LinkedIn is a changing and evolving social media networking site. How you use Linkedin depends, to a large extent, on where you are in your career, your business and how you view social media.
My background is selling and a direct result of that is my belief that we cannot be connected to too many people. I hold to the general theory that the more people we know that better chance that we will know somebody who can help us get what we want.
Yes, I am a social media slut!
I am also of the belief that everything on the Internet is public (don’t fool yourself in thinking different) and so you might as well leverage everything and be as public as possible.
There is no privacy on the Internet!
When I was about thirteen, and thinking myself very clever, I wrote what is generally known as a limerick in the school yearbook of a girl in my class. It was pretty rude and should not be written anywhere let alone on someone’s property – I was thirteen! A few weeks after this event my mother called me into her room. I was clearly in trouble but there were so many possibilities I couldn’t guess – until I saw a photocopy of my ‘poem’ on her desk. I cringed in embarrassment! My mother only said, ‘I will give you some advise that my father gave me, never put anything in writing that you wouldn’t put on the front page of the newspaper.’ Good advice and I always remember that when writing anything. The result is that I take social media as an open book. I do not treat it as private or exclusive and as a result I am happy to connect or share with anybody who can potentially add to the conversation. There is not one line of content anywhere on the Internet that I consider private.
If I knew 10,000 people in London!
With a lifetime of selling I know that the more people I know, even vaguely, the better. I know that once I connect with someone who I have the opportunity to build a relationship. All relationships must start somewhere. So, why not let them start on LinkedIn! If I knew 10,000 people in London then my business and life in general would be pretty smooth. I would be like the hotel concierge who knows everyone and knows how to make things happen – a good thing in my book.
If I was General Motors!
When I was a kid there was a General Motors distribution facility not far from my High School. It was one of those huge old style factories, with a massive building where they made whatever and tacked on the front was a smaller building with the business end of the factory. In front of that office was a very large, very green lawn – must have been acres of grass. In the middle of the lawn was a very small sign with nickel-plated letters that read, ‘General Motors’. This was my very lesson in marketing – if you are General Motors everybody knows you and you can get away with being low-key, everybody else needs a billboard! LinkedIn is a billboard so use it! If you’re uncertain about how to use LinkedIn you may want to read my 101 Linkedin Tips, Tricks and Strategies For Success
But I need to protect my connections and limit access!
If you feel this way then read the section above regarding Internet privacy and opt for a desktop address book – they still print the paper ones! If you don’t want to be social and don’t need to market or promote yourself then I am not sure why you are wasting your time on LinkedIn anyway. If I were to win £150 Million on the lottery I would delete all of my social media accounts but until then I believe that in advertising, unlike design, more is more! There are those who will say that their 200 connections are better and deeper that my 4,000 connections and my answer will be that, in business, more contacts are always better and that it is better to ‘dig your well before you’re thirsty’. There are many well-connected executives who quickly learn, after becoming redundant at age fifty, that they don’t nearly have enough contacts and that many of the ‘deep’ connections they thought they had really related to the job and not to them personally. That is a pretty cold day!
So feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn!
My profile is public, because it really is anyway, and I have a deep believe that I can always learn something from somebody. The concept of ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ is a powerful one and the more connected we are the better.
Keep in touch and connect on LinkedIn! My LinkedIn Profile