Archive for December, 2005
Recently, my brother-in-law received a job offer from a company in Mumbai, India, while he was employed at another company in New Delhi, India. The interview had gone smoothly and when my brother-in-law was asked how much money he was expecting, he quoted a sum more than double of what he was currently earning – after doing his research, which included calculating cost of living in Mumbai as opposed to New Delhi, the new job profile and responsibilities and the growth of the industry [ e-learning ] – the amount was accepted without the interviewer even batting an eyelid.
Now, not everyone is comfortable with their wishes coming true so my brother-in-law got a tad suspicious. How could they just accept whatever he had said without even a hint of negotiation? Similar jobs in New Delhi were receiving half of what he had just quoted – there had to be something wrong with the interviewing company!
My brother-in-law is a registered member on LinkedIn but never got around to really using it. His profile exists but isn’t exactly up-to-date. So when he asked me if I could help – since I am based in Mumbai – I told him to check out LinkedIn and search for ex-employees of the interviewing company and maybe speak with them to help him clarify his dilemma. Moving to Mumbai from New Delhi is not joke so he needed to be sure of what he was getting into. But dear brother-in-law was not able to figure out his username and password for his LinkedIn profile and I got down to the task of searching for ex-employees of the company.
I had never even heard the name of the company prior to this discussion.
When I did a search for current employees, I got about 30 people in my network and 20 more in the LinkedIn network – and I was shocked! I was honestly not hoping to find “anyone”!
Then I searched for ex-employees and came up with about ten people in my network and a similar number in the LinkedIn network. Now I did not need to write to all ten people and needed to refine my search a bit further. I carefully read the profiles of all ten people and decided on one particular lady[ women tend to be more candid about their experiences - especially when talking with other women ].
The request had to be routed via another person in my network and I made sure he had nothing to do with the e-learning industry! I sent the request on a Saturday evening and by Sunday morning the lady had replied in the positive, agreeing to help us out! For a good part of Sunday, my brother-in-law and I were involved in e-mail exchanges and phone calls with the lady and on Monday, my brother-in-law put in his resignation at his company in New Delhi!
He has now shifted base to Mumbai – lock, stock and barrel – and is “very” happy with his new job, which is one-week old. And, I might add, he’s a believer in LinkedIn too! He still has to update his profile – but he has it on his “radar”. Once he does that, I’ll tell you which company he’s working at and what his LinkedIn profile is!
[ And yes, I did not connect networks with the lady who helped us out - basically because she wasn't too inclined to - not that she mentioned it explicitly - it could simply have been that she isn't an avid user of LinkedIn. I do have her e-mail id and phone number so I can get in touch with her if I wanted - it isn't always NECESSARY to connect networks to build a relationship ]
December 28th, 2005
I believe it really depends on the business you are in.
For me [ because it is always about each person's individual wants and needs ], I need to find new clients for my design studio. And LinkedIn does not cater to that need directly. For my needs, LinkedIn assumes that I know which company will need my services and then I can just search for the name of that company and find employees of that company and get a foot in their door.
Unfortunately, I do not know which company needs my services.
Well of course, everyone needs corporate identity design and other design services or photography at some point or another. But if it had been so simple to get in touch with those people, I wouldn’t have been on LinkedIn.
A slightly better alternative is openBC’s search where there are two things that help you out in the same regard.
- Everyone’s profile has the “Wants” and “Haves” categories that can be filled in by my potential client to read “Logo Design” or “Graphic Design” etc. when they are seeking for those services.
- I can set up Search Agents, which deliver the results of a specific search right into my inbox every week. For example, can search for people who have joined in the last seven days and their “Wants” section has the word “Design” in it. Thus, I get a set of people who “might” need my services. Of course this does not mean that they do want to use only my services, they might not be comfortable working with someone online [ similarly there could be so many other reasons why the deal might not work out ] – but I get a “target-set” of people who are open to receiving a message from someone whose “Haves” equal their “Wants”.
- I can also see the people who visited my profile and how they got there – I get a link to their profile and also from where within the openBC system they clicked on my profile – to give me some idea whether their visit was business oriented or whether they were just browsing. This way, if I feel that the person might need my services in the long run, I can establish contact with them.
With LinkedIn, none of the above is possible.
Which also means that it is not one of LinkedIn’s prerogatives to create that kind of a platform – they do give a lot of importance to privacy of members so maybe that’s one reason they are so reluctant to open up more avenues for me to target my market and grow my business. So LinkedIn might have more CEO’s – but these are people who don’t want to be found – and openBC has less CEO’s but those who are on openBC, are more open to being found.
I am finding it increasingly difficult to actually “get” any clients out of LinkedIn. Sure I have had literally hundreds of enquiries but “none” of them have converted. If the enquiries on openBC too had not converted, then I might have been tempted to say that my methods suck – maybe there’s something wrong with my approach – but that isn’t the case – I’ve had many successful client engagements with people who are on openBC.
Right now, on LinkedIn, search is limited to Keyword, Company Name, Person’s Name, Area Search, search based on person’s Title and Industry etc. They are, however, not using any fuzzy logic to connect all the variables. How to I create a keyword [ or any other variable ] search that will lead me to someone who “might” be interested in my services? I am not saying that LinkedIn needs to give me all the answers and put me directly in touch with someone who “absolutely” and “certainly” wants my services – but if they could give a “ballpark” target-set, at least I could take my chances!
For someone who’s looking for a job, or someone with a very specific set of queries – for example someone looking for an employee of a company, or someone searching directly for a service provider [ search for a logo designer for example ] – I believe LinkedIn makes it terribly easy for them to get results. But for someone like me – I need to search for people looking for design/photography services – it’s a tough job.
How can LinkedIn fulfil the needs of someone like me?
I am searching for people who might be searching for me! So I can get to them first.
December 28th, 2005
I recently added and tested FeedBlitz to this blog as well as the aside design studio blog.
So for people who aren’t comfortable with RSS [ which is a nisconception I believe - that there are people on the internet, who use the internet and who know what blogs are but don't know what to do with RSS feeds - but that's what the experts say so I thought I might as well make it easy for people who really don't know much about RSS ] – “the subscribe using e-mail” just under the search box on the top right in the sidebar will allow you to subscribe to this blog via FeedBlitz, which will deliver the latest blog posts right into your inbox.
If I don’t see any activity with this feature in three months, I’ll take it down.
December 12th, 2005
Honestly, in my experience, I think the big mistake we make is relying a 100% on business networking [ whether online or otherwise ]. Business networking, in all or any of its forms should supplement our business activities – it should help us reach those people we would otherwise never have communicated with – not REPLACE business building and marketing efforts.
Registering on ALL the online business networking platforms is not the solution – just like one wouldn’t attend all Trade Association meetings and mixers and all the local networking meetings – similarly, signing up for all the online portals is a self-defeating activity.
What we should focus on is that one contact you have today – the one person you e-mail today, the one person who asks you a question today. Give your attention to that one person – it’s like one bird in the hand is better than ten in the bush = one person talking with you/interested in you is better than a 100 names on your contact list.
Make a connection – not just a contact, create a relationship. I don’t believe anyone can go wrong with that approach. It’s an investment and we must treat it as an investment – we don’t go investing pennies in a particular stock and a particular company’s equity right? We invest thousands and lakhs of rupees in that – THEN it re-pays us – apply the same principle to online business networking and you won’t go wrong. Instead of sending hundreds of similar e-mails to hundreds of people, send one well-thought out e-mail that is relevant to the person you are writing to.
December 12th, 2005
So you’re on someone’s profile on LinkedIn and you think: “Wow! They have so many direct contacts! And we have so few people in common! If only they would connect with me, I’d increase my visibility manifold!.” You also see that they have their e-mail id on their profile.
So what do you do now?
Do you send them a boiler-plate invite to connect [ which means that you click the "Add Connection" or "Add as Contact" or "Do you know Mr. So And So - Invite them to connect" button - then you just fill in their e-mail id and hit the Send button with the "Remind in 10 days option" checked ]?
OR
Do you read their profile and do the following:
- Look for URL’s on their profile – they might not be complete URL’s like “http://www.aside.in/blog” but might be like “aside.in”. You also might not find the URL in the person’s profile but in one of the endorsements – I know I did once.
- Visit those URLs – if it’s a blog, leave an intelligent comment [ which means that you write something related to the blog's content and not leave an advertisement for your company - as much as possible, avoid a URL within the body of your comment - most blog comment fields already ask for your URL, someone curious about you can click on your name and go to your web presence ], if it’s a website look for something you like [ for example, since I am a logo designer/photographer - visual person, I check out the visuals and if I like them, I compliment the person - I even go so far as to compliment the webmaster if there's a link available - even if the webmaster might never share the message with the person who I'm looking to connect with on LinkedIn ].
- If there are no OBVIOUS URLs try a couple of combinations with their company name – if they are in India – like I am – and the name of the company given is “aside”, try www.aside.in
- If there are no URL’s look for the person’s name on Google and check out those pages.
- DO NOT send them an invitation to connect just because they have their e-mail id on their profile!
- Send them an introduction via your direct contact, if they are on OpenLink, send them an OpenLink message and talk about THEM – DO NOT TALK about YOURSELF. Remember, no one likes to hear your life-story when they meet you for the first time – when people meet for the first time, they like to create first impressions and you DO NOT want to come across as someone who’s too full of yourself! Think of a first date – if you’re the guy, how would you feel if the girl you just met started telling you about why she doesn’t get along with her mother and how she just loves to spend hours doing make-up?
Talk about the person, about their work, about their website, about their blog. The first 80% of your e-mail to them should only talk about them and what you liked about them. The next 20% leaves you one line before you sign off and the signature [ I'm sure you can make out that the message NEEDS to be CONCISE ].
My closing usually is “My short introduction is that I am primarily a logo designer and photographer – my design studio blog is www.aside.in/blog – do visit!” That’s all I talk about ME.
The signature is another important part: don’t use your full signature in your first e-mail to ANYBODY unless they specifically asked for it. You’re trying to “CONNECT” with someone on LinkedIn, not trying to get them to call you – not yet anyway. I typically include my full name and the links to my design studio blog as well as the business networking blog. That’s it.
I don’t see why such an introduction will not get forwarded/accepted.
Once the person writes to you and accepts the introduction, DO NOT JUMP and send them an invitation to connect – not just yet. Send them a “Thank you” e-mail and suggest that you’d love to have them on your network and ask if it’s ok if you sent them an invitation to connect.
Ask and thou shalt get. Ask first and in 10 cases out of 10, when you do send an invitation to connect, it WILL GET ACCEPTED. When someone tells you that they’d rather first get to know you better before connecting networks – take it as a POSITIVE sign – they didn’t say “NO”.
The things you can do to take it from there include:
- Visiting their blog intermittently and leaving intelligent comments.
- Asking them more about specific parts of their job – the places they visited, their interests etc.
- Keeping up the conversation.
Yeah it’s a lot of work – but you’re making a connection for life – what else do you expect!
One thing I’d like to clarify – people who have their e-mail id’s on their profile – doesn’t mean they are open to connecting with anyone – just means that they want to make life easy for someone who’s genuinely interested in connecting with them. There’s no hidden agenda – I know of a lot of people on LinkedIn who have e-mail id’s on their profile but have very small and private networks.
December 11th, 2005
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