If you’re in the U.S. I hope you’re having a great Memorial Day Weekend! We love those 3 dayer’s, don’t we? I know I do.
My weekend kicked off on Friday when I presented a class for Oregon State University Freshman on getting started on LinkedIn. It is somewhat nice when you notice college students aren’t completely slumped over their desks, early on a Friday morning!
But even if – unlike my Friday students – you are more experienced on LinkedIn, you may still struggle with how to approach people to connect with them more personally.
In this week’s The Muse column, I show you a few basic strategies to connect and engage with your LinkedIn contacts and lay the groundwork for a personal meeting:
How to Take Your LinkedIn Relationship to the Next Level—a Coffee Date!
With over 300 million professionals on LinkedIn, you may feel like a kid in a candy store—so many amazing experts you can access any time! In fact, you start fantasizing about how great it would be to line up Richard Branson for a coffee date.
Then you come back to reality and realize that while you may be anxious to immediately gather as many connections as possible and start asking them all to coffee, you’ll be much better served if you establish a strategy and execute accordingly. With the right strategy, you can leverage LinkedIn to connect with people who can help you pursue your career goals. Without a strategy, you are simply setting yourself up to drink a lot of coffee—without any clear takeaways.
To get you started on the path to meaningful connections, here are some specific steps you can take to build relationships with people in your LinkedIn network and get to that all-important coffee meeting.
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Image by Ralf Kunze from Pixabay