The extremes of Linkedin

I know not everyone agrees with me but I feel that Linkedin as a business social network is a vital too in acquiring new contacts and clients and then keeping those you have. It is a way of creating a professional on-line presence, establishing credibility and a useful marketing tool. So as a result I will often reach out to fellow professionals in my various groups and ask if I can help them with my business services or to ask for their assistance in their area of expertise.

So this week I contacted several financial advisers in the UK and asked if they might be interested in working with me in the medical insurance market.

The reactions of two of them are I think interesting. One came back to me and insisted I didn't ever contact him again, where did I get his contact details and how dare I send him a message and so on. This person clearly doesn't either understand the mechanics nor the principle of Linkedin. As I often find when people react like this his profile (obviously penned by him) marked him as a forward looking business leader helping his clients with marketing and business mentoring especially in on-line sectors. I hope non of his clients ever wants to use Linkedin as part of their sales and marketing process - EPIC FAIL. He asked me to remove him from my 'mailing list'. I suggested politely that if he doesn't want to interact with people in his Linkedin groups that perhaps he might like to withdraw from the group and leave it to those of us interested in networking with each other. I will of course not be using him for any business mentoring or marketing activity in the future. More than that I will actively other people interested in looking at that kind of business service to actively avoid him.

Another contact came back to me this morning with a lovely, polite message saying that they do not contract out their medical insurance services for a variety of reasons. He outlined those reasons and wished me well for the future. I replied to him by return, thanking him for his time and letting him know that although we wouldn't be working together, if he ever had any queries or questions on medical insurance I would be happy to help him - for free.

Nice guy, understand and respect his position and happy to abide by it.

You see, to me networking on Linkedin is as much about what you put in as what you get out - thats the fundamental point missed by the first contact I mention in this post.

I am always happy to help people out even when there is nothing in it 'financially' for me. I have always found that what goes around comes around and people you help now are for more likely to come back to you for assistance (that might result in income) later - plus it only takes a few minutes out of my day to be polite and answer a quick question when they arise.

Enjoy the weekend, be kind but don't suffer fools too gladly.

Sermon over.

Phil