After I give my Building Business Contacts seminar, participants often come up to me later and say “I have a lot of people in my Linked In network but I don’t feel like these are people that I know well enough to ask for help.  What can I do?”  I suggest that they start cultivating their business contacts strategically, respectfully and generously. There are many ways to do this but I got personally re-connected to a few techniques just recently. These techiques are easy, quick and very productive. I will share them with you over my next few posts!

NUMBER 1- Keep your eye on updates from your contacts that Linked In provides on your Home page.  You can easily see who in your network has gotten a new position or updated their profile or posted a comment or link.  When you see this kind of activity from a person in your network with whom you would like to have a deeper connection, drop that person a note via Linked In.  Keep it short, keep it focused on your contact, and make a reference to the specific activity that caught your eye.  Conclude your note with a request for more information or a question about your contact and their work.  Keep it light, keep it sincere and keep it generous. After you proof read the note and before you hit send, read the note out loud and ask yourself if you would feel good if someone sent this note to you.  If the answer is yes, press send.  If the answer is no, tweak your note until it makes you feel good as a recipient.  This is a great way to start a dialogue that can lead to you being able to help out your contact and to your contact learning more about you.

Try this technique and let me know how it goes!