How To Start Conversations with Complete Strangers in a Natural Way


You might wonder why on earth you should speak to strangers in the first place. I mean afterall, we’re taught by our parents never to speak to strangers and the only folks that do seem to be the village idiot and local yokels. I guess the reason I speak to strangers is to network, by going to and running events you get to know very useful and interesting people – and the only way to do this is by talking to them.

In business, the ability to small talk with (and get on with) anyone is very useful. If you want to be seen as an all-rounder that can get on with multinational and cross-sector teams, you’d have to have the ability to speak to strangers. Here are the stranger-talking tips that I have come up with:

Get introduced if possible

This is the simplest way of speaking to strangers and it will work when you’re at a well-organized event. Ask the host of the event you are at who you should speak to and get an introduction – this is of course much more powerful and cuts through the chit chat. It saves you having to think about an icebreaker as well. The host should know what people are happy to chat with someone like you and vice versa.

The big city question that always works

In London you can get away with the easiest question of them all: Where are you from? Very few people are actually from London and most folks have a great story about how they got there. I would think this one applies to any major city which has an influx/outflux of people.

Talking points allow strangers to speak

Whenever something unexpected (especially something less-than-great) happens, people get talking. If you get stuck in the elevator, if the service is really slow at the bar, someone stinks on the train, if the weather suddenly shifts – it’s ok to speak to strangers all of a sudden. This is because you now have a talking point and you have an experience to discuss.

Got a joke? Deliver it!

Humor always works, crack a clever joke and it’s now acceptable to laugh and comment on your wit. You have to be a little bit careful with jokes when dealing with strangers, you don’t want to slate a restaurant and then find out that the owner is the stranger’s brother.

Learn from pick up artists

If you look at the world of chat-ups, it usually starts with a genuine question like ‘do you have a light’ or ‘do you know what DJ is on tonight?’ – and take it from there. You’ll know whether someone wants to have a conversation with you or if they quickly answer your question and turns away. Don’t forget to smile when using this approach by the way!

Fancy dressing up a bit?

Another observation I’ve made is that fancy dress tends to encourage people talking, if you’re wearing a chicken suit people think it’s normal to have a chat for some reason. If that’s too extreme for you, try wearing a peacock item like a hat, a scarf or a loud shirt – all of which are great conversation starters.

Bring an icebreaker

People in parks don’t tend to speak to strangers. People on buses don’t speak to strangers. There is an exception however, this is when someone has brought their baby or dog, suddenly it’s ok to smile and ask ‘how old is she’ or ‘what’s his name’? So if you want people to speak to you, bring an icebreaker of some kind.

Have a drink

Alcohol is another obvious icebreaker, people that work in the same office and never speak will suddenly be best pals at the Christmas do thanks to a few drinks. Trouble is they go back to not speaking in January again… Alcohol works but it’s not a great strategy in my book, I know I’m not the best networker when I’ve had a few drinks!

When you do speak, find out what they are passionate about

Find out what people are passionate about if you want to stand out. Everyone asks what’s your name, what do you do, what company etc – you have the same conversation with everyone. Instead ask what they did on the weekend, what holidays they have planned etc and get them talking – everyone wants to speak about their passions. The following day this person will definitely remember speaking to you and you can take it from there – now that you know each other a little bit it’s time to see how you could possibly help each other.

More on this at 3 Smart Networking Strategies To Use at Your Next Event.

Bottom line

When attempting to talk to strangers you have to accept that the first few moments will be awkward sometimes, that some people will blank you – that’s just life. My experience tells me most people are very happy to have a chat and nobody will bite you! Your only challenge is breaking the ice and the conversation will flow from there.

Do you have any hot tips for talking to strangers? Or how to avoid strangers talking to you? Or how not to be strange? Please let us know in the comments!

Related: The Psychology of Networking: How Some Appear Natural While Others Stutter.

More on networking and talking to strangers at our Personal Branding from the Inside Out workshops in the UK – would love to see you there!

Filed Under: Networking, Personal Branding Tagged With:

The Psychology of Networking: How Some Appear Natural While Others Stutter

jimmy wales zuckerberg sandberg sheryl doing a bit of networking
If you’ve spent time looking for a new job these days, then it shouldn’t surprise you to find out that, according to Harvard Business School, 65% to 85% of jobs are found through networking.

That statistic was a big deal when it was released. To 99% of the population, it was like a brutal slap in the face. People were outraged that they were not given a “fair chance” to interview. To be frank, I thought that number was pretty low. Here’s why.

Let’s say you went to a bar one night and you intended to meet someone. And sure enough, a stranger approached you as soon as you sat down. Let’s say you hit it off with this stranger. After a brief 30 minutes chat, both of you decided to set another date. Now would you move in with this stranger after the second date?

Because that’s what that number is saying. That number is saying that 15% to 35% of all employers are desperate enough to make a new hire based off 2 interviews (pretty standard practice) with a stranger. And here’s the thing: hiring is a risky business.

Forget the hard financial cost. By employing you, the employer is taking a social risk by introducing you to her team. She is also taking a professional risk because to some extent, hiring you is like putting her job on the line. And most important, she is taking a personal risk – what if you’re a psycho?

That’s where networking comes in. Networking is like dating. It allows your future employer to get to know you better and minimize the risks she will be taking in hiring you. The problem is that schools don’t teach networking – and most people simply don’t know what to do.

Well, the first step is not to appear like a desperate weirdo. Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially when a job is on the line. Here are 2 steps to make sure you never again say, “I can’t believe I said that!”

1. Serendipity vs Goal

“How does he appear so smooth?” my friend wondered. He just witnessed a colleague of ours get a card from one of the most well-known industry influencer. Here’s how: he prepared!

Those who are new to networking tend to have this assumption that networking is like falling in love. You go from one person to the other, stumbling around randomly, and hope that you find “the one”. There’s just one problem with that approach: when you do meet the one, you don’t know what to say.

Networking veterans, on the other hand, have a clear target. They identified which company they want to work with and exactly what role they desire – and thus who they need to speak to.

Before they step into a conference or any networking opportunity, they did their research. Who will be the speakers? Who are the VIPs? Are there anyone who will be there I’d like to meet? Check Linkedin, scour twitter and dig around Facebook. Most people would tell the world when they will be attending a major event.

Once they’ve identified who they want to meet, they do two things:

Find for similarities to create a perceptual bond. For example, did both of you attend the same university? Are both of you photography enthusiasts?

Find out what these people are doing so you can talk about it. Are they involved in a foundation? Did she just come back from a prolonged break?

And if you’re worried they find out you conducted research, don’t! Most people would be flattered you take the time to get to know them better before approaching.

2. Mindset: Getting a Job vs Delivering Value

Once you make contact, make sure you have the right mindset.

Most people have this mindset that they should be given a job before they start working… almost like they are entitled to a job. Treat me well first, in other words, and I will do the same. Successful networkers, on the other hand, know that the opposite is true. You need to deliver value first, and you’ll boost your chances of being offered a job in the future.

There are 3 ways you can deliver value:

Offer to help with a current project. Like this, “I’m actually working on something similar. Would you like my notes?”

Forward interesting research you might have discovered. Busy people have no time to keep up to date with all the latest development in their industry so anyone who points them to interesting happenings scores big points. Start with, “I heard you’re working on this project, you should check this out…”

Introduce them to people who can add value to their lives. Beginners have the misconception of hoarding their contacts, wrongly assuming that social equity is this limited pie. In fact, the opposite is true. The more connections you make, the more your social equity multiplies – just make sure you know the person you’re introducing knows his/her stuff.

So there you go, 2 simple steps. First, conduct your research on a number of topics you want to talk about. Prepare and practice, practice, practice. Second, consult and deliver value first before asking. Heck, don’t expect anything in return for that matter… that simple shift in mindset is bound to improve your behaviour.

Related: 3 Smart Networking Strategies to Use at Your Next Event.

This article was written by Andrianes Pinantoan, who is part of the team behind Open Colleges, an Australian TAFE Courses provider. When not working, he can be found in his personal blog, Journey To Earth.


photo by: Robert Scoble
Filed Under: Career Management, Networking, Psychology Tagged With: , ,

How To Use Google Plus for Professional Networking [10 Smart Ways]

Unless you have lived in a cave for a while, you cannot have missed the launch of Google Plus. This new social network managed to sign almost 100 million users inside less than a year, influencers like Chris Brogan are already reporting to get most of their blog traffic from Google Plus. I for one was impressed with the interface and innovative features of this new network. The question is…

Is it useful for professional networking?

 

Google Plus is definitely useful for professional networking, to me it combines the best of Twitter and LinkedIn and possibly even Facebook. You are able to be picked up in Google searches, to show off a public profile full with information about what you do, content shared and even links to your site, blog and other places.

And as always, personal branding works best online when you are selling yourself in some capacity. This could be your expertise, your training, your inspiration or creativity. The type of business person that relies on referrals for new customers will definitely benefit from using Google Plus (and other social networks). I can think of professions such as accountants, lawyers, designers, consultants and even health practitioners.

Here are 10 ideas to help your business networking on Google Plus:

1. Do up that profile of yours

The most logical place to start is your profile on Google Plus. If you are a heavy Google user you probably already had a Google Profile linked to your username. This profile has now become Google Plus and even more powerful. The main benefit of the old Profile was the fact that you ranked well for your name on Google the search engine (hope this isn’t getting too confusing).

On your Google Plus profile, make sure you upload an image, write up a nice headline (just like LinkedIn) and a paste in your professional bio which you can add hyperlinks to. Be sure to link up your profile to your blog or website and any other outposts you have such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube etc.

2. Get your head around the privacy settings

Google Plus is very useful in that it’s both private and public. You can choose what part of your profile is visible to a random search on Google and what is visible to your nearest and dearest. You are able to share posts publicly on your profile, these will appear in searches on Google. Just click on Privacy Settings and it’s all self-explanatory.

You can also choose to download all your information provided to Google in an instant using what they call Data Liberation. They let you save a backup of your images, profile information, contacts, circles, stream posts and other stuff to your computer.

My approach to privacy is that I’m not bothered about it, everything I publish on Google Plus is in the open – I just make sure that my posts are safe for the office as it were.

3. Categorize your network in Circles

 

One of the key features of Google Plus is what they call Circles. It’s a very straightforward way of categorizing your contacts, just like circles of friends in real life. Google’s Circles are similar to Facebook or Twitter lists, even LinkedIn tags but they are much simpler to administrate. The first thing you want to do is import your contacts to Google Plus from webmail services such as Yahoo or Hotmail, contact files from Outlook and LinkedIn.

Once they are imported you can choose who you want to put in what circle. This is when it’s time to be smart about what you do. I would suggest having a family circle, a friends circle, a business circle and any other circles relevant to your personal branding objectives. Let’s say you want to go on a dentistry speaking tour of South America, I would then add influential people in that industry from Argentina and Brazil – they will be notified that you have added them and hopefully interested to add you back. Once they do, you can go on sharing content and engaging properly. Before you know it you’ll be on that plane to Rio. Note that other users will never know which circles you put them into.

Personally, I have four circles just to keep things simple. It’s family, friends, acquaintances and following. Family and friends are what they say on the tin. Acquaintances is where I put most of my online buddies that I have actually engaged with, following is for people who probably don’t know who I am. I might do circles for more specific purposes as and when the need arises.

4. Search for great content with Sparks

 

Another nifty feature of Google Plus is Sparks, basically a Google Alert set up for whatever keyword you are interested in. So you tap in ‘politics’ and up comes news articles, blog posts and other stories related to politics from the last days. If you want to be more specific, just add another keyword like ‘Canadian’ or ‘local’ to narrow down the search results.

With Sparks you’ll never be lost for content to share on Google Plus. One thing that annoys me slightly about Sparks is the fact that you can only share stories on Google Plus, I guess a Twitter integration wouldn’t make much commercial sense but I would have appreciated it.

So yes Sparks is very useful but nothing revolutionary that you couldn’t do with Google Reader, Google News and Google Alerts (just to underline the complete Google dominance of the web by the way). Just bear in mind that others will easily find exactly the same content in Sparks so you might have to think a bit outside the box to stay original.

5. Share that great content selectively (if you have the time)

 

Once you have found content in Sparks, go ahead and share it on your profile. Google Plus make it very simple for you to click ‘Share’ and it will go into the streams you choose. Be sure to only share relevant content to relevant circles. If you’re sharing something about Argentinian dentistry, you’ll want to keep that to your South American dentistry circle and not friend and family. Likewise, the dentists of Bueons Aires will not take a huge interest in your holiday snaps from Blackpool.

I share all my posts with everyone, just like I do it on Twitter which seems to work well. To share things selectively you will need to dedicate a lot of time and effort to Google Plus, not sure if it’s worth it at this point.

6. Use Hangouts for group video chats

 

Remember the old chat-rooms from the 90s? Here they are again but this time they come with audio and video. Hangouts is a much talked about feature of Google Plus allowing you to have a conversation with a group of people in your circles. You could of course use this for business purposes, perhaps by giving a free webinar or offering free consultations with prospective customers. Not long after this feature was announced by Google did Facebook present their Skype integration, no coincidence there.

7. That engagement thing

 

The trouble with Twitter is that it’s difficult to see who commented on what, there is no stickiness of posts at all. Facebook does this much better but it’s in a very closed environment and only friends can join in the discussion.

Google Plus has made it very easy to engage with fellow members. Anything you post will come up in the homefeed of people who have put you in their circles, they can click Share, Comment or +1 (the Like equivalent on Google Plus). You will be notified who has done what and you can follow up and get a discussion going. The engineers at Google HQ must have worked long and hard at this as everyone I have spoken to think they have cracked it.

If you use Gmail you’ll notice constant notifications in the top righ hand corner of your browser whenever something happens on Google Plus – I dare you to ignore the notifications for a whole day (we both know it ain’t gonna happen).

8. Get your vanity URL

 

Right, this one isn’t compulsory but most people like to get a shorter URL than the one that Google issues us with by default. Check out GPlus.to for an unofficial vanity URL for now. Google will bring out the ‘real’ one soon.

9. Invite others to circle you in

 

If you want people to add you on Google Plus you’ll have to start telling the world you are actually on there. You can add your URL on your email signature, stick an icon on your blog or just mention it in a blog post like this: “Hey look at me, I’m now on Google Plus – circle me right here”.

10. Use Google Plus in moderation

 

The jury is still out on Google Plus. Yes it’s looking very promising and it has attracted lots of followers in a short space of time, but it has a long way to go until it catches up with Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. The early adopters are there but the long tail haven’t got there yet, meaning your target audience might not be present. If Google Plus becomes a serious contender they will get there but it will take 6-12 months I would say. So for now, explore Google Plus but only treat it as another really useful tool when you can see some results from it.

Hope these 10 ideas are of use to you, please let me know how you get on with Google Plus as I am not sure myself of how useful it is – but will keep you posted of course!

Related: 10 Ways To Use Google Plus for Your Job Search.

Filed Under: Google, Networking, Professional Tagged With: , , ,

3 Smart Networking Strategies To Use at Your Next Event


I get asked quite a bit about networking and the relation to job search and personal branding. Sometimes it’s about where to find good networking events, sometimes it’s more about how to approach the whole networking thing. Networking is second nature to some people and it’s a bit foreign to others. Once you have developed and positioned yourself in your personal brand it’s time to go out and meet some people and make an impact with it I say.

Why should you be networking?

Did you ever hear the mantra that “people buy from people they know, like and trust”? This is as true as it ever was. But to get trusted you have to be liked, to be liked you have to be known… How do you get to know customers in the first place? Well, a networking event is a great forum for it. This is where people come out for the very reason to meet people, share ideas and in a way sell themselves.

At a networking event, you are showcasing yourself, your expertise and ultimately your personal brand. There is plenty of networking advice out there, I have come up with three things that have worked well for me over the years and here goes:

1. Listen and then ask the right questions

The golden rule at a networking event, or any other business interaction for that matter is to listen more than you talk. This is classic sales stuff that everyone should know. If you think about the really successful people in your life, are they very chatter boxes or are they listeners? I would think the latter. Do they ask the right questions? I would think they probably do.

You will only reach success when you understand what other people really want. Sometimes you will get people asking for your services but not knowing exactly why. This is your job to listen and make sure they know their reasons for it and what they are trying to achieve. If you think about it, what salesperson would you buy a camera from; the one talking at you and selling feature after feature, or the other one asking what you are going to use it for?

Being an active listener and asking the right questions sounds like simple stuff but it can be harder to actually do. Active listening takes effort but when you do it the right questions will pop up and the payback is there.

2. Partner up with the competition

You will inevitably bump into people doing similar things to you at networking events. Instead of the Mexican stand-off which sometimes happens, try to find out where there can be synergies between the two of you.

Let’s say that you sell ice-cream for instance and you get talking to another ice-cream salesperson. Do you work the same location? Do you sell the same flavors? Do your customers have the same demographic? Same pricing? Probably not on most of these questions. This means you can share information on suppliers, discuss general market conditions and you can even set up a joint venture and seek global ice-cream domination.

If you are a solo-preneur, your success will depend on fitting into an eco system of other consultants and freelancers. Make yourself useful to them and help out as much as possible; your efforts are always appreciated and you will be repaid at some stage.

You will invariably bump into and sometimes lock horns with the competition at client sites. The networking event provides a ‘safe’ environment where you can you can practise interaction with the competition without causing too much damage in front of a customer.

3. Hunters vs. farmers

We have all been there. You get chatting to someone with a big smile from ear to ear. They are hyper friendly and rather quickly state their business while scanning the room for their next prey. They hand over their business card and expect you to reciprocate; they then make an excuse and move on to the next person.

This person will go home that night and count up the number of cards they got and more crucially, how many of their own cards they handed out. These people are called hunters, meaning they are only interested in a quick chat and exchanging cards. Study after study shows that this approach doesn’t work but some folks do it as handing out cards feels like an achievement.

Farmers on the other hand, understand the value of knowing, liking and trusting people. They know that business relationships grow over time and they are prepared to bide their time.

They say that all you need is twenty people in your network if you nurture it well. These twenty people may take many networking events to get right but the farmer knows that having a real connection with one person is much stronger than shallow chats with hundreds.

In practical terms, when you start out on the networking circuit it’s probably difficult to know who’s who. When you see the same faces a few weeks in a row you’ll know who the farmers are – and where you need to put your energy. The fact that the farmers are laid back, very comfortable with networking and genuinely interested in people certainly will certainly help you on the way.

Your turn

That’s three tips that have worked for me, hope they are of use to you. Now what are your best networking tips? Please share your thoughts!

Related reading: 5 Great Ways NOT to Network.

Image credit szeke

Filed Under: Events, Networking, Personal Branding Tagged With: ,

How To Use Facebook for Professional Networking [10 Useful Tips]


Facebook is a place to interact with friends and family online. It’s great for sharing sharing holiday snaps and video clips from your iPhone with your social circle. But there is more to Facebook, everyone from Goldman Sachs to Aaron Sorkin have realized this already.

Why use Facebook for professional networking?

Facebook has grown rapidly and now boasts some 900 million users globally. It has become a perfect platform for B2C (business to consumer) marketing, providing very targeted advertising opportunities based on user’s likes and associations.

Facebook is slowly moving towards a more professional and more career oriented service. They have recently introduced changes to personal profiles, giving more space to work and education information. Employers have checked applicants on Facebook for years, and most people Google you before meetings and your Facebook profile is likely to come up in searches.

The way people use Facebook is different to that of two years ago. As you get friend requests from colleagues, customers and managers it’s no longer strictly that social network. This means there is a case for branding oneself on Facebook just like we have always been doing on LinkedIn.

So let’s cut to the chase, how do you use Facebook for professional networking?

1. Set your vanity URL

This is the first thing you will want to do to brand yourself, a vanity URL is basically your customized domain on Facebook. Instead of facebook.com/e2434h394oij you can get facebook.com/joeshmoe. Note that this new vanity URL will double as your Facebook email address, it will become joeshmoe (at) facebook.com. Go to the Customized URL page on Facebook and set yours now.

2. Check your privacy settings

 

You will inevitably get friend requests from people you know professionally. Do you want these to see all your pictures and videos? If not, you can either choose to hide them from all users but a list that you set up. Or you can create different groups of friends which will have different access to your full profile.

3. Get a professional picture

 

Will your Facebook picture pass the granny test? If not, upload the same one you use on LinkedIn. Some people will disagree with me on this and say that you should give visitors a unique Facebook experience – this is fine, just as long as it’s not harmful to your brand.

As a rule I would say the picture should be related to what type of person you are, being an authentic representation of your personal brand. If you are on the summit of Kilimanjaro in your profile picture, you had better be into your mountaineering in other words.

4. Fill in professional details

You may have noticed that Facebook have ‘promoted’ professional information on personal profiles. The first text after your name is now about what you do for a living, perhaps because Facebook is gearing up to lock horns with its smaller professional rival LinkedIn.

Put your company’s name in the box and also try to state what you do (and not what you are). This means don’t use a title like ‘consultant’ when you could say “managing large scale IT projects in the public sector” – which is a great deal clearer. And don’t forget to put your schools and university on there as well as you can be found through these by old class mates (and that’s hopefully a good thing).

5. Use BranchOut as the LinkedIn of Facebook

Just to confuse you further, Facebook has a decent third part application called BranchOut which is all about professional networking on the Facebook platform. The benefit of BranchOut is that it allows you to search your contacts and their contacts based on company. Let’s say you want to apply for a job at IBM, if you search for people in your network working for IBM they might be able to introduce you to the hiring manager. You can also recommend people on BranchOut and it’s really like a Mini-Me version of LinkedIn.

It’s easy to get set up on BranchOut, all you do is importing the details of your CV, bio and LinkedIn profile and job’s a good’n as they say. BranchOut hasn’t really taken off yet but I notice more and more of my Facebook friends joining up.

6. Add your Blog RSS

Nowadays every man and his dog have are blogging so I will assume you have a blog somewhere on the interwebs. This could be your own blog or one that you contribute to. To ensure that your friends and network see your updates you can plug in the Social RSS feed straight to your profile wall. This saves time having to share things manually and most people really enjoy reading your blog posts.

7. Useful status updates please

Instead of sharing pictures of lol-cats, try to update your status with something useful and informative. This could be an article about your industry or business in general or a quote from Richard Branson. You are really then showcasing what you read and where your interests lie; exactly what a potential customer or employer wants to see. Yes it could possibly bore your friends but they will forgive you for wanting to be a personal brand success.

8. Time to quit the games

I would advise you drop Farmville, Mafia Wars and any other games you are active in on Facebook. The fact that you have time to play games every day on Facebook reflects poorly on your brand, you don’t want a potential customer, employer, investor or partner to see this. Keep your games off Facebook to be safe.

9. Look into Groups and Pages

Facebook Groups have fewer commercial features than Facebook Pages, but they are still very useful especially for online communities. Use a Facebook group to bring people together in your field, become a valuable contributor to that community and promote yourself and your company. Facebook Groups let you share pictures, video and links just like a normal account but it’s all within the group. Another benefit of groups is that they allow you to email all group members very easily (this is not the case for Pages).

Facebook Pages are for brands, ranging from Coca Cola to Rolls-Royce and even Brand You. These pages are similar to your normal profile but slightly less personal and better suited for a public persona and indeed a job seeker. You get full access to analytics tools on your Page, allowing you to see what people click on and how they interact. Another benefit is that your page will rank high for your name in search engines like Bing and Google and you can use it for your professional career, keeping your personal profile locked down.

10. Use Facebook events

Just like LinkedIn, Facebook has a good events engine allowing you to write up and invite people. This means you can put on an industry event, how about a networking evening relevant to your field? Open it up to the public and you will find that new people join up and help out with the organization of things. By running events you will be positioned as a leader in your field which is obviously handy for your personal brand success. Check out Facebook Events for more.

Your turn

What is your best networking tip on Facebook? Please share your experience!

Related: How To Find Graduate Jobs on Facebook’s BeKnown Application.

Filed Under: Facebook, Networking, Professional Tagged With: , ,

INFOGRAPHIC: LinkedIn Members Who Grow their Networks are 30% More Likely to Find Jobs


The co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman recently published his new book “The Start-Up of You”, see a book review here.

One idea is what they call “I-We” – how the power of your network out to the third degree magnifies your individual capabilities. It used to be “who you know”, now it’s also “who the people in your network know”. That’s the strength of “I to the We” of your network.

LinkedIn have kindly sampled some data for us:

• The average LinkedIn member has access to over 9,000 people via their 2nd degree network
• That’s connections in over 6,000 companies in 130 industries via 2nd degree connections
• The most connected users have access to 200,000 companies through 3 million people
• As your professional network grows, so do your career opportunities
• 20% of members advancing their careers to organizations where they had a previous contact
• Job seekers who grow their networks are 30% more likely to find jobs than other job seekers whose networks remained static

Further reading: Global LinkedIn User Statistics (Infographic).

what is the true reach of linkedin

Filed Under: Infographic, LinkedIn, Networking Tagged With: , ,

How To Create Your Memorable Elevator Pitch in Four Simple Steps

As an integral part of your personal brand toolkit, your elevator pitch (or speech) needs to sell you effectively. It needs to convey a value oriented, compelling and memorable message that encourages your listener to take action.

This post will look at what an elevator pitch is, why you need it and how to create one for yourself.

What is an elevator pitch?

The pitch isn’t your autobiography or a detailed business plan, it’s an overview of who you are, what you do and how you can help the listener. It’s you selling yourself in a brief and concise manner, using a format that most people are familiar with. Whilst the elevator pitch is similar to your personal brand statement and bio, it’s delivered verbally and thus should have a slightly different wording to be punchy and memorable.

Who needs one?

People who sell themselves on a daily basis like trainers, speakers and consultants will have very polished pitches as it is integral to their personal marketing.

I would say that anyone that ever meets new business contacts needs an elevator pitch. This could be you going to an industry conference, a networking event, a seminar or just taking the elevator at your hotel – there are always opportunities to strike up business relationships. The elevator pitch prepares you for these opportunities and equips you with a powerful tool to get the most out of a chance meeting.

How do you put yours together?

Just like a personal brand statement, you first have to know the purpose of the pitch. Whether it’s to sell yourself as a consultant, get an investment for your company or getting a job interview – you have to be clear of your value and audience. In case you have a number of professional objectives you might want to consider different pitches for different situations.

To put a good pitch together you can ask yourself a few questions and the answers to these will be a good start. These questions are:

• What value do you provide?

• How do you provide this value?

• What is unique about your offer?

• What is your target market?

Four step process for crafting an elevator pitch

This is the process devised by sales trainer James Nudelman a.k.a. the Noodle.

Step 1 – Begin with an ACTION PHRASE that is NOT a noun. (”I am a X” — but don’t use a “label” in the blank. You don’t want people to put you in a box.)

Step 2 – Add a one sentence statement about what you DO. (”I do Y” — What do you help people or businesses do?)

Step 3 – Give a statement of the SPECIFIC IMPACT. (”People who utilize my process find Z” — list one or two things from the perspective of your potential employer.)

Step 4 – End with a CALL TO ACTION. (”I am looking to be introduced to A” — be specific! If you ask for something non-specific you are likely to get it. What good it that?)

Length

The perfect pitch should be no longer than 60 seconds, which is about 200 words. So imagine you are getting into the elevator at street level, deliver your pitch before you get off at the eighth floor.

Did you hook them?

Just like any good speech, your elevator should be opened with a hook to capture the listener’s attention. This could be a question or a statement that really entices them to stay with you for the full 60 seconds. The hook is critical when you are at a networking function and the person you have just met is already looking over your shoulder for the next person, seize their full attention with a powerful hook.

How clear are you?

You have to use simple language in your pitch. This isn’t a case of dumbing it down, rather ensuring that anyone can understand it whether they are in your industry or not. If you use too much jargon you tend to alienate most laymen and their minds start to wonder as a result.

Is it memorable?

Make an effort to stay memorable. You can use visual language, be witty or just very different – the point is that a pitch will only be memorable if it stands out. Imagine a speed networking event, you’ll hear 30 pitches in an hour and how would you ever remember them unless they had something special about them?

Did you end with a call to action?

At the end of the pitch, you’ll want the listener to think “how can we do business?” One way of doing this is to encourage them to contact you, give you their business card or to book a meeting right away.

Time to practice

Now that you have put your pitch together, it’s time to rehearse. Do it to your friends, in front of a mirror, on your webcam – work as many failure platforms as possible so that you can deliver the perfect pitch when you really need it.

Conclusion

A well crafted elevator pitch will come in handy in many situations; selling your services to a customer, interviewing with an employer or asking an investor to part with half a million – none of which you are likely to be successful in unless you have the perfect pitch.

What’s your pitch and is it working for you? Please let me know in the comments!

Related post: How To Create Your Personal Brand Statement.

Image credit Angelo Gonzales

Filed Under: Bio, Networking, Personal Branding Tagged With: ,

How Many LinkedIn Connections Do Power Networkers Have?

How many super connectors do you know on LinkedIn? Are you one of them?

What is a super connector?

 

Let’s start with the basics. A super connector is basically someone that is very well connected (no surprise here). The author Keith Ferrazzi uses the term in his book Never Eat Alone, here’s his definition:

“Super Connectors are people who maintain contact with thousands of people in many different worlds and know them well enough to give them a call. Restauranteurs, headhunters, lobbyists, fundraisers, public relations people, politicians, and journalists are the best super-connectors because it’s their job to know EVERYONE.”

I think we all know people like these, people whose name keeps popping up here and there in different contexts.

So who is a super connector on LinkedIn?

 

Some would say that anyone with 500+ connections is a super connector. I would probably say 1,000 makes you super at connecting. The poll below used 3,000 connections as the threshold into super connectivity.

If you feel like checking out some real life super connectors on LinkedIn, have a look at Neal Schaffer’s post listing 10 LinkedIn LIONs and Super Connectors.

But hang on, it’s not about the size…

 

Let me add the obligatory disclaimer here so I don’t get too many angry comments about quality vs. quality, engagement vs. broadcasting, farmers vs. hunters etc etc etc. This post is only about the numbers, what you do with your connections is another matter. The fact that someone has amassed thousands of connections does indicate that they have an ability to connect with other people (or they just trawl LinkedIn 24/7).

What percentage of LinkedIn users are super connectors?

 

A LinkedIn poll conducted by Michael Field Pty Ltd has identified LinkedIn super connectors (with at least 3,ooo connections). They asked 1,006 LinkedIn members exactly how many connections they have.

The findings:

 

• 54% of respondents have less than 500 connections,
• 27% have between 500-999
• 12% have between 1,000-1,999
• 3% have between 2,000-2,999
• 4% have 3,000+ connections.

So only 4% or one LinkedIn user in 25 have more than 3,000 connections and can call themselves super connectors here. Most folks have less than 500 connections which makes perfect sense. The first 500 connections are the most difficult to get, from there LinkedIn tends to snowball in the user’s favor and before they know it they’ve hit 1k.

Where are you on this scale, how many connections do you have? Do you feel that the connections you have are enough for your networking efforts?

Related reading: LinkedIn Open Networker (LION) – a bad idea?

Filed Under: LinkedIn, Networking Tagged With: ,

What To Write in Your LinkedIn Invites [Templates]

Whenever I do LinkedIn trainings or talk to people about LinkedIn, I get a few recurring questions. One of these is by business developers who want to connect with new potential customers, partners and investors. Although I believe LinkedIn is a tool for actually connecting with people you know already, it can certainly be very useful for finding new contacts. This is especially true when you are doing business in a new industry or geography.

My advice is normally to connect via someone you both know, someone you are both connected with on LinkedIn. The quickest way to do this is to pick up the phone and as this common connection to make an introduction in person, on the phone, via email or LinkedIn.

But what do you do when there is no common connection and you have no idea how to introduce yourself to someone on LinkedIn? You probably have to find some common ground, such as having worked at the same place, gone to the same university or having an interest in collecting stamps from the South Pacific.

Templates for your LinkedIn invites

Here is a compilation of ideas from Anthony J. Johnson, see what you think:

1. “It was nice meeting you at the ____ event. In ejoyed talking to you about ____. Let’s be sure to stay in touch.”

2. “I am a fellow member of the ____ LinkedIn group and I saw your comments about ____. Id love to stay in touch so we can talk more about it.”

3. “It’s been a long time since we talked, hope you are doing well. How are the kids? I see you are now working at ____ company, how is that going? Let’s be sure to stay in touch.”

4. “I was looking at your profile and I see you are a fellow alumni of ____ university. I also noticed we have some similar interests. Maybe we can chat sometime over drinks.”

5. “I was looking at your profile and I am very impressed with your accomplishments. Please accept my request to connect, I’d love to talk to you about how you accomplished ____.”

6. “I was checking out your blog and I really liked your post about ____. Please accept my request to stay connected”.

It’s fairly clear that the best way to do this is by either mentioning something in common or buttering someone up a bit. The more personal you can be, the greater chances you have of being accepted. Can you think of any other ideas to contact new people on LinkedIn? Please share them!

Further reading at 21 Ways To Build Your Personal Brand Yourself on LinkedIn.

Image credit Angelo Gonzales

Filed Under: LinkedIn, Networking Tagged With:

LinkedIn Networking: Are You a LION, Cat or Mouse?

cat lion

There is no denying that LinkedIn is one powerful tool for networking, business development and word-of-mouth marketing. Those that use it frequently tend to sing the praises of LinkedIn all the way to the bank. There is however a few different schools of thought as to how one should use LinkedIn.

1. Open Networker (or LION)

 

LION stands for Linked In Open Networker, or just open networker. These people are totally open in their approach to networking and will accept any invitation. The idea here is to connect to as many people as possible in order to reach out to more people. A larger network is particularly useful when prospecting for leads and doing research on people and companies.

An open networker will publicize their LinkedIn URL at any chance to entice others to send invitations. As a LION, you will be expected to accept invitation from complete randoms and usually their friends as well. If you are not comfortable with this, you will probably want to pick another strategy.

Open networkers will have the largest networks, usually well over a thousand first connections. As you cannot see how many connections people have beyond the 500 mark, we can only guess how large some of the true LIONs networks are. Ron Bates claims to have over 44,000 connections and if you are a prolific member of LinkedIn I would venture to guess he has invited you as well (not sure how he does it!).

By the way, you may want to read Karalyn Brown’s article Why I Think I Regret Becoming an Open Networker before you plunge into being a LION.

2. Professional networker (let’s call this mouse)

 

Relationships Matter, as the LinkedIn tag line goes. This is what I believe LinkedIn was intended for, professionals connecting up to further each others’ careers. This would be the most typical LinkedIn user. A salesperson would connect to his or her clients, the client would connect to their suppliers etc. You don’t actually have to have met the other person but you will have dealt with them and deem there is a value being connected for both your careers. Professional networkers will normally have anything from 200 to one thousand connections.

3. Exclusive networker (or cat)

 

This category of people will only ever connect to people they know well, trust and respect. This type of network is likely to be very selective and can be drawn upon for passing on introductions and recommendations. You could say that the exclusive networker is actually not increasing their connections, merely storing them digitally on LinkedIn. There can be several reasons for wanting to be an exclusive networker, keeping your connections and activities confidential is certainly a major one.

While most recruiters are open or professional networkers, some choose to stay exclusive for the simple reason that they don’t want their clients to know what other clients they speak to or they don’t want to bring attention to hot candidates in the market by connecting to them. Yes, you can change your settings more private but your connections can still see who you are connected to in common for instance. Exclusive networkers will rarely have more than 200 connections, remember that these are tight relationships formed over the years.

Bottom line

 

Whatever type of networker you choose to be will be dependent on what the purpose of your LinkedIn membership is. Some industries might favor one type, I wouldn’t expect anyone working for secretive government agencies to be open networkers for instance. I would however expect anyone that represents the “Canadian Pharmacy” we have all learned about in our webmail accounts to be a very open networker.

It’s worth bearing in mind that if you put your LinkedIn URL on your email signature, blog or business card, you are expected to accept invitations from people you deal with. So in case you would like to be an exclusive networker, keep the URL to yourself. This goes for phone numbers, your primary email address as well. Even if you are an open networker, you will probably not want every random having your primary email and direct telephone number.

It’s also worth noting that as with most things, most people start out with the greatest intentions. They try and stick to exclusive networking at first. They then realize it takes time to build up a strong network this way and increasingly become professional and sometimes even open (LION) networkers over time. The nature of the beast that is LinkedIn dictates that you do benefit from more connections as it allows you to see more people in your searches.

Which type of networker are you on LinkedIn?

For more LinkedIn networking advice, check out our Link Human’s LinkedIn workshops in London.

photo by: Jorbasa
Filed Under: LinkedIn, Networking Tagged With: ,
« Older Posts