4 Tips for Reaching Out to Someone You Admire on LinkedIn

Author: Lily Herman

Every LinkedIn user has had that moment: You’re scrolling through profiles and stumble upon your role model. Whether it’s someone who works for a company you love or someone who has the career of your dreams, you’re now dying to talk to him or her.

The question is, how do you reach out without it seeming weird, random, or awkward?

Well, it’s not quite as hard as you think. Here’s my advice for actually reaching out to a stranger on LinkedIn—and getting a response.

1. Figure Out if LinkedIn Is the Best Way to Reach Out

Before you click the “Message” button and declare your admiration, make sure you check that person’s profile to see if there are any specific requests about messages. For example, does he only want notes from people he already knows in person? Does she ask people with inquiries to send her an email instead of a LinkedIn message? These are things to figure out beforehand, because it could keep you from getting a response.

For example, my website, The Prospect, has a high school internship program that requires applicants to send materials to us via our company email. One day I opened up my LinkedIn profile and was surprised to find a high school student’s internship application in my inbox with no explanation of why I was receiving it on my personal profile. Not only was it random, but I could tell that the person obviously didn’t follow our application instructions. Why would I consider someone for an internship who obviously didn’t follow directions or offer any reason for doing so?

My advice? Do a little digging (er, stalking) before you send a message. For all you know, you could be shooting yourself in the foot by sending it to the wrong place.

2. Find Common Career Ground

Since LinkedIn is centered around careers, it’s important for there to be some job-related link between you and the person you admire. This could be pretty much anything, from working in the same industry to knowing a couple of the same people, but it’s important to do a little more digging—both on LinkedIn and on the web as a whole—to find that common ground. Believe me: It’s much easier to break the ice when your message is tethered to something career-related and personal than to something generic (“Hey, I see that you live in New York…”).

For example, if you saw this person speak at an event recently (as in, within the last week or so), use that as the jumping off point for a stellar opening line to your message (“I saw your speech about Y at event X and had a couple of questions for you”). If you have a mutual contact who both of you know very well, that person can also be a great tool (“Jenny Smith and I were talking the other day about awesome programmers, and she suggested I contact you”).

3. Avoid the “Can I Have a Job?” Line

This is an obvious one, yet people still do it all the time: Do not ask for a job from someone you admire but don’t know. Rarely do people hand out jobs to strangers they’ve never had any contact with before. Plus, chatting with people on LinkedIn is great for making connections with colleagues in the same field or professional circles, but it’s not meant to be the pinnacle of your professional relationship with someone—just a jumping off point. A connection on LinkedIn should lead to a working online relationship or a lunch or coffee meeting, not just more online interaction.

Some great reasons to want to contact someone on LinkedIn? If you’re looking for specific industry advice from someone in your field or wanting to meet up with someone in the future (again, be specific about why), then LinkedIn is the place to go.

And if your main reason for admiring someone is because he or she could potentially get you a job? You may want to rethink the entire reaching out process.

4. Draft Your Message

When you’re ready to reach out, write out the message you want to send before you actually send it. It’s easier said than done to say, “I’m going to tell so-and-so that I admire him!” and it’s important to think through what specifically you want out of this correspondence beforehand. Think to yourself, What would be the optimal response I’d receive from this person if everything were to go perfectly? And, How can this message open the door for said response?

Draft your message by separating out an introduction, body paragraph, and conclusion where you explain who you are, why you’re reaching out, and (briefly) what you want out of the correspondence. Again, the name of the game is brevity; your message should only be a couple of sentences tops (what person wants to read an eight-page summary on the life of someone they don’t know or don’t know well?).

I once sent a version of the following LinkedIn message to someone I briefly (literally a three-minute conversation) met at a conference two days prior:

Hi [name],

It was awesome meeting you during the lunch break at [event] this weekend and talking about our favorite college admissions websites.

I remember you were discussing how much you were hoping to re-launch your website’s social media platforms but weren’t sure where to start and wanted some outside input. If you still want some help, I’d love to be of assistance.

Let me know if this is something that interests you, and feel free to contact me at [email address]. Hope you’re having a great week!

I ended up getting a response to this message only a couple of hours later—and since then, this person I barely knew but really admired has turned into a valuable contact for me all because of a brief LinkedIn message.

Freaking out about reaching out to someone you don’t know at all? I once received this awesome message from a fellow blogger and entrepreneur I’d never met (she’s a high school student, no less):

Hi Ms. Herman,

My name is [name], and I run a student-run website called [blog name] that seeks to empower young women to follow their dreams.

I’ve been following The Prospect for quite some time now, and it’s amazing to see how much it has grown over the past several months. The Prospect really is an inspiration for my website, and I was wondering if you had any tips for growing your team while keeping the content quality up? We’re hoping to expand soon and could really use some pointers.

Thanks you so much, and congrats again for running such a great website!

Best,

[Name]

[Email address]

I loved this message because it was short, straightforward, and friendly (but not pushy). The writer asked a career-related question that wasn’t too vague (like “How do I run a website?”), and it led to me giving her my email address so we could chat (and we’re still professionally connected months later). Above all, our LinkedIn interaction led to greater connection elsewhere, which is key.

Above all, try not to overthink your message. While you should dedicate a lot of time, care, and proofreading (typos are the enemy!) to your message, at the end of the day, it should sound natural and not too stiff or overly formal. You want to come across as approachable and likeable, someone who anyone would be happy to talk to and help out.

 

Photo credit: the Muse.

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How To Ask People for Things Via Email: An 8-Step Program

Author: Jocelyn K. Glei

One of the golden rules of writing is: Respect the reader’s intelligence. This rule gets magnified by a factor of 10 when it comes to composing unsolicited emails.

Most people who receive any significant quantity of email in a day have developed extremely refined bullshit detectors. They can identify an impersonal templated email in 0.5 seconds, and they can spot a time-wasting “let’s explore the possibilities” ask from a mile off.

In short, getting someone that you don’t know to pay attention to you—and respond—is a delicate art. One that requires craftsmanship, charm, concision, and a lot of self-editing.

Based on years of drafting, redrafting, observation, and misfires, here are a few pointers to keep in mind when composing an email “ask”:

Step 1: Make it easy to say, “Yes.”

When it comes to giving good email, making it easy to say “Yes!” is objective number one. Sadly, it’s also where most people fall down on the job.

I frequently receive emails from people who are interested in some sort of knowledge exchange but never clarify how they would like for me to take action. Do they want to have a coffee? Do they want to do a phone call? It’s unclear, which means that instead of saying, “Yes!” I have to respond by asking them what they’re asking me for in the first place. Or, not respond at all.

If you are asking someone to take the time to answer you, it should be very clear what you are asking for. Look at your email and ask yourself: “Can the recipient say ‘Yes’ without further discussion?”  If the answer is yes, you’re doing well. If not, you need to redraft.

Step 2: Write an intriguing subject line. 

Composing a good email subject line is akin to writing a great headline. If you’re cold-emailing someone you’ve never met, it’s important to strike a balance between being direct and being interesting.

If I were asking someone to speak at our annual 99U Conference, for instance, I might use a subject like: “Jessica + Behance’s 99U Conference?” (Analysis: Using someone’s name feels personal; mentioning Behance in addition to 99U gives more chance of name recognition; and the question mark gives a sense of possibility/ creates curiosity.)

Keep in mind that while it’s always good to be clear, you also don’t want to give anyone a reason to dismiss your email before reading it. For that reason, you’ll want to avoid stock or cookie-cutter phrases that might get your email lumped in (and glossed over) with others.

For instance, for a speaker ask for the 99U Conference, I typically avoid run-of-the-mill phrases like “speaking opportunity” or “speaking invitation,” because they can turn people off before they’ve really assessed my particular opportunity.

Step 3: Establish your credibility.

“Why should I care?” is the tacit question hovering in most people’s minds every time they open an email from someone they don’t know. This is why establishing your credibility is crucial. Tell your reader why you are different, why you are accomplished, and why they should pay attention to you.

If I’m contacting someone about contributing to 99u.com, I might share stats on our monthly pageviews and social media reach to do this. If the ask is related to one of our events, I would share audience size, years sold out, and a power-list of past speakers.

If you don’t have “data points” to share, you can also establish credibility by being a keen observer of the person you are contacting; you could tell them how long you’ve followed their work, how you enjoyed the last blog post they wrote, etc. As long as it’s not fawning, most people appreciate being noticed.

Step 4: Be concise & get to the point.

Never assume that someone is going to read your entire email. You should make it clear from the get-go exactly what you are asking for. That means clarifying why you’re reaching out in the first sentence or two, and no later.

However, sometimes everything you need to say can’t be explained in 1-3 sentences. If this is the case for your ask, go ahead and say your piece (as concisely as you can) but assume your reader will be skimming it. This means using bolding, bullet pointing, and so forth as much as possible.

If it’s necessary to give some backstory prior to the ask, I like to just go ahead and break out the ask in paragraph two with a bolded preface that reads, “The Ask:” If you’re asking for something, there’s no point in beating around the bush. Make your objective clear.

Step 5: Give a deadline if you can.

People are often shy about including deadlines in emails, especially when cold-emailing. While it’s never a good idea to come off as presumptuous, deadlines do have great utility. In fact, most busy people like them. Bear in mind when you are emailing someone that—surprise!—they are probably also getting tons of emails from other people.

Most of those emails fall into one of two categories: 1) Things they have to do, and 2) Random requests for things that they might like to do, time permitting. Chances are, your email falls into group two. Which means it’s really important to know whensomething needs a response by. In other words, do whatever you can to help the receiver put the requested task on a timeline and prioritize it.

Step 6: Be interesting and interested.

At the most basic level, this means do not ever send anyone a templated email. If you are asking someone to take the time and energy to reply to you, make it clear that you actually know who they are.

That doesn’t mean being obsequious and singing their praises, it does mean talking to them like you are one human talking to another human. It’s nice to articulate why you’re interested in them. It’s also nice to articulate why they should be interested in you. Try to have a voice and say something funny, meaningful, or thoughtful—preferably all three!

Step 7: Never ever ever use the word “synergy.”

No single word lights up the experienced emailer’s bullshit detector like the word “synergy.” No one worth their salt wants to spend their time talking about exploring synergies. Emails with this language typically mean that the person asking for something hasn’t really thought through their ask enough to offer any specificity. If you want someone to take a chance on you, show them respect by thinking through what you are asking for and being up front about it. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time and theirs.

Step 8: Preview your email on a phone.

You probably write most of your “ask” emails on a desktop computer. Bear in mind that your recipient will be receiving and reading your email on their mobile phone in almost all instances. And what looks “digestible” on a desktop computer looks like an epic poem on a mobile phone.

As per point 4, you may think you have already confirmed that your email is concise. But is it still concise on an iPhone? Once you check, you will probably realize there are a few more things you can remove. Edit your email again, and then send.

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How to Create a Personal Branding Plan in 30 Minutes (Even if You Hate "Personal Branding")

Author: Marietta Gentles Crawford

You're ready to make a career move—maybe you’re looking for a new job, launching a side business, or eyeing a promotion. In all of these instances, boosting your personal brand can help you achieve your goal.

That’s because a strong personal brand is a carefully designed message that’s compelling and attracts the right people. It helps you stand out for who you are and what you do best.

You’re probably nodding along, because you already know all of this. You don’t need to be convinced how valuable personal branding is: What’s holding you back is the time commitment.

That’s why you have a LinkedIn Profile, even though you haven’t updated it since you set it up. After all, who can devote hours each week on top of working or job searching? Well, believe it or not, 30 minutes is all you need to take your efforts to the next level. Here’s how to spend them:

Minutes 1-10: Evaluate What Makes You Stand Out

The first thing you want to do is perform a self-assessment. This step is often overlooked, but it’ll be super helpful as you find your voice in a sea of professionals with similar experience.

This evaluation helps you have a clear vision of your USP, or “unique selling proposition,” which is just a fancy term for the value you offer to your target audience.

Here are some questions to get you started:

  1. What are you passionate about? You want to think about what excites you, and what things you truly enjoy doing.
  2. What are your core beliefs? This is important because it’s like a mission statement. It’ll help you relay your personal approach to getting things done.
  3. What are your top four strengths? This’ll help you share what you do better than anyone else, to set you apart from the competition.
  4. Are you a good leader or a good doer—or both? This is good to know because it’s a way to identify and highlight the kind of roles that complement your strengths.
  5. What do others say about you? Ask around! You may have strengths you’re unaware of, or talents you need to put more emphasis on so people know they exist.

To be clear, I don’t expect you to answer these questions with witty taglines. This exercise is to help you target your branding efforts. So, answer the question(s) that inspire you by jotting down notes, and honestly writing what comes to mind.

Minutes 10-20: Compare That to What You Already Have

Now that you’ve done some reflection on what you want to say, it’s time to see how it stacks up against what’s already out there.

If someone were to read your LinkedIn profile, tweets, or personal website, would they see messaging that points them toward the answers you came up with?

You might be thinking: Wait, I only have 10 minutes, that’s not enough time to read my whole website or review my LinkedIn line by line. But, here’s the thing, people who click into one of your social profiles or visit your website are probably going to spend a fraction of that time looking at it.

So, you want to look for things that shout what you do. On LinkedIn, that means moving beyond filling out the basics and adding links to media, writing posts, and getting endorsements for skills. On your website, that might mean building a portfolio. On Twitter, it’s about not just following influencers, but composing tweets, too.

This step is about comparing what you want to highlight to what you have and asking yourself: What’s missing? What can I add?

Minutes 20-30: Create a Schedule

Truth talk: Personal branding isn’t a “set it and forget it” kind of thing. Once you’ve figured out what you want your message to be and how you can share it more effectively, you’re going to need to start posting—consistently.

A helpful way to be consistent is to set a schedule that you can use as a guide. It shouldn’t feel like a chore, but if you’re anything like me, if you don’t schedule it, it could get back-burnered. All I ask is that you give it 10 minutes a day!

Here’s an example of a schedule you can start with:

  • Monday: Make (or update) a list of people you’d like to engage with more (a former manager) or simply connect with (an industry influencer).
  • Tuesday: Reach out to someone from that list. If it’s someone you’re reconnecting with, try one of these ideas. If it’s a stranger, you can test out this Twitter trick, or, if you’re brave, just send a cold LinkedIn invite using these templates.
  • Wednesday: Spend time looking for industry-related articles in publications popular in your field and share one. Or, alternatively, comment on someone else’s post (or at a minimum, share it).
  • Thursday: Make (or update) your list of improvements you’d like to make to your online presence. Break it down into baby steps. For example, you wouldn’t write, “Build personal site.” You’d write, “Look into site designers” and “write copy for personal site bio.”
  • Friday: Spend today looking yesterday’s list and knocking just one thing off.

Of course, you can tailor your plan to whatever works best for you. Honestly, if you just do the five things above even once a month, you’ll see traction. Regardless of the schedule you choose, feel free to switch it up, and see what gets the best response. You won’t see results overnight, but, that’s OK.

My final piece of advice is to avoid being misled by the term “personal branding.” What I mean is: The most successful brands aren’t just about you. Take the time to know your target audience, and listening to what’s on their minds as well. Genuinely connect and build relationships! As best-selling author Dale Carnegie said, “To be interesting, be interested.”

Photo credit: Tetra Images/Getty Images

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Why Does the Interview Process Take So Long in the US?

Author: Biron Clark

 

If you’re searching for jobs for the first time in the US, you might be surprised by how long the process takes.

It’s not unusual for a hiring decision to take months. Even between interviews, you might wait for two or three weeks to find out if you’re moving on to the next step in the process.

This article will explain a few common reasons why, and what you can do about it.

 

3 Reasons the Interview Process Takes So Long in the US:

⇒A large number of people are involved

It’s common for companies to have multiple employees interview you (sometimes an entire team), rather than having one manager talk to you and then make a decision.

This means that after you leave, everyone you met has to meet and discuss their thoughts. It also means that scheduling those interviews can take longer, especially during the December holiday season, and the summer months when people take more vacations. It’s important to keep this in mind when deciding the best time to apply for jobs.

⇒Employers want to talk to multiple people for each job opening

Companies in the US also have a tendency to want to talk to many candidates for each position. This can work against you if you were one of the first people they spoke to.

It doesn’t mean you won’t get the job, but you’ll likely have to wait for them to interview other people after you. It’s a good idea to ask how far along they are in the process, and when they expect to be able to make a decision. This won’t speed things up, but it’ll give you a better idea of whether they’ve already interviewed 10 people, or whether you’re the first person they’ve talked to.

⇒Hiring isn’t always their #1 priority

Another reason things can take so long: Companies and managers have many priorities. They posted the job because they needed to hire someone. There’s no other reason they would post it.

However, that doesn’t mean it was their top priority, and even if it was, things can change. Sometimes an emergency comes up, a big project within the group needs everyone’s attention, or hiring budgets get changed or cancelled, and the hiring process can be delayed for months.

It’s unfortunate, but as a general rule of thumb, if a recruiter or employer tells you that a job has been put on hold “indefinitely”, it’s a good idea to assume they’ll never hire somebody, and move on.

If they do reactivate their search and contact you, it will be a pleasant surprise, but it’s not a good idea to rely on this.

 

What can you do to make the process less frustrating?

There are a couple of steps you can take to make the job search process smoother and less stressful:

  1. Always keep applying for jobs until you’ve accepted a job offer. Don’t risk losing your momentum by stopping and hoping one particular job opportunity works out!
  2. Ask questions throughout the process so that you understand what to expect. Find out exactly what steps are involved (how many interviews, what types of interviews, background checks, drug tests, etc.)
  3. End each interview by saying, “can you tell me about the next step in the process, and when I can expect to hear feedback?” That way you’ll always know how long to wait before following up.
  4. Follow up with a polite email if you don’t receive feedback. (I recommend waiting one or two extra days. So if they said you’ll hear feedback next Wednesday, give them until Thursday or Friday). After that, send a follow-up asking for an update.
  5. In a first interview, ask them why the job is open, how many other people they’ve spoken with, and when they hope to have this position filled. All of this will give you a better idea of what stage the company is at in terms of their hiring.

Remember that the more you ask, the more you’ll know. You can’t control the speed that a company moves, but knowing what they’re doing behind the scenes can make the process less frustrating for you, and help you feel more confident in your job search.


This is an original article from Biron Clark. Biron is an Executive Recruiter, Career Coach and founder of the blog CareerSidekick.com. As a Recruiter he has partnered with Fortune 100 firms down to 6-person startups while helping hundreds of job seekers advance their careers. He’s passionate about business, entrepreneurship, and technology.


The 15-Minute Habit That'll Impress Your Boss (and Boost Your Confidence)

Author: Erica Gellerman

This may sound unbelievable, but it’s true : My client asked for—and received!— two promotions and three raises in the span of 18 months. Clearly, she’s a superstar.

However, it takes more than being awesome at your job to pull this off and she partly attributed her success to a habit she developed: tracking her own performance on a weekly basis. She used this document as tangible evidence when speaking to her boss about promotions and raises.

And the good news is that keeping track is something we can all do! Knowing exactly what you’ve achieved can strengthen your negotiation conversations, bolster your answers to interview questions, and help you better understand where you thrive, so you’re able to continue seeking out those opportunities.

Above all, this running list can boost your confidence, which’ll make you better at your job—seriously! A study conducted by psychology researchers Zachary Estes and Sydney Felker found that if you believe you performed well in the past, you’ll do better in the future, too. And something as simple as reminding yourself of what you’ve achieved previously can help you do better on a difficult task.

Here’s How to Do It

To begin keeping track, you need to get in the habit of spending 10 to 15 minutes every Friday taking stock of your week. You won’t always have a week where you’re logging accomplishments that’ll specifically help you get promoted , but you’ll likely have at least one thing that you can be proud of.

When taking notes, use the sections below to guide you in what to write—using this framework not only helps you to remember the full picture of what you’ve done, but it also gets you prepped to re-tell the stories easily.

To illustrate this, let’s walk through an example. You’re a marketing manager for a chain of stores and you’ve just been alerted that sales for one store are struggling.

Here’s what your log could look like:

Situation: What’s Going On

“The Broadway store’s struggling with low sales.”

Task: What Needed to Be Done in Order to Improve the Situation?

“The team and I needed to come up with a promotion that would both drive foot traffic into the store and be quick to execute.”

Action: What You Actually Did

Make sure you’re taking note of both things that you personally did and activities you helped facilitate.

“I met with them and assigned everyone a job. One person researched past promotions to figure out what performed the best. I visited the store and interviewed sales people to find out what people were asking for. After, I brought everyone together to brainstorm solutions.”

Result: What Is the Outcome of Your Actions?

Try to make these as quantifiable as possible. While you likely won’t have the results that you’re looking for by the end of the week you can update this in future weeks.

“At the end of the 90-minute meeting, we’d developed a concept for a styling event to get customers ready for holiday parties. Boss gave it the green light and it’ll happen next week.”

Feedback: What Was the Response?

It’s so easy to forget feedback from others—especially when it’s positive!

“Store’s head of sales is excited about it and was impressed by how quickly I’d been able to create something that would make an immediate difference.”

Satisfaction: What’s Next?

Use this part to remind yourself what you enjoy and what you’re good at (so you can continue to chase opportunities that bring you the most satisfaction).

“This was one of the most fun things I’ve done recently. Having a challenge with a short deadline that took research, creativity, and team brainstorming was exciting. I’d love to continue working on these just-in-time solutions and create things that make an immediate impact.”

While this definitely will take you time to think through each week, it’s a habit that can lead to a big boost in your confidence and your salary. And both of those are hard to say no to.

Photo of person working courtesy of Hero Images/Getty Images.

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