Have you ever been to a conference or networking event and you wish you could connect with everyone? Getting to every single person in the room can be daunting but you have a shared experience or interest and you’d still like to connect.
Picture this… You’re at a networking happy hour with your organization and there are a lot of fresh faces. You’re working the room but it’s not realistic for you to get face time with everyone in attendance. Thanks to this function built into LinkedIn, you can at least invite them to connect with you, and hey! You’ll schedule coffee with them later.
I’m about to change your networking life with a simple LinkedIn tip.
Who this is for:
- Attendees of limited-seat workshops who want to connect with fellow attendees.
- Speakers who want to open their LinkedIn to connect with their audience.
- Networking groups that you want to connect with quickly and swiftly.
Who is this NOT for:
- People who only want to connect to send cold sales messages. Don’t be obnoxious.
The tool we’re going to use is the Find Nearby function in the LinkedIn mobile app.
- Turn on your device’s Bluetooth and open the LinkedIn app.
- Tap the My Network icon, the + symbol, and then Find Nearby.
- Turn the toggle next to Share my nearby status to ON.
- Connect away!
Bonus Tip: If you’re an event organizer, print these instructions out and leave them around the room or include them on screen in your presentation.
As always, I highly recommend sending a personalized message with your invitation to connect. Something along the lines of:
- “We haven’t gotten a chance to speak but I’m at [insert name of conference/workshop] too! I would love to connect and make plans to chat or get coffee.”
- “I saw you speak at [insert name of conference/workshop] and was really inspired! Would like to stay connected!”
Of course, don’t forget to follow up!
Happy Connecting!