Digital Networking: The What, The Why, The How (and 2 Secrets)

So here you are in the land of digital (aka social media) networking. When I talk to people about what I do at CareerToolboxUSA, most think that we only work with people looking for jobs. In fact, many LinkedIn users that we meet only think of this platform as a place for job seekers, and only use it when looking for a job. So, please allow me to let you in on SECRET NUMBER 1.

SECRET NUMBER 1

Exceptional business-builders are outperforming you by leveraging the power of LinkedIn. They are having more conversations, closing more deals, and have a pipeline full of opportunities at all times.

THE WHAT

Generally speaking, digital networking is simply a human being reaching out to other human beings using a digital medium such as LinkedIn. But, if you choose to hold onto the belief that the power of the system lies exclusively in your human-to-human interactions, you are missing a vital understanding that can change the game for your career. The real WHAT is that digital networking, when it is well-done, activates your personal brand recognition to people you don’t even know, and creates trust in your professional message before you ever have those human-to-human interactions.

THE WHY

Let me share two thought exercises with you that we often use to illustrate WHY LinkedIn is the right place for your career-building efforts to start. Thought exercise #1: Imagine that you are shopping online. Personally, I love to shop for socks. I love the feeling of new socks! Think about the last thing you shopped for online. First, you stopped by Google or your search engine of choice, entered a few search terms, and voila! A list of options appeared before you in a nanosecond. You reviewed the list, clicked on a link, or maybe two, or maybe three, but rarely four. Am I right so far? Maybe you landed on Amazon, which offered you about 15 pages of products that fit your search criteria. Using advanced filtering, you narrowed that list down to 7 pages or so. Now, how many of those pages did you peruse in detail? Did you skip any? Guess what? LinkedIn users search for connections the same way, and the digital brain behind the system pushes what it believes are the highest-value connections to your top search results page. If you are doing your work to build your digital presence, you can drive the system to put YOU on that first page!

Thought exercise #2: I get a LOT of InMail. And do you know what I scroll right by and/or delete? Unsolicited invitations to check out a product, service, or take advantage of a book pre-sale. If you really want to mess up your chances to earn my business, make it a group message that includes a hundred other people I don’t even know. Why? Because, I don’t trust you. You came to me, without invitation, and asked me to do something for you. I could probably write a whole book on the array of solicitation emails that are carefully constructed to infer that we’ve met, had great conversations, and that I’ve probably simply “forgotten” to reply. Therefore, I’m skeptical about any version of a solicitation that comes into my LinkedIn box. My guess is that you are a lot like me. So, who do we trust? We trust ourselves. We trust that we have made good decisions when reaching out to people, i.e. people I have sent connection requests to, or those that have come up in my search that have qualities I admire. If you are keeping up, this means that you will build your business faster if you are adept at utilizing the system in ways that send people to you, instead of the reverse. LinkedIn even makes it easy to see how well you are doing at this (See SECRET NUMBER 2)! 

SECRET NUMBER 2

Go to your Home screen, look to the left, and read the numbers listed there to see how many people have viewed your profile in the last 90 days. If there isn’t a number there, it means no one is viewing your profile. So what’s your number? 50? 300?  Our clients average 1500-2000 profile views in every 90 day period. Would you rather be the finder, or the found? Would you rather be prospecting, or responding to an avalanche of InMail from people who have already made the decision to trust you?

THE HOW

Successful digital networking is simply many little things done well consistently over time. There are many ways to fuel the engine and amplify your digital ambassador. These things need to be done every day, or at least several times a week, and I’ll be really honest, they aren’t always very fun or exciting to do. The fun stuff is actually having real-life conversations, and closing business, and making new professional connections with amazing people! It takes a lot of time and discipline to fuel the system, and at the same time to be activating on opportunities for those human-to-human interactions. For most people, it’s just too much. That’s where CareerToolboxUSA comes in. We fuel the engine for you, tending your digital ambassador so that you can focus on the opportunities that start flooding your way. Our clients get the privilege of a strategic and discerning approach to business development, rather than a (boring and energy-sapping) effort-heavy daily prospecting hunt. Our clients are responding to people who arrive in their inbox already believing their message, or at the very least, ready to listen.

If you are ready to use your time more effectively, and to make strategic decisions about your business development outreach, then we are ready to help you succeed. Sure it’s an investment. And we can’t close any deals for you. BUT, what we do creates thousands more opportunities for you to close deals faster. You need a good team on your side, with the know-how and experience to deliver a win. This is all we do, and we do it really well. So, interview us. Bring your list of questions and decision-making factors. I bet we can change your game.

Katherine Olson, M.Ed. is a dynamic organizational transformationalist on a mission to recognize, activate, and grow the strengths of individuals and organizations to create exceptional outcomes for humanity. Katherine is an executive coach and director of service delivery for CareerToolboxUSA.

[email protected]