Posts Tagged ‘LinkedIn’

How to handle a LinkedIn connection request from someone you don’t know

A couple of years ago, I wrote LinkedIn Questionsabout the LinkedIn connection dilemma I face when I receive a request from someone I don’t know.  Back then, I would just hit the “ignore” button because I have no idea who John Doe is, nor do I know any tire salesmen across the country in Maine. I have taken a different approach after reading a few blog posts by Joel Ungar in AccountingWEB.  Joel is a principal with Silberstein Ungar, PLLC in the Detroit area and a CPA who really understands social media. Like me, Joel sometimes receives LinkedIn connection invitations from people he doesn’t know with the generic text, “I’d like to add you to my professional network.”  However, he doesn’t ignore all of them.  He has a rule for requests from the Detroit area: if he meets them first, he’ll accept.  He replies to invitations (without initially accepting them) to explain his rule and suggest meeting for lunch, breakfast or coffee.  Joel says that he has developed some great relationships from this rule. Be sure to read Joel’s excellent advice for how to make a connection on LinkedIn.  He also has several examples of how NOT to make a connection on LinkedIn (sales pitch, not taking time to learn about a person, and starting a relationship with a falsehood). Many of his replies to LinkedIn invitations go unanswered, which is unfortunate.  He is a nice guy and fun to talk to.  I met Joel briefly last year when he came to Las Vegas for a conference and look forward to meeting up with him again next month. If you’re ready to make a LinkedIn connection the right way and you’re willing to meet in some shape or form, you can find me at http://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinwheeler.

Social media fields in the QuickBooks 2012 Lead Center

I have been experimenting with the new features of QuickBooks 2012 and was pleasantly surprised when I noticed that the new Lead Center contains optional contact information fields for LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Skype. Social Media in Lead Center Apparently, Intuit has recognized the value of these social media tools for marketing and added them as a means for QuickBooks users to connect with prospective customers.  It is cool to see accounting software become a little more social.

My LinkedIn Connection Dilemma

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I have a little debate going on in my head about who should be included in my LinkedIn network. LinkedIn seems to suggest that connections should represent a “real-world” network and be limited to trusted friends and colleagues.  I have discovered, though, that some people are looking to connect to everybody.  Some even go so far as to have LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) or “I accept all invites” in their headlines. I have received several invitations to connect from people I don’t know with the standard message ,”I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”  I haven’t accepted them.  Are these people really interested in connecting with me?  If they are, why don’t they call me to introduce themselves, invite me out to lunch, or at least send me a personalized message? I think that most LIONs are just seeking as many connections as possible without the intent of getting to know them.  What is their motivation?  I can think of a few advantages of being an open networker:
  • On the surface, they appear to be really popular – most have 500+ connections.
  • Their news feed (status updates, blog posts, etc.) is broadcast to a large number of people.
  • They are more likely to rank higher in search results as a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd level connection.
Those advantages may sound great, but are they really beneficial?  I doubt it.  Their LinkedIn networks are made up of a bunch of useless connections. I am not an open networker on LinkedIn, but  I am open to networking and meeting new people.  I just don’t think that extending an invitation to connect on LinkedIn should be the first step in the process. Then again, sometimes I wonder if I am missing out on potential business opportunities by not connecting to everyone on LinkedIn.  The little devil on my left shoulder makes a tempting argument, but I’m siding with the little angel on my right shoulder.
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Five Useful RSS Feeds I Follow That Are Not News or Blogs

I previously wrote a blog post about how I have been using RSS feeds to stay current on the news.  The majority of the feeds that I subscribe to are news and blogs, but there are a few that don’t fall under either of these categories that I have found to be useful.
  1. Tweets of a few individuals. I follow about 200 people on Twitter and I can’t log in to Twitter enough times to keep up with every single tweet of the people I follow every day.  However, there are those among the Twitter users I follow who share great information and I don’t want to miss any of their tweets.  It’s easy to add a Twitter timeline to Google Reader (which I use to read RSS feeds).  Copy the Twitter user’s URL (for example, http://twitter.com/whe97007), click on the “add a subscription” button and paste the URL in the box that appears.
  2. Twitter searches for certain words and hashtags. Using Twitter Advanced Search, I created RSS feeds for tweets from Las Vegas, Nevada, that include the words CPA, accountant, tax, or QuickBooks.  I have found a few interesting people to follow and some potential business opportunities.  For example, a tweet saying “next year I think I’ll have to invest in a good tax accountant” caught my attention and I contacted that Twitter user.  The only drawback to subscribing to these feeds is that I have to sift through a lot of unimportant tweets like “I just got my tax refund so now I can buy that HDTV!”
  3. LinkedIn Network Updates. LinkedIn is a great site for professional networking, but I don’t visit it daily.  I use RSS as a more efficient way to see what my connections are up to.  Occasionally, I notice that one of my connections connects to someone I know, who I then connect to as well.  You can get RSS feeds within the LinkedIn account settings.
  4. Notifications for new downloads. For example, I subscribe to the RSS feed of the CPA Technology Advisor to know when a new podcast is available for download.
  5. YouTube channels. In particular, I enjoy the YouTube channel for K2 Enterprises, which provides technology tips for CPAs.  Thanks to RSS, I am alerted when a new video is available to view.
If you have any ideas for using RSS feeds, please share them by leaving a comment in the box below.