14 li network-building tips
Post on 18-Oct-2014
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And why it even matters!TRANSCRIPT
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#1. Yes, LinkedIn Is a Numbers Game…But Numbers Offer Strategy.
Now, it might pretend to be something else, and you may be using it for something else. BUT as soon as you want LinkedIn to do more for you than just be an extension of your resume compiling
your past career connections into one place (where you basically do nothing with them), then it becomes what all social media essentially becomes: a numbers game nonetheless.
BUTThat is not necessarily a bad thing. With more than 300 million users, these numbers can offer you opportunity with just a little effort to build a strong network, not just of “lots” of people but also of
well-placed connections you can leverage to put you in front of targeted employers.
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#2. Social networking is about, well, networking.
“I am VERY cautious about whom I connect with on LinkedIn. I only connect with people I know.”
On the surface, it sounds like a good strategy. And it isn’t all that bad if you aren’t really looking to make a career move ever again. BUT as soon you enter into the realm of either active or passive job
seeker, you will realize that your personal network isn’t as strong or as responsive as you would like it to be.
Peer-to-peer networking is great, yes, but today’s market offers more “pipelines” of networking, which LI can help provide that. Why not do both?
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#3. Understand the value of 2nd-level connections.
The more 1st level connections you have, the more 2nd level connections you generate (remember the 6-degrees of Kevin Bacon?). And the more 2nd level connections you generate, the more likelihood of having better access to key decision makers in your target job search area.
Not to mention, the better ranking you receive in LinkedIn search (the same is true for how many silly endorsements in a particular area you receive…did you even know you had a LinkedIn ranking? Sure you do, and it is basically numbers based.)
LinkedIn isn’t really about 1st level connections, you know, those people you “know.” Sure, that is great that you know 200 people, etc.
LinkedIn is really about 2nd level connections.
LinkedIn uses a search algorithm much like Google or other search engines do.
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#4. It’s time to meet new people.Now, LinkedIn likes to play coy with this because essentially the company is in business to make a profit (it is not a nonprofit service, after all). Although it says that it is protecting you from the dreaded spam, really, LinkedIn wants you to buy into its Premium services.
So, it entices you to network, lets you connect with your friends for free, and gives you access to groups.
BUT then it makes it difficult for you to expand your network to connect with others you don’t know unless you are given an introduction by one of your 1st level connections or pay for their InMail services (which LinkedIn claims everyone reads but very few do…trust me).
But as the rest of this presentation will show, there are ways around that….
Like it or not, even on LinkedIn (or any social media), you have to get out there and meet people.
If face-to-face networking isn’t really you’re thing, then maybe social networking will be.
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#5. Think Quality AND Quantity when choosing connections.
For more on this, check out our post called “The Age-Old Social Media Quality vs. Quantity Debate”.
Does today’s job search and social media all just seem like a big game to you? Honestly, it kind of is. Technology, as much as we love it, has taken the traditional job search process and made it more convoluted…and expensive. The good
news, however, is that some tools are opening up opportunities that were much harder to find before, and LInkedIn can be one of them.
The challenge is in knowing which game is worth playing for you.
Check out my own career story for why I do what I do.
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#6. Groups provide great networking opportunities.
Groups are your one “free” way to meet and network with other professionals in the same industry or profession as you (or other shared associations). So there is some value in paying attention to what is happening in these groups and to targeting individuals you would like to meet.
After all, LinkedIn gives you 3000 invites you can send out, so after “meeting” in the group, you can send someone an invite providing a reason for why you would like to connect with him or her.
If you are like me, you have joined some of the LinkedIn groups that were recommended to you (most likely by LinkedIn), but either you show up every once in a while or you never do. You’re just out there as a passive member because, well, who has time to read through every post of every group you belong to?
Yet, there is another way that groups can be used effectively.
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#7. Even better is that LinkedIn group members can send a private message to one another (provided a person has not shut off this feature) IF they are 2nd level connections or better.
So this means that you can send a message to people in your groups introducing yourself without being so presumptuous as to send an unsolicited invite.
Now, I wouldn’t go around sending a message to everyone or sending anything that sounds like the dreaded “spam,” but it is a good idea if you see someone who meets your “target” area for networking that
you take the initiative of introducing yourself through a message.
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#8. Leverage the power of alumni connections. Most colleges/universities have LinkedIn alumni
groups you can join. Pretty much all have alumni directories you can have access to.
If you have a list of targeted employers, industries, or roles, then you can search these groups/databases to find fellow alum to reach out to. Having them connect with you on LinkedIn allows you build rapport and open up further 2nd-level connections (getting you closer to being positioned in front of decision makers).
If there’s one area people tend to overlook the further away from college they get is the power of the alumni connection.
It may seem silly, but the alumni connections should not be ignored. When you are reaching out to someone “cold,” having something that you’ve shared, such as a college, is a great lead-in for an introduction. Furthermore, studies show that we like to engage and respond to our fellow alum.
If you share a fraternity/sorority, sport, or club, along with the alumni connection, even better!
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#9. Do the same with military or civic connections.
Much like with alumni connections, LinkedIn also has groups for military and civic associations. Make sure to join them, BUT take it a step further and reach out to meet those in these groups who are somehow
connected to targeted employers, industries, and roles you are pursuing or are interested in pursuing.
This approach is called “Networking with Positioning,” and it can be very effective.
Doesn’t sound appealing? Think of how much better it is than
attending all of those awkward networking mixers! At least with
this you share something in common…
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#10. Don’t let your connections sit in your wasteland, though.
How do you do that? Figure out ways to be a value-added resource to your network and provide that value to them. Again, without “spamming,” you want to reach out from time to time, touch base. Congratulate them on new jobs. Send them a link to a relevant article. Ask them how they are doing….
Exhausted yet?
Networking is tiring. And the bigger your network gets, the more tiring it can become. BUT if you are building a network that focuses in on your target market (do you know what it is?), then the bigger the better. And LinkedIn is happy to help you play the game.
Once you make these valuable new connections, now you have to decide what to do with them.
Otherwise, your profile is just going to sit there with no real engagement with your contacts and you aren’t really networking.
Sure, they can see your “feed” as it comes through each day, but they aren’t that vigilant (again, trust me). If you want an active network, then you have to wake up the sleeping giant, so to speak.
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#11. Don’t be afraid to ask your 1st-level connections for introductions.As long as you don’t make yourself a pest, people generally enjoy doing favors. It makes them feel good. So if you see
that one of your 1st-level connections is connected to someone at one of your target companies or industries, then send them a quick note in LinkedIn asking them for an introduction. And make sure to be willing to return the favor.
Does this mean everyone is receptive? No, but more are than aren’t. Be sure to learn about “The 3 Most Common Types of Networkers.”
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#12. Don’t be afraid to ask for the informational interview.
Sometimes we think informational interviews are only for new college grads or younger professionals, but that is incorrect. They can be extremely valuable for the more established professional.
Be sure to check out “Acing the Informational Interview” for more on this.
Moving a connection offline is a great way to build better engagement and rapport. It’s also fundamental in gathering information on your target market.
Even if you aren’t looking to make that next career move right now, this is the perfect time to build stronger network connections WITH the proper positioning to help you when that time does come.
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#13. With 300+ million LI members, it’s also time to take a look at how your LI profile is positioning you in the marketplace…
For more on this, check out our article “Building Your LinkedIn Network Empire”.
Most of us have no idea how we rank in LI keyword searches.
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#14. If you plan to be in the tech job market for the next 5, 10, 15+ years, you will likely need to embrace LinkedIn in a more active way…
Do you have to do it?
No. You don’t have to do anything.
95% of technical professionals don’t.
As a result, they struggle to understand the market when the time is finally “right” for them to start looking.
This should be a
no-brainer, BUT
It’s not. Very few pros are
willing to adapt.
To help you get a better feel for where you currently stand with your LinkedIn profile, I’ve developed a simple self-assessment survey you can take that is quick to do, free, and helps you compare your profile against those that are having more success on LI in either building
a recruiter “pipeline” or engaging their network:
LI Profile Optimization Self-Assessment
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Let’s Make It Easier**To find out where you stand with your LI network and your next job search efforts, I wanted to make it so
easy for my social media/LinkedIn contacts to get the most from our connection. Therefore, through ITtechExec, I’ve put together an Offer of Support on a Strategic Visioning Intro Session just for you. This
Session will assess which tools and solutions are best for you in your situation, and it will gauge how well prepared you are right now for today’s market. Finally, it will put together a strategic vision for how you should
approach your next career move, be it as an active or as a passive seeker.
(Due to demand for our one-of-a-kind solutions, and the fact that we are a small consulting firm, though, we limit the number of Sessions we offer weekly to just 5. So simply click on the “Let’s Make It Easier” link above
to schedule yours today.)
Let’s make the most out of the power of our connection!
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Silly me. I thought an MBA mixed with hard work was my ticket…
(A Note from Stephen Van Vreede, Co-Founder of ITtechExec/NoddlePlace)
When I first started my career, generally I didn’t know anyone who actually paid to have their resume (or résumé, for the purists among us) written, much less for “career services.”
Let's be real. It used to be pretty cut-and-dry. You put a basic 1-page (or maybe 2-page) resume (or résumé) together, worked a few connections or answered a few "classifieds," and felt pretty certain the right opportunity would come along. Then if you worked hard (got the right certs) and didn't burn too many bridges, you most likely had a pretty secure career path ahead of you perhaps even with the same company.
And at first, throughout most of the early part of my corporate life, that was generally how things went. I moved from internal position to internal position without the need to invest in resume or other career services, eventually landing a director-level role with a large GE Capital, multi-site inbound call center serving the logistics industry.
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But then the job market began to change, my priorities shifted, and job security was, well, less secure.
So I decided to go back for my MBA and obtain some other credentials (sound familiar?), which cost me thousands and thousands (and thousands) of dollars (just ask my lovely bride who helped pay for them!). I even clawed my way through the Six Sigma process to become a Black Belt.
It was a great experience, but after two years of working full time and taking night classes, when I graduated, the job market wasn’t much better, competition for internal promotions was greater, and I wasn’t the only one with an MBA, a Black Belt, etc.
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That’s when I was introduced to resume design and career services.
I came to recognize that the time and resources I had already spent on my career were worth protecting. The market was too uncertain and changing too rapidly for me to continue to go it alone.
At this point, I had already invested in someone to handle my retirement,another someone to do my taxes, and another someone to find me the right home. It wasn’t such a stretch to think that my career mattered as much, if not more, than these other things. After all, without it, then I couldn’t afford the retirement or the house (and yes even the taxes).
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I began to see where resume/career services could play an integral part…
in not only helping people to secure jobs but also in building in protections to the careers we’ve all worked so hard to achieve.
Eventually, my wife, Sheree, and I began our own firm in 2001 called “No Stone Unturned”. Initially, we had a small office where we hosted seminars and workshops, wrote resumes, and served a cross section of professionals and backgrounds.
And although writing resumes and teaching seminars was fine, we wanted to do better. And we knew we could.
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ITtechExec was launched…Thanks to my background in IT/telecom management for the supply chain/logistics industry and to Sheree’s experience serving as an editor to the scientific/engineering community in the publishing world, we soon realized that we were best suited to serve the technical professional trying to maneuver through what by that point (2008) had become a complex and exhausting job market. (Let’s face it…it’s a bit of a zoo out there!)
Not only that, we noticed that other resume writers were avoiding technical clients, unsure of how best to position their specialized skills.
Therefore, it wasn’t long before we began to work exclusively with IT and technical or “STEM” clientele, professionals who have devoted themselves to some of the most innovative and rewarding fields in today’s industries, from engineering to healthcare IT to scientific exploration to big data and cloud services to project/program management.
That’s when ITtechExec was born…
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Silly me. I thought we could just write resumes…Then, before we knew it, unemployment skyrocketed and the tech market began waging its war for sophisticated tech talent.
And on top of all that, social media recruiting burst onto the scene, and the landscape became pretty messy, pretty fast. Soon, hiring folks were claiming they were no longer reading resumes (even though they continued to ask for them), and the job market became such a zoo that candidates found themselves focused on a document that everyone says they won't look at for more than 6 seconds but it better not have any typos in it!
That’s when we realized that we could no longer just write a resume and send our clients on their way. They needed better preparation and lasting protections. They needed strategies and tools that, well, worked.
We knew then that we had to become a full-service career advancement and protection firm, not just another resume-writing firm.
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95% of technical leaders obsess over the resume even though they don't believe it has much value.
So we asked ourselves, if you know the market is a zoo, that resumes aren't likely to be read, and that obstacles like age or experience are more pronounced than ever, why would you (a) keep approaching it from the same angle over and over or (b) sit back and do nothing? Why wouldn't you instead focus on where the real value lies?
With tech professionals changing jobs every 3 to 4 years, consulting/contracting on the rise, and fierce competition for promotions, it's time to try something that is based on how the market is actually working now, not 10, 15, even 5 years ago.
It's why we've made a radical shift to a more portfolio-driven approach instead of just a resume-based one. And why we even offer the resume for FREE with our portfolio packages!
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Yes, the resume is part of it, but let’s get more from your investment.You still need a solid chronological resume (no matter what you may hear) geared toward a very specific audience, but when done properly, having addenda to go along with the resume can be much more effective (and much more likely to be read!), not to mention the significance of the LinkedIn profile, which will continue to grow over the next few years.
Portfolios can help build in flexibility and prepare you to face different hiring scenarios. But you need to know which tools are best for your situation. Although there is a lot out there you can do (or buy), you don't need to do everything (that's the good news!).
So whether you are an external job seeker looking for a new full-time role, a consultant going for the next contract, or an internal leader seeking promotion or just retention (such as during an acquisition), because we are following the tech job market closely, the real investment is in knowing which tools are right for you and how to properly use them. (To learn more about why we recommend a portfolio-driven approach, check out our presentations: http://ow.ly/viT6C and http://ow.ly/vM9UH.)
No one can predict for certain what the market will do, but we can make sure that you are prepared for whatever comes.
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Building the messaging AND the strategic vision for your job search that lead to solutions.
The portfolio is great, the branding is wonderful, but now what are you going to do with it? Is it going to give you experience you don't have, turn you into something you're not, take away the gray in your hair? Of course not. But when done right, it can do something that the 95% of technical professionals keep missing: It can speak to the needs of your target audience ONCE you get it into their hands.
And that is ultimately why we do what we do. We equip you to face obstacles in the market, and we position you for the best chances of success.
We began developing this “positive negative preparation” approach in late 2011 when we started to realize that our client “members” needed more than just a resume and basic messaging; they needed a strategic vision.
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That’s how NoddlePlace came to be…To best provide this strategic visioning, we realized we needed to differentiate our solutions even further! This meant tailoring some to meet the needs of the more experienced tech pro, the leader with 15+ years of experience who is now wondering how to face this market that seems to penalize them often for things they can’t control, like age, experience, and high salaries. For this leader, it isn’t so much about climbing ladders as it is about protecting what they’ve built so far and staying relevant to the marketplace.
So we customized ITtechExec to meet the needs of this type of client.
Then we introduced NoddlePlace in 2013. Here we focus on the “emerging” technical professional with 5 to 15 years of experience who knows another 25 years or more in the tech job market means 8+ more career moves, statistically speaking, and wants to keep advancing in the market but now has a lot of other demands on his or her time.
In either case, though, they are both looking for real solutions…
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And protecting careers protects families.
Too many times we think of our careers in terms of climbing the ladder of ambition and in having it all “figured out.”
And although there’s nothing wrong with having ambition, there’s much more to our livelihoods than that. There are people depending on us, and no matter where we stand on the corporate ladder, we all have
something to protect.
And that protection requires preparation. (If you want to toss in ambition, great!) It doesn’t necessarily mean you have your whole life mapped out or that the obstacles you face aren’t real. It does mean,
though, that you aren’t going to keep letting corporate whims and job market trends toss you around with no regard for you and your family.
What is the cost of doing nothing? (Much more than the price of doing something!)
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So we’ve developed our solutions, not to be so much an investment in a “resume” as an investment in proper positioning and solutions to your career needs.
Call it holistic. Call it different. We like to think of it in terms of allowing us to track results and ROI. After all, isn’t that what matters? (Tell that to the graduate programs and certification schools who often aren’t held accountable for their ROI; yet their prices go up, up, up!)
There are good resume writers out there. But they can’t/don’t/won’t do anything more than write the resume and send you on your way. And the resume alone isn’t really addressing the main issue: your age, lack of experience (too much experience), family or geographic restrictions, job hopping, you name it.
Having the right messaging is good; having the right messaging with the right strategic vision is better.
But the story doesn’t end there…or it shouldn’t…
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To learn more about ITtechExec or our other solutions:
Check Us Out
Or call Stephen toll-free at 1-866-755-9800; email at [email protected].
Also, check out our free self-assessments:
From Tech Job Market Zoo to Corporate Goo...
How to Protect What You’ve Built So Far.
LI Profile Optimization Self-Assessment
Career Move Preparation Self-Assessment