With LinkedIn you’ll never waste time at networking events again

How often do you go to a conference or networking event and then get in your car or airplane and say to yourself, Boy, that wasn’t worth the time, effort and money?

C’mon. Be honest. Personally, I have to confess, it has happened quite often.

Here’s how you can make those events more productive by using, of course, LinkedIn.

Before:

1. Contact the event coordinator and request a copy of the attendee list. Many times you can get the list (if you ask politely!). Spend some time checking out the LinkedIn profiles of the people who look most interesting to you. You may want to print the profiles and take them along. You will then have lots of information at your fingertips to figure out how to start a conversation with the most interesting people, plus you’ll have photos to help you pick them out of the crowd.

During:

2. When you are having conversations with those “right” people, be sure to ask them if they are a member of LinkedIn and confirm with them that you would like to have them join your network as a way to stay connected after the event. Think of how much more productive this is than just grabbing their business card, even if you did a great job of adding it to your database after the event. With LinkedIn, you now have the potential to see all of their connections, ask for introductions, stay in front of them with status updates, and review their full profile at all times.

3. Try to move your conversation to at least one of the resources you have included on your profile (Box.net files, SlideShare, etc.) and encourage them to download the resources.

After:

4. Review the attendee list and attempt to send LinkedIn connection requests to some of the “right” people that you didn’t have luck finding in person at the conference. Do this only if you have established a connection strategy to add people to your network that you may not know but would like to know.

5. Review the profiles of the people with whom you had productive conversations at the event. Use the profile information to find a way to take those contacts to the next level. Here are some suggestions:

Review their connections
See what groups they are in
Review the recommendations written by them and for them
Review Interests
Review Groups and Associations
Follow them on Twitter
Follow their company page
Subscribe to their blog

6. This final suggestion will pay big dividends if used strategically. It is reserved for only the people you met at the event that you really made a strong connection with.

Send those individuals a note suggesting they review your first-degree connections (or you can do this ahead of time for them and make your own suggestions). Tell them you would be happy to introduce them to a few of your connections.

Try these suggestions, and hopefully the time, effort and money you spend on networking events will never be wasted again!

http://twitter.com/CareerPivot Marc Miller

Wayne,
I completely agree with you on the before and after. During a network event I am trying to learn who they are and how I can help them. I am not there to sell myself but to establish the relationship.