Networking for career on LinkedIn- How to break the ice in 300 characters or less

As a careers practitioner at a UK higher education institute, I spend a lot of time extolling the virtues of LinkedIn. I can wax lyrical about the vast career learning to be gained by "inspecting & connecting" with professionals in any field of potential occupational interest. Students have no problem with understanding this as a concept- "talk to people doing jobs you might be interested in doing, and learn more about whether you want to do it" is not difficult to grasp. Using a social media platform, particularly one with a profile creation tool as simple and intuitive as LinkedIn's, with ample videos and tutorials for students, is also a simple feat. But making first contact with a professional seems to be a real stumbling block for students preventing them from tapping effectively into this incredible resource.

The students I work with, of all ages, from all walks of life, are on the whole, incredibly social media savvy. They know how to find friends, to connect, to like, to share and to engage in (or choose to avoid) lively debates on a wide range of complex issues. They create and manage online personas with ease and navigate the intricate subtleties of emoji use to encourage or deride one another, and can organise instant dates with potential love interests via smartphone apps. Whether digital natives or digital immigrants, most students in my University are masters of personal social media use.

So why is it so challenging for them to approach and communicate with a professional via LinkedIn?

One of the most powerful features of social networks is that political, geographical and status differences lose their ability to block conversations between the highest fliers and the "not-yet"s. It's an incredible feature of technology that an unassuming student from a small town in the South West, with unconnected parents and low social mobility who perhaps is yet to develop their future confidence levels, can connect and converse with top influencers, CEOs of major companies, renowned researchers or niche professionals whom they would normally experience difficulty accessing, from all over the world, from the safety of their bedrooms.

Yet social media cannot remove this status imbalance entirely, and perhaps that goes someway to accounting for the reluctance I often come across when I suggest networking with strangers on LinkedIn. Perhaps students are unsure why an established professional would be prepared to spend their precious time talking to an unfocused student or recent graduate?

Let's not forget the fear of looking stupid ... I must confess that in my first foray into connecting with professionals whom I considered eminently more experienced and impressive than me, my career heroes if you like, was pretty disastrous. I was attempting to find the email address of an extremely well-known careers trainer, speaker, writer, leader and theorist to ask about a MOOC he was running. Being a total LinkedIn novice, I thought that I might chance upon his personal email by clicking "connect" which was not successful (obviously!) but instead, to my horror I was informed that my "connection request had been sent". Finding his email elsewhere, I hastily sent a message asking about the MOOC , and with an additional line:

"I may have accidentally sent you a LinkedIn request whilst trying to find a contact for you. I’m new to LinkedIn. Bit cringy, sorry!!!"

To which he (quite rightly) replied:

"No need to apologise. Making connections is kinda the point of LinkedIn. If you can’t get over your cringe reaction how will you persuade students to do the same? By the way, I’ve accepted your request."

Starting a relationship on Linkedin then, with someone you admire, but have not yet met, can be tricky to navigate. With no non-verbals such as a smile or welcoming look, it can be hard to tell how our message will be received. The rules of social media in a professional context are unfamiliar to most students, and with only 300 characters in a connection request message, where should a student even start?

What I have found effective in my work with students to break down a reluctance to connect with unknown professionals on LinkedIn is threefold;

1) Helping students understand that the purpose of LinkedIn is to connect, and that is why (amongst other reasons) professionals are present on a public platform, in order to develop a network. It is not like Facebook, where the focus is connecting within a social circle. Rather, LinkedIn is designed to help people associated via occupation to communicate and connect with one another, particularly those that may not happen upon each other by chance, but who might provide mutual professional benefits.

2) Explaining that multiple studies have shown that people LOVE talking about themselves, and that a well placed and genuine compliment can go a long way in easing the wheels of conversation. Searching for a specific and interesting piece of experience, qualification or role in a LinkedIn profile and then commenting on why it is impressive is a great conversation opener. Once students understand that professionals are almost always flattered and keen to talk about themselves, that opening message becomes easier to write.

3) Encouraging thoughtful questioning to look smarter, and make the other party feel smarter too. Surprisingly, asking someone questions makes them like you more. It's a good idea to start really small - the first question might simply be asking permission to ask a few questions.

So an opening request to a professional on LinkedIn might look something like this:

Hi Beth, I was really interested to see your profile, particularly your work on the Channel Tunnel- what an amazing project! I'm studying civil engineering at the moment but unsure of my next steps. I would love to chat to you about your career path. Might you be up for a quick chat?

Once that connection is established, it's easy to carry on with more questions- how did you get into this role? What made you choose to do a masters? What advice might you give me? How much variety is in your role? What do you enjoy the most? What is most challenging? And so on. The next step might be a phonecall, a Skype chat or even coffee at a local cafe.

LinkedIn is a global phenomenon, having just hit 500,000,000 (wow that's a lot of noughts..) members worldwide. It is such a shame that students may be prevented from using it most effectively simply because they don't know how to break the ice in 300 characters.