Chris Brogan (And YOU) Should Stay On LinkedIn

Steve,

You make some good points in there, but I would have to argue with you and say that he should be accepting more connections (as opposed to closing them out).

A few reasons why:

1. He meets people all of the time, some are potential clients... should he not connect with them on LinkedIn but follow them else where?
2. This continues to build his email list as you can export your connections on LinkedIn (and I hear Chris mention how valuable emails are and how big email marketing is right now)
3. You never know what connection will need your services (once they connect with you and learn more about who you are on LinkedIn)...
4. Better yet, you never know which one of your connections friends could use Chris's services... and without being "connected" they may not mention Chris as a possible lead.

I don't think he is countering his brand by being a Trust Agent if he doesn't use LinkedIn every day. Chris is probably on 50 different social networking sites (for name registration purposes, to test sites out, etc...) and I doubt he spends every day on all of those sites (as he would never get any work done for his clients :)

Instead, what he could do is put a disclaimer in the first sentence of his summary on LinkedIn stating something like this:

"LinkedIn is an extremely powerful resource for many professionals online. I wish I could use it more but I am currently putting all of my time to help reach the goals of my clients. I would love to stay connected with you on LinkedIn and I welcome your invitation, however, due to my large network, and the time I am devoting to my clients, I will be unable to forward along any introductions to members of my network, or respond to your messages on here. If you would like to get in touch with me, please email me at chris (at) chrisbrogan.com. If you would like to learn more about my marketing and new media services, please email me at blog (at) chrisbrogan.com with the subject line 'Services', and if you would like to learn more about the opportunity to have me speak at your conference then go to www.chrisbrogan.com for more. Thanks for your understanding.".....

After that, Chris should lead right in with his summary, and be done with it.

I think that would be enough, and no matter what, Chris won't be able to respond to everyones tweets, LinkedIn messages, facebook messages, emails, etc... and I'm sure there are some who don't understand this and get offended. This will always happen for those in this position, and I would have to say it is part of having a bigger platform.

Lewis, I see that and from your point of view on LinkedIn, I woudn't expect anything less than you continuing the discussion.

As a job searcher using LinkedIn, your advice for Chris will just perpetuate the problem that he has. Someone looking for a job, finding a position with company XYZ, is immediately presented with who amongst their contacts has connections with the company. Chris (and his connections) will continue to appear in those results. The user would normally continue within the contact notifications and request an intro. All this happens in the LinkedIn work flow without going to Chris profile page to see the message that you recommend.

My proposed steps would remove Chris' results from the prospective job search and networking opportunities for users like myself. LinkedIn should present good results. Results that because I have connected with person A, B, or C, I can depend upon to help me when I ask for it.

I would rather see this discussion go in a slightly different direction.

I am not looking to "win" an argument. Winning or losing is not my concern. Learning how to make sense of LinkedIn to help the job searcher is what I am after.

Given that there are LIONS and others like Chris, interested in building networks but not in a position to provide worthy connection introductions; what setting changes should be enabled to allow those folks to build their network and yet remove their results from the searches so job seekers like myself don't waste our time and effort sending requests to folks who either won't respond or can't help.

Let's figure out how we can all use this service. There must be a way for Chris (and others like him) to build their network without distorting our results and hindering our job search efforts.

Does that make sense?

Hi Lewis (and David!) I am definitely no Chris Brogan - less than 200 connections, less than 20 recommendations. I spend maybe 20% of my social media time on Linked In but in the last couple of months, some higher end prospects - VPs, CEOs - decision makers for businesses have contacted me and the business that will result are going to move my company forward in a bigger way than I would have expected. It has made me realize that the quality of contacts on LinkedIn are higher. I'm sure it's not for all people, but I am in a similar position as Chris - I sell my expertise as a consultant, and I sell books and other products. If the results I am getting from so little effort are an indication, I wonder what the Chris Brogans of the world can do on LinkedIn? It makes me think of the 80/20 rule - 80% of the results come from 20% of the effort. So I think I may start spending 80% of my time on Linked In and see what will happen ;-)

Great, great post Lewis!

Hi Carolyn, you don't have to have them say "friends" anymore as they now let you put your connections into your own category (colleagues, friends, employees, neighbors, swim teammate, etc...)

They are starting to add and change things to make it a much more user friendly site... and I think you will start to notice that if you spend a little more time on LinkedIn every week.

Thanks again for the comment

Thanks for your comment Rob, but watch the video and I show you exactly how to export them. I have done it many times myself.

Um...They have an Outlook Connector. You would be VERY wrong about not being able to export.