Networking Styles Part 2, for Job Hunters

Finding your LinkedIn "Style" of Networking

PART II Your networking style if you are in a job search.

In our last post  we discussed the different styles of online networking, from timid to gregarious.

Your decision on which networking style you want to use should depend on your networking goals.  Your personality and approach to marketing Me, Inc., are also factors. Some people who are bashful in person-to-person networking (my kind of people, actually) may find online networking more comfortable. Those who are trying to create networks in new career fields or in other physical locations (say, Chicago, San Francisco, Boise, Lubbock or Shreveport) may find online networking and phone networking essential.

When is the best time to grow your network for a job hunt? This question is similar to the (Japanese, I believe) adage:

When is the best time to plant a tree? Twenty years ago.

When is the second best time to plant a tree? Today.

Likewise, the best time to grow your network for a job hunt was three or four years ago. The next best time is right now. (If you actually did start to network on LinkedIn, collect recommendations, and develop your profile years ago, congratulations! Now is a good time to get a bit more aggressive.)

If you are job-hunting, there are practical reasons for creating a larger network. Many companies are now using employee referrals to vet potential hires. Some companies even give bonuses to employees if those referrals result in hires. One of the current trends in HR circles is to use employee's connections to help find new employees instead of using expensive search services and recruiters

[See earlier blog post. ]

Therefore, to find connections from your list of target companies, you want to use the LinkedIn's Company listings. Look for people in your geographic area or work in the same locations you want to. Find out what professional (or other groups) they belong to that are of mutual interest. Join them.

If that seems too much like stalking, see if they have a Twitter or other social media link on their profile. If so, that's an invitation to connect with them there. Also check and see if they advertise themselves as a LION. If so, feel free to send them a personalized invitation. Note that some LIONs get so many requests to connect, it could be difficult to get noticed in the crowd. If they have a blog, that's also an invitation to read it and leave a comment.

Once you get to know these people, they could be great advocates for you if the right job opens up. (This is similar to the approach that Richard Bolles has espoused for many years in What Color Is Your Parachute?, way, way before online social networks.)

When you join professional groups on LinkedIn, if you have a free account LinkedIn may still put a few obstacles in your path to contacting 3rd degree connections. Mainly, they may hide the last names of 3rd degree (or further) connections and make it difficult to send them a message (unless it's one of their $10 InMail messages.) There are many ways around these restrictions, but one way is to connect with one or two LIONs in that group. (LION = LinkedIn Open Network.) Do that and nearly everybody in that group, however large, will be a 2nd degree connection. That's a good incentive to accept an invitation from a LION in that group, too. How do you know if a person is a LION? Look at their profile. Many LIONs actually post in their profile the term, LION, or announce that they accept all invitations.

You can also make it easier for other people to find you when they have the same problem of indentifying you. It’s easy. Just re-type your name in the Headline section (just below your name, next to your photo). You do that by clicking the Edit button next to your name when you edit your profile. This way if a group member points at your photo in a group, they might see your first name and last initial from the name field, but they will also see your full name in your headline. You can also add your full name to your links to your Twitter address and other accounts on your profile. This can make it much, much easier for people to find and identify you for jobs and networking.

Also, when people write you a recommendation on LinkedIn, simply ask them to use your full name in the recommendation. If an HR person is searching recommendations instead of entire profiles, your name will pop up there, too.

You can also be strategic in accepting invitations, especially if you get one of those boring, canned "I'd like to invite you to join my LinkedIn network" invitations. When you get that invitation, that could mean one of three things:

1. The person sending the invitation doesn't know how to personalize their invitation, especially when LinkedIn gives them the option to connect with people. (That means they’re a newbie and might not be particularly helpful to you.)

2. The person doesn't really care enough about you to send a personalized invitation, they just want to collect connections. (Why would you want to connect with somebody who won’t even take the time to personalize an invitation?)

3. They assume you are an open networker and will accept most if not all invitations. (A less impersonal, but still careless error unless, of course, you actually ARE an open networker.)

There actually is a fourth possibility: they clicked the wrong button and sent you an invitation by mistake. It does happen. Again, this is not usually a great way to start a networking relationship.

If you get one of these impersonal invitations from somebody, be strategic. Look at their profile. If that person is in your field or one of your groups, consider accepting the invitation and writing back, "I'm happy to connect. Was there a particular reason you sent me an invitation? How can I help you?" This could be a good way to start a conversation. If they don't write back in a reasonable time, you can always disconnect.

If that invitation is from a person in the HR field, they might be working strategically to build their network for their specialty, or they may be flailing, randomly sending out invitations to anybody they can find who is connected. Again, if they are a specialist in your field or in your region, consider accepting the invitation. If (as in some recent invitations I've received) they work in an entirely different part of the country (or world) and/or place clients in a field unrelated to yours, you can simply hit the Ignore button with a clear conscience.

When job hunting, you also need to make sure your profile is close to or at 100% completion. Use keywords for your occupation in your job descriptions and use those to make it easier for HR people to find you, too. There are other techniques we'll talk about in other posts, too.

If you are thinking of planting your tree now, start digging.

Networking Styles

Finding your LinkedIn "Style" of Networking

On LinkedIn, as elsewhere online, there are all kinds of networkers. Each has their own style, related to their networking goals and desires. One way to think of networking style is to think of a continuum of networking approaches ranging from a private, select group of contacts to a gregarious, recruit-everybody-into-my-personal -network style.

Since the beginning of LinkedIn, there have been emotional debates arguing Quantity vs. Quality. Although LinkedIn officially recommends caution when adding people to your network, they also reward those who collect many contacts by allowing them to see more connections when they search for people and make it easier for people to find you.

LinkedIn's official stance is to only invite people into your network that you know and trust. These people would include school and corporate alumni, co-workers, other academic connections, friends, and people from your live networks. We could call this the "LinkedIn is a dangerous place" approach.

"Power networkers" thumb their noses at LinkedIn's warnings, arguing that you wouldn't attend a live networking meeting and only talk to people you already know. The whole purpose of networking is to find new connections and learn new things. If you find somebody on LinkedIn you would like to talk to in real life, invite them into your network. (And some people would like to talk to everybody.) This could be called the "LinkedIn is a rich place of incredible diversity and knowledge" approach.

In reality, they are both right. The first approach is probably the one that LinkedIn's lawyers are comfortable with spreading. The second approach could make you vulnerable to corporate intelligence collecting, scams, people "stealing" your connections, and whatever it is that those people who create fake LinkedIn profiles do. However, it can also help you find lots of people willing to help you in your online endeavors.

The Quantity vs. Quality debate ignores the vast area inbetween the two extremes. It also ignores every person's networking goals. Your goals could vary greatly, and could include such things as:

• Creating a network of trusted friends.
• Helping mentor others in your field (or about LinkedIn).
• Become a professional Go-To person in your field.
• Support your blog.
• Learn about your field of endeavor from the pros.
• Find a new job.
• Find a new career, find a job coach, find a mentor, or change careers.
• Read current news in your field.

You could argue that no two people are online for exactly the same thing.

I think of networking style more as a continuum, ranging from a private, timid connection to a power networker. Somewhere in-between is a "Normal Networker" which could include you and me. Here are my four categories of networkers.


THE LURKER
The lurker is not a real networker. It could be somebody who just joined LinkedIn (or another service) and wants to look around and get a feel for things before proceeding. In many online discussion groups (or in many LinkedIn groups) this is not necessarily a bad approach.

The lurker could also be a person who created a LinkedIn profile because somebody else (perhaps their boss) told them to. They only have 1 to 3 connections in their network, which means they're not even trying. They do not join groups. They have no recommendations. Some have not even finished filling out their profile basics. (One profile I saw only had the person's initials and no viewable information. Ironically, he listed his career as "Communications.")



THE NOVICE NETWORKERS
They might also be referred to as Timid Connectors. Novice Networkers may network because they have to or because they are curious about all this talk of online networking, but they are not yet enthusiastic about it.

They have a few people in their network, but those may be people they already network with in person.

They might belong to a few discussion groups, but only participate occasionally.

They may connect only once a week or a couple of times a month. They're not growing their network and they're still trying to figure out what all the fuss is about.



THE NORMAL NETWORKER
This category includes NPLYOM's (Normal People Like You or Me).

These are gradually more active networkers, probably like you. You may have anywhere from 25 to 600 first level connections. Here are some strategies you can use to develop your network:

Don't invite everybody into your network, but DO try to get a variety of people (alumni, co-workers, other people in your field, some creative types, and a few Power Networkers) into your network.

Also join Groups so people can find you and contact you without having to use expensive InMails. Join several professional groups so you can find who the leaders are in your field, and so others in your field can find you also. There are several large groups (including some job search groups) which span many professions and are good just for connecting you to a diverse portion of LinkedIn.

Your LinkedIn profile should be at least 80% complete. Make sure it includes your basic contact info (whatever you feel comfortable sharing online), your full name some place other than the name field, connections to other services (I share my Twitter and Google+ IDs, but not my Facebook one, which I use mainly for older friends). Get a few recommendations if you can.

Answer questions in the appropriate user groups and collect some "Best Answer" credits and some Recommendations.

Grow your network gradually and steadily. Set LinkedIn to forward InMails, Invitations and Introductions via email and respond to them promptly.

Communicate with the people in your personal network from time to time, but don't pester them and NEVER send them sleazy marketing invitations.


POWER NETWORKERS
Often called LIONs on LinkedIn, for "LinkedIn Open Networkers," this group includes many HR recruiters, sales people, politicians, and other people who feel they want to have a huge network. They may also be bloggers, writers, speakers or other freelancers and get leads for future gigs online.

These people will normally allow almost anybody into their personal network. Some have thousands or tens of thousands of 1st degree contacts. They like being able to see everybody's profile on LinkedIn and to be able to find a connection with every company.

Some are very generous with their time on discussion groups and may spend hours per day on LinkedIn as well as other services.

Invite a couple of LIONs into your network and see your 3rd Level contacts grow while you sleep.

So it is important for you to decide what style of networker you want to be. That style can change as you mature as a networker. However, as you expand your style, it is difficult to dial it back from an open networker to a more moderate style. So proceed appropriately.

In the next post, we'll discuss how being in job search might be a good reason to change the way you network.

The Seven Types of Evernote Users

1. List makers create

• To Do lists
• shopping lists
• gift lists (with photos and price tags)
• packing lists (for home moves and office storage)
• travel agendas
• conference agendas
• people to meet (and, sometimes, people to avoid)
• job descriptions
• books to read and/or books already read
• good restaurant meals (with photos)
• wine labels, tea tastings, coffee dealers (or other tasty things)
• stamps collected & photographed
• ticket stubs
• tweets posted or collected
• receipts for reimbursement
• house or apartment hunting lists
• bucket lists 

2. GTD enthusiasts. There are bloggers who will go into excruciating detail on how to use Evernote to organize your life and Get Things Done (from the book by David Allen). (There are others who will do almost anything to avoid these sites.)

3. Networkers  use Evernote to collect business cards, photos, names, plan your next networking event, list people to meet, and track LinkedIn contacts and people to invite.

(Hint: if taking photos at a networking event, ask people to hold up their name tags so you can read them in the photo, too.)

4. Planners use Evernote to organize:

• events ranging in size from a private dinner to a half million dollar fundraiser
• conferences
• job hunting
• meetings
• agendas
• assigned tasks
• instructions
• maps
• menus and catering info
• price lists
• decorators
• volunteers and volunteer job descriptions
• venue info with contacts
• PR specialists and connections
• janitorial services, and
• temp agency contacts, among other things.

5. Creatives find new ways to use Evernote for their business, hobbies, song lyrics, poems, drafts, blogging, photo sessions (including studio diagrams and shot notes), makeup notes, hair styles, writing and researching, repertoire lists, reviews (only good ones), press clippings and story boarding.

6. Collaborators use Evernote with others: your personal assistant, your job search group, your baseball team, your wiki group, your work team.

Evernote is being used by a detective agency, realtors, lawyers, coaches, and farmers. (Of this blog's seven groups, this may be the only which which requires a paid account for full usability.)

7. Home & Family Data Collectors use Evernote to keep track of

• all your warrantees for anything you buy with the receipts and date of purchase
• scan or photograph your instruction and repair manuals and other How-To’s
• keep lists of your kid’s school supply requirements
• summer reading lists
• permission slips
• homework assignments
• teachers’ names and contact info
• kids’ friends’ names and parents (tip: take photos of your kids’ friends with their parents – it helps you associate which parents belong to which kids and they won’t think you're creepy photographing just kids)
• list your kids’ friends’ food allergies (so you don’t accidentally send them to the hospital during the birthday party)
• lists of all your repairmen (and repairmen recommended by friends)
• track all your insurance policies
• doctors’ phone numbers
• immunizations
• photos of science projects and awards earned
• report cards, of course
• photograph and file those holiday cards (after keeping them on the fridge for a respectful period of time)
• take-out menus from your favorite home delivery restaurants (pictures of your favorite pizzas are optional)
• gift/wish lists for your kids and your extended family

As you can see, there’s an endless list of ways to use Evernote to track your work, your play, and your life. See http://www.evernote.com/ to get started, or try one of the other notebook apps described in the Frugal Guidance post: http://goo.gl/wLwbs .

Please add your ideas in the comments.

Time for a LinkedIn Tune-up?

If you've been using LinkedIn for a while and you rely on it for your job search, to build your business, or just to build your network -- the end of December and early January might be a good time to give your profile its annual tune-up. (Thanks to members of the Twitter-based #LinkedInChat for several of these ideas. Join us on Tuesdays at 8:00 pm EST.)


Update your profile:

• If you haven't already done it, add the new skills tool.
• If you learned new skills this year, be sure to add them.
• Also add any training you received, awards or commendations.
• Update the links on your profile. If you haven't done it recently, check to make sure all your links work.
• If you are working and have changed roles, update your headlines accordingly.
• If you are looking for work, make sure your headlines reflect what you are currently looking for.
• Rearrange the parts of your profile to emphasize what's important to you and your goals.

Other tune-up ideas:


Review your groups. Are they providing you with leads or information, expanding your reach, or providing inspiration (or fun)? If not, drop those and add better ones. With a rumored 1million groups on LinkedIn, you should find some good ones for you.

Take some free time and add tags to your connections. (In Contacts, in the left column, find "Tags" and click on "Manage."

Add an app to show off your work samples:

• Box.net provides links to your uploaded sample files.
• Google Presentations and Slideshare can be used to show off whatever you do. It can be as simple as one-page with your business card or as sophisticated as embedding a video of yourself.
• If you blog, use the BlogLink or WordPress tool to show off your new blog posts.

If you already use Box.net or another site to share work samples, make sure your documents are up-to-date. You don't want stale material on your profile.


Check with your contacts and see if there is anyway you can help them.


If anybody on LinkedIn did you a good turn or gave you good service this past year, write them a recommendation.


If you are a veteran, go to the LinkedInlabs site and check out the new veterans apps.


If you are not a veteran, go to the LinkedInlabs site and check out the other experimental apps.


Consider writing one recommendation a week. It's a great way to pay it forward and you may get a few good recommendations back, too.


If you have other ideas for an annual check-up for your LinkedIn profile, please leave a comment describing it.


Now, please excuse me, I have to go to LinkedIn and start a tune-up.


Tags: LinkedIn, tune-up, profile, networking, job hunting