Why are you on LinkedIn?
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Why are you on LinkedIn?
That might seem like a funny question, especially coming from me. Over the past two years I have found that the LinkedIn groups are a fantastic source of information and a great source of leads for business.
Is it perfect? NO WAY!
Currently, I don't see an alternative that really comes close. As someone who prides himself on his social networking activity I am amazed by the "Great Divide". In this case I am referring to those who "get it" and those that "don't get it".
At a small "invitation only" tasting event of 25 individuals involved in the wine industry I was pleasantly surprised to find that of those people who I had a chance to introduce myself to, more than half recognized me from LinkedIn. Yet over the past two weeks I have been to a number of professional tasting events, had conversations with many of the people pouring their wines, did the exchange of business cards, upon which I always asked "Are you on LinkedIn?", only to find that about 80% said no.
The vast majority think that LinkedIn is still a place to go when you are looking for a job. I would explain how it has changed, yet many who are on the site are no different.
The key to finding key information, making significant connections, and finding new business is really from the involvement in groups.
I belong to 50 wine groups, 10 of which I am the creator of. If you search Groups by the term "wines" I belong to 6 of the top 10 largest and have 2 of my groups in the top 9. I also very actively recruit for my groups. On a regular basis I search according to different terms for people in the groups I belong to. Why?....because it is only these individuals that I can send messages to asking them to join me.
There are still a significant high proportion of wine industry people who don't belong to the groups that I do....of those top 10 that I don't belong to, 2 are based upon non-English communication, 1 is more oriented towards beer, and the last one (#10) is not very active (I belonged for a while). My guess is that if you don't belong to one of the 50 that I belong to, either you are in a very small niche group(s)....or you are not in any groups at all.
So my question once again "Why are you on LinkedIn?" If two heads are better than one, I would guess that 10,000 minds are much more productive than one. The only people who will read this are either connected to me or are in one of my groups. If you are connected to that vast pool of wine industry people who are not in any groups...INVITE them to join us and tell them to get involved! It is really worth it.