On your profile page, under Contacts at top, click Add Connections. Go to the right box titled Enter E-mail Addresses. All you need to invite someone to join your network is his or her e-mail. That’s it. Type 1 or 100 at a time in the box. Then click Send Invitations.
Your Challenge: Where do you dig up these connections? Where do they hide? Do you need to contact Homeland Security or Dog the Bounty Hunter to track them down? Pretty much!
TRADITIONAL SOURCES
Start with what you know: your current resources. Where do you store the names of your professional colleagues, friends, associates, and livestock?
Back to ‘ole basic traditional sources:
1. Old faded business cards held together with broken rubber bands
2. Rolodex® cards
3. Print & online directories (your institution, association, conferences)
4. iPhone/PDA directories
5. Other
Tap all of these previous sources. That could be a fairly long list or a tiny one based on the season of your career and your interpersonal skills. Once you have sent out the invitations, be patient. If they’re academicians, expect a very low response rate. Don’t take it personally. Most are not familiar with LinkedIn. Just persevere.
What’s Next? Beyond your current lists of potential invitees, my next blog will suggest 13 other sources I have used to build my network. That could conceivably be my most useful blog of 2010. Just wait for the nominations to come out. You can start on those sources over the holidays and during your break. I hope you get a break.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH SOCIAL NETWORKS?
Social networks are not just the rage, they have revolutionized the way we communicate. There is even a movie about Facebook, but I forgot the same. The networks are free and open to every age, from diapers to diapers.
So what’s the problem? The networks have different purposes and require time to contribute. If you don’t contribute, they don’t serve their purposes and benefit you. And TIME is a major issue with all of us.
This blog series is about one specific network, designed for “professionals”: LinkedIn.
TRADITIONAL NETWORKING RESOURCES
Consider our traditional networking resources:
1. stone tablets
2. business cards, held together with a rubber band or paper clip
3. napkins with smeared ink name and phone no. (WAIT! That was for dates.)
4. Rolodex® cards
5. printed directories from institutions, associations, and conferences
6. mobile phone directory
7. PDA directory
8. other “on the fly” techniques you have used
Over the past decade, our institutional Website posts our profile with publications in some set format, which complements 1–8.
WHAT OPTIONS ARE THERE?
Now there’s another option to 1–8: your iPhone® or Black’n Blueberry®. Well, your phone is an option since it can contact anyone and connect with just about every piece of electronic equipment, but that’s not what I meant to type.
What I meant was: LinkedIn. It’s kinda the professional counterpart to Facebook or Twitter. Instead of tweeting or facing, you are linking. Is it a gimmick or a waste of your valuable time?
ARE YOU ON LINKEDIN?
Academicians, in particular, seem to be unaware of LinkedIn and those who are on the network rarely use it to its full potential. “Why?” you’re thinking, or maybe not.
Administrators and faculty are overwhelmed with a bazillion tasks that usually do not require a vast network of colleagues and the need to build a network, advertise a business, and/or hunt for a job. According to my latest calculations, there are about 4 administrators and 3 faculty who use these services on LinkedIn.
Academicians teach, write grants, conduct research, advise students, mentor faculty and students, grade, administer departments, plan faculty development events, write journal articles and books, present at conferences, consult, attend a quadrillion meetings, plus other activities I missed. So why aren’t you on LinkedIn? Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?
So, let’s consider 10 reasons why you should NOT join LinkedIn in my next blog.
COPYRIGHT © 2010 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
