So, how do you utilize that network? First, find that LinkedIn alumni network. Chances are good that one exists. If it doesn’t exist, create it. Now, join it. And, if it’s a school list, join that school list the day you graduate.

Join the List

I cannot emphasize this point enough. Your school alumni list does you no good if you do not join it. If you have attended the school for at least two years, join the list. If your school alumni are uptight and really want to know you’ve graduated, fine. But if you were really close to graduating, or you should have graduated, ask to join the list. Chances are good they will let you. The list does you no good if you don’t join it.

And, if you worked for a company that was a pioneer in its field, or a cool startup, or if the people who worked there shared some significant history, someone has created a mailing list. From that mailing list, likely someone started a LinkedIn list. Find it and get on that list. Joining the list doesn’t make you a “joiner” or an extrovert; it makes you a smart networker.

You need an “in” with people, and joining the lists provides you a warmer introduction. So join the list and don’t complain. I’m not asking you to call anyone. I’m asking you to send a request on LinkedIn and ask to join the list with evidence that should be in your profile.

How to Use the List

Once you are on the list, if you are a hiring manager, monitor the list for two things: people looking for work and people asking for help. If you are a candidate, monitor the list for open positions and people asking for help.

You’ll notice I said in both cases that you can monitor the list for people asking for help. You can also ask for help and see what happens. Whatever you do, do not involve this list in any multi-level marketing programs. Well, don’t do that if you want to get hired or hire anyone. The people on the list will remember. And their memories will not be kind to you.

You can do several things with the people on the list. Once you have established yourself as a helpful person, or at least, as someone who is not unhelpful, you can ask the people who are not your first-level connections to connect with you, increasing the number of your first-level connections. The more first-level connections you have on LinkedIn, and the more active you are on LinkedIn, the more likely you are to be noticed. LinkedIn will send your name out every week with your new activity to your first level network names, which helps increase your network activity. “Oh, Johanna connected with five more people last week. I wonder who those people were.” That activity leads people to think of you when it comes to networking, whether you are looking for candidates or jobs.

The more you offer help, the more questions you answer on LinkedIn, the more people will think of you, which will increase your reputation. This is a Good Thing.

I am not suggesting you spend all your time wandering around LinkedIn. I am suggesting that if you are a hiring manager, you devote a specific timebox each week to a specific alumni network or two. You decide how much time you think is worth spending. I’m thinking 10-20 minutes total.

For example, I worked with some very sharp people earlier in my career in several companies. I am also on several mailing lists. So now that I am the technical editor for the Agile Journal, I sent some pointed emails, asking for articles. (Not all those lists are on LinkedIn.) And, I realized that I was not linked with all of these nice people directly, so I am fixing that.

You can never tell how networking with those folks will pay off. It never hurts to be nice and helpful as long as it does not get in the way of your work.

Asking for help is a way to make personal contact with people on the list. You can ask for help about anything: a good plumber, a restaurant, a referral for a good swim program for your kids. And if you want to keep this just about work, ask for help with your hiring. Do consider being more human on school alumni lists. The more human you appear, the more people will want to help you.

Always end the post with your full name and all contact information, especially if you have a URL with a job posting. Make it easy for people to find you and discuss a job with you and link with you.

A Few Caveats for Hiring Managers

• Keep postings to LinkedIn short and sweet and link to a URL by opening a new window. Include your contact information in your posting or offer to link with people in your LinkedIn post.
• Keep your emails to mailing lists short and sweet. If you’ve already sent an email to your list with one job description, wait a few weeks to post it again, and tell the list you’re still looking.
• With the job posting URL, keep everything on the web page. No one wants to have to download anything else.
• Always include all of your contact information in the body of each posting. I know I said that. I mean it.

A Few Caveats for Candidates

• Explain your qualifications in two-three sentences. Do not list everything that is so wonderful about you.
• Offer to link directly with anyone in the group. After all, you are all in the group!
• Thank people in the group in advance for their help.
• If someone helps you specifically, thank that person off-group.
• Make sure you have a smiling picture in your LinkedIn profile. If you don’t, you are unlikely to get help.

Your alumni networks may not pay off immediately. But your contributions might make a few more people think of you first—which is exactly what you want, whether you are a hiring manager or a candidate.

Consequently, an optimal networking strategy is to know a lot of different people from different circles, have multiple organizational affiliations in a variety of different industries and sectors that are geographically dispersed, but not necessarily to know the people well or to develop close ties with them.

Think about it for a minute, though. If you already know people well, you know the jobs they have to offer. You know who the candidates are. If you really want to find new people or a new job, you need to exploit your connections in ways you haven’t exploited them before. (I mean exploit in the sense of “make the best use of”.)

Which of your networking sites allows you many different people from different circles, who may geographically dispersed? It doesn’t matter where people work; they know of jobs all over the world. It matters that they are not your close friends.

Think about it. I am.

But one thing I am happy to do is to provide a recommendation on LinkedIn. I still have to know someone pretty well, or know an aspect of their work well enough to write a recommendation. But a recommendation is not a reference. And, if I need to make it narrow enough to be useful, that’s ok with me.

Don’t ask anyone for a recommendation unless they know your work well. It’s ok if you only know a specific aspect of their work. For people like me, sometimes a recommendation can be narrow enough to talk about our writing or training or speaking or facilitating. That’s fine. But, if you don’t know my consulting capabilities, you can’t give me a recommendation about my consulting. In the same way, if I’ve never seen you manage people or projects, I can’t provide a recommendation about your management.

If you want a recommendation, offer one first. Make sure you are specific enough so that your reader can find the recommendation valuable.

With enough specific recommendations, your profile readers can learn enough about you to ask questions of a real reference. That’s the real value of a recommendation.

When you write a recommendation, you are telling the world, “I saw this person work in this way and I can recommend that.” That increases your networking value.

If you want to network to find candidates and learn about people–including back door references–make sure you offer recommendations. And, then you can ask for recommendations, and references.

I was coaching a manager recently who was going through a rough patch in his organization. I asked what the worst thing was that could happen. He said, “I could be fired and have to find a new job.” Since he’s been working for more than 20 years, I said,
“You have plenty of contacts, surely you can at least network with people, right?”

He sheepishly said, “I have not been keeping up with my networking.”

Ouch. Managers need to develop and maintain their networks, especially if they are not looking for a job. People will see you as a resource. You will hear about the people looking for jobs before others do. You can provide candidates information on people in your network who are hiring. You can introduce people. People at all levels will want to stay in touch with you.

(If you’ve been to any of my management talks, you know I talk about getting rid of people who can’t jell with a team or can’t do the work. If you have one of those employees, you can find someone in your network to take that person off your hands. People work better in some places rather than others. Take advantage of your network to move those people out of your organization. Yes, this is why you should network with your competitors.)

Here’s what I do:

1. Decide which networking site you decide to use. I like LinkedIn. You might decide to use some other site, but for me, LinkedIn is right for business.
2. Make sure you have a complete profile on whatever site you choose. I’m always amazed when people ask for help networking and they don’t have a recent professional picture, or they haven’t completed their experience portion of their profile. When you ask people to connect, they may not remember you. Seeing your smiling face will help them remember.
3. Make connections with your colleagues at organizations you’ve worked for in the past, alumni groups from those organizations, managers you’ve known, school alumni groups, possibly even religious affiliation groups. Connect with people you know are professionals and will be willing to network with you.
4. Affiliate yourself with like-minded people. If you’re serious about networking, make sure you join a group or two. (If you are like me, you can’t help but join lots of groups.) Then make sure you connect directly with the people in those groups.
5. If you have a blog or personal site, link to it. If you don’t have a personal site, link to your company’s site or blog.

The more work-based information people can discover about you, the more valuable you will be to them in their networking. And, once they find a job, they will think of you and how valuable you were to them. Now, you may well be the person they think of first. And that is the essence of networking–how to be the person other people think of first.

Hiring managers, or even plain managers, or technical leads, or anyone who thinks they might need to find a job in the future: pay attention to your network. Spend a few minutes every week asking people to connect. I’ll talk about recommendations in the next post.

Here’s what I know about:

• Network with everyone you know. Don’t forget school and previous employer alumni groups.
• Make sure you are on the job boards suitable for your potential positions.
• See if any local or national associations or user groups have job boards you can use.
• Use social media to connect with people.

I’m sure there are more options. Do you have any ideas? My friends and colleagues would like to know. Please comment. Thanks.

Dear colleague: Please fill in your LinkedIn profile. Please fill in your FaceBook profile. Please fill in any profile on any social media network. How can I network with you if I can’t find you?

Once you’ve filled in your profile, add some people. I can’t believe you’ve been working for 10, 20, or 30 years and have 10 people as connections. You don’t have to be me–I’m a promiscuous networker . But, please, add people who are your colleagues. You can add people with whom you have social relationships. You can add your family. (Do you think I’m not going to add my daughters when they graduate from college?) You can add all your friends from college, even if you haven’t talked to them in 20 years. (What a great way to network, catching up with college friends. You think they don’t know about jobs?? Sure they do.)

I don’t care how old you are. I don’t care that you haven’t thought about social media before. If you are unemployed, you have a responsibility to make it easier to network with people to find that next job. Your responsibilities:

• Make it easy for people to find you online, at least at social media outlets
• Help people know which Tom Smith you are
• Listen to your children about how to use the Internet

I want to help my friends find jobs. I want to help acquaintances. But I can’t help if I can’t find you. Yes, call. Yes, send resumes. Yes, use recruiters. But for heaven’s sake, use social media.  Use it, don’t just play with it.

Big mistake. If someone offers you help networking, take it! No matter who you are, how many years of experience you have, how sure you are you can get a job by yourself, take the help.

Louise Fletcher has a great post about companies responding to online applicants, Is there Anybody Alive Out There? Sure, companies are not responding, so what’s a candidate to do? Network.

Candidates: Let me echo Louise’s advice: If you’re not on LinkedIn, join now. Stop reading and go there, join, fill out at least part of your profile, and then come back here. Find the people you’ve worked with before, invite them. Recommend a few of them. The more you recommend, the more likely they are to recommend you. (I’m not affiliated with LinkedIn. I receive no money from this endorsement.)

Is this a pain in the tush? Yup. And, it’s worth it. I know that some of my recommendations have made a difference in people calling me for consulting engagements.

If you’ve been working for more than 3 or 4 years, you’ll need your network just to find good recruiters, if that’s one of your job-seeking strategies.

Hiring managers: If you want the ability to know a little about a candidate before you phone screen or interview them, or if you want to do a behind-the-scenes reference check, you need to be on LinkedIn also.

I don’t recommend Facebook or Myspace for professional networking. You can’t see the connections or recommendations. My kids use Facebook to post pictures and gab with their friends. It’s for social networking, not for professional networking. No, I’m not friends with my kids. That’s just wrong. But when they graduate from college and are ready to increase their professional networks, I will connect with them on LinkedIn, offering them the use of my network.

You need to be ready to offer something to your network connections, and a recommendation is a great way to start.

It’s rare for a more senior person to find a job without networking, so make sure you pay attention to your network (whether you are looking or not), and manage it.

Making contact with people, networking, is the single most important a hiring manager or a candidate can do to start the search (from either side). Meeting a person, seeing that person face-to-face provides the hiring manager or candidate subjective and objective data that an email or a phone call just can’t do.I have a few guidelines for me when I meet people. (I developed this little checklist because I’m a hopeless geek and can appear rude when I’m not thinking about the other person.)

• Keep a smile on my face. If I’m distracted by my drive or work or the kids, I’m not going to look approachable and/or relaxed. I want to be approachable.
• Use a firm but brief handshake. I hate those limp-fish handshakes, and they bring out the child in me–I want to grip the other person’s hand harder and longer. (Go ahead, shake your head. I am So I use a firm but brief handshake so I don’t do the macho thing with the other person.
• Hug the other person if they start it. I’m very lucky and have had a wide network of people I’ve met and worked with over the years. We have personal friendships as well as professional relationships. So we hug. But I’m geeky enough that I have to wait for the other person to start it.

Making contact–real human contact–with someone is a skill that every hiring manager and candidate needs to develop. You may not need a checklist. If you do, yours may be different from mine. But make human contact with everyone you meet, and you’ll find sourcing or searching for a job much easier.