Networking Protocol

Excellent post on Networking Protocol by Gerry Crispin. More specifically on how to refuse a request to forward. Read my previous post on Request to Connect to know how to get your request forwarded for sure!

Add comment June 14th, 2005

Networking News

Not that I want to promote the thought or the idea behind the BusinessWeek post (“Is social networking broken?“), just that I wanted to share the various “comments” that have been made at the end of the post.

MY COMMENT ON THE BUSINESSWEEK ARTICLE:

First of all, LinkedIn cannot be considered as a “social” networking site. It is an online business networking portal. Secondly, as others in their comments have pointed out, the post made by Adam Kalsey is old.

I am not much of a Social networker – not because I have not been inclined to use the social networking portals like Orkut, but because I have used them and found that unless I really have a lot of time to waste, I have no real “benefit” participating on these portals.

However, not only do I see innumerable benefits of being part of a business network on portals like LinkedIn and openBC, I have actually experienced the benefits which range from thought-provoking discussions, new associates and contacts, to actually making money and doing business. And even though I am based in Bombay, India, 90% of the business that I have generated from participating on online business networking portals like LinkedIn and openBC, has been from overseas clients.

The classy business networking portals like LinkedIn and openBC provide ample amount of control on who I want to connect with and what information I want to reveal to each person on my network. These portals empower the users. What might be considered as Spam by me might not be considered so by someone else. Of course, if one signs up on Orkut and displays a personal e-mail to everyone, like someone mentioned above, “dense” would be the appropriate word to describe the person. But we are learning, albeit slowly.

If I send out Spam on my business network, it will not be overlooked. Not only will I stand to lose professional contacts that I have put in effort to connect with, I will also lose credibility for future requests to connect. Also, I might lose membership to the business networking portal altogether. I send out an e-mail to all my network contacts (more than 1200 people and growing) every month. Till today only three have sent me personal e-mails and asked to be removed from the e-mail since they did not feel that it suited their needs or requirements. Business networking makes that possible.

As for unwanted contacts, online business networking allows us to say “No”. And if we do not say “no” when we feel that the contact is unwanted, we will complain how our connections list is growing larger with “unwanted” contacts.

Online business networking is not limited to just reading profiles on the networking portal and writing a monotonous request to connect. Everyone has links to blogs or websites on their profiles and we can find out more about them using those links. Read: Request to Connect

Strangers are friends we have yet to meet. Unless we connect with people we do not know, how can we ever hope to know them?

ALSO THE CNET POST ABOUT “Why social networking does not work”. Do not miss the TalkBack section.

MY COMMENT ON THE SAME:

LinkedIn is not a “social” networking portal. It is an online business networking portal as you have rightly pointed out.

On your point 2. “It takes too much time” – LinkedIn and openBC (another trail-blazing online business networking portal) are definitely more useful than social networking sites. However, I do not believe that they are less information rich. LinkedIn and openBC profiles of people who are members of the portals have links to the blogs that they write or frequent and their websites. People who are there for the business networking, constantly update their profiles with new developments. These portals are one of the best way of finding out more about a “person”.

In point 4. “Strangers kind of suck (or, put nicely, the social hierarchy is really not that attractive)” where you say “Sure, business networking is valuable, and it’s great to have a lot of resources who might know someone who can help you with…something. But that argument gets a little thin when you’re suddenly bombarded with date offers or all-too-frequent postings about the unsavory or just plain uninteresting habits of the strangers you suddenly know.“

It seems like you are confusing business networking and social networking. Business networking is not based on the premise that we connect with people we already know and the connections made are not for seeking dates or sharing quirky habits. You are right, instead of sending them (people I know) an e-mail or sending them a message via IM, I might as well meet up with them for coffee. But why should I restrict myself to people I know? I, personally have not only participated in thought provoking discussions and built relationships with people I have never “spoken” to, let alone meeting them, I have done business with them and made money and am constantly giving back to the network by helping other networkers. Even though I am based in Bombay, India, 90% of my clients are from abroad. Online Business Networking allows me to do that.

As for point 5. “And I can probably find it faster using Google than I can by e-mailing one friend who’ll e-mail another who’ll e-mail another while my deadline slips away. Sure, it’s helpful–once in a while. But once I have all these folks in my address book, I won’t be much help in terms of ad impressions.“

Agreed that Google is great, I swear by it myself, but how will you know that the person you have found is who he/she says he/she is? How will you ensure that (once you have found their e-mail id online) your e-mail to them survives their Spam filter? One of my professional contacts recently asked me for help with transcription services that she required. Within 6 hours, I had sent out e-mails to various e-groups on Yahoo where I am a member and I had sent out half a dozen e-mails to other connections on the same networking portal and I had 5 quotes for providing the service. Within a day, the originator of the search in the US had decided on whether she had better opportunities at cost-savings in India or in the US – and this is assuming that I was the only peron she asked. Try contacting a stranger who you find on Google and see if you can repeat this. I am not saying that it will not work – it just might – but when online business networking portals like openBC and LinkedIn provide me the facility with better, faster and more secure results, why should I rely only on Google? Why shouldn’t I combine the power of all the technology available to me, optimize it to my needs and strive to live in a truly global village?

Add comment June 14th, 2005

Request to Connect

Carrying over from the previous post about building online relationships: People / professionals who you send requests to connect, might refuse the request only if they “thin-slice” and conclude that your request does not sound genuine.

Various ways to make your request sound genuine:

Punctuation

The request to connect that you send out, is like a mini-resume. It’s like asking for a job – so we would be better off at least punctuating it properly. [No lowercase where it is "supposed" to be uppercase. Use capitalization. Correct punctuation]

Addressing someone

Business networking is not about creating power positions, it is about creating win-win situations with everyone we meet and connect with. When we write a request to connect, we must be respectful and polite, not “in awe” and “desperate”. [No "Hi!" - instead say "Dear [firstname],” Only if the person has been your senior earlier, use a “Dear [lastname],” or “Dear Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. [lastname]” No addressing strangers with a “Dear Mr. [lastname] or [firstname]“]

Personalization

Ensure that you actually “read” the person’s profile before you shoot off an e-mail requesting to connect. You don’t have to read all the previous experience and previous companies – the important sections to read are the places where a short description of what they do currently and what kind of things that have been involved in are mentioned. Search their profile for URLs for the blogs they write or their websites or some other links. Visit those web pages to learn some more about the person you want to link with. When you do this, you will inadvertently find out more about them and will mention something in your request that will make it personalized. And that one word or sentence that you mention is all it takes to make the other person realize that you are genuinely interested in making contact and are not just sending out mass e-mails to anyone and everyone.

Signing off

Please do not put a 10-line signature at the end of your request to connect. Instead of that integrate your signature within the content of your e-mail. For example, if your signature contains three links to various blogs and websites that belong to you, mention all three in one paragraph in the e-mail. For example, my standard signature has the following elements

aside Design: http://www.aside.in
Innovation Blog: http://asideconsulting.blogspot.com
Business Networking Blog: http://biznetworking.blogspot.com
Join my network on openBC: http://www.openbc.com/go/invuid/Naina_Redhu (when I am writing to someone not already on openBC)
My profile on openBC: http://www.openbc.com/hp/Naina_Redhu/ (when I am writing to someone not already on openBC)
My profile on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=350993 (when I am writing to someone not already on LinkedIn)

Instead of keeping this very unwieldy signature, I usually do the following depending on the nature of my request.

If the person is not on openBC or if I am not connected with them on openBC
If you are already on openBC, do visit my profile – http://www.openbc.com/hp/Naina_Redhu/ – and if you are not on openBC yet, you are welcome to join my network of more than a 1000 professionals using this link: http://www.openbc.com/go/invuid/Naina_Redhu

If the person is not on LinkedIn and I am sending them a request to connect on some other networking portal
Do visit my LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=350993

So the elements of my signature integrated into the request text would usually read like this:
“I am a freelance designer, photographer, innovation consultant and an online business networking consultant. I recently started writing a blog on Business Networking – http://biznetworking.blogspot.com Since I am an avid networker, I am also a member on openBC and if you would like to join my network of more than 1000 professionals, kindly use this link: http://www.openbc.com/go/invuid/Naina_Redhu

If you have an interest in innovation and creativity, do visit my innovation blog too: http://asideconsulting.blogspot.com “

My signature would only contain my name and a link to my website – http://www.aside.in

What where
The integrated signature information will follow after I have expressed an interest in connecting with the person and given my reasons for the same. Remember, the customer comes first and in the case of online business networking, the person we are requesting to connect with is our customer. Of course the ultimate aim of any kind of networking is to promote your business and to ultimately make money, but there are subtle and polite ways of doing it rather than the more “in-your-face” ones.

What others say
Honestly, as long as you are successful at networking, does it matter what others think about your writing style and the content of your requests to connect? Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion but if it works for you, it works for you! Be nice. What goes around comes around. There will always be comments (indirect and sometimes not so indirect) where someone will say that you are on the “dark side”, that you are an aggressive networker that you connect with people you don’t even know, that you hide your list of connections that you are not “with” the program.

Bottom line: you are the one with the large network, you know more about your connections since you took time to read more about them and visited their blogs and websites, so you are more capable of giving back to the network – the next time someone asks you for a lead, you’ll probably have some information where you will be able to connect two people. Eventually, you will be of more help to your network and that will allow you to reach more people with your services and your business. You will have access to the best means of marketing for yourself and you will facilitate the same for everyone else on your network.

2 comments June 14th, 2005