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Synopsis

Dr. Misner is joined today by Jan Vermeiren, the author of Let’s Connect: a Practical Guide for Highly Effective Professional Networking. Jan’s new book, How to Really Use LinkedIn, is perfect for BNI members. Here’s how BNI members can use LinkedIn:

• A social network is like a car: you use it to reach a destination. If you don’t have a goal, the tool is worthless.
• LinkedIn lets you find shared contacts: people you and your existing contacts both know.
• LinkedIn shows you who has connections to companies you want to reach—that you never suspected
• Keep the “Givers Gain” attitude in mind when you’re online. Take time to build relationships before asking for something.
• Make sure you connect with everyone in your own BNI chapter.
• The combination of online and offline networking groups is especially powerful because it expands your potential referral network.
• You can get to know your fellow BNI members better by reading their LinkedIn profiles.
• Translate your BNI testimonials into recommendations for your fellow BNI members.
• Save your LinkedIn searches and get updates e-mailed to you.

Download a free sample of Jan’s new book.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 101 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I am joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. I hear you have a special guest today.

Ivan:
I do indeed. His name is Jan Vermeiren. Jan wrote the book, Let’s Connect. I did an endorsement on it. He mentions myself and BNI in his book. He’s got some great content. He’s the founder of Networking Coach. He’s calling in from Belgium to join us today. And he’s written a new book, and I asked him if he’d be willing to do a podcast with us because I think the topic of this new book is very relevant to BNI members. The title of his new book is How to Really Use LinkedIn. And BNI members should know that I am a real proponent of online networking, social networks. I think it’s another great tool for us to network globally. And he’s done this new book that’s on this topic, and I thought it would be perfect for BNI members.

We have over 36 million people, and that number is growing every day that now have a profile on LinkedIn and have other connections as well. The question that most people ask is what does LinkedIn, what does this Web site have that they can use to their advantage? How can they use LinkedIn in a way that gives them results without having to spend too much time on it? And Jan is the expert on this. And so, with that, I’ll turn it over to you.

Jan:
Yes, thank you, Ivan. What you were saying, that the main questions, we also got in 2008, and that’s kind of the reason why I wrote the new book is many people ask themselves, “Why on earth am I on this Web site? And how can I use it without spending too much time?”

Now, I like using the analogy with a car. When I ask people “Why do you have a car,” they tell me, “I use it to reach a destination. When I want to drive to, let’s say, New York, I use my car to go there.”

When I ask “Okay, but if you don’t have a goal, if you don’t have a destination there, would you use your car,” they say, “No, it would cost me too much money, and I’m just often driving around.”

When I ask them “If you network at events or online, do you ever go not maybe to reach a few in conversation but for your career or for your business,” and many people tell me, “No, not really.” And that’s the clue in using LinkedIn and part of tools; if you don’t have a goal, then the tools are worthless.

So that’s the problem number one that I see that many people have in networking online and offline. They don’t have clear goals. And then, the second problem is that they don’t know which are the people in the best position to help them reach their goal.

So two very basic questions are things to think about that not many people give enough thought about.

Ivan:
Well, Jan, if you have those goals, how do you use LinkedIn, assuming that you have those goals?

Jan:
Once you have those goals, then LinkedIn becomes very useful, because what you can do then, you can find the right people and also the people who you both know in common. So you come in contact.

For example, let’s say – and I just did that in a presentation yesterday, a live example, I love to do that. So I just went to LinkedIn and I typed in “marketing manager.” Let’s say that I’m looking for marketing managers. And I say, okay, maybe Coca Cola in my country, Belgium, would be a good customer for ours or for someone else who worked for them in the marketing department.

So I looked that up. What did it show me? It showed me the name of a person. So that’s already the first thing, you find people and who they are. And the second thing what I saw, we had nine people in common that you both know. So I found that this person is my second degree that you see on LinkedIn, the number two. Then I saw nine people in between. And when I looked closer at them, I saw there were two people I went to University with, three people I worked in a project with, two customers, and two people I just met at the networking event. And none of them I ever thought had a connection at Coca Cola.

So what main thing does, it helps you find the people and also the people you have in common. And that makes it so, so powerful. So it shows you the way towards the people you want to meet or can help you reach your goal.

Now, sometimes I have people in the workshop and in the training course and the presentation say, “Okay, I have clear goals and still it don’t work for me.” And what they do, they have their clear goals, but they are just a little bit too goal focused, and they don’t keep in mind what you call the Giver’s Gain or what I call the Networking Attitude to see how they don’t think about building relationships first and they go straight forward to their goals.

So what is a challenge we have if we have our goals but still keep the Giver’s Gain attitude, the Networking Attitude in mind while dealing with people online and also offline.

Ivan:
You bring up a good point, because the online networking still requires many of the same skill sets as the offline networking, and relationship building is one of them. You can’t just assume because you can make the connection that you can launch right into doing business; you still have to build credibility with that individual. Would you agree?

Jan:
Yeah, that’s true. I know you talk about it and you write about it a lot, and it’s still – yeah, the same principles are still true, but we have those new tools now, and some people think, “Now they’re going to give me shortcuts to things.” And that backfires on them.

Ivan:
Right. The shortcut comes in making the connection, but not in developing the relationship. Would you agree?

Jan:
Yes. Yeah, I agree with that.

Ivan:
In your book, How to Really Use LinkedIn, there’s a special chapter for members of referral groups like BNI. Do you want to talk about that a little bit?

Jan:
Yeah, because I think the combination of being a member of BNI and being on LinkedIn is what people really – will help them reach their goals, their sales goals or their recruitment goals, or whatever.

So let me give some examples on that. One of the things you can do on LinkedIn is when you do the search, what I just did for the marketing manager, work then towards each other, toward you own goals, then you might find out you’re connected to a chapter member or another BNI member, maybe not from your own chapter. And because you’re already part of that organization, it already gives you, let’s say, a little trust. It already helps to build a relationship first. So one thing you can do is search, and what is also important that LinkedIn helps you to reach a second or a third degree of your network, but you have to have a first degree yourself.

So what I always encourage people to do, link with everybody from your own chapter and also other BNI members, of course, other people from your network because they are your access, your port hole, let’s say, toward their network. So people if would just start by linking, connecting amongst the chapter members, they have already built a basic foundation on LinkedIn, that will really help them. So that’s one strategy to put the focus on; build the network first and then do a search.

Now, another thing that you also can do is to browse in each other’s network, but you can only do that with first degree contacts. So that’s why it’s also important to link with the other members of your chapter, because, otherwise, you cannot browse in their networks. And then when you browse in their network, you can see potential customers or maybe potential employees for your company, or whatever, that you might have never found them by doing a search, because you used the other parameters or the words to search them than people use in their profiles. So that’s important.

And also, what makes a combination of being a BNI member and LinkedIn so powerful, you can find out information and bring it to your next meeting, and you can have a talk, “I was just searching on LinkedIn and I saw you, and you knew Mr. X, my potential customer. How do you know him? What’s your background?” And when you find out that they had a good connection, “Would you be willing to make a referral?” And because you have that information, it makes the discussion and also the BNI chapter meetings much easier or, let’s say, there is more background that you can share with the people how they can help you.

Ivan:
Now, you just bring up a great point. You’re suggesting that they connect on each other’s LinkedIn profiles and take a look at what their first line contacts are. And then meet at a BNI meeting and personally have a conversation with them about that potential client. Is that right?

Jan:
Yes, indeed.

Ivan:
I love that idea. And the listeners need to really hear that, use LinkedIn as a way as kind of being able to search each other’s database, but you can’t connect with them; you have to go through somebody. So you could do that on LinkedIn, or you could, at a BNI meeting, actually have a personal conversation. I think that’s a brilliant idea; I love it.

Jan:
And also, I know you promote it a lot, but I still see not many people do that enough is to share more of themselves in several meetings, that they don’t always tell the same story. And one of the things we don’t know enough about each other is each other’s background, but just by looking at those LinkedIn profiles, we see people’s backgrounds, where they worked before they start their own company or other experience they have. So we can get to know each other better. That’s another thing I really encourage people to do, read each other’s profiles.

Ivan:
We have about another minute, so if you would like to wrap up with your ideas. These are great suggestions to remember.

Jan:
So another thing that you can do with LinkedIn is recommend each other. So you can have recommendations. It helps people to have a higher trust. Let’s say I am looking for a potential customer. I connect with him through someone else, but they look at my LinkedIn profile and they see some recommendations. If you have one recommendation, that might not be very helpful, but if you have 20 recommendations, then this person might already be more willing to do business with you.

So what I also encourage people to do from BNI chapter is recommend each other, but only if you have an experience or you heard from your own network that this person is reliable. So it’s not just, “Okay, let’s do each other a favor.” No, it has to have foundation.

And the last thing I want to share what makes LinkedIn a super prospecting tool is that you can save your searches. So if you do a search, for example, marketing manager in the banking and insurance industry in San Diego, that’s your target audience, you can save that search. What LinkedIn can do for you, every week it sends you an email with all people who are new LinkedIn who match that profile or who change positions in a company that now match your parameters. So you don’t have to do anything yourself anymore; just LinkedIn gives you every week potential customer after potential customer after potential customer. And then you just have to look it up, see who you both know in common, call the person who you both know for a referral, and your business is growing.

Ivan:
Jan, listen, I want to thank you very much for your information today. I really loved your book, Let’s Connect. Looking forward to seeing this new book. How can people get your new book, How to Really Used LinkedIn?

Jan:
I think the best thing to do is just go to Amazon and buy it there. But for people who are not sure yet if it is the right information for them, there’s also a Web site for the book where they can download the free light version. And we also give free Webinars, Web seminars, from time to time. So the Web site is how-to-really-use-linkedin.com. There’s hyphens in between, but if people just look it up on Google, they will find it as well.

Ivan:
How-to-really-use-linkedin.com with hyphens in between each word, right?

Jan:
Yes, that’s true.

Ivan:
Excellent. Well, thank you so much. You have great content. It’s a real pleasure to have you on the podcast. Our BNI members can really benefit from this. I thank you very much for your time. I look forward to seeing more material from you.

Priscilla, back to you.

Priscilla:
Thank you both. That was very, very interesting. Oh, good.

Well, I just want to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.