Hyper LinkedIn
March 21st, 2008 |
I believe the value of each of your social networks increases as you add more people. This week I’m trying to add new connections on LinkedIn. The number of followers I have on Twitter has grown quickly, though I am no Jason Calcanis, and my Facebook friends list has grown, albeit at a slower pace. There is probably a point of diminishing returns, but I have not yet reached it.
I am using a social network strategy I call cross-promotion to seek new connections. (I don’t claim to have invented this, maybe I named it.) For example, I assume most of the people I talk to on Twitter would make suitable LinkedIn contacts, so I post the following on Twitter:
“Launching shameless campaign to add LinkedIn connections: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joelpostman“
(Go ahead, click it!)
I’m not really shameless. All networks have barriers to adding connections, and LinkedIn is probably one of the most restrictive. There is value in trust, and in selecting the people you connect with, but too many controls limit the effectiveness of the network. (Facebook didn’t really explode until it was opened to “everyone” instead of requiring members to have a school e-mail address.)
And on the right sidebar of my blog are links under a heading “Add Me,” so I make no secret I want to add people.
LinkedIn makes this hard to do. LinkedIn requires certain information before allowing you to invite a potential connection. LinkedIn also has a convention called the “IDK.” When you send an invitation to someone, they can accept, or indicate “I Don’t Know (the sender).” If you get five IDKs, you can be thrown off of LinkedIn. LinkedOut as it were.
There are workarounds, large and small. I found (and others have, too) you can indicate you know someone from a Group or Association and then enter anything you want. I was entering “Twitter” for Twitter friends, but then added “Blog” for people I met through blogs. I think everyone should just enter “Hominids” from now on.
For those interested in adding large numbers of LinkedIn connections, check out LinkedIn LIONS (LinkedIn Open Network.) According to the LIONS charter:
“Open Networks = Growing High-Quality Networks. Closed Networks = Stagnating Low-Quality Networks”
A friend also recommend I check out MyLink500.com, which she described as a “promiscuous” LinkedIn network.
It’s interesting that these LinkedIn techniques are viewed as “back doors” and “hacks,” or grassroots community causes vs. features of the network. (Colin Carmichael called this a “hack” on his blog. Thanks for the link love, Colin!) Perhaps this allows LinkedIn to attempt the kind of growth Twitter and Facebook have had while maintaining an aura of trust and exclusivity.
Tags: LinkedIn, twitter, facebook, cross-promotion, metcalfes law, jason calcanis, IDK, LinkedIn LIONS, MyLink500, Colin Carmichael
| Sphere This |
Joel,
I came here from a link posted by David J. Hinson to his Facebook network.
I realize that some people see Linked[in] connections as a sort of competition for popularity, and having the most links. That’s fine for MySpace. Linked[in], however, serves a different purpose. The more selective one is about who they connect with, the more valuable their connections are, because they are real connections. Also, when you let people you don’t know into your network, you cannot vouch for their quality.
With that caveat, I do see the value in using Linked[in] to grow one’s network. I do not personally know, face to face, every person in my network. But I’m very selective about who I connect with. If someone contacts me in an industry related to my work, I inquire how they found me, and how specifically they feel we can benefit one another— Do they have a specific project in mind, are they familiar with my work, are they looking for connections in my field in my city (New York), etc. If they commit the time to give a thoughtful response, and present themselves professionally, I’m likely to agree to connect. But if that’s more than they can bother, then how will they possibly ever invest the time to bring any value to me at all if I join networks with them, and then turn to them for expertise? Clearly they will be a worthless connection. Those are the very sort of people that “IDK” was created to punish. I think Linked[in] has created a very good balance.
I also connect with people I know only online, but even there, I’ve had conversations with them, in the form of participating in the same blogs or each others blogs, and therefore we’ve read each others point of view, and know each other, in many ways, better than some people I know face to face.
However, every random person who sends me a random “Connect with me so we can grow our networks!” invite risks getting IDK’ed. Some of these people with 500+ connections send me these kind of invites (habitually, actually) and they are not even from industries that I’m involved in. The likelihood of those type of connections leading to anything fruitful, other than spamming up my contact list with with irrelevant connections, is zero.
I find that the new connections that I make of value come from people who have come across me through the Linked[in] Q&A, they like what I have to say, decide to read my profile, and then are intrigued enough to follow on to my website and my blog. Those people will usually write a short letter with their invite to connect, and have led to some quality connections, even if they’re only out there in the cloud.
As for cross promoting, yes, I’m a social media junkie. I promote my Linked[in] profile on my blog, and on other Social Media platforms, Spock, Facebook, etc. I list a ink to my profile for one social media site on other social media sites I belong to.
I meet people through Flckr that I then connect with on Facebook, people I meet on MyBlogLog that I’ve later connected with on Linked[in], People who’s blogs I get pointed to by my feed-reader or get recommended by others that I then connect with on both Linked[in] and/or Facebook. Etc.
My own blog, GigantiCo, is not a marketing/social-media blog, but I do have several social media related posts, including my current post. It may interest you. If you have a moment, give it a look.
I just gave you a poke on Facebook.
Best regards,
Chris
PS. Love the Constructivist design theme, but the black on dark-dark gray in your user comment field is extremely difficult to read while writing, and it may be suppressing user commenting on your site. Food for thought.
Comment by Chris Grayson - GigantiCo — March 22, 2008 @ 9:28 pm
Hey Joel, thanks for the link back, and yeah, I tend to use the term ‘hack’ with a fairly broad definition. “Work-around” just doesn’t work as well in a blog post title…
Comment by Colin Carmichael — March 25, 2008 @ 10:42 pm