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LinkedIn Connections - “Now What?”

by Darlene McDaniel on September 5th, 2007

Part 4 Of My Series About LinkedIn

LinkedIn Connections are people and people are connected to other people. The connections you make on LinkedIn are very quick, quicker than if you were standing in a room full of people with every good intention to meet them.

LinkedIn Connections are exponential. Why you may ask? Because my 31 connections have mushroomed or expanded exponentially because of the people that are connected to them.

LinkedIn Connections can be deceiving if you believe that you are truly connected to all of those people. What do I mean by this statement? My LinkedIn Connections begin with 31 people that I know they are my First Degree connections. Some of these 31 people I know better than others. Many of my 31 connections, I would like to get to know better than I know them today and it is one of the things I will work through on my journey through LinkedIn. But if I don’t have a deep, meaningful relationship with my 31, how in the world am I going to have a relationship with the more than 6,900 - Second Degree LinkedIn Connections.

LinkedIn Connections offer a tremendous amount of potential for any job seeker out there. The potential to connect with 31 additional people, or 6,900 people or well of a million people is an incredible network in my opinion. The challenge is to begin to dig past the 31 First Degree LinkedIn Connections and get to know the people your friends know. As someone said to me recently, I think it was Jason Alba, “who your friends know is the best way to network yourself into another new job opportunity.” You don’t know who your friends know, but who they know could be the person you were looking for to help you transition your career or your business.

Understanding your LinkedIn Connections, rather than admiring the number in your network can be an incredible treasure chest if used properly. You’re on LinkedIn! Great, Now What?? Handle with care your LinkedIn Connections. You never know what awaits you or who awaits you.
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The inspiration of this series of posts this month comes from Jason Alba’s new book, I’m On LinkedIn, Now What???

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