Mining your networks for a cause

The way of the world is meeting people through other people.

  - Robert Kerrigan

Social media buzz – loads of fun, keeping up with friends, updating your resume, posting pics of the kids. But where’s the value? I have a real-life case study of the value of my LinkedIn network. I hosted a Corporate Event Marketing Association event in Austin and, not knowing a whole lot of event marketers in the area, I began leveraging the network.

First, I posted about the event to my network, and asked them to share with their network.

Next I started using the search bar to locate networked friends of mine in Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.

After that, I searched on the terms of interest like Events, Tradeshows, A/V, and other key terms.

LinkedIn doesn’t let you spam people you don’t know, nor does it let you put a URL in a message to people not in your network. But it does let you send an invitation to connect. Through LinkedIn, I was able to connect with more than 50 people who were not originally in my network to invite them to the event. And in the process, got 50 new connections in my world to share information with in the future!

I absolutely do not advocate spamming random people. But if your goal is to build real connections or a tight community of like-minded folks, using the network of your network you already have is priceless!