LinkedIn - Who do you want to be referred to? - PDF Article

The daddy of modern day networking is a pioneer called Dr Ivan Misner. He came up with the idea of breakfast networking clubs and his is still the biggest - BNI (Business Networking International). He says unless you know who you want to know, very few people can help you.

When delegates ask for referrals far too many people say “I am looking for anyone who needs an accountant / plumber / circus ring leader” which leads fellow networkers minds to go blank. When you ask “Does anyone know anyone at Smith & Co?” you either do or you don’t. This is the beauty of LinkedIn. You have to be specific when seeking referrals; your computer won’t put up with the nonsense of you saying to it ‘any accountant anywhere’.

In fact I’m wrong - if you ask LinkedIn to ‘find me a profile with the word ‘accountant’ in it, at this time of writing LinkedIn comes up with 286,436 times. Go through those if you’ve nothing else to do!