An NFN8 Media publication.

Making Mutual Introductions on LinkedIn

732367_business_meetingTrue 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:

sendamessage

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

forwardprofileOne 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.

1 comment to Making Mutual Introductions on LinkedIn

Leave a Reply

 

 

 

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

CommentLuv Enabled

Featured Offers

The LinkedIn Blogosphere

LinkedIn’s International Membership
06/09/10 The LinkedIn Personal Trainer
My recent coverage of international connections caused a reader to ask about LinkedIn’s international membership – how big is the site outside the US? A little searching gives some good numbers… Network Statistics This was..

Worst reason to connect on LinkedIn?
03/09/10 I'm On LinkedIn - Now What???
I get this regularly.  I think this is poor logic and irresponsible connecting. Just because we share a group means we should connect? Please… please give me a better reason.  Tell me how you found my Profile (same group – that..

International LinkedIn Connections – Go Big or Stay Home!
03/09/10 The LinkedIn Personal Trainer
Most LinkedIn users have some International connections, but a few have a lot;-) And that discrepancy highlights the result of August’s poll on The LinkedIn Personal Trainer – and we know polls must be right, right? So let’..

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Linked Things
30/08/10 The LinkedIn Personal Trainer
If you haven’t guessed, I’m working through the lyrics of the video – because in order to make it in, I really did have to think highly of each favorite thing;-) This line gives me a chance to reflect… By the numbers..

Is LinkedIn Broken… or is it just a TOOL?
30/08/10 I'm On LinkedIn - Now What???
I read this post a few days ago: My Problem with LinkedIn . The author ( Tom Nixon ) presents the idea that it's not really “the social network's fault,” it's really our fault because we are using it wrong. Tom suggests there a..

Wonderful Coworkers Recommending
27/08/10 The LinkedIn Personal Trainer
Some skeptics seem to think that LinkedIn recommendations are not worthwhile, but to me – they’re golden. As I mentioned last post – if you’re connecting to people you know, the things they write will absolutely supp..

What do recruiters think about LinkedIn?
25/08/10 I'm On LinkedIn - Now What???
I'm always intrigued to see how a specific group uses or thinks about a tool. Job seekers think about LinkedIn a certain way, while wondering if their target audience (hiring managers, business owners, recruiters, HR) will find them and se..

Warm Friendly Tweeters
24/08/10 The LinkedIn Personal Trainer
I’m new to the twitter world, but definitely enjoy seeing good tweets coming through LinkedIn. If you’re connecting to people you know, the twitter connection makes it easy to keep everyone aware of what’s going on. But yo..

LinkedIn for iPhone 3.2: Where Are They Now?
20/08/10 The LinkedIn Blog
Keeping track of what your connections are doing professionally is one of the most important things we offer to our members at LinkedIn.   We’re excited to announce LinkedIn for iPhone 3.2, because we’ve made it easier than ever to stay up..

Groups With Nice Members
19/08/10 The LinkedIn Personal Trainer
Group functionality has come a long way on LinkedIn since the early days, and one of the aspects that is a must for successful group interactions and livelihood is the attitude of members. Let’s look at some of the ways it might be on..