LinkedIn is a popular business networking site. It’s a really easy way to build your virtual network, establish your credibility as a business owner, and encourage people to visit your website or blog. You can explore someone else’s profile and connections, find potential clients and service providers, and allow others to find and connect with you.

Once you’ve found someone else you know, you can view their connections. See someone on their list that you might want to contact? You can do some instant research by viewing this person’s profile, allowing you to get to know them before making that initial contact.

Once you’re ready, you can easily click a link to send them a note. And you can make your contact message relevant by mentioning LinkedIn and the person that led you to their profile.

It’s a way to bypass the occurrence of awkward small talk that sometimes scares people away from face-to-face networking. You get the advantage of finding someone that other people know and trust and learning about them through their profile and website links as well.

Don’t get me wrong – virtual networking is only the first step in getting acquainted. You still have to be willing to have phone conversations and even face-to-face meetings to really create a solid business relationship. But for those of you who just dread the idea of walking into a room full of the unknown, it’s a great place to start getting to know other business people like you.

Why this matters…

This takes A LOT of energy – energy that you can use to do something more productive. There are plenty of topics and issues that aren’t worth the time it takes to prove you are right, and it will be to your advantage to invest your time and energy in those that do.

You will show yourself as a mature and confident business person if you resist the temptation to escalate conversations into the defensive mode and simply let your business beliefs and practices to speak for themselves.

Have feedback?   I’d love to hear it.  Drop me a reply at joy [at] a25hourday.com.

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