How to connect by phone with a LinkedIn connection

By Joan Stewart

Here’s a perfect example of how to build a strong relationship with one of your connections on LinkedIn.

Follow it to the letter, and you’ll have a strong connection with somebody who can help you, and with whom you can help.

Two weeks ago, when I reviewed my LinkedIn messages, I saw this one from Abhishek (Abe) Seth:

He used the magic phrase, “I would like to know if I may help you,” he let me know he reads my newsletter, and he also asked permission to call. I responded and said I’d welcome a phone call and we arranged a time to talk.

He called me on Wednesday.  I learned that he’s a sophomore who’s studying public relations at Boston University and would someday like to work in celebrity PR. I told him about ContactAnyCelebrity.com, a great site I promote as an affiliate. It provides celebrity contact information for anyone who wants to enlist the help of celebrities for things like charity fund-raisers, book blurbs or other promotions.

He thanked me and asked me how he can help me. I told him I’d appreciate it if he’d spread the word “Craigslist: A Valuable Publicity Tool.” and encourage his fellow PR students to sign up for it. I asked him to please let his professors know about the newsletter and about my free email tutorial on how to write press releases. And I told him about this blog and my other blog on publicity topics where  I just posted this morning on how 3 of 4 LinkedIn invitations include this big mistake.

The whole conversation was probably less than 10 minutes.

With more than 500 LinkedIn connections, there’s no way I can possibly arrange phone calls with even a small percentage of them. But there was something about Abe’s invitation that appealed to me.

He did everything right. He’s now a valuable contact who’s spreading the word about me to a demograpphic that’s a perfect fit with what I do. And I’m in a position to help him.

How have your LinkedIn connectins helped you? Do you think that people on the social media sites use the telephone as often as they could? Do you welcome phone calls from your social media friends and followers? Do you ever call one of your  LinkedIn connections without first asking permission?