Whether you are an entrepreneur, business owner, salesman, employee, or job seeker, you can leverage LinkedIn for business and personal success. People do business with people they know, like, and trust. And, with LinkedIn you get an opportunity to be at a worldwide open networking event via the comfort of your home, office, or Starbucks. With more than 450 million users, it’s one crowded space.
I personally accept most of the LinkedIn contact requests I get – even if I don’t know the person. My one criterion is they have a photo on their profile page and at least a sentence or two in their summary.
As I mentioned in a previous column, a profile without a head shot is like a person wearing a bag over their head at a chamber of commerce mixer. It doesn’t make a good first impression!
Get comfortable requesting people to connect and accepting invitations to connect. You never know who someone knows. Often the best relationships end up being introductions to your connections’ 2nd and 3rd degree connections.
Your connections can mean more business for you; a job opportunity for your son or daughter; a new pre-owned certified car you’ve been trying to find; a travel partner to an upcoming conference; an out-of-state attorney for your vacation home’s storm damage; and the list goes on.
Watch My 4½-minute Video
I’ll show you how you go about mastering the art of starting a conversation with your connections.
What happens after you click accept?
