Do you know a business owner who would like to network more on LinkedIn? Maybe that person is you!
Yesterday a business owner told me that he is on LinkedIn, but he just accepts invites. He doesn’t really do much with it otherwise. We talked for a bit about how he might expand his use of LinkedIn, especially how to use it for networking.
I remember when I was new to LinkedIn and was exactly where he is now.
For just over 18 months I had a skeletal profile on LinkedIn and to be nice to those who asked me to connect with them, I simply accepted their invites.
Then I had that light bulb moment.
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A friend of mine told me that he was finding LinkedIn to be a terrific way to network with people.
It was the word “network” that caught my attention, because I love to network with folks in person. I started to wonder how I could do networking in cyberspace.
Why not just give it a try, I decided. Maybe I will meet some new folks who can teach me something. Maybe I have something to offer someone else.
That’s when I joined the Official Toastmasters Members Group on LinkedIn. Once I became active in that group, I came to learn that you CAN network in cyberspace.
It has been just over 4 years since I joined that group, and now I am a huge advocate of LinkedIn as a terrific place to network.
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Why network on LinkedIn?
Here are 6 reasons why:
- Learn more about your industry
- Learn more about a career that you have considered pursuing
- Share tips with others in your industry
- Develop strategic partners who can help you grow your business
- Help others to grow their business
- Discover folks who share your avocation(s) and do all the above with them
One of my favorite cyberspace buddies is George Marshall, a fellow Toastmaster. He and met through the Official Toastmasters Members Group on LinkedIn several years ago.
Every time George shared something in that group, I said to myself – that guy is right on the money. That’s when I decided to invite him to connect with me. He was one of the first people I reached out to on LinkedIn who I didn’t already know in real life.
Since then George and I have helped each other with presentations. He is even on a committee that is guiding me through a leadership project I am doing for Toastmasters.
Without LinkedIn, I would probably never have met George.
Think about the folks you might meet if you took a chance and reached out to a “stranger” via LinkedIn.
Who are some of the folks you have already met via LinkedIn or another social media site who have enhanced your life?
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Joyce Feustel, Founder of Boomers’ Social Media Tutor, helps people relatively new to social media to become more effective and comfortable in their use of this medium. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com
Right on the money Joyce, my cyber friend. We met through the Toastmaster LinkedIn group. Many Toastmaster clubs use social media for recruiting and communicating. I wrote about using Facebook for PR on my blog http://www.cyberlifetutors.com/facebook-your-toastmasters-club-pr-friend/
– April M. Williams
Thanks, April, for reinforcing the points I made in my blog post. I think that the LinkedIn group for Toastmasters members worldwide is just awesome. I have also met Toastmasters via our district’s LinkedIn group. And people have used that group and our district’s Facebook page for communicating with other Toastmasters in CO, WY and western NE. I think more Toastmasters clubs, at least in our district, are using Facebook than use LinkedIn from what I can tell.
Thanks for that shout-out! I also have found LinkedIn to be a great way to connect with other Toastmaster members around the world, as well as follow groups related to my business. In addition to meeting Joyce, I have good friends in several time zones around the world because of this great tool.
Joyce and I managed to meet in person one time, when she and her family were vacationing in California.
You are welcome, George. I continue to look forward to seeing your words of wisdom in various discussions in the worldwide Toastmasters LinkedIn group. And it was such a treat to meet you and your wife in person when Bruce and I were vacationing nearby. 🙂
I, too, have benefited from networking through LinkedIn. Two of those benefits are definitely ‘meeting’ Joyce and George. It becomes extra special when we can take these cyber-connections and make them face-to-face connections, as I had the honour of doing when I met George at the Las Vegas convention in 2011.
One day, Joyce – one day.
Dawna, thanks so much for what you wrote. Yes, it sure does become extra special when you can meet long term LinkedIn connections in person. That’s neat you got to meat George at the Toastmasters convention in 2011. Any chance you might come down to Cincinnati for the 2013 convention? It will be the first one I have attended since I was in district leadership in the mid-2000’s.
Connecting with fellow Toastmasters is a delightful experience. I have found that I enjoy not only chatting about Toastmasters topics, but also a number of other matters as well. Like diamonds with many different facets, We are all folks with many different aspects to our personalities, education, religious beliefs and family values. We are blessed to have Toastmasters as a beginning point with which to network.
Susan, I totally agree with what you wrote about how nice it is to get to know the other facets of people we meet through LinkedIn beyond what drew us together in the first place. Thanks for sharing that observation.
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Thanks for your comment, Marianna. I am glad this post was of help to you.