I’m going to let you eavesdrop on a conversation I’ve had with hundreds of people in the last few years while talking about networking and their social media presence: Me: “So who are your ideal clients? Who’s the target market you want to work with?” Really Well-Meaning Professional: “Everyone! Which is why I’m totally confused […]
On LinkedIn, Show and Tell Should Be: Show, Don’t Tell
LinkedIn profiles are really cool. Think about it; you get to have a website that it as all about you – about your experiences, your skills, your education… your story. But most of us aren’t that experienced in telling (and writing) our story, so we get flustered when we are putting together our profile. One […]
Why You Want LinkedIn Endorsements
For the past two months, the Skills and Expertise section on LinkedIn has been blowing up with “Endorsements”. Ironically though, no one really knows how to effectively use them or what exactly they mean. Are they helpful or not? Do they lead towards a valid representation of someone’s abilities or are people gaming the system? […]
3 Ways to Network When You’re Shy
Networking can be tough when you’re shy. Building new business relationships can be hard when just the idea of attending a professional event to network fills you with dread. You’re not alone – it’s common for people to spend most of their time at events with those that they already know precisely because they are […]
5 Rules from Zombie Survivors for Business Development
An undead zombie is shambling towards the lone survivor, arms outstretched, low moan coming from its chest. The plucky hero raises a machine gun in an attempt to ward of the attack and fills the zombie full of lead…but the zombie keeps coming! Because the hero didn’t shoot it in the head! And everyone who’s […]
Know Your Audience
For the past few years, I’ve been making professional development videos with my friend Rob Hazan from Me on Video. We create a studio in my living room and put together short clips that we post on YouTube. It’s pretty cool that we have a forum to do this, and it’s cool that the videos […]
How to Ask For Help On LinkedIn
One of the challenges with using social media for business is that it’s so new. LinkedIn has over 175 million professionals on it, but it’s not even 10 years old yet. It makes perfect sense that we’re still grappling with how to actually use the platform in our day to day business lives, because in […]
The Magic Number of Networking Connections
I often get asked about the ideal number of connections you should have in your professional network. The topic often gets muddled because our first impulse is to equate networking success directly with the number of connections we have. I’m here to tell you that you don’t need a huge number contacts to have networking work for […]
Three Reasons People Fail at Networking
In the past few years, I’ve found that people either love the idea of business networking or they think it’s a complete waste of time. How is it that some people build flourishing businesses based on the power of their network, while others fail to build any sort of connections at all? Since I’ve started running networking […]
5 Places You Should be Networking this Summer
I don’t know about you, but once the thermometer hits 80 degrees the last thing I want to do is put on a suit and go to a networking event. Here in the Midwest, we try to squeeze in as much fun as we can in our seemingly too short summer. But that doesn’t mean […]