There are a thousand ways to do it right and a thousand ways to do it wrong.  I wanted to share some thoughts from one I got this morning.  This comes from Carol to one of my second degree contacts:

My question there is…. what next?  If I’m Dan, what do I do with this?  Let’s break this down:

>> I profoundly enjoyed and gobbled up every piece of information I could from your blog in the hopes of understanding it well enough to use it in my field.

I like this – it creates relevance and helps me know how you found me… or at least lets me know you know something about me.  Being a blog reader is a big complement to most bloggers (who sometimes wonder if anyone is reading their blog :p).

>> I came to you in a round about way from a comment you made on BNET to Steve Tobak…

Very nice – this shows me what you read and who else you read… so I can somehow gauge what level of professional you are (or, where you are at professionally).

>> and so I am asking Jason Alba, who I admire and respect as well to introduce me to you!

I am sincerely flattered to have you put that sentence in, but this is a second degree connection of mine and I doubt Dan really knows who I am.  I’m flattered but personally I’d recommend you keep this out until I have achieved fame :p

>> I am trying to be both a marketing person as well as a technology guru so I am wearing many hats right now.

I can appreciate this but I don’t know how this is relevant to the conversation … this is really where it starts to go downhill, imho.

>> Thanks for your knowledge and sharing it.

This is okay to keep, although I might have put it up higher when you are talking about reading his blog.

>> It would be even more of an honor to have you as part of my network, but for now I am asking for the introduction.

This is where it breaks down… so you are asking for an introduction from me, but what does that mean to Dan?  How is he supposed to respond to this?  It’s as if you are missing the last line… which would be something like:

I would like to [chat with you/email you/meet you for coffee/etc.]

and then:

Can we [talk/email]?  You can respond via email at ______ or call me at ______.

Now Dan can know what you want, and how to respond.

I’d recommend something very specific (like a call or email).  I don’t encourage you to ask to connect on LinkedIn at this stage of the relationship since that usually doesn’t go anywhere.  I’d rather see you start the relationship and then eventually ask to connect.

Thoughts?

I get this regularly.  I think this is poor logic and irresponsible connecting.

Just because we share a group means we should connect?

Please… please give me a better reason.  Tell me how you found my Profile (same group – that’s okay) and then tell me WHY it makes sense to connect.

I’d rather get a canned invitation than this crappy logic.

You aren’t doing this, right?

I’m reading through the post on the LinkedIn professional headline and Peter Osborne’s great feedback to those who have left comments (I’ll probably close the comments in a while).  One thing that jumps out is … how to put this… BORING.

Why is it boring… that’s the question I’m asking myself.  Perhaps it is boring because it reads like this:

Jargon cliche boring jargon boring cliche fancy-pantz just-like-everyone-else.

If you have it in your professional headline, or your summary, or your email message, or your ___________, it makes you sound:

• like everyone else
• boring
• cliche

Jargon is useful in certain places (perhaps where everyone speaks the jargon), but NOT in marketing yourself or your product.

Go through your profile, and the last few emails, and your email signature and see how much boring, cliche jargon you are spewing.

Then, change it

In the last post I talked about how to cheat the system by joining Groups (in regards to contacting people you find on LinkedIn).

Here’s another tactic, though, which I’ve used.  When I find a target contact I will use the internal messaging if I have to.  I like LinkedIn Introductions, to a point… but what might be better is just a plain old email to the target contact.

However, if you are not a first degree contact it might be really hard to find an email for the person.

Now it’s time to start thinking like a recruiter.  If a recruiter found the perfect candidate, and the email wasn’t there, that would not stop them from moving forward.

A recruiter would look for another way to contact the person – phone (whitepages.com) or email or something else.

Recently I found someone who I wanted to contact.  It was the CEO of a company.  In doing some company research (first on LinkedIn, to find other employees there, then on their blog) I found the naming convention of their corporate email addresses.

How?  I found two employees who had their email addresses posted online (0utside of LinkedIn).  Both of their email addresses had the same naming convention… so I GUESSED on the CEO’s email.

It worked – within 24 hours I had a reply to my email, from the CEO.

Just because you can’t message someone through LinkedIn’s mechanisms, don’t stop!  Find other ways to get in front of that person – when I’m stuck I think “what would a recruiter do?”  Tacky, I know, but they do this stuff all day long.

Last week I wrote about LinkedIn Companies, and the work I’m doing prospecting people on LinkedIn.

I was comped an upgraded account on LinkedIn (thanks LinkedIn!) and have really loved it… I have the ability to communicate with people I’m not connected with quickly, easily and immediately.

However, if you don’t have an upgrade there is a way to cheat the system.  Actually, it’s not really cheating the system.  And if you had my LinkedIn DVD or LinkedIn book you’d already know this… it is a powerful almost-loophole to help you contact people in LinkedIn.

Did you know that if you are in the same LinkedIn Group as someone you can message them for free, no matter how you are connected?

It’s perhaps the most compelling reason to join multiple LinkedIn Groups.

Here’s how you can apply this:

Let’s say you find a target contact… but she is a third degree contact.  You don’t want to do a LinkedIn Introduction (for various reasons)… you’d rather contact them directly.

Go to their LinkedIn Profile, scroll down to their Groups, and find Groups that might be relevant to you (in other words, Groups you would join whether they are in them or not).

Then, join that or those Groups.  Hopefully you’ll find a Group that let’s you in right away… if so, you can then message that key person right away – all because you are in the same Group!

Pretty cool, huh?

Remember, you can only join 50 Groups at a time, so you might find yourself joining and leaving Groups the more you do this… I haven’t had to do that because I have the upgraded account, but it’s a simple fix to the problem

I recently was asked how to request a LinkedIn Introduction. I love Introductions for a few reasons which I talk about in my LinkedIn book and the LinkedIn DVD (2 hours of training!).  Here I’ll share the mechanics of HOW to do it.

You would use the LinkedIn Introduction request when someone is a second or third degree connection, and your introduction request goes through your first degree contact to the person you want an Introduction to.

First, I go to the  Profile page of the person I want an Introduction to.  You’ll notice I have the “send a message” link – ignore that – I only have that because I have the upgrade account.  If I had the regular account I would not see that.  The red arrow points to the link I really want.

If more than one of my first degree contacts can do the Introduction, LinkedIn lets me choose which one I want to do it.  This is cool because I will have a stronger relationship with some of these contacts – and those are the ones I’d be inclined to choose.  In this case I’m going to choose Brad.

Now I figure out how much I want to share with Harry – the person I want to be introduced to.  Lately I’ve been doing this for B2B purposes (sales) and want to be accessible in multiple ways, even outside of LinkedIn, so I put my email address AND my phone number.

Here’s one of my least favorite parts, only because sometimes I’ve had to choose from this limited list of items in the drop down, and sometimes the real reason is not listed there. Alas, choose the one that fits best – you can explain yourself better in the actual message   (also, you’ll see below “Category” is the “Subject,” this is where you put what amounts to an email subject… have it be descriptive – not vague or spammy.

Finally, you get to write two messages, one to the person you want an introduction to (in this case, Harry, and you put the message where I have the number 1), and one to the person you are sending the introduction THROUGH (in this case, Brad, with the number 2).

That’s it – then hit the Send button and cross your fingers

Two points I want to make:

1. Think about how to word your Introduction.  I wrote a post titled Killer LinkedIn Introduction Request where I show a terrific Introduction I saw and comment on it – read that post to see how you can construct your own LinkedIn Introduction.
2. If your communication is time-sensitive, perhaps an Introduction is not the best option.  Imagine if Brad where out of town for a couple of weeks?  I’d probably miss my opportunity to communicate with Harry, based on something I don’t really control (Brad’s schedule).

Good luck with your LinkedIn Introductions!

Was this helpful?  There’s a ton more on the LinkedIn DVD

I have been on the road for 5 of the last 7 work days.  My trip last week was from Wednesday through Friday, and then I was on the plane this week on Monday, returning late Tuesday evening.

I have hundreds (well, thousands) of emails in my inbox – I imagine you are somewhat like me in that you address the most important ones first.  Unfortunately, because of volume, this means thousands of emails don’t get answered until I get through the important ones.

Since important emails come every day, I am usually in the wrong Covey Quadrant… that’s my problem… but if you send me something you think is URGENT/IMPORTANT that I don’t deem urgent or important, you probably lose.

My fault, but your problem.  Sorry.

Today I got the email from LinkedIn reminding me of invitations I’ve received, and introductions I haven’t passed through yet.  I’m usually really, really good about introductions, but with my schedule recently I haven’t passed anything on.

So I go in today to pass one on and guess what I see:

“Jason, please send this intro this week because I’m going to meet the person in person next week at a conference… “

Oops.  I really messed that one up, didn’t I?

It was indeed my mistake to not catch that earlier… but I’ve said in my book and in my presentations that if you have something that is time sensitive, DO NOT USE LINKEDIN INTRODUCTIONS.

If you do, make sure you follow up with a phone call or email or something like that.

Here’s the quasi-logic:

IF timeSensitive=true THEN useIntroductions=false