Welcome!

31st August 2011

How closely connected are you to Barack Obama?

Since establishing The Learning Labyrinth back in 2003, well over 90% of our business has come via referrals.  As business has grown between 10% - 15% year on year, this demonstrates the importance, and the power of a good referral, recommendation or testimonial.

 

For this reason, I am discovering increasingly  the Power of LinkedIn as an impressive referral tool and want to share in this edition of Labyrinth News some simple tips on getting referrals via LinkedIn. 

 

If you consider the Six Degrees of Separation theory, suggesting that we are on average approximately six steps away (by way of introduction) from any other person on Earth. LinkedIn works on the first three degrees and you can see your personal network through the site.

 

I must also add that I have only been an active user of LinkedIn for about 18 months and have recently discovered that I am quite closely connected to the President of the United States!

Read on to find out how, and to learn more about our hands-on LinkedIn workshop click here.

Regards

Gary

 

Getting Referrals through LinkedIn

As you will see from my LinkedIn statistics (August 2011), I am only three degrees away from 2,856,100 users, which I can contact through an introduction!

 

Quite POWERFUL I would say…

When you have a Profile that will engage people and will connect you to others, you are ready to look for referrals. 

There are two ways you can do this. 

 

Via your current contacts

The first is to simply look at the network of your connections. LinkedIn allows you to see the networks of the people you have connected to, as long as they haven't chosen to hide it. However, you can't see the networks of people you are not directly connected to and they in turn can't see your network. 
 

 

If your network is large, this method of getting Referrals could be a real chore. One option is to identify someone who would be happy to refer you, or if someone has offered his or her help. You will then have the opportunity to see who they know and how they might best be able to help you.

 

Using the Search option

This is a more efficient route to search for connections. LinkedIn's search fields allow you to look for people by name, company, job title or location. 


 

I ran a search using the terms stated above (TGI Fridays, current or past, located anywhere) and had 3647 results of people who satisfy the criteria.

As you can see from the view below:

• 35 of these people where already 1st connections
• 88 where 2nd connections
• From these 88 connections there were 11 people I could actually connect with as past colleagues. 

 

Different levels of Connection and how you can connect with each

If you have a connection to someone, alongside their name will be a blue circle. Inside the circle it will either say 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd or Group. That means that you are either already connected to that person (1^st), know someone who is (2^nd), know someone who knows someone who is (3^rd) or are in the same LinkedIn group as them. 

 

 

 

Asking for Referrals

You can either do this by picking up the phone and asking your contact direct, or you can ask through the site. 

 

If they are a 2^nd level connection, simply click to see whom you know who can introduce you. If they are a 3^rd level connection, click on 'Get Introduced' and it will tell you which of your connections can provide the next link in the chain.

By using LinkedIn it is possible to have a degree of control on initial approach by writing it ourselves. When we ask for an introduction we are asked to write two messages. One is to the person we are asking to pass on the connection. If they are then passing it through someone else in their network, they will write their own personal message to them.

The other message we write is to the person we want to be connected to. This can be seen by all of the links in the chain, allowing them to decide whether they are happy to forward it.

So you can give some careful thought to how both messages are written, particularly the one to your prospective client. What is going to make them want to reply? Will the person, or people passing on the referral be comfortable passing it on?

 

While it is easy to sign up for a LinkedIn account, not everybody realizes that their LinkedIn account can open so many doors. 

 

In the past year LinkedIn has connected me to:

• A new business partner (Kate Bacon)
• Many old colleagues that I had lost touch with
• New clients (one resulting in The Learning Labyrinth winning a very large contract in June 2010)
• More recently a new member to my team (Jo-Anne Godden)

 

I have also improved my knowledge of areas I work in, by joining some very productive on-line groups (i.e. Belbin and ILM), which in turn is aiding me in building a solid business.  

 

LinkedIn might seem like a huge investment in time, but linkedIn is a great example of working SMART and not HARD when it comes to networking.  Once your LinkedIn profile is set up and you are interacting with your groups, you can actually make it a pleasure that you look forward to on a regular basis.  

Finally, did you know that your LinkedIn profile is searchable in Google.  

Get LinkedIn now!

You may be surprised just how closely connected you are to the President of the United States of America...



Check out my LinkedIn profile now...

Finally, use the thoery of Six Degrees of Seperation to connect practically in our hands-on LinkedIn Workshop on 29th September at the Lighthouse in Brighton. 

Click here to book

My best regards,

Gary