Connections and Networks|Thoughts on Blogs|Week of 11-20-2009

On going participation in the NCP Model from the Social Media Academy.  Network Growth, Contribution in the Social Web, and Participation in the conversation.  What kind of opinions did you offer your favorite blogs this week?

LinkedIn Groups – 48 Hour Networking

Questions by Judy Bennett

Wendy as a LinkedIn trainer, can you help me to understand what is it about getting tons of connections? Now that I am getting linked all around the world, I find it muddies up my connections that I actually spend time networking with. I am struggling with the relevance?
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Hi Judy,

One of the biggest reasons to have many connections is that when you search for new clients, or connections in a specific industry, it opens up more connections for you to view.  The statement “its who you know and who know you” is very important in that regard.  The latest feature added to LinkedIn for profile management should help you since it allows you to put your most important contacts that you want to watch in an organized area.  Unfortunately you have to pay for that ability. No free version yet.

When you have something to promote, having a network to shoot it out to can really help, i.e. lets say you wrote a book or an event you would like people to come to.

Sometimes groups can be your extended messaging network and you don’t need to connect directly with so many people. This doesn’t get you the same extended search capabilities as direct connections.   In a group like 48-hour Networking, the goal is to connect directly.  Others are merely for conversations.

One tip I give people is that after you join a group direct connect with the manager, who is typically the most connected person in the group and likely connecting directly to everyone in the group.  That way you have extended your network.

Some people just don’t need a huge network and want to keep it at a very high executive level and with only people they know very well.  That’s OK too.  Just decide what your business goals are and what you want to do here and move forward.  Maybe your big extended network is better served on another location like Facebook.

I believe lists will become a feature on all social sites.  Twitter just came up with one, Facebook has them, and LinkedIn will likely have something in the future that supports this type of option.

One blog to follow for all types of advice and tips is the Integrated Alliances Blog.  IA is a national company focused on user training for LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to name a few. As I regional Director in Wisconsin for IA (disclosure) I reference this blog first in searching for tips or a work around.  Follow if you are interested in further discussion on LinkedIn strategy.

Warning! Unfriend is officially a word you don’t want used on you
by Steve Gasser

In regards to Steve’s post discussing the friending and unfriending on various social media sites.

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Steve, back in June 09 I was “pruned from a social media manager’ s LinkedIn connections.  He runs a creative blog and works for a very large Insurance company in Madison, WI.  We had connected on LinkedIn about 3 months prior to his moving to a new position and had not met -only exchanged some conversation.

I looked forward to learning and following this person, whom I felt was a thought leader.  He wrote a post on his very visible blog  about pruning branches on LinkedIn.  Then he saw fit to publish every name he removed.  I eagerly read the list and found that I knew 30 of the 50 names he pruned —And there was my name as well.

The post enticed me to ask the question – Is it good etiquette when you realize you have been removed (or when the list was posted in a public blog with growing readership) from someones contact list to nicely ask for constructive reasons why? Its nice to have input on how you can work on aspects of our “Connectivity Index” to improve the reasons for connection or de-connection. In many cases its just lack of knowledge.

He never said specifically why he pruned me.  In fact he only mentioned that he got to know me a little better since I posted a response comment on his blog about this along with others.  I also notified the people I knew from his list and they all called him directly and asked him to remove their names from his public list.  He finally removed the names of everyone from the post.

Unrequited Linked-Love. When one side doesn’t need the relationship but the other side found value in it (no not just to see all the connections).  How do you help them.

Social media to me is about sharing knowledge, mentoring helping etc in the communities you participate in or the communities your create.   Its not always all about you.

I have removed two individuals so far – mostly due to leaving a job. They may never know. I believe that is why LinkedIn lets you do it without notification.

Linkedin Questions and Answers

Question by Scott Danish, Principal at BayCreative

What have been the best performing “2.0″ joint marketing programs you’ve done with your channel/business partners for lead generation? Email, telemarketing, webcasts and direct mail are so last year. What are some innovative joint marketing programs that have succeeded for you and your channel/business partners?
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Response:
You might want to investigate nurture marketing as a technique.  Doug Tangwall of End Result Marketing is an experienced professional, a market researcher, writer and analyst.

I have worked with him (disclosure – strategic alliance) on the social media component to get the content he creates more visible for clients.

He is a long time practitioner of this tactic and has some very good results in working with a variety of firms prior to forming his own company.  He see 14-17 times more targeted leads generated by nurture marketing.  he started his own firm to provide broader industries with nurture marketing.
It fits well with today’s change in sales process with the driver being the customer is educating them selves first before making a call to any “sales’ contact at a firm. People on line are asking “Whom do you recommend?” If they can find educational material and value added content online that directs them to you – the success of contacts is impressive.

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