So if you already have profiles on all of these sites, do you really need one on LinkedIn, too?  What’s so special about this site?  Well, CNNMoney and Fortune Magazine seem to think it’s pretty important.  In an article a week ago they interviewed John Campagnino, Accenture’s head of global recruiting who will be hiring 50,000 new employees this year.  What did he say?  He plans to hire at least 40% (20,000!) of these new recruits through social networking sites.  Specifically, LinkedIn.  He labeled social media sites as “The future of recruiting for our company,” and many other companies agree.  So much so that CNNMoney declared that “If you don’t have a profile on LinkedIn, you’re nowhere.”

Ouch.  So what is LinkedIn, anyways?  And how do you use it?  To tell you the truth, I’ve got no idea.  All I know is that I better get on there quick, and you better do the same.  So here’s what I’m gonna do.  The next few blog posts on this site will be part of a new series–LinkedIn for really dumb dumbies–that will follow me as I get the site figured out.  So if you really have no clue at all, check back here for step-by-step instructions from creating your profile and making it effective to building your contacts and finding out what groups are.

In the meantime, go read the rest of CNNMoney’s amazing article, and watch this great introductory video here.

The keynote speaker at this conference was Rodney Hawes.  I’ll include his bio from the conference here, so you can get a better idea who today’s message is coming from.

Rodney Hawes

Rodney Hawes is on the National Advisory Council of the Marriott School of Business at BYU and is a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School. He is the former Chairman and CEO of Life Re Corporation and founded the Investment Associates of New Canaan, Connecticut. His entrepreneurial endeavors include computer software companies, consumer products, and developing the Five Guys Burgers and Fries franchise in several western states. Mr. Hawes is a military graduate from Stanford and has an MBA from Harvard.

Cool guy?  Yeah, I thought so too.  And his address lived up to my expectations.  While some of the advice he gave specifically dealt with creating and/or managing an effective business, a lot of it (surprise!) focused on networking.  I’m going to give you the rundown of some of his best tips.

• Praise coworkers both in private and public. Everyone likes to feel valued and appreciated.  And as you do this, their positive feelings towards you will increase, and you will create more and stronger friends and alliances in the business world.  They will also be more likely to notice the great work you’re doing as well.
• Chastise in private. Don’t demean your coworkers, subordinates, or anyone else in front of their peers.  It’s not fair to any of the parties involved.  Pull them aside and talk to them there.  They will appreciate the maturity with which you handle the situation, and you will be able to have a more productive conversation that leads to solutions and better relationships, rather than nothing but negative feelings.
• Remember that the business world is small. You’ll be surprised how many connections there are out there–who know who and who remembers you.  Be nice, be fair, be loyal.  It will make a difference, and people you don’t know will hear about you.  Conversely, don’t burn your contacts.  Word gets around.  People will hear how you treat those you associate with, and one of those people just might be your next potential boss (or client, or partner…).
• Keep a people file. I’ve mentioned this before–you don’t want to meet that perfect contact that could quite possibly make all your dreams come true, only to lose his number or forget her name.  Keep a list of names with their company, address, email, phone number, everything.  But not just that–the more personal you keep this contact, the better.  Mr. Hawes mentioned a man that sent hundreds of cards a year to those in his contact file, for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  The more you show you care about them, the more they’ll care about you when you need some help.

That’s all for today folks!  Start following Mr. Hawes’advice today.  Write down the names and contact info of everyone you can think of.  Send a card to one of them, maybe.  Start your networking today.  It’s easy, it’s fast.  Take 5 minutes to do something that will pay off big in the future.

Except, actually, I’m not.  Beth Bridges, on her networking blog Get Yourself Out There!, wrote about the need to practice networking, and I’m borrowing her words because she’s older and wiser than me.  A professional networker, she’s got the system pretty well figured out.  But one time, she went to an event she had attended numerous times before, and felt out of her element.  Then she realized why: after being sick for three weeks and completely ignoring work, she was out of practice.  She had this to say:

Do you find yourself uncomfortable at networking events? Let me suggest that it may simply be from taking too much time between activities. If you were going to learn the piano, you wouldn’t go weeks between practice sessions. Or if you did, you wouldn’t be surprised that your next session needed a lot of backtracking and review.

Networking is a skill like any other. Wouldn’t it make sense that you would need to be a regular and consistent networker in order to keep your abilities working well, much less improving?

Practice.  Practice.  Practice.  Your mom got it right when she made you practice the piano for hours.  Your math teacher got it right when she made you do what seemed like a million problems for homework each night.  And you coach got in right when he made you practice a single drill for an entire practice.

Practice. Practice. Practice: Make friends. Get job. Go.

And now you’ve gotta get it right, by making yourself practice networking.  Believe me, I am not a natural networker.  I’m not even a naturally friendly person.  I stick to myself and my already-established friends (don’t ask me how I got them, ’cause I’m not sure).  But networking is a skill you need to succeed, and if it doesn’t come naturally to you, that just means you’ve gotta do it even more.  Now that you’re grown up and responsible, you have to be the one to push yourself.  Now go!

Handwritten letters, according to Max, have eleven key attributes that make them so special.  They are:

• tactile
• permanent
• convincing
• purposeful
• individualized
• handmade
• thoughtful
• emotional
• engaging
• reflective
• humble.

Still not convinced?  Think about the last email you got, and the last handwritten letter you got.  Think about which you still have.  Think about which you care about more.  And read this example from Max’s article.

An ambitious sales colleague at my company recently annoyed a prospective customer with one too many phone calls. The prospect requested to never be called again — good intentions perceived the wrong way. My colleague sent a handwritten apology letter and promised never to call again. A few days later, that prospect called my colleague back and said, “You’re a good guy and your product rocks, so please sign me up immediately.”

And this one, too:

A candidate for a senior business development role at our company had an extraordinary interview with me and my team. He sent a personal, passionate and detailed letter outlining key points of our private discussion. As a result, my view of him switched from highly favorable to “we have to get him.” I want him to impact potential customers the way he did me.

Can your emails do this? Yeah, didn't think so.

Now go write someone a letter.  And then let me know about it.  Or talk about the last letter you received, and the impact it had.  I can tell you I sent a card to someone the day I read this article (which was a couple weeks ago).  And I don’t know how much of an impact it had in the overall decision, but I definitely got an interview out of it.  Hopefully it was mainly because of how qualified I am, but maybe that card was the edge that made me into the “we have to get her” job candidate.  Who knows?  I just had the interview yesterday.  I’ll find out in a couple weeks if I made it or not.

So.  Tips to get into networking gear, here we go.

1. Brainstorm for contacts. As in, like, everybody.  Family, friends, family friends, relatives, neighbors, professors, alumni, former employees/employers/coworkers, your hairdresser, your ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend’s parents’ dog walker…  Don’t count out the people that might not have an obvious connection to be able to help you out.
2. Go to the tried-and-true sources. Like your local alumni association, class reunions, fundraisers, business conferences and conventions, continuing-ed classes…
3. Be prepared. Like Scar taught his minions the hyenas on The Lion King. You should be open, honest, relaxed, flexible.  But you should definitely not be without a game plan, ever.  No winging it.  Only Zazu gets to do that.
   

   "I know that your powers of retention are as wet as a warthog's backside. But thick as you are, pay attention! ... Be prepared!"

4. Know no boundaries. I like the way they said it best: “Good networkers are flexible people who approach connection-making as a fluid enterprise that extends far beyond hotel conference room walls. You never know who will step onto the adjacent elliptical trainer at the gym; who will be parked behind you in an interminable grocery store line; who will sit next to you on an airplane; or who will be under the hair dryer next to you at the beauty salon. Don’t let these opportunities pass you by.”
5. Follow up. Write thank you notes.  Always.  Everyone likes to feel appreciated, and it will strengthen their opinion of you, making them more likely to help you out in the future, more likely to recommend you to someone else, or more likely to hire you themselves.
6. Know that what goes around, comes around. In other words, follow the golden rule.  Just like we were taught in kindergarten.
   

   See this? It's called sharing. As in, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Just hope neither of them have germs. Because when you do mean things to others, those come around again, too.

7. Make it easy for your contacts. When you do meet with, call, or write to a potential contact, let them know exactly what it is you’re looking for, so they can know how to help you.  Go for detail-oriented questions rather than general demands.
8. Stay organized. Making friends in the business world means nothing if you lose all their contact information.

Of course, these are just some beginning tips, and each could easily get a post of its own.  And maybe will.  Just not quite yet.

Got any tips of your own?  Have any experiences you’d like to share?  A testimonial about staying organized that you learned when you lost the phone number of the CEO to a bajillion-dollar company that said to call him in the morning because he knew of a position in his company as vice president that you’d be perfect for?  Please, share away.

We all know that job networking—the personal process of finding opportunities and being referred and recommended for a job—is the most effective way to get hired. This is an undisputed fact that is supported by dozens of studies and surveys. To say today’s job market is “competitive” is a felonious understatement! If you are qualified, then the most meaningful way to separate you from the pack or should I say the mountain of resumes is by networking. So if your job search and/or career exploration does NOT include a robust networking component then you know you have seriously reduced your chances to succeed.

In other words—you want to sabotage your job search and set yourself up for failure, don’t bother networking.

How to sabotage your job search: don't network with others.

This is me, in a hypothetical, metaphorical networking relationship

Luckily, George Zeller, a senior employment specialist that coaches job seekers on just about every aspect of career searching possible, has some advice to offer.  In his article titled “Why Should Anyone Network with Me?,” he offers several reasons why people might be willing to help out the annoying mosquito rather than squash it dead:

1. People naturally like to help others
2. The person has been stuck where you are (I am) now, and wants to pass on the favor someone gave him when he was trying to get started
3. Maybe you aren’t a useful network source now, but you could be in the future
4. And you really do have something you can share now, whether it be knowledge, experience, or your own connections you have created
5. A manager’s job is to find new talent–and thus, to meet people.  Even if there aren’t open jobs now, she is always on the lookout
6. Or maybe, there actually is a job opening, and she just hasn’t told you about it.  And she’s doing some sort of pre-interview
7. Maybe the way you introduced yourself and your background was so compelling, he was interested and wanted to hear more about you.

So here’s the deal: Network anyways.  There are always people willing to help, for any of these reasons and many more.  Don’t hinder your job search just because you’re too shy to reach out, and too scared of being an imposition on others.  Start today by making a list of a few skills and abilities you have that do make you a worthwhile contact.  Call up someone that you’ve been thinking could help you but probably would be too busy for little ole’ you.  RIGHT NOW.  Ready?  Make friends.  Get job.  GO!

Also, if you happen to decide to follow this fantastic advice, or you already have because you’re smart and already knew you should network, please share your success stories so the rest of us can feel like maybe there is a reason to try to shake off our apathy.

I applied at lots of places.  I searched online.  I pounded the pavement going from establishment to establishment.  I finally found one that seemed promising, and paid well, too.  At a bank.  I even got an interview, and that went really well.  Until… she found out I was leaving in two months.

BAM.  You know how you can read people’s body language?  In about 2.4 nanoseconds she went from leaning forward, smiling, arms open, to leaning back, arms crossed, legs crossed, and not-so-smiling.  I lost it right there.  She even told me that was the only reason I didn’t get it—and that if I was going to be in town long-term, to come on by again.  Another interviewer for a different job (EMT this time) rejected me for the same reason.

What’s a person supposed to do in a situation like this?  No jobs available, and the ones that are won’t take you because you’re not there long enough. 

Network. Yup, that’s right.

We’ve all heard about networking, and we know it has to do with knowing people who help you get jobs.  Except that it’s not nepotism, which is generally viewed as a not-so-good-and-morally-correct thing.  Even though it is basically the same thing.  Just not with relatives.

But that’s how I finally got my amazing job as a physical therapy aide at APT.  I had a friend working there (who, by the way, got the job there because his dad was a doctor that referred a lot of patients to that office—see how your connections can work for you?) who knew of my plight and happened to also know that his office was looking to hire someone.  The job was not advertised anywhere though, and they had no actual job applications, so really, the only way to hear about it was through networking.

Two days later I dropped off a résumé, two days after that I had an interview and was hired, and two days after that I had my first day of training.

BAM.  Just like that.  Networking = magic.  Which is why I’ve decided to devote a whole blog to helping you learn how to network better.  Check back here regularly for updates on all the best tips and tricks.  Because while some people have that natural “people person” quality that gets them everywhere, some people (read: me) don’t.  And it’s something those some people need to learn in order to succeed in life.  Because apparently, just being smart and qualified isn’t enough.  I have to get people to like me, too.