Your LinkedIn network is extremely powerful when you add the right people to it. When you have the right people in your network and you understand what is important for them it is easy to share the right content. When you have the right people in your network you will built relationships and get value out of your network. This is exactly the same for the people you want to connect with.
When you want to connect with somebody it is important that you have a clear understanding why you want to connect with a person. And with a reason I don’t mean, you want to connect to sell a product. Why did you pick this person to connect? (you can sell your products to lots of other people). What do you know about this person? What do you know about they business they work for and what is in the interest of the person you want to connect with.
The next step is to write a personal connection request. LinkedIn is a busy place and a lot of people get very random invites to connect from people all over the world. You don’t want to be part of this group random people, you want to connect for specific reason! Make sure you customize your connection request before you click on connect. Customizing means explain how you know or person or what you know about a person and why you want to connect. Make sure you explain what value you can add to somebodies network. Customizing your invites is really important when you connect with people you don’t know in person.
After the person accepts your invite you want to start building the relationship. This relationship will help you to achieve your goal (the reason why you wanted to connect with this specific person). Always send a message after a person accepts your connection request. Start you message with mentioning that you are happy to have the person in your network. Make sure you give something in your message as well. This can be as simple as a white paper or an e-book. But giving something can also mean, offer your help, advice or expertise. Never ask for something straight away in the first message. Social Media is all about giving before you take!
When you customize your connection requests you will see that more people will accept your invite, your relationships are stronger and it is easier to set up a call or meet face to face. From the moment you start to customize your invites you will see that you will react different on people who want to connect with you. You will expect customized connection requests and you start to be curious about the reason why they want to connect!
With love, from Dublin..
WENDY VAN GILST 