Quality over Quantity

I use LinkedIn… a LOT. It has become an excellent venue for building professional community. One thing that I dislike about it, however, is the “connect and run” behavior that seems to be rampant. You know how it goes:

• someone connects with you saying how great it would be to build their network;

• It will be so beneficial to both of us, they say;

• You connect, and never hear from this shiny new contact again

We can do better!

There are so many opportunities for connecting with people on LinkedIn and there are easy ways to stay connected. Instead of “connect and run” how about “connect and re-connect”? Instead of reaching out to new people this week, try making a list of 4-5 people who are already on your list, and find a way that you can help to support them.

I have so many ideas about how you can connect, but here are a few that I think will be easy and beneficial:

*Read through the LinkedIn posts of each contact on your list for this week and leave a thoughtful comment on one post for each person. Maybe you have an answer to the question they posed. or you can suggest a product that might address a challenge that they mentioned.

*If your contact(s) don’t have any recent LinkedIn posts, drop them a note on LinkedIn or via email, and let them know that you were thinking of them.

*If you’ve recently run across an article that you think would be interesting to one of your contacts, share the article with this person, or post it on your LinkedIn page and tag your contact, letting them know that you thought they might be interested. Engage with this person by asking their opinion.

There are so many opportunities to engage the people you are already connected to. Take some time to focus on building quality relationships by connecting and reconnecting. The benefit comes from the quality of your connections, not the quantity!

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