Kevin needed a job - fast. The job market was getting worse by the day. Trouble was, Kevin had a great resume , but his network was out of work too. As the old saying goes, Network or No work.
Kevin’s situation is common. He was so focused on creating value for his employer he neglected to establish a safety net for himself. Yes he had a lot of senior level contacts but they were all looking for new opportunities as well. He had no idea how to build a network of powerful people who can help you move you career forward in a crisis.
What do you do if you’re looking for a job today because you got axed yesterday or might tomorrow – and need to build your network as quickly as possible?
You apply a “loose
connection” strategy on LinkedIn. This
will get you the most number of 2nd and 3rd level
connections in the least amount of time.
Here’s how Kevin did it.
First he imported all his email contacts into LinkedIn and sent thoughts which were already LinkedIn members an invitation. That brought him to 79 contacts in LinkedIn.
Then he logged on to Dave Mendoza’s site. Dave is the über LinkedIn connector who runs Six Degrees from Dave. His “pay it forward” attitude pervades his site. Dave’s mission is to help others connect to people he thinks they would want to connect with if only they knew they could - like the world’s leading headhunters, top thought leaders and corporate recruiters around the world.
For Kevin Watson, Dave’s personal rolodex is a who’s who of the people he needs to connect to for his job hunt. Mendoza does all of this for free. FREE – when he could easily be charging and getting a lot of money. For job hunters this is THE place to start building a powerful network. All the instructions for downloading, importing and inviting 100s of people at a time each with huge networks of their own are right here on his site. First Kevin downloaded Dave’s mega list and then he followed Dave’s “HOW TO SEND MASS NETWORKING INVITES: STEP BY STEP” word document. So simple any non-techie can do it. What follows is the good part.
This is where Kevin started. Before downloading Dave’s list Kevin’s network statistics looked like this:
24 hours later he had added 72 people and increased his network by 6.1 million. Kevin’s network statistics looked like this:
Next Kevin reached out to the Top 50 LIONs. A LION is a LinkedIn Open Networker who will connect with anyone. The more connections you have to others the closer you get to opportunities they have in their networks. His network is growing by leaps and bounds. If you want fast access to LinkedIn’s Groups then check out the Top LinkedIn power groups link on the left hand side of the page Top 50 LIONS web site..
Next week I tell you about how Kevin’s done his web site and built a viral marketing tool too.
