How To Network Like a Pro on LinkedIn

Lately I've been getting a lot more requests from to conduct LinkedIn Networking Workshops for B2B sales teams. It seems companies and organizations are finally waking up to the fact that LinkedIn is so much more than an online resume collection. At the same time I'm seeing an uptick in really bad LinkedIn networking attempts. So today I wanted to take a few minutes to share three simple tips that I usually reserve for our LinkedIn Workshops. If you'd like to hear more tips, you can always request a LinkedIn Workshop for your company. In the meantime, enjoy these simple starters.

How Not To Network On LinkedIn

For the love of God please stop sending the standard, LinkedIn connection requests. As soon as I see, "Hi, I'd like to add you to my LinkedIn Network" I hit delete. It's a pavlovian thing. When you send the standard LinkedIn connection message you're basically telling me that you don't really want to connect, you're just trying to build your rolodex or worse, you're a salesperson and you've got something to sell me.

Take the time to personalize the message. I'm not asking you to write War & Peace, but write something. Even if you just pick something out of the person's LinkedIn profile or I don't know, maybe take a second to check out their company, their Twitter profile or any of the information folks often connect to their LI profile. If at all possible, consider crafting something truly creative that rewards the prospective connection with a good laugh or something in exchange for reading your request to connect. The photo for this post is an actual LinkedIn Request sent to Ann Handley -- you can read her entire post here and see if she accepted the connection.

And lastly, while we're on this subject, don't ever try to connect with someone you don't know via the LinkedIn mobile app. When you click the connect button on the mobile app, it automatically uses the standard LI connection message. You can't change it or personalize it. It's a HUGE oversight in my opinion, but till they change it, you're better off just using the mobile app to connect with folks you actually have met in real life.

Read the rest of this post originally posted on my new Digital Sales & Marketing Blog