Just Ask Yourself: "Does Every Relationship Always Grow Our Networks?" (JAY DERAGON)

A paraphrase of the parable of the seed sower and the networker:

•1. The networker sows relationship seeds
•2. The seeds falling on the road represent those who hear, but
dismiss relationships straight away - they don't immediately sense the
value
•3. The seeds falling on the rocks represent those who hear, but only
accept it shallowly - these sorts of people reject relationships as
soon as they cause them affliction or pain
•4. The seeds falling on thorns represent those who hear and who take
the relationship to heart, but allow wordly concerns, such as money,
to choke the relationship
•5. The seeds falling on good soil represents those who hear, and who
truly understand relationships and who work on it causing the
relationship to bear fruit.

In a nutshell: we may spread our networking efforts in many different
places but, not all of our sowing will bear fruit. If we
understand this, it will help us to be more at peace with our
networking efforts because we don't expect a rocky road to yield fruit
the same way that fertile soil does.

As professional networkers, we know that not every relationship will
always grow our networks.

So, as you're contemplating the how and the why and the worth of
developing your network, Just Ask Yourself: "Does Every Relationship
Always Grow Our Networks?" (JAY DERAGON)

--
Thanks!
Vincent Wright
Chief Encouragement Officer
www.MyLinkedinPowerForum.com |
www.PursuingRelentlessOptimism.com |
"Linked In To Help. Linked In To Profit."

B.L.O.G.S. - Top 5 Joys of Using Linkedin

I've been a little behind in some of my writing this week but, I posted the "Top 5 Joys of Using Linkedin: B.L.O.G.S." as my contributing exercise to Darren Rowse's "Top 5 - Group Writing Project":

http://linkedinbusinessdiscussionindex.blogspot.com/2007/05/top-5-joys-of-using-linkedin-blogs.html

For your convenience, I'm including the essence of the BLOGS post, here:

Most people think about Linkedin.com in terms of its sitemap.

While the Linkedin sitemap is good for finding information about Linkedin.com, I prefer thinking about Linkedin in terms of "BLOGS", (Business; Likeability; Objectives; Growth; Speed.)

Business – For some of us who've been on Linkedin a long time, it's easy to forget how challenging business was pre-Linkedin. It's incredible how much "dead-data" I have left over from my sales and recruiting days from the 80's and 90's. It took a lot of work to assemble all that stuff from so many places which would help us get to know our prospects and clients better. Now with the Linkedin platform, it's so easy to get living, relevant data that we can sometimes forget how to creatively use it for our businesses and careers.

Likeability – I like likeability! Wait. Let me rephrase that: I LOVE likeability! Linkedin is about being well, um, "linked in". Being "linked in" is about togetherness. Togetherness is the very essence of what a "business" is. "Business togetherness" is the whole purpose of the Linkedin platform. But what I like about the latest iteration of Linkedin is that I only have to be linked in with professionals I like. And I like this because likeability matters to me. And you know, even if you focused of working with only likeable people and if you liked only 1 percent of Linkedin's 10 Million members, you could still end up with a HUGE personal network of likeable professionals on Linkedin! (100,000, actually. Which is the size of some fairly established networks.) By the way: I like introducing people I like! Wait. I LOVE introducing people I like!

Objectives – If I establish my business objectives, if I get clear on them and then take them to Linkedin, I'm pretty sure that I can find someone among Linkedin's 10,000,000 members who can help me meet my most critical business objectives. And let's not forget: It's only meeting your business objectives that can make Linkedin a joy. If you don't meet your business objectives, Linkedin is just an idea, a concept, an electronic addiction. But, IF you can MEET your objectives, Linkedin is a joy – pure joy. It's meeting the objectives that brings the joy.

G - Growth - I believe my small business would be better if it were bigger. Linkedin gives me the best chance I'm aware of to do just that: make my business better by growing my business via the people I meet through Linkedin. Linkedin has proven to be the most effective means of helping me grow my small business into a bigger, better business. (By the way: Bigger isn't just about adding new employees. Often it's about adding more clients.)

S - Speed matters in our businesses and in our careers. If speed didn't matter, of course everyone would be guaranteed to be successful merely because we could take all the time we wanted in building our businesses. But we don't have all the time in the world. Time pushes us. Time presses hard on us. Time crushes us. Time either helps us or hurts us. So, tools that can help up speed up the achievement of our business objectives are a joy. For me, personally, Linkedin is a joy in the sense of helping me speed up the acquisition of new clients and it helps me speed up my interaction with them. Linekdin is still the speediest professional way to meet the professionals I want to meet for my business without the risks associated with spamming. I've met thousands of professional people via Linkedin that I wouldn't have met otherwise.

So, my Top 5 Joys of Linkedin can be summarized in BLOGS.

How about you, what are your Top 5 Joys of Linkedin?
--
Thanks!
Vincent Wright
Chief Encouragement Officer
www.LinkedinAndTheSecret.com |
www.MyLinkedinPowerForum.com |
"Encouraging Networking"