TIN #012 - Make People Re-Connect With You
You have lots of opportunity in your network. You need to tap into it
Good Morning 👋 - Greg here.
Happy Saturday morning to everyone using LinkedIn to connect this week.
The past three weeks, I've shown you ways to use LinkedIn for networking.
This week, I want to share a networking success story and a tip that combines two things we've talked about in previous issues: Re-connecting and Giving.
Let me know in the comments if you have questions about networking you’d like me to answer.
Today’s issue takes about 4 minutes to read.
Maria’s Story
I hear awesome networking stories everyday, but one of them is my favorite.
Maria had moved to a new city for a job. It wasn't going well. The company wasn't performing, and she was worried about job security.
She didn't think she had a network because she hadn't gone to networking events. She was looking for ideas to grow her network. She joined my coaching group.
I told her to make a list of 10 people she worked with in the past and Re-connect. One of them was a former boss. He lived in another state, but she Re-connected anyway.
He responded via email and they caught up on each other's lives. She didn't tell him about her concerns with her job. She simply asked how he was doing?
He said, "I have a position at my company. Would you be interested?”
She said yes.
She interviewed and had a new job a month later.
Maria sent me an email telling me the story and closed it by saying:
"It all happened because I followed your advice and contacted 10 people I already knew. I never expected that my life could change because of one simple note."
This story explains itself. You already have opportunity within your existing network. You just need to Re-connect with the people you have lost touch with.
Maria reached out to connection she had lost touch with and it led to a new job.
Still Scared of Re-Connecting?
You won’t always get a new job when you Re-connect with a former co-worker, but it certainly won't happen if you don't.
I talked about the idea of Re-connecting in TIN #001 and #002.
But what if you’re still scared to Re-connect with someone you’ve lost touch with?
What if you are still unsure of sending a Re-connection note?
What if you tell yourself, “I haven’t talked to her in years, she’ll wonder why I am reaching out now.”
Recommendations
If you’re still hesitating, let me give you another strategy to make this easier:
Write a recommendation for a connection on LinkedIn.
Why does this work?
This strategy combines the ideas of Re-connecting and Giving, which we discussed in TIN #004.
Reconnecting restarts a relationship with a dormant tie. The other person knows who you are and has some level of trust in you. In Maria’s story, she connected with a former boss who knew her and knew she’s be right for the role.
Giving something to someone makes them want to reciprocate and give back to you. You don’t have to Give something to your dormant tie when you Re-connect, but if you feel awkward about getting back in touch, giving a recommendation is a great way to open the conversation with the other person.
Doing both of these things helps you establish a conversation that can lead to new opportunities.
Put yourself in your connection's place.
If someone you had lost touch with wrote a recommendation for you out of the blue, would you sent them a note to say thanks?
Of course you would, and you'd likely want to have a conversation with them after they send the recommendation.
How to Write a Recommendation
Who are you most likely to write a recommendation for?
People you’ve never met, or
People who have shown you their:
Abilities
Skills
Experience
Of course, it’s the latter.
It’s easy to write a recommendation for people you’ve worked with in the past because you know what they’re capable of.
Don’t overcomplicate this.
Here’s how you do it (from LinkedIn’s help section):
Navigate to the profile of the 1st-degree connection you'd like to recommend.
Click the More button in the introduction section.
Select Recommend.
Fill out the Relationship and Position at the time fields of the recommendations pop-up window, and click Next.
Write your recommendation in the message field and click Send.
You can write recommendations for your 1st degree connections on LinkedIn, so if you are re-connecting with someone you worked with in the past but isn’t a 1st degree connection, you’ll have to connect with them on LinkedIn first.
When I write a Recommendation for someone on LinkedIn, I try to answer these three questions:
How do I know this person?
What did we work on together?
What do I remember most about working with this person?
The answers to these three questions become my Recommendation.
I started making a focused effort to write one Recommendation each week.
I look for former bosses, leaders, or co-workers on LinkedIn and send them a Recommendation.
In one case, the leader was someone I supported in a previous role.
She lives in another city and works in a different organization, but she saw the recommendation, sent me a message, told me she'd be in town in a couple of months and wanted to set up time.
Whether or not this conversation leads to a new opportunity doesn’t matter. I re-established a connection with someone I know and by giving her a Recommendation, she made the effort to suggest we meet to catch up.
Don’t be afraid to get back in touch with people you already know. There’s gold in the network you already have. But if you are still unsure of how to open the conversation, give a Recommendation and the next step to a real life conversation will take care of itself.
Have a great week! See you next Saturday.