A guide to organizing your LinkedIn connections into three groups: people you know, people you don't know, and those connected to the hidden job market. Learn which group to message and how to approach each one strategically.
Foreign Hi everyone. Good afternoon. Today I would like to explain and I'm going to do a very brief whiteboard session. I would like to explain how you should be categorizing your connections. So let's take a closer look how you should sort your connections before you start networking on LinkedIn. So I'm going to write an equation here that you should all remember and I'm going to explain what each category means. This is very valuable and very easy to comprehend. So PK stands for people that you know. These are all your connections, your social connections, your next door neighbors, your friends, your relatives, former colleagues and and former supervisors and former teammates, alumni, people that know you, that once you would reach out to you, to them, they would return. The probability of them returning your message would be very high. So these are people that know you personally should always maintain this list and have a special type of script to use when you're reaching out to these people. And this is something that you should just continuously do to keep your connections refreshed and informed about what is it that you want to do in your career. Next. P not K stands for people that you don't know. People that you don't know are leaders that make hiring decisions in target companies that you're interested in working for. So I'm going to use something very simple. If you're in banking, if you're in a mid sized bank, you probably want to go to one of the biggest banks. So either Truist or Bank of America or Wells Fargo. So those companies should be on your target list and you should be consistently connecting on a regular basis with people who have above director titles. I wouldn't connect directly with the CEO of Bank of America, but if anybody's a senior VP or director level, you should consistently look to connect with them and then send them a meaningful intentional message that would behoove them to kind of talk to you. Not right away, but maybe in the future. Remember LinkedIn was invented back in the early 2000s to bring like minded professionals together. So no one is going to think you're creepy and no one is going to think that you're weird. This is what LinkedIn is was invented for. Now if you don't proposition people who are strangers and you don't try to sell them something, they will respond to you. Everything is in the content of the message, everything is in the script. So once again, people you know, people you don't know, are the leadership team and hiring managers in target companies. Now what is this category? This is people you don't know. And you don't even know. That's why I said a second power. People you don't know that you don't even know. So basically, these are people you should know. This, in essence, is the hidden job market. Many, many magazines, podcasters ask me, Michelle, what is the hidden job market? The hidden job market is something that is out of your view right now. It's something that you don't even know about. It's hidden. Hence the name the hidden job market. So how do you enter the hidden job market? The people that you know should be referring you to new people that are not even on your horizon, but they're not because your message is not hitting the people that you know very well. Now let's review what messages that do not produce introductions and referrals. What do those sound like? They sound like, can you help me? Can you take a look? If your company has openings right now, can you go bring my resume to hr? Can I have your employee number so that I could apply online? All of those conversations will not produce referrals and introductions. If you're interested in how to start propositioning your existing network and encourage them to help you and encourage them to make introductions for you, definitely book a call with me. Definitely get on my schedule. I will be more than happy to talk to you about how you can start turning the people that you know into resources that will lead you to the hidden job market. I look forward to talking to you. Have a great day.
