Making Mutual Introductions on LinkedIn

True networking is proactive, not just reactive, but LinkedIn’s basic introduction model is reactive. In other words, if Adam wants to meet Betty, and I know both of them, Adam can request for me to introduce him to Betty. But if I’m reading Betty’s profile one day (let’s say she just updated it), and think to myself, "You know, I should introduce Betty to Adam," then LinkedIn’s standard introduction model doesn’t directly support that.

However, back in August, I wrote about one way to use LinkedIn to introduce your network to each other. But in November, LinkedIn introduced private messaging on the site, which allows you to send messages to not just one, but up to 20 people at a time (Note that this is only your first-degree contacts — anyone else, you’d have to send an InMail to contact directly, which requires a premium account). You can access it in the top right corner of the profile:

Over on the LinkedIn blog, LinkedIn Product Director Adam Nash explains how you can use this feature to make mutual introductions on LinkedIn.

One minor addition to Adam’s guide: you can actually get to the right screen one step faster by clicking on "Forward this profile" instead of "Send a message".  This will take you directly to the message composition with the additional recipients, saving the extra step of clicking on "Include others…".

I encourage you to use this capability heavily. This is what being "a connector" is all about — not adding thousands of people you’ve never met and forwarding introduction requests between them with no added value. This is networking — identifying two people who you know who ought to know each other but don’t. Human beings can see opportunities and possibilities that databases don’t.

Scott Allen  (299 Posts)