How to start a LinkedIn Local & run a successful networking meeting

After hosting over 2 dozen successful networking meetings also known as LinkedIn Local events over the past 18 months, I learned a few things that I want to share with you. 

People often ask me, “Joe, how do I run a successful networking event?” I have had thousands of people come to our networking events over the past 5 years and I have learned so much. 

I remember when I went to my first networking event and how uncomfortable I felt. I remember wanting to run away. 

Now, after running so many, realizing how many mistakes I made, I realized the right way to do it. 

First, let me start by explaining to you what I discovered about what a LinkedIn Local event truly is, and WHY I decided to host my own events. 

When I searched on LinkedIn about how to get access to LinkedIn Local, there were no resources available. There was a broken website that was like a directory with LinkedIn Locals that were being hosted around the world but it was not updated. 

The more I asked around, the less people seemed to know! 

Turns out it's not even an official LinkedIn event! A wonderful LinkedIn user in Australia decided to bring her friends together for a networking event and she invited her LinkedIn connections and called it a LinkedIn Local. After that many other people started doing it and BOOM. 

She organized hosts in many cities across the world and it became a thing. 

The way that I view it, anyone can pick a date, pick a venue, and invite a few LinkedIn connections and call it a LinkedIn local. 

So that is exactly what I did. I picked MY OFFICE as a space, I decided on a date, and I created a LinkedIn post inviting my connections to join me. I spent a few hundred dollars on food and beer and a few dozen people showed up. 

That was July of 2018. I was so excited and the photos were so great, I decided that I must continue to make these happen. I got a sponsor for the next one and eventually got a sponsor for the whole year to cover the food and some basics. 

I called the group the Ajax Union “LinkedIn B2B Meetup” Join Here https://www.meetup.com/LinkedIn-B2B-Networking/ PS: Over 800 people have come to our events in the past year! 

I realized that the biggest benefit of doing these LinkedIn Locals is that you get to ACTUALLY MEET many of your engaged LinkedIn connections. #LinkedInLocal 

You might ask WHY is it important to meet your LinkedIn Connections? 

Well, you do not really KNOW someone unless you meet them in person because now you KNOW them. You shook their hand, you took a selfie, you had a REAL conversation. Body language speaks VOLUMES. 

Only 6% of what you say has to do with actual words, most of communication is NON-VERBAL. 

For me, it's a great way to have something to invite my connections to. 

Keep in mind that I have over 10,000 connections in New York City alone. SO If I wanted to meet 1000 of my connections to take selfies with them, I needed a place to do it. 

ANOTHER BENEFIT of going to a LinkedIn Local is to meet ENGAGED LinkedIn connections. You know the ones that are NOT lurkers. They will get to KNOW you and what they do is like and comment on your content. THIS IS GREAT to get the word out about your business on LinkedIn. If you are missing engagement, it's probably because you DO NOT HAVE REAL connections and REAL relationships with your connections. The best people to build a real relationship with online are the ones who ENGAGE because they promote you with each LIKE and each COMMENT. Think about it.

Finally: being pretty popular on LinkedIn gets lots of people that “Want to meetup for coffee” Although I do not drink coffee, I am happy to meet you at my meetup that happens each month! 

Look at these amazing photos from our events! It is pretty cool to see how many people actually come just to take a selfie, meet some other mutual connections, etc. 

At the end of the day, it's about building REAL relationships with people. In person is the best way to do it. 

Some people FEAR that you might get weirdos coming from LinkedIn. You might get people who are not like you, who appear strange. SO WHAT?! You are a weirdo to them too. Just live and let live. If you want people to fill out an application to come to your event, you might be the only person that is there.

For me, creating these smaller events is a powerful way to create a connection with a few dozen people each month. 

I have gone to LinkedIn Global and have seen these amazing events that have over 1000 people in them. I have even hosted a few myself. But those events feel like a TRADESHOW or CONFERENCE. They do not feel like an event that I want to join, spend 2 hours there, and go home. Large events can be exhausting. 

People say that when they come to our events, they feel ENERGIZED, and they meet great people. 

I had an event planner that closed a 40,000 dollar deal. I have a few people tell me they got really great clients from our events and even some that found great vendors. 

Personally, I love bringing people together that are all connected to me, giving them pizza, beer, and some amazing LinkedIn education. I often RAP as well when the moment is right. 

So I highly recommend that you take the following 3 steps to create your own successful LinkedIn Local. 

1. Review the terms and conditions on the LinkedIn Website. This is BRAND NEW INFO. They made it a bit more official because people were butchering the logo etc. 
2. Get a CO HOST that will help make sure that the event runs well. EVERY event I did has a CO HOST. It might be my partner TAMI or it might be someone else helping me. It's a pain to do it by myself, it's FUN to do it with other people. 
3. Pick a DATE and a VENUE that works well for everyone, and create a LinkedIn post telling your connections about it. THAT'S IT! 

Now if you want to know HOW TO run the actual event, Here is a great article I wrote in July 2018, when I just started because people were asking me. 

With a LinkedIn Local, I like to do the following things. 

• Personally invite people in my network that I know would be great. It's also a great way to stay top of mind. I call it FEEDING people. It's an honor to invite people who are engaged on LinkedIn to meet me in person. 
• Get a sponsor for the event that will be able to give out swag, speak, and help cover some of the expenses. Does not have to be a big expense.
• Find someone that will take videos, photos, and cover the event so that you have great memories of the event that just took place. 
• Promote the event on LinkedIn and ask the people who are coming to write a post about the event too so that you get a few dozen people to RSVP.
• Some people charge for their events, I have kept mine FREE but I plan on charging a small fee in 2020 because people that PAY - they pay ATTENTION and they actually show up.  
• Use a website like Eventbrite or Meetup to allow people to register, it makes it REALLY easy to collect information on who is coming and who is not coming. 
• Use the HASHtag #LinkedInLocal when you are talking about the event on social media so people can find it when they search for a LinkedIn Local in their area, you can create your own tag too. 
• At the event, you want to keep the speeches to a minimum, and make sure that people know what to expect. I usually make an announcement. 
• I have banner stands that people can easily find the place and take photos with my branding in it. I also give out marketing material about our LinkedIn training course.
• After the talk, we do a SELFIE with the group, it's fun to get a photo of everyone together. 
• We do a LinkedIN Find Nearby as well so that each person can know who is in the room. This can get technical with the people who have no idea how to use it, so prep people in advance. 
• We run a networking circle after the find nearby so each person can introduce themselves in a circle, it's a fun way for everyone to get to know each other quickly. 
• We sometimes do a speed networking exercise or we play a game like Networking Bingo which are both fun ways to build rapport between people.
• We make internal introductions between people who might be a bit shy and make sure that people speak to each other. 
• Then we wrap up and send everyone home. People will mingle outside or go to another bar after to continue the conversations etc. 
• The magic happens in the follow up, getting a survey is useful because people will tell you how you can improve or give you a great testimonial. 
• I usually also do a post event POST letting the world know how well it went and I share some photos I took during the event. 

That's it! 

Did you enjoy this post? If you did, leave a comment and let me know if you plan on doing a LinkedIn local in your area, I would love to come by and give a talk. 

Looking forward to seeing you network! BOOM

Joe Apfelbaum

Ajax Union

PS: Join our next Webinar about how you can MASTER your influence on LinkedIN! Here is the link learn.evyrgreen.com/webinar BOOM!