Professional Networking

by Thomas E. Kenny

09/11/25 Copyright © 2008 by Thomas E. Kenny 1

 Agenda

 What is Networking?
 How Do I Get Started?
 Building Your Network
 Tools
 Maintaining Your Network
 Leveraging Your Network

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Career Management – The Big Picture

R&D
Marketing
Career
Core Networking
Analysis,
Compentacies & Personal
Planning
Branding
& Training
Experience
and Skills

Sales

Job Searching &

Interviewing

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 Professional Networking
 Professional Networking is mutual relationship building and
maintenance
 Why should I care?
 Think of yourself as the CEO of Me Inc.
 Financial security.
 Professional IT community good will.
 Use viral marketing to your advantage.
 A Chinese proverb states “Dig the well before you are thirsty”
 Online presence concerns
 What will my manager and peers think? Privacy concerns?
 Current recruiting practices per ExecuNet, “83 percent admit
they're looking online to augment what's found on a
résumé. And... using what they found (or often what they didn't),
43 percent of those recruiters have eliminated a candidate from
consideration before the first phone call is made.”
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 Network Relationships
 Understanding the types of relationships that exist
 The supplier/consumer dimension of a relationship

Both are networking collaborators

You are a (service) supplier

You are a (service) consumer
 The ties that bond dimension

Geographic

Industry / Company

Profession

Cultural

Hobbies / Interests
 Networks have both breadth and Depth
 Set and measure networking goals
 At least 50% of your network connections on LinkedIn
 Establish a network of at least 200 network connections
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 How Do I Get Started?
 Develop a plan for your personal brand
Perform a skills inventory (review/update resume)
 What career opportunities do you wish to seek?
 Identify market needs for your skills and desires
 Gap analysis and develop a plan to synchronize the above items
 What accomplishments differentiate you from others?
 Google yourself with varying names
 Establish your profile and build your network connections on
LinkedIn
 Contact Management
 How will you store your relationship data?
 Don’t keep track of everything and don’t keep score of giving.
 Easy access to past Email exchanges.
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Developing Your Personal Brand
“When I was in my job search I was a nobody. I was
cliché, a commodity, a dime-a-dozen. No one had
heard of me, and I was a perceived expert in …
nothing. I knew that I had expertise, and could
bring value to the equation, but nobody knew that,
nor did they know me. My job search was a lot
of push-marketing, and it was painful.” Jason
Alba, CEO of JibberJobber.com and author of the
book “I’m on LinkedIn – Now What?”

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 Developing Your Personal Brand
 Comment on blogs, podcasts & answer
LinkedIn questions but assure comments are
positive & on target for your brand.
 Establish a web site known by Google to
promote the accomplishments of your brand.
 Create an Email signature that includes the
URL of your LinkedIn profile or web site. Also
include distinguishing degrees
and certifications.
 Publish – blog, papers, articles, books.
 Assure there are no conflicts of interest.
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 Building Your Network
 Data mine your Email address books and Email archive.
 Search your mind for positive professional relationships
from your past, then search for there name on LinkedIn.
If found send them a personalized invite.
 Ask about their goals, note it and
assist them however you can.
 Plan one networking related lunch a week.
 Remember to use the phone and not just send Email.
 The goal is to build relationships of mutual benefit.
 “Build your network, Support your network, Lead
your network” Rod Colon, CEO & Founder of ETP
Network
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 Tools
 Personalize invites, don’t use the default message.
 Keep your profile accurate and complete for at least 10
years.
 Use variations of job titles, corporations, universities
and acronyms in your profile.
 Review your public profile settings and open up as
much as you are comfortable and assure it’s consistent.
 Establish a “vanity” URL for you public profile.
 Join corporate & university alumni groups on LinkedIn.
 Improve your “Profile Completeness”.
 Review network updates via an RSS reader.
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 The LinkedIn Network
Three degrees of connections:
• 1st degree – your friends
• 2nd degree – friends of your friends
• 3rd degree – friends of your friend’s
friends

There are over 20 million

professionals on LinkedIn!
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 Network Investing with Compound Interest
 Daily activities
 Check for new network LinkedIn connections and profile updates
 Review LinkedIn Answers to any questions you’ve asked
 Weekly activities
 Consider new LinkedIn invite candidates from your current work
 Provide valuable answers to some LinkedIn questions
 Review your LinkedIn lurkers
 Monthly activities
 Adjust your networking growth & strength goals
 Improve your brand recognition
 Export LinkedIn connects for backup storage
 Periodic activities
 Share news of interest that is of value to the recipient
 Send well wishes to network connections on birthdays and anniversaries
 Stimulate dialogue regarding summer vacation or winter Holidays
 Submit a clear, concise and specific LinkedIn recommendation
 Adopt use of new tools and OpenSocial APIs to improve efficiencies
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 Transition by Design
 Targeted job searching on LinkedIn
 Find people that you can reach out to in a company
that you are interested in via your LinkedIn 1 st degree
connections. However to facilitate an introduction
prepare a value proposition. Maybe they will be able to
obtain a referral fee as a result.
 Leveraging your warm trusted network
 If you do procure an interview within an unexpected but
desirable company. Use your first 1 st degree LinkedIn
connections to make contact with an employee at that
company.
 Keep the network contacts that have assisted you
informed and remember to thank them in some
special way. Even if the goal was not achieved.

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 Other Resources
 Local job search Yahoo Email groups
 Bill_Hyland_Network 818 members 1 messages/day
 CNG 914 members 4 Messages/day
 etpnews 281 members 5 messages/day
 mn077 701 members 7 messages/day
 TheBreakfastClubNJ 691 members 20 messages/day
 Local networking events
 CNG (Career Networking Group) meeting 1st & 3rd Thursday of each month in Basking
Ridge, NJ
 Combined (4 networking groups – AWC, MNA, TBCNJ, CIT) Dinner meeting 4 th Tuesday 6
PM in Totowa, NJ
 ETP (Empowering Today’s Professionals) Monday Night Networking Conference Call
free for ETP members every Wednesday 9:30 PM
 ETP Job Search & Networking School 3rd Thursdays 8 AM in Howell, NJ
 TheBreakfastClubNJ 2nd Saturday 8 AM in New Brunswick, NJ
 RSS feeds for blogs
 The LinkedIn
 I’m On LinkedIn – Now What?
 Jibber Jobber
 Never Eat Alone
 Podcasts
 The Connections Show
 The National Networker Show
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 References
 Never Eat Alone
by Keith Ferrazzi
 Online Networking by Liz Ryan
 I’m on LinkedIn – Now What???
by Jason Alba
 The World is Flat
by Thomas L. Friedman
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 Questions & Answers

 Questions?

 Thank you!

[email protected]
www.thomasekenny.com

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