How to Converse on LinkedIn
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| Cartoon by Tom |
We love to talk, share feelings and experiences within our community, don�t we? Conversing is essential to keep our community alive and growing unlike traditional business networks which allow connecting and not conversing. �How� we all know but �What� is essential too. Are we listening before conversing? You have a network but the challenge know is how you can do effective conversation.
Converse with your Network
Converse with your network and give them a reason why have you connected. If you are an Interior Designer its most likely that your network will surround people with same professional interests. Dont get excited and jump in to voice your opinions. Follow for a while and analyze what your network is talking on their page. This will give an idea about your active conversing. Now start with a small section of people as you cant converse with all of them otherwise you need to have a personal assistant. Try starting small like replying to status messages of your network and posting your thoughts on posts or links shared by your community. Read before you reply. Many a times people jump in to comment but later find that,�Oh! The link is not working�. Dont be in a mad rush of talking to huge chunk of people. Once you gain some feedback of your thoughts try using the status message facility. Status message if used wisely can make your influencing power grow but dont be a news feed. In that case you would be considered as a spammer. Go on converse, with your network but do it rationally.
Converse with your Groups
Groups are wider spectra so the golden rule is to keep your ears open rather than your mouth. As a LinkedIn professional you must have joined groups according to your needs. Once again we will say that start small and grow big. Keep visiting your groups on a regular basis and email updates of your group can be a handy resource to go through quickly. Follow discussions and capture thoughts of people. Groups involve people of different levels in terms of exposure and experience. So listen and then converse. Once you�re comfortable, try posting your thoughts as and when you think is appropriate. Do keep in mind that this is a wider audience, so make utmost use of it. Listen, understand, converse and dont forget to share.
Converse with your Business Pages
Business Pages are equally important as your network and the groups you have joined. Business pages are like mentor pages wherein if you converse rationally then you can converse with people of varied experience. Supposing you follow a business page of your company- if you listen and converse on the company updates or blog posts then your thoughts will be responded by leaders and managers of your company and that can help you to enhance your knowledge. It also gives you a chance to increase your personal brand power and converse with colleagues across the globe.
Whichever way you have connected, the onus is on you to converse. You made a choice to connect with people/groups/businesses so you need to make sure the network is alive.Numbers dont matter but meaningful conversation should be the idea. Otherwise it doesnt take much effort for your network to leave you alone. It applies to all as an individual or as a business.
How do you converse and what have been the benefits? Would you care to share, we are listening�