

Second, have them send you the note they would like to send to your connection. Make sure they include the information the connection will need to invite and connect with them as well as their telephone if possible.

Third, write on nice note to your contact about the connection you are introducing. Something like the following: (Do not do this for a sales prospecting intro, only job or connection request.)

Hi Jane:

I am one of your direct connections. I have just received a request from Joe to get an introduction to you. I have attached his note below so that you can call or connect with him as you feel appropriate. Based on his note it seems this would be a good connection for you to make. Joe has be a good connection of mine for a while.

Thank you and I hope this connection is profitable for both of you.

Tom

[[JOE’s NOTE]]

This method has  far more impact on the recipient than using the LinkedIn introduction which though it transmits the same information is much less personal and down to Earth. It also saves an introduction for when it is really needed.

In my opinion, this is the best way to get or do an introduction.

Additionally, there are some very creative ways to use this technique in all kinds of situations even when there is not a mutual connection. For more help with your LinkedIn networking efforts get my LinkedIn Networking Success Kit while it’s still free at:

www.OnlineBusinessNetworker.net/successkit

Please comment and tell me what you think of this and other blog posts. Also please tell others about this blog and the success kit.

If you work with or market to people who value networking skills, I can set you up to give my success kit away as a gift, incentive, or bonus – just contact me for info. You can reach me at:

flyn@ OnlineBusinessNetworker.net

This is a very common error for newbies on LinkedIn coming to find business but not understanding the site’s purpose and method.

Here are some examples.

What are you doing to fix your production efficiency?  (Asked by a production consultant)

What’s wrong with your sales team? (Asked by a sales trainer)

Do you need help with your web site? (Asked by a web designer)

How can I help you with you lead generation? (Asked by a lead generation specialist.)

It is not that the questions don’t have a value at the heart of their topic, its just that they are taken as per-sales questions – answer and I will engage you to fix the problem.

Two of the best uses of the Question and Answer forum are visibility and the development of one’s expertise. They also represent a great “safe” way to engage others in a conversation or discussion – even when the other person is answering the same question you are and is not connected.

This is all evidence that you want to have as many people answer your question as possible. And you don’t want to upset or turn people away. If you ask prospecting questions you will find that you are pretty much ignored. If you continue along this line you will find that you get a reputation for being a “prospector” and that you then have a hard time engaging others.

If you simply turn the questions around and make them “opinion” questions you will see that people engage them. You can usually tell if you have a good question by the immediate and plentiful response. If you put a question up and no one answers after the first half day you probably don’t have a good question or you may simply have asked it the wrong way.

The best questions for engaging people are those on controversial subjects within your line of business. For example in the sales arena “cold calling” is a major debate topic and you will notice if you search that the questions asking about this get lots of attention.

If you are trying to leverage the Question and Answer forum make sure your questions ask for an opinion on the subject, not the reader’s individual details or problems. If you do you’ll get far more participation.