Two LinkedIn Secrets You Never Knew: Picking Up the Phone and Joining Groups

LinkedIn is one of the most popular networks used by professionals to network with each other. Although Twitter and Facebook are awesome tools for keeping in getting information on things important to you and keeping in touch with friends, family and peers, LinkedIn reigns as the tool of choice for professionals looking for employment or connections. Tools such as JigSaw are also great for finding contact information for professionals.

There’s one thing about LinkedIn that always amazes me. When I ask business owners if they have a LinkedIn profile – all the hands go up. But when I ask, if they feel they know what they are doing with LinkedIn – the hands go down.

Jan Vermeiren is the author of How to REALLY Use LinkedIn and he was recently interviewed by Forbes.

Two things he mentions in his interview, that are important for getting the most out of LinkedIn are:

1. When you find the person you want to connect to, don’t send an email to the “middle person” instead, pick up the phone and call them.

2. It’s important to join LinkedIn groups.

There’s so much we all have to learn in order to maximize our social networks. But like any tool, if you want to get the most out of it, you need to be educated in how to use it.

So often we learn something by ourselves, be it bike riding, how to use a computer program or how to drive a car. But only after receiving more training do we really how much more we are able to get out of it.

My own personal learn experience is related to Twitter. I’ve known about Twitter for years and used it off and on. But only after I finally downloaded TweetDeck was I able to use Twitter to a fuller potential. TweetDeck helps you better manage the entire Twitter experience. I’m learning every day from gurus Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends and Brent Leary of CRM Essentials. Who are you learning from? Who are your gurus?

If you don’t have gurus who can help you learn to do more, you will always miss out on how to better use technology as a tool to grow your business.

© 2009 – 2010, Dynasty Web Solutions. All rights reserved.