How to Engage With Prospects on LinkedIn Before Connecting

You know how you sometimes find yourself talking to a person you’ve never met before. When you are really engaged in an interesting conversation, you often forget to ask to swap contact details. Or might not feel the need. It was just an interesting talk. You might bump into each other again in a few weeks, relate back to your first meeting and find yourself fully engaged in a fun conversation again. By the time you decide to swap contact details, maybe even plan to meet for a coffee, it comes natural, as you already know each other.

Learn to engage before connecting on @LinkedIn with expert @PetraFisher

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How Cool Would It Be To Act Like That Online?

Fancy you could actually engage with people on LinkedIn, without being connected? Talk off taking the cold out off cold calling! Heck, they might even make the first move and invite you to connect!

It's Actually Easy To Engage Before Connecting

Make a list of people you’d really like to get to know
Visit their profile and view recent activity.
If there is something you can add a meaningful comment to: go for it!
Repeat weekly.
Delete the people from your list who are not actively using LinkedIn.
Narrow it down to a shortlist of 10-15 people.
Evenly divide them over the weekdays.

Now it just takes you 10 minutes a day to engage with 10-15 important people!

How Easy Is That?

Remember you want to add value though your comments. You don’t want to be noticed as that pesky little stalker, but as the friendly professional that I know you are.

Few things to keep in mind:

Show your natural curiosity for what they talk about, don’t move away from their topic, but ask a question to keep the conversation going.
Touch on something your are both interested in, that is not just an easy, but also a genuine way to build rapport.
Connect people. Draw others into the conversation by tagging them.

This post was first published on petrafisher.com

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Petra Fisher

Petra Fisher is a LinkedIn consultant who doesn’t quite fit in the box (don’t worry, she is losing weight). Straight forward, no-nonsense feedback, fun, creative and driven to keep going till the result is what she set out to achieve with you. To learn more about Petra, check out her site petrafisher.com or visit Petra on LinkedIn.

Petra lives with her teenage daughter and big-fat-red-cat. She loves to travel to Thailand, and to offset her nerdyness (books and computers are never far) she takes long walks and gets stuck into some crochet.