by Caroline Leach | Jul 9, 2017 | Social Media
So often what you learned growing up will help you in the professional world.
One of my mom’s rules was if I wanted to invite a friend over, I had to ask my mom in private, without the friend being part of the conversation.
Why? In case my mom needed to say no, it wouldn’t create an awkward moment.
The same logic applies to introducing people in your network to each other. Ask each one, privately and separately, if it’s okay to make the introduction.
This is what David Burkus refers to as “permission introductions” in a great Harvard Business Review article called The Wrong Way to Introduce People Over Email. The right way is also called a “double opt-in introduction.”
As you reach out individually, give context and background for the request. Share with each person why you think they’d benefit from knowing each other. Include your thoughts on how they might be able to help one another.
Connecting people across your network is another important part of being savvy in social media as you build your professional reputation.
Here are some of the reasons I’ve introduced people recently:
For career advice for members of my team, I’ve introduced them to relevant people in my network at the company (note: opinions expressed in this blog are my own).
For information about a marketing leadership development program I lead with colleagues in HR, I introduced an employee interested in the program to a current participant in the program.
For paying it forward to current students at the USC Annenberg School, I arranged a series of informational meetings with colleagues who shared their career paths and what they do in the current jobs.
Once you have the green light from each person, you can make an introduction via email inside your company or use the share profile feature in LinkedIn for people outside the company. Using LinkedIn includes contact info, so it’s easy for people to connect.
Include a compelling, complimentary and descriptive line or two about each person. Hyperlink to anything helpful or noteworthy about each person. Add why they’d benefit from meeting each other. One of my colleagues Anthony Robbins is especially good at this.
Make the immediate next step easy and clear. The more junior person – generally the one gaining the most from the introduction – should take the next step of finding a time on the other person’s calendar, without creating extra work for that person.
Be kind to your network by not suggesting too many introductions in a short period of time. Space them out by at least a few months. If there’s more than one introduction you want to make to the same person, prioritize the most important one first.
And some introductions should never be made. You don’t want to waste the time of people in your network or take advantage of their goodwill. Your credibility and reputation will suffer as a result.
Don’t introduce:
- A job candidate without at least a 70% match with the job description to the hiring manager
- A salesperson you don’t know well to business decision makers in your network
- Anyone who isn’t clear why they’re requesting to be introduced to someone in your network.
Given the importance of reciprocity, be open to introductions that people in your network suggest to you. Make sure you’re clear on how you can help. And learn from others about what does and doesn’t work well in making introductions.
What are your best practices for making great introductions?
by Caroline Leach | Jun 11, 2017 | Social Media
Three is a magic number. In a whimsical, 3-minute video, Schoolhouse Rock explains why.
Maybe that’s why it took 3 separate LinkedIn messages from connections for me to notice a trend.
What were they? Friendly invitations to check out their latest LinkedIn articles.
They were from a diverse group, with no overlaps in our networks.
One was a work colleague I met first through LinkedIn, Anthony Robbins. (Opinions expressed in this blog are my own.)
One was someone who connected with me through the MAKERS conference, Kari Warberg Block.
And another was the CEO of a partner company with a previous employer, Terry Traut.
They each sent a personal message to me through LinkedIn highlighting a recent article and inviting me to read it and engage with it.
And in doing so with me and likely many others, they generated not only a high number of likes, but also a great dialogue of comments.
This is a powerful proactive strategy in sharing your own articles with key people in your network. It’s something I’ll be experimenting with – and writing about – in the coming weeks.
There’s also a reactive play. Here are 6 aspects to consider (and that’s 3 times 2, for anyone following the theme of 3).
Engage with articles that align with your social media goals. How does an article relate to your social media savvy strategy?
Look for something in it that connects with your professional interests and goals. That will both highlight your personal brand and help provide the basis for your comment.
Scan other comments to put yours in context. See what other people have posted and how that has extended and amplified the author’s point of view.
If any of the commenters are in your network, like their comment, remembering to look before you like. Consider posting a comment to further your relationship and the dialogue.
If any of the comments are of particular interest to you, visit the commenter’s profile to learn more about them. Like or comment on the comment. Maybe that commenter is even someone you’d like to get to know and invite to your network.
Post comments that add something to the dialogue. Consider your comment as additive content to the original article, beyond simply a “great post!” statement that affirms the author but doesn’t add anything new.
What resonated with you the most and why? How has your experience been similar or different and why? What additional ideas, links and people can you add to the conversation? Ask yourself these questions and more as you write your comment.
Mention the author in your comment. To keep it informal and eliminate extra words, delete the author’s last name when LinkedIn auto-populates it and use the first name only.
By mentioning the author, they’ll be notified of your comment. And they may choose to like or respond to your comment.
Stick with the rule of 3. Keep your comment to 3 sentences, max. Write it and then edit out extra words and thoughts. Ask yourself how you can make your point in fewer words.
Proofread, proofread, proofread. Make sure your comment is free of spelling and grammatical errors.
I learned this the hard way with a comment today. I proofread it, fixing a spelling error that had been auto-corrected incorrectly (it was a Colin Powell quote using the word “simplifiers,” which auto-corrected to “simplifies” without the “r.” Oops.
But after I posted the comment, I realized that one sentence didn’t have the right subject-verb agreement. As of now, you can only delete a LinkedIn comment and repost it; unfortunately it’s not possible to edit it.
Not many people might have recognized the error, because the subject and the verb were separated by intervening words. But content can live on the internet forever. So I deleted the comment and re-posted it with the correct wording. Next time, I’ll proofread 3 times before posting.
Speaking of grammar and subject-verb agreement, it’s encouraging to see the 2017 AP Stylebook will “include guidance on the limited use of ‘they’ as a singular pronoun.” This a positive step forward for gender equality. And that’s why I use “they” as a singular pronoun.
Back to boosting engagement with LinkedIn articles, what strategies are you using?
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