If You’re An Introvert, LinkedIn Is Your Secret Weapon
Joshua B. Lee
The Dopamine Dealer of LinkedIn - Transforming Your Connections into Advocates & Customers so YOU stand out | CEO | Keynote Speaker | Author | Father
Networking, often seen as “extrovert territory,” can be perceived as daunting and uncomfortable for many introverts. Honestly. These LinkedIn Networking tips can be implemented by shy people, introverts and any other “gimme-an-I-hate-networking-label” kinda person. Trust me!
- Find a list of people attending the event you’re about to attend.
- Let people you’re already connected to know you are going.
- Invite the others with a personal message.
- Look up the organisers and/or speakers.
- Connect with organisers and/or speakers.
- Decide who you’d REALLY like to meet.
- Do some serious, professional stalking.
- Follow up after the event.
DARN THAT’S 8 LINKEDIN NETWORKING TIPS
1. Send a nice message (always be nice) to the attendees you’re already connected to. Something along the lines of you both going and how lovely it would be to catch up. Big change some of them will come up to you at the event to say hello. BAM you don’t need to get over your fear of walking up to people.
2. Write a personalized invitation to attendees you’re not connected to. Let them know you noticed you are both going. Ask what made them decide to attend, or what they are most looking forward to. Questions are conversation starters right. If you have a conversation, people might remember you.
3. Study the event website, invite, program, brochure or what have you. Once you spot the organisers and/or speakers, look them up on LinkedIn. Find out what expertise brings them to this event AND look for a common interest you have, bonus points if it is unrelated to the event you are about to attend.
4. Connect to organisers and/or speakers. If the event you are attending is a little bigger, a conference even, this might sound daunting. Who am I to reach out to them? Well, YOU are that person that actually shows an interest! Write your invite combining the two things I made you figure out in the previous point.
START WITH WHY (AS SINEK ALWAYS TELLS US)
5. When you decide who you’d really like to meet, keep a few things in mind. Why do you want to meet them? Because you are a fan? You are not the only one, so make an impression first! Look for people who share your target audience from a different angle. Look for influencers. Above all, look for people that just seem to damn nice, funny, different NOT to meet!
6. Here comes the fun bit. Serious, professional stalking! YAY. Visit the profile of one of the people on your short list. Check for ‘recent activity’ click the see more, or show all, or whatever that thing is called. Now before you start scrolling like crazy, look up a little and click “posts”. Now start engaging! This is what THEY POSTED. What they feel strongly about. Comment in a manner that compliments and adds value. Keep this up once a week if there is enough time, otherwise daily. IF THEY RESPOND, if there is some two-way-interaction you can message them to say you’d love to catch up IRL at the event.
7. Follow up the day after the event. Send a nice thank you message to the people you did talk to. Ideally, send them a link to some interesting article related to what you chatted about. Send a message to all the people you DID NOT talk to! Let them know how much you enjoyed the event, that it was impossible to meet every attendee in person. Finish with a question! What did they enjoy most? Or something else low key like that.
NOW YOU KNOW ALL MY SECRETS
I developed part of this strategy by accident. I did the connecting beforehand thing, just to grow my network with like-minded professionals. Then THREE people came up to me to thank me for the nice message and talk to me.
>>>Tell me: what is the next event you’re attending and which of these LinkedIn Networking Tips will you implement? Additional tips are welcome in the comments as well!<<<
Thank you so much for reading and sharing,
Joshua B Lee
Make sure to check out my other article ~4 Tips to Building a Relationship on LinkedIn
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2023 Sales Kickoff Speaker of the Year - SellingPower | Responsible For 5 Multimillion-Dollar Successes | “The Real Deal" - Forbes | Author of The Introvert's Edge Book Series - 15 Languages & Over 100,000 Copies Sold
6 年Such simple and easy-to-follow advice that makes a huge difference to networking success. It BLOWS MY MIND how few people utilize even one of these tactics. It's kind of ridiculous, really; people spend all this time at networking events, and dealing with the stress and anxiety that comes with it... but they don’t do the things that lead to a successful outcome. Great article, Josh, keep them coming. LOVE that you published this during National Introverts Week.
Tangram Languages. Evidence, Science, Education, Research.
6 年Me too.