Are You LinkedIn Yet?

I've been using LinkedIn for a while now. It's a really cool way to connect with people and also to 'check out' folks you recently met.

Guy Kawasaki today wrote a post on his blog called 10 Ways To Use LinkedIn . He gives some really good tips on making yourself more visible and also more likely to get hired, assuming that's your goal.

Here's my 2 cents on LinkedIn:

1. Soon after meeting someone, I always do a LinkedIn search for them. Not only do I like to get to know people better, I really am curious to find out how we are connected. Finding a shared connection is always a reason to say: "Hey, I didn't know you also knew John Doe? How do you guys know each other?" This can backfire though... I met someone once and asked him this question, but he didn't know the guy! That's the problem with accepting invitations from people just to get more connections.

2. If you join LinkedIn, pay attention to your profile! Many highly connected people (Max Kaizen for instance) join LinkedIn but don't nurture it as they should. If you are on LinkedIn, connect to as many people as possible. Alternatively, close your account. It's better to have no LinkedIn account than showing a dozen contacts on your profile. This is a particular problem in Europe where most businessmen use Xing/OpenBC .

3. Don't hide your contacts from each other. I might just browse through your contacts and see someone I know but haven't spoken to in years. I'd then do point 1. above. Perhaps I hook up with John Doe and we find a cure for world poverty over a bottle of whiskey. All because you put us back in touch! Hiding your contacts just makes no sense.

4. Don't contact people out of the blue. I have used LinkedIn only once to contact someone I didn't know already. I was looking to do a university course and wanted to speak to an alumnus about the merits of the programme.

5. Don't send standard invites. Esther Dyson makes this clear on her profile: "I find it a valuable tool, but I respond only to personal messages that somehow prove that the writer is writing to me rather than to an address book." Guy Kawasaki claims that he has the most pending LinkedIn invitations (good on ya, mate!). I have rejected many an invite from someone with a vanilla name such as Mark or Andrew or Steve that I might have met at a conference days or months ago. If I can't remember who you are, I probably won't accept your invite. Ditto for old university mates who I only knew by first name. The BEST way to get someone with a high-profile who doesn't know you well to accept your LinkedIn invitation is to establish a dialogue and then slip in a LinkedIn invitation as an afterthought.

LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful tool for any entrepreneur or high-flying careermaker. If you're not using it yet, I highly recommend you sign up.

In the meantime, you can: View Henk Kleynhans's profile