LinkedIn – Blast From My Past
September 10, 2007 by Darlene McDaniel
Filed under Jobs
Part 7 Of My Series About LinkedIn
LinkedIn is all about connecting with people. In my journey through LinkedIn, I decided to do a search to see who I could find from my past. I put in the name of a previous manager. The search result brought her name up and it turns out she is already in my network.
She shows up as a Third Degree Connection for me, even though I know her. Given my desire to test the system I have two options available.
1st Option – Contact the person through an introduction
2nd Option – Use one of my Introductions
I decided to have the person I am connected to introduce me. That required an inmail from me to my connection, with an inmail he would forward to the person I found doing the search. It was great. Within 3 days I had a response back from my previous manager.
There is no way I would have contacted my previous manager without the help of the connection. Why? Because it has been 5 years since I last spoke to her. She has forwarded her work telephone number and I am sure we will speak before the week is over.
Here’s what I like about this process:
1. Very easy to connect with people from your past
2. People in my network seem eager to help re-connect people
3. I have an opportunity to grow the relationship
4. One connection, can open up my network and connect me to more people.
_______________________________________________
The inspiration of this series of posts this month comes from Jason Alba’s new book, I’m On LinkedIn, Now What???
Actually, there is a way that you could make the connection without involving your shared connection. If you click “Add to your Netowrk” and then select that you were a colleague (or business partner), you can invite them to connect even without knowing their contact info.
Hey Michael! I didn’t know that I could do that, bypass my connections to get to someone. I appreciate the tip. I am still learning!!
Have a great day!