As my father would say {note: he has some strange sayings}: I’ve let my skimmer leak. How? Well, I recently discovered that I have not consistently followed my tried-and-true process when meeting a new contact:
1. Record the business contact into Outlook (or other CRM) database
2. Write a few key notes relating to what that person needs and how/who might be able to help them (this assists when you are trying to put people within your own network together).
3. Pinpoint an action step and date for this contact (writing/sending information; setting an appointment; making a relevant introduction; checking in; etc.)
4. Establish social media connections: Send invite to him/her on LinkedIn; find them on Twitter; and if it makes sense, add them as a friend on Facebook (my business contacts on Facebook are very limited, but your business-pleasure line may be far blurrier than mine).
I seem to do steps one-to-three fairly well, but apparently I get distracted before moving on to step four. This just dawned on me yesterday, when LinkedIn automatically visited my electronic address book (this was unintentional; I must have inadvertently set the thing so that it will prompt me by going through my address book and making suggestions for expanding my network).
What I got was a little ‘rap on the wrist’, or ‘bum-kicking’ if you prefer. LinkedIn informed me that there were quite a few existing (legitimate/real) contacts in my address book that I had not yet linked with.
Bottom line, expanding your LinkedIn network is as simple as letting the thing wander aimlessly through your existing email address book. If you’ve let your own skimmer leak as I have, why not take just a few minutes to go through this exercise. Take care, though, to write a personalized note within your LinkedIn invitations.
