How Should You Introduce Yourself To A Stranger On Linkedin? Job search question of the week
Nov 10 2010 in Featured, Networking/Social Networking, reCareered Blog by Phil Rosenberg
During the Q & A part of my Resume Revolution Webinar, a participant asked me how to introduce yourself to someone new on Linkedin.
How you introduce yourself to a new contact could mean the difference between getting help and getting ignored …
Job seeker S.B. asked:
“Here is my question, How do I introduce myself to a stranger on Linkedin? Many times I am contacting them to get to know the manager, company, etc. I do not want to be direct and say hello, my name is so & so, I need your help.”
This is a great question and most job seekers blow the introduction – it causes a lower percentage of new connections to give help the job seeker needs.
Use this rule of thumb: Introduce yourself to a stranger on Linkedin just like you would face-to-face. Here’s the difference – you have the chance to find out much more information about your new contact online, before you send an introduction.
Would you approach a stranger on the street saying “Hello, my name is John Doe. Is your company hiring?” Probably not, right?
What a candidate wants to avoid when introducing yourself to strangers on Linkedin:
- Don’t identify yourself as a job seeker: There are two problems with this type of introduction – You look desperate and your new contact has been trained by their company that job seekers get referred to HR. In addition, this type of introduction makes people uncomfortable, because they may not have a job for you or may not be in a hiring position.
- Don’t ask for help: How do you feel if a stranger approached you on the street and asked you to introduce them to your boss? It makes most people uncomfortable – the new contact doesn’t know you, you’re asking them to put their reputation on the line through an introduction. Plus, why should the new contact even take the time to help you – they’re busy people.
- Don’t ask who is responsible for hiring: HR is responsible for hiring, job openings are listed on the company’s website – it’s a waste of your contact’s time, and an even bigger waste of the opportunity that a new contact can offer.
Candidate best practices to introduce yourself to strangers on Linkedin:
- Research first: What interests your contact? Do they blog, tweet, comment, or post status? What are they involved with? What groups are they in?
- Find a reason other than job search to connect: State that you liked their blog post (hint- comment on their blog first), comment on a tweet, even comment on a comment your new contact made on someone else’s blog.
- Offer help before you ask for help: Giving before you get is a great way to build loyalty with a new contact – aren’t they more likely to help you if you’ve first helped them? What can you offer as a candidate? Plenty – As a candidate, you have information, especially about competitors, customers, and vendors within your industry.
- Create innovative ways to help: Research on social networks to see what the contact is involved with outside of work, especially charities. Offer to volunteer for your contact’s favorite charity or to staff an event they are involved with.
- Ask about what’s important to them: People love to talk about themselves. You are much more likely to get a response, build a relationship and get help if you ask your new contact to talk about themselves. It’s not important that they know your background at this point … it’s much more important that your new contact feels that you care about them.
- Wait: By waiting until you’ve first built trust and rapport, you increase your chances many times over that your new contact will help you.
Readers: Any suggestions about what has worked well for you when introducing yourself to someone new on Linkedin?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Want to do more than just complain about a bad economy?
To attend our next complimentary live webinar featuring action items to double your resume response rate and number of interviews, plus live career Q&A with Phil Rosenberg of reCareered, register at http://ResumeWebinar.com .
Also, check out the complimentary Linkedin job search webinars sponsored weekly at http://LinkedJobSearchWebinar.com .
Join our mailing list to for newsletters, announcements of complimentary upcoming webinars and other job search resources. Sign up at http://www.reCareered.com/newsletter/
For access to more information:
Connect to Phil Rosenberg on Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/philrosenberg
Follow reCareered on Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/company/recareered.com
"Like" reCareered on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/reCareered
Follow Phil Rosenberg on Google+: http://gplus.to/philrosenberg
Follow reCareered on Twitter: http://twitter.com/philreCareered
Join Career Change Central on Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/e/gis/1800872
Source: http://reCareered.com
You might also like
 |
 |
 |
 |
Hi Phil,
The founders of LinkedIn have made it abundantly clear from the start that your contacts on LinkedIn should be people you know–or their connections. And of course the idea is that you can mine your connections’ connections to get to the person you want to network with. Because you trust the people you know, and therefore trust their networks.
I’m having trouble reconciling that with your post. I virtually always ignore requests from people with whom I have no explicit connection because I feel it violates the point of the site. I’m curious to hear your response.
I like this article! For it contains great information about connecting with potential new business partners via LinkedIn. I use the following text whenever I want to make a connection with someone I want to get to know better:
“[Name of person contacted]: Now that we are connected, please be sure to review my LI profile again for even though I am a well rounded Architect with many marketable talents, being a new business development expert is something that I am just starting to get the hang of. That is why I am very happy that you accepted my offer to join my inner networking circle.
When you get the opportunity, feel free to browse amongst the other contacts that have connected with me and if any of them peak your interest, I’ll do my best to introduce them to you. In the meantime, please do me a big favor and send me an email from your personal or business email accounts telling me more about yourself, your business, and how you help your customers stay happy. This information will help me get a better understanding of how I may be of service to you and how I may be on the lookout in finding you quality referrals!
All the best,
Mark S. Fitzgerald, AIA, LEED AP, CDT
A Quality Control-minded Architect helping Business Owners meet their Capital Improvement Needs by utilizing Smart Design and QA/QC Principles.
We respectfully solicit your patronage.
MSF: consultants
Louisville, KY
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/markfitzgerald1architect
“Without gratitude, happiness is rare. With gratitude, the odds of happiness go up dramatically.” ~Zig Ziglar
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail. Thank you.”
My response rate from these new found connections is about 93%. I say that is pretty darn good in laying a good foundation from so called, “cold calling networking!”
Excellent blog entry. I know people who seem to think that just because people “should know how hard it is for job seekers” that they’re entitled to someone’s entire Rolodex without any effort.
Thank you.
@Allison – One strategy, and the one that Linkedin prefers is a tight strategy – only linking to those you personally know. Another strategy is a broad strategy, or expanding your network beyond who you know. There are advantages to each method, as well as disadvantages. Keep in mind, Linkedin is very concerned about spam, which is one of the reasons for their recommendations. See http://www.recareered.com/blog/2008/03/19/linkedin-strategies-%E2%80%93-tight-vs-broad-network/ for more detail.
@Mark, You do offer to help, but this isn’t exactly personalized to meet the needs of the recipient. It’s pretty much a template. You’d find a greater acceptance rate and more people offering to help if you went the extra step to research the recipient and show how you specifically can help them, above and beyond the offer “do your best” to make Linkedin introductions.
@Ed – Thanks for your kind words!
Phil: Great post and great tips. The one thing I struggle with is that the person I contact can subsequently see on my LinkedIn profile that I’m a job seeker (if I have included it in my description, as I believe I should) and may surmise that my eventual motive might be to ask them for a referral…and thus hesitate to even reply to me.
But then again, if I don’t identify as a job seeker on my LinkedIn profile (via my description), recruiters or potential employers that come across my profile might not even give it a second look.
This is a dilemma I’m trying to figure out…
Hi Jason,
Nice to hear from you and thanks for commenting. That is a dilemma, because Linkedin presents a single view and you can’t customize it for a specific reader. You can’t have it both ways.
I coach my clients to focus on making their Linkedin profile more findable. Linkedin now gets more traffic than Monster – that should tell you something.
As for networking, I find that if you give a reason for someone to accept your networking request – they often will. You’ll hear a lot of lip service to “paying it forward” but those who actually do find their networking is more effective my multiples.
Best of luck, Phil
Thank you for your insightful suggestions.
Donna L. Serino
Phil – I found this very useful. You mention that you advice to make one’s LinkedIn profile more findable.
One quick question – do you have a blog / article on how to make ones’s LinkedIn profile more findable?
Thank you,
Chandana
Thanks so much Phil for these useful points. I will definitively share them around!