I’d like to work through some examples of how LinkedIn can help – and have you sit ringside. Who would you like to find, find out more about, or figure out how to reach?
I’m going to take the challenge from a handful of readers, spend less than an hour on the LinkedIn system, share the results with the lucky reader, and then go over what happened in a blog entry.
Sound interesting?-)
Your needs
The first thing to do is to think about who it is you’re trying to find – and you have to be specific. You might say “high level marketing managers within Paychex”, “hiring managers within the software development areas of Oracle”, “experienced mechanical engineers near the zip code 12345”, or even a specific individual such as “Jane Smith at Acme”.
I’d also like to know any additional information you have that will help show that this is the right person or group of people you’d like to find – specific words they should mention in their profile, experiences they may have had, or skills they should mention.
My search
I’ll use my network of 242 direct and over 5 million third degree connections to find out what I can:
- How large or small a pool of people meet your criteria
- A handful of “top prospects”, and high level research about them
- Suggestions about how you might reach them
Results
And this is my point – every time I do this with someone I know who doubts the value of LinkedIn, they walk away with a newfound respect for LinkedIn.
I’ll end with your recap of how helpful the results were. Did it give you information you didn’t have before? Was it worth an hour of your time? Would you do it again?
Your profile and network
While my network is not huge, it is the result of steady growth over years by connecting to people I know and trust. Your network may not be quite as large – yet.
But when you have worked on building your network, you will have more specific and relevant connections. Your network will work so much better for you than mine will;-)
Making a point
But my hope is that through this exercise you’ll see the value and understand why you want to take the time to build your network and refine your profile.
And that’s why we’re here.
Drop me a private note
If you’re interested, send an email to stylock@linkedinpersonaltrainer.com outlining your challenge to me.
I’d like to get a variety of searches going, so if I’ve covered a recruiting search, I may not pick another, I hope you understand.
Publicity will help you – promote this blog and mention it in your request, and I’ll apply “bonus points” to determining if I’ll work on your challenge;-)
The resulting blog post
I’ll summarize the setup, search process, and results in a blog post (anonymizing names) so that everyone else will benefit from it as well.
Worth a shot?
steve
—
Steven Tylock
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetylock