ETP Manalapan

by Thomas E. Kenny.

REAP is a concept I learned thanks to Jason Alba's JibberJobber Career Management radio show.

Many people get into networking and think it's just a matter of collecting names and contact info for reference later on. Or if you are in a job search adding to the list of people you can nag or beg for a job.

by Thomas E. Kenny.

The LinkedIn (add-on) applications feature was added on October 28th, 2008. Although LinkedIn applications have been available for a while many may not be aware of them. There are currently 10 applications and I have grouped them into 5 categories below.

by Thomas E. Kenny

The ETP Network has free weekly teleconference calls to help professionals improve their job search and career management skills. For details please view http://www.etpnetwork.com/

On last night's call during the Q&A segment Rod Colon discussed the importance of advocates during your job search and how to utilize LinkedIn relating to introductions to potential advocates. If you missed the call, a recording is available to CEO members of the ETP Network.

Have you searched for your name on LinkedIn to assure you don't have multiple profiles?

I've found that about 1% of my first degree connections have duplicate LinkedIn profiles. It is very easy for this to happen when you are new to LinkedIn and have not added all your valid email addresses to your first account.

Below is a link to an excellent blog post regarding how to eliminate multiple LinkedIn accounts:
http://www.coherentsalesconsulting.com/blog/do-you-have-multiple-accounts-in-linkedin/

This free event is open to both ETP Network (www.etpnetwork.com) members and non-members.

Date: Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Time: 7:00-8:30PM

Location: Toms River, NJ

Rod Colon the founder and CEO of the ETP Network and the leadership has based many of our principals from Keith Ferrazzi's book "Never Eat Alone", as well as, other classic works and our own experiences.

Although we are not a business leads network and no selling is permitted. Such results may occur for those that are willing to invest in long term relationships via this group.

Space is limited so please request and invite and RSVP by Friday October 17th to avoid disappointment! Please note that all of our past meetings had been reserved to capacity. So if you wish to attend please respond now before it is too late.

If you have any questions please contact us via E-mail at JerseyShoreNetworkingGroup@gmail.com

LinkedIn wants to assure they keep the spammers out of their system. Thus they put in place many safe guards. One of them being the "I Don't Know" you button in response to receiving an invite. It only takes 5 people to click this button to get your account locked. To get your account unlocked you'll need to click the link at the button of a LinkedIn page for Customer Service and submit a question to plead your case. Realize that once you are this situation you are at LinkedIn's mercy and it will take a while, probably days, to get a response.

Once you do get unlocked you're going to need to be extremely careful as they may not unlock you a second time. Once unlocked, you may even want to withdraw old invitations to reduce the risk of getting locked out of LinkedIn a second time.

When you wish to establish a connection on LinkedIn. It would be best to contact the person outside of LinkedIn (in person, telephone, email) and ask if they are open to receiving a LinkedIn invite. However, if you've lost touch and don't have any way of contacting the person outside of LinkedIn you should customized the text of the invitation. Realize that you may remember the person better then they remember you. Thus it is best to send a personalized message reminding the person how you know each other. You certainly shouldn't write a book, but you should mention not only the company, school or organization, but also some details to help refresh their memory. For example, I once worked on many different projects in a company with over 100K employees. Somebody saying they know me from that company might not help me recall them!

Another best practice is to never use the default canned invite message. Doing such seems to indicate an impersonal attempt to establish a connection, that might not to develop into a warm trusted relationship. Considering that you did not take the time to personalized your invitation.

LinkedIn makes it easy to import your E-mail address book from many different sources. Once LinkedIn has your address book you can broadcast invites to all or a selection of the imported list. This is how people often get their accounts locked, because they don't realize the number of people they have in their address book that are just acquaintances that will likely press the "I Don't Know" you button. Although this is import feature may be a quick and easy way to build your network on LinkedIn it is very dangerous due to the risk of getting your account locked, but in addition you're blasting a generic impersonal message to everybody as well.

It may be time consuming, but connecting with one individual at a time in a personalized custom manner is always a best practice of professional networking. The investment in time is well worth the rewards you'll receive in the future, from your warm trusted network.

You may also wish to review a blog post on this topic by my friend Jason Alba at "I Don't Know You (OUCH!)".