I recently had occasion to use the Introduction feature on Linked In not once, but three times. And in all three cases, the mechanism failed me. For those of you who have not yet used this feature, it allows you to find someone in your immediate network who has a connection to a person you want to reach. In theory, it should work a treat. But here’s what I learned:
1) You need to have a first degree connection with your contact.
2) Your contact needs to have a first degree connection with the person you want to reach.
In all three of my attempts, the connections were too remote (2nd degree) to be of use. The only exception was that one of my contacts was a recruiter, so she was willing to pick up the phone and forward my information through traditional channels. But it would not have worked through Linked In.
This got me thinking about the parallels with the 19th century custom of using “letters of introduction”. If you were traveling to another city or country in 1850 (to pick a year at random) you would canvass your friends to see who knew someone in that city (hopefully important, rich people) , and request letters of introduction. You needed those letters because in the 19th century, you couldn’t meet new people who were out of your immediate social set without those letters. And you definitely weren’t going to meet a mover-and-shaker (if you were not one) without a letter of introduction. While we are not as constrained these days, I do think that there are legacies of these social norms, and you can see them appear on Linked In.
So what can you do to improve your success rate on introductions?
1) Thoughtfully expand your own network (with people who know and respect you) so that you have the largest possible number of first degree contacts.
2) A corollary to point 1: if someone requests to connect to you who you don’t know, make a point of spending 10-15 minutes on the phone with that person. That way, you will know something about them, and can refer them a little more meaningfully, if asked to.
3) Be very specific in your introduction requests. Be conscious that your connection will be much more willing to make the introduction if you are not asking for the moon.
4) Guard your own reputation carefully. If you are not comfortable making an introduction, don’t! Remember, on Linked In, in many ways you are the company you keep.
In some ways, this experience has made me more determined to identify, catalog and master the emerging etiquette on Linked In. But it also made me realize that in so many ways, everything old is new again.