Ten ways to leverage professional networking - Stanford presentation

10 ways to leverage professional networking Mario Sundar, Community Evangelist at LinkedIn

© 2008 LinkedIn All rights reserved. How BIG is Professional Networking? “ IBM says the tools foster teamwork among employees who work in IBM offices from Boston to Bangalore. Social networking is especially important for the 42% of IBM employees who regularly work from their homes or client locations rather than IBM facilities.”

Professionals
1. Build your professional network
When does the network become valuable?
Metcalfe’s Law:
“ the value of a communications network grows (exponentially, as it turns out) as
the number of users grows.”
Reed’s Law:
“ every new person on a network doubles its value. Adding 10 people, by this
reasoning, increases its value a thousand fold”
© 2008 LinkedIn All rights reserved.

Professionals
1. Build your professional network
What is the optimal number of connections I should have in my professional network?
Dunbar Number:
“ represents a theoretical maximum number of individuals with whom a set of people can
maintain a social relationship, the kind of relationship that goes with knowing who each
person is and how each person relates socially to every other person.”
150 © 2008 LinkedIn All rights reserved.

Professionals
Move your offline contacts online

Professionals
2. Tap into the collective “wisdom of your crowd”
“ Knowledge markets provide means and venue for discovering and sharing knowledge
resources among individuals and organizations”
The Evolution: ProfNet, Lycos IQ, Google Answers, Yahoo! Answers, LinkedIn Answers
Yahoo! Answers & LinkedIn Answers (Business focused)
Yahoo! Answers: 1 category and 11 sub category
LinkedIn Answers: 16 categories and 167 sub-categories

Professionals
2. Tap into the collective “wisdom of your crowd”

Professionals
3. Find your dream job
Your online networking is only as good as your offline networking
Let your dream job find YOU
Three Step Process
Start networking today – Events
Start crafting an online presence around “keywords”
Select a social media tool that brings together your offline contacts

Professionals
3. Find your dream job
Use Professional networking sites effectively
Usage Tips
Gauge the health of the industry
Gauge the health of the company
Career Permalink
Make your interviews go smoother
More accurate job searches

Consultants
4. Grow your Business
The attributes of individuals are less important than their relationships and ties with other connections within the network
Word of Mouth referrals
Recommendations
When you connect with those who’ve endorsed you directly or indirectly by referring you, you help them by offering them access to your network
Additionally you can also find prospective customers through 2 nd or 3 rd degree network
LinkedIn Service Providers
Over 2M Consultants

Consultants
4. Grow your Business
Find or Be Found
Word of mouth engendered by Endorsements

Consultants
5. Throw out a net before you need it
Making invaluable connections
“ Networking isn't really about getting a job. It's about using shared interests to develop and maintain mutually beneficial relationships. Then, if you lose your job, these contacts will be there to help.”
Be found
“ 84% of American Internet users have used the Internet to contact or get information from an online group --more than have used the Internet to read news, search for health information, or to buy something.”
The Power of Small Gestures

Consultants
6. Got Publicity?
How can you reach the right people?
Movers & Shakers
Get in front of business celebrities (Entrepreneurs, VCs, etc…)
Executives from all Fortune 500 companies
Journalists
Reaching these business celebrities
Connecting through your common connections
Answering specific questions they have

Entrepreneurs
7. Find the right person for the right job
The easiest way to find the right candidate
Endorsements
Company Reference Checks
Demo (Example)

Entrepreneurs
8. Find Business Partners
The Challenge
Expertise search
Service Providers search

Entrepreneurs
9. Understand the market
Competitive research
Talk to future employees, former employees of similar businesses or of potential customers
Use knowledge networks to mine business intelligence

Universal Law of Professional Networking
10. Build, strengthen & maintain your professional brand
Take control over your professional identity
Online brand identity – Search engines, social networks, professional networks
Being on top of things
Enhance your search engine results – strengthen your brand

2. Building an Online Brand
About Me
About LinkedIn

Building your online brand
Started Marketing Nirvana in May 2006
Topics I was passionate about
“ Customer Evangelism”
“ Corporate Blogging”
“ Community Marketing”
“ Social Media”
Active “Social Networking”
LinkedIn Evangelist

Mario Sundar, Community Evangelist Google “ Mario Sundar ” LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mariosundar

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