Jackie Cameron - Coaching and Communication

Over the past few months when I have been talking about using social networking for business one of the most common comments I have had is along the lines of

“I was invited to join Linkedin by someone I know but I have no idea what to do with it”

or even

“I have been invited to join Linkedin by someone I know - but I don’t know why I should bother”

If you are that person here are some suggestions  which just might help.

Create a directory

If you do nothing else with it Linkedin is a great place to hold all of the  contact details of the people you are connected with - your “contacts” in Linkedin terms. Then instead of having to have their individual e-mail addresses to hand you can use the Linkedin “Send a Message” function in the top right hand of the page. Depending on how the recipient has it set up the  message will probably still end up in their regular e-mail inbox in any case.

And you can pretty much do away with using your business card box ( or scrabbling through your drawer/wallet/handbag if you are less organised) to find their details.

And when you are comfortable doing that you could consider…

Regular updates

The small box at the top of your “home” page is for updates.  Filling that in from time to time will mean that you appear in the  “status updates” list on your contacts’ own home pages. This is the perfect place to announce a new contract, promote a new service/product, tell your contacts something newsworthy…something that might give them a reason to be in touch ( especially useful if you would like to do business with them!)

People often say to me that I always seem to be up to something new and interesting. That means a couple of things - that they notice that I update that box a couple of times a week - and that they read what I post!

In a way it is similar to bumping into someone in the street or at a conference - except there is less effort required. Really!

So after trying that you might want to look for people you would like to connect - or reconnect - with.

Find people and invite them to join your network

Linkedin tries to make this easy for you so gives you a number of ways to do this.

• Firstly you can do a search for people in the search box on the top right hand of the page
• When you join Linkedin offers to search your e-mail addess book for people who are already members
• In addition - as your community grows - Linkedin will make suggestions of people you might know based on your existing contacts
• When you click on any of your contacts ( or indeed when looking at pages for those not already on your list)  on the bottom right hand side of the page there is a “How you are connected to..” box - which tells you - well you get the picture

And when you know that…

Ask for introductions

Linkedin’s criteria for connecting with people is outlined each time you “Add xxx to your network” - using the link at the top right hand of your page which include having done business or working with that person ( which means you have to identify where that was from your profile), that you share a group, that you are a friend - in which case you are asked to put in their e-mail address ( which - though not foolproof - does mean that you have to do a bit of work to at least find it ). If  none of those apply then you should ask someone you do know that knows them to introduce you. Why would they do that?..well at some point in the future you might just be able to do them the favour back. Which brings me to …

Get recommended

Your profile should be full of details of your experience to allow a client to consider working with you, a potential employer to check you out or even a similar business to offer you a collaboration opportunity.   Linkedin allows you to enhance this with testimonials - or “recommendations “.  Try recommending someone yourself and see how that feels - and indeed see what response you get ! Of course you should focus on asking people who have had a good experience of working with you to give you a recommendation  - and you always have the chance to reject one if you don’t want/like it.

That should be enough to get most people started but if you are still stuck get in touch. I offer coaching for using linkedin.  With an hour of your time and a small investment - the possibilities are endless.

jackie@consultcameron.com

07775 823862

Anybody over the age of - say - 40 should be able to remember a time before e-mail.

And indeed they may also remember the time when e-mail was introduced to their business.

If you are old enough cast your mind back. Did it run smoothly? Was it accepted universally immediately? Did you know what to do right away? What protocols did you have to develop - quickly?

There was a time when the question ” do you have  e-mail” was more often met with a “no” - but they did have a fax machine ( remember them?).

And people did say that it was just a fad and would not catch on

And they said that you would not find them using it ( being able to  type or use a keyboard actually being a barrier in itself way back then)

And they said that it was not appropriate for doing serious business together  - far too informal ( how many e-mails in those days started  and ended with Dear… yours faithfully….)?

Seems so long ago doesn’t it? But we are talking about the mid- 90s  ie only 15 years or so ago.

I wonder how long it will take for us to have embraced social media as just another business communication tool?

And I wonder what is being developed right now as the next new thing!

I recently attended a seminar on networking for business. The speaker described the  model  he used which started with meeting, moved onto building relationships and then finally led to doing business together.

To start  he set us a group activity  where he asked us to choose 1 of 4 topics - food/holidays/books/movies. Then he asked us to introduce ourselves to someone we did not know and to have a 5 minute chat without talking about what either of us did for a living. The energy in the room suggested that this was both an easy and enjoyable way of getting to know someone. 

I learned this technique a few years ago. I have a poor memory for names (I really do try).  I am quite good with  faces though and often remember something from the previous conversation - about a holiday or great book - that means that reconnecting is easy and with a few skillful questions I can get round to remembering out their name.  ( If that fails I just ask - most people will be kind enough to say that they suffer from the same affliction!)

Now for a while I have been thinking about why I find some online interactions uncomfortable - especially Direct Messages on Twitter when I follow someone new and I realise that some people jump to stage 3 - as if the mere fact that we are in touch means that we have broken the ice and formed a relationship already and that I want to buy something from them.

 I think the power of Twitter in particular is the ability to indulge in “small talk”. Like what are you doing today? Have you had your first coffee? How’s the weather where you are? Asking about family members, recognising and celebrating events ( birthdays, anniversaries, the 1000th post on your blog) all help build relationships.

These kind of Tweets are the ones that the “non - believers” often dismiss as a waste of time but  I believe - in context - they have the ability to be incredibly valuable.

Would love to hear what you think.

I was interested to learn about a recent initiative by Strathclyde Police in tackling gangs and related knife crime. According to a report on the radio yesterday they have police cadets - young people aged 16 who are interested in joining the police - to search bebo and youtube - looking for postings which can be used to identify those boasting about their weapons.

The senior officer interviewed said that as young people are far more “internet savvy” than older officers they were the best people for this job. They can find pages of pics and follow the related chat. And they have had considerable success according to this report.

I am hoping that Strathclyde Police are asking their cadets and younger officers to train and support other members of staff to give them at least a basic working knowledge of social networking. But that great idea of using the right person with the skills needed is surely the  answer in many cases!

According to an article by Martyn Sloman  in the CIPD quarterly update “Impact” here in the UK

• “only” 20% of organisations use Web 2.0 technologies for recruitment purposes
• in a survey of 1700 employers 79% had disciplined one or more staff for using social networking sites during work time
• in that same survey many had banned the use of such sites

None of that surprises me. Amongst the reasons given in the article for not engaging with Web 2.0 is

• lack of understanding at higher level ( in this case civil servants are quoted) therefore lack of high level support
• risk of damage to brands and general loss of control
• lack of data about costs and certainties of various media
• limitations from IT departments defending their systems

Again - no surprises there.

What I did learn though was that Enterprise 2.0  means using Web 2.0 technologies inside organisations. So creating and running a social networking site accessible by employees  and maybe even their customers.

Now many of your reading this might be saying “C’mon Jackie. You should know this already”

Well yes I do. I had just not latched onto the label. ( Sometimes you don’t know what you know)

But - and I think this is the most important thing for me - how did I learn about it? I learned from the 16 year olds I worked with recently. They even mocked up what an Enterprise 2.0 social networking site  would look like and showed how it would work.

They just might be the best advisers in the potential of this technology!