If you’re looking for a job, you should join LinkedIn, an essential job search tool. If you are not looking for a job but are interested in networking online; or want to acquire new partners or customers; or if you want to speed up your level of networking, you should also become a LinkedIn user, in my opinion. All of that said, there are some strict rules for courteous and professional use of the Internet. Here is my Top Ten list of LinkedIn Do’s and Don’ts:
1) DO connect with your “real world” friends.
It amazes me how many LinkedIn users join, create a profile, and immediately go to work inviting all sorts of online strangers to join their networks. Sure, it’s fun to browse the LinkedIn database and look for people you might want to get to know better… but what about your friends in three-dimensional space? The first thing to do as a new LinkedIn user, after creating an amazing profile for yourself, is to invite your real friends and former coworkers to join your network. There are three steps in this process:
a) Download your Outlook address book so LinkedIn can find your friends who are already members.
b) Use the Find Colleagues and Find Classmates features to sync up with people you know from school and previous jobs; and
c) Invite groups of “real” friends who are not yet LinkedIn users to join the network – it will help them connect while growing your own network.
2) DO NOT become an invite spammer.
It’s tempting to start sending “connect with me” invitations to every Tom, Dick and Sally you find on LinkedIn, but it’s rude. If you want to connect with someone you’ve seen has an attractive profile, send the person a contact request instead of an invitation to join your network. A contact request, to use an offline networking analogy, is like an invitation for coffee. An invite to Connect is like asking someone to hold steady. Unless you already know a person, don’t spam them with “do you want to start referring people to me and vice versa?” invitation – it’s creepy.
3) DO to others….
It’s surprising that a person sends me connection invitations while proclaiming on their profile that no new connection invitations will be accepted. Talk about all the take and don’t give! There are other LinkedIn users who set up a profile and make connections, and then specify in their profiles that they won’t act on forwarding requests (a key piece of LinkedIn’s value). These messages say, I want to be on this site and get its value, but I don’t want to deal with other people’s requests. A modern Dante would design a special, uncomfortable, crowded hell for these people: no fire pits, but perhaps a zone where all connections are dial-up, cell phones can’t maintain a signal, and no one helps you. with anything, retribution for the “me first” approach to online networking that you displayed in your most recent incarnation on Earth.
4) DO NOT make assumptions about your own irresistibility.
Connection invitations should clearly state why you expect your invitee to connect with you, for example, because you serve on the same fundraising committee or because your daughters are best friends in fifth grade. With so many activities filling a typical business person’s schedule and so many people in the mix, it’s easy for people to forget how they know you. Likewise, even contact requests should make your case as clearly as possible. A message that says “Can I call you? We could help” is not the loudest tone in the world. People are incredibly busy: If you’re looking for a job or looking for new clients, you may lose sight of the fact that a person needs a compelling reason to spend ten minutes on the phone with you.
It helps to remember what I call the happy life network theory: when you approach a stranger, that person is presumably leading a happy and fulfilling life without the benefit of knowing you. It’s not enough to say “I’ll buy you lunch!” or the online equivalent of that offer; a $25 lunch (or a brilliant phone conversation with you) might not be as hard to pass up as you think. So put it out there: this is what I can do for you, or this is what I need, or both.
5) DO keep your profile updated.
A smallpox for the person who lets his LinkedIn profile languish! If you can’t be bothered to keep your profile up to date, why should anyone else bother interacting with you? If I get a contact request, go to the requester’s profile and find that their details don’t match what’s in the requester’s email, I’m already disappointed. Bonus: When you update your profile, you can send a mass message with one click to let your entire first grade network know about your news. Note: do not abuse this feature! Reserve profile update bursts for news about the order of a job promotion, book launch, or appointment to a national commission…instead of news like “I’ve started my PMP certification class.”
6) DO NOT confuse quantity with quality.
If I were a recruiter, I’d build the biggest network I could, on LinkedIn or otherwise. After all, there’s no downside to being able to see and reach a large pool of candidates when your job is to scout talent. But for the rest of us, it’s easy to confuse the notions of “a big network” and “a strong network.” The question to ask yourself is “could you recommend this person and could you recommend me?” If not, the primary value in any individual LinkedIn connection will be their ability to see your network (and vice versa). That’s not a bad thing, but it would be a shame to confuse that kind of visibility with influence. Accumulating connections can become something of an addiction, but the withdrawal will kick in when these almost strangers start asking you to vouch for them to their dearest friends.
7) DO NOT forward questionable requests.
I understood religion in this article in an instant last summer, when a colleague asked me to send a spammy invitation to a friend of mine to his business conference. “I can’t do it,” I wrote, “it’s purely a marketing message.” The gentleman’s reply message essentially ripped my head off, affirming my initial knee-jerk reaction that his request was inappropriate. Don’t hesitate to stand up for yourself and your friends when incomplete requests come up (and they will). If you pass over every piece of crap it comes across, your trusted friends will start to doubt you, and that’s a far worse fate than having to write to another LinkedIn user: “Sorry, but I don’t feel comfortable coming by.” . This in.”
8) DO NOT abuse the Find Colleagues feature.
LinkedIn’s Find Colleagues feature lets you find former co-workers and send them connection requests without any intermediaries—a big help if you’ve lost your email addresses over the years. Unfortunately, it’s easy to abuse the feature by listing fake employers or dates of employment on your profile. What can we say about this? If you believe in the wheel of karma, avoid the temptation to claim employers and dates of employment that you are not entitled to.
9) Join the PowerForum.
New LinkedIn users have a lot of questions, and a great place to get answers is the user group called MyLinkedInPowerForum. Send a blank email to [email protected] to join the group and get tips on LinkedIn (and general) networking. MLPF founder Vincent Wright is a helpful guide and mentor to LinkedIn users around the world. I can practically guarantee that he will learn something useful from the daily forum conversation.
10) Disconnect from the rotten apples when you need to.
Finally, it’s worth noting that LinkedIn gives you the ability to disconnect from other users if you find that the connection is no longer working for you. If you’re plagued with inappropriate requests or other annoyances from one of your connections, you can cut the cord and avoid recurring headaches. Some people just don’t understand the notion of an online community with standards and norms; and it’s not your job to teach them how to behave. Just keep going.