I’ve been quoted on this page (along with 25 other people) regarding networking advice. This results from a LinkedIn question for which I was one of many respondents. Julius at EventManagerBlog, who originally posted the question, then published his favorites pretty much all of them. Mine was one of the shortest, non-bulleted answers, and reflects my philosophy that your network is only as good as what you contribute to it. There’s lots of good general and tactical advice in the answers (although many pieces of advice seem too elementary to me: “be approachable;” “don’t be the only one talking,” etc. Although it’s good to remember “don’t drink and drive,” especially important if you find yourself feeling uninteresting or uninterested, alone at the bar wondering why you’re even there (that was me early on in my networking days).
All that said, LinkedIn Answers is a great, free benefit of LinkedIn membership! I’ve posted two questions recently; one of them receiving more than 25 replies; another resulting in an offer to chat with a business development pro on Skype next week for 10 minutes (plus all that he’d already wrote in his first reply to my answer).
I wrote sincere thank-yous to those respondents whose answers I really did find useful, often adding a good bit of additional opinion or clarification. I got further replies from some via email. It was a great community experience, and it has me thinking of my next business-related questions, and how I can then post some of the replies on my blog like Julius did.
If you haven’t tried it yet, and if you’re a [free] member like me, give it a shot. I’m getting better at crafting questions that aren’t overly self-promotional and might actually have value to others, again, contributing to the community and the grand idea of networking.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Haven’t done this yet, Bruce. How many hours again are there in a day? : )
What a great idea, using answers to jump start a new blog post. Hadn’t thought of that.
Do you find in LinkedIn Answers that the better known you are in the community, the more responses you get to your questions? I sure found that to be the case in my early days on biznik.
Judy Dunns last blog post..Hard Hat Blues: Websites ‘Under Construction’
Being fairly anonymous in the community prevents me from properly addressing your question. I think 29 answers is a fairly good response, especially so early in my questioning career.
I think it’s all in the quality of the question.
And yes, I can ill-afford to do this every day.
Time to get back to a dull aspect of my work. This has been satisfactorily distracting…thanks!
And may I ask what were the two LinkedIn questions?
…a link to the discussion will work as well..thanks!
Hi Vesela:
Thanks for reading and commenting.
That’s a fair request! Both questions had to do with the operations and the future of my design business. The first one asked the community of designers about how they differentiated themselves , beyond serving a niche market; the second question had to do with the basics of do-it-yourself market research in the wake of me reading Michael Gerber’s E-Myth Revisited. The questions are officially closed [to continued answers] – I believe they close after two weeks – but the raft of responses are still there. I need to review them alll again as well as throw out new questions more regularly. I really dig the community’s thoughts and help.
Have you posted or answered any LinkedIn questions? If so, what’s been your experience with this service? Do you have any questioning or annswering tips? And how might you improve the service if you could?