How to organize networking events for free using your LinkedIn network
Kevin Nichols is a Sr. Litigation Paralegal, President & CEO of KLN Publishing, LLC. He’s also a columnist for The Globe Newspapers in the East Bay, and he writes for various publications nationwide. As an active LinkedIn user, Kevin also moderates two LinkedIn groups, one of which he used to pull off a networking event for free. Check out his experience below. You can also find other stories from our users here.LinkedIn is the premier social networking site for business professionals. It is the most consequential tool that I use to reach my business goals. As the moderator of the Downtown San Francisco Networking Group, I organize monthly and quarterly events for professionals who work downtown to network to create business opportunities for them. I am personally concerned that a large percentage of our group is unemployed due to the economic downturn, some for almost a year! So, I decided to organize an Employment Symposium that will focus on improving resume writing skills, interviewing tips, how to prepare for, how to dress for, and how to follow up an interview. Because these individuals are unemployed, cost is of paramount concern. Skeptics suggested that this may take at least 3 – 4 months to plan and cost thousands of dollars. Here is how I have use LinkedIn to organize this event for free in a month, like I have done for all of my previous events for my group.
First, I needed a location that could hold at least a hundred people comfortably so I updated my status indicating such. Within minutes, a colleague – Janine Mixon, Dean of Student Affairs at Golden Gate University – said that she might be able to get me space for no charge. Through my networking group, Janine introduced me to her colleagues David Javate (Assistant Director of Sales) and Ami Readdy (Recruiting and the Associate Director of Business Career Coaching), who both agreed to allow us to use their facility for free, provide resource materials, career guidance and placement information, etc. as parting gifts, assistant with obtaining panelists and with completing the planning. After another status update, I obtained two businesses that agreed to sponsor the food for the event. Finally, upon searching through my LinkedIn contacts, I have leaned on my Fortune 500 recruiting contacts to donate their time by being panelists / facilitators. The moral of this story is, “Use your network to make the impossible, possible”.
Have a LinkedIn experience you’d like to share with us? Submit your story here.
Tags: ami-readdy-golden-gate-university, david-javate-golden-gate-university, downtown-san-francisco-networking-group, janine-mixon-golden-gate-university, kevin-nichols, linkedin-job-hunting-events, linkedin-jobs, linkedin-networking-events, linkedin-search, linkedin-status
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Rolando Peralta July 16th, 2009
Great article, Mario! Definitely, LinkedIn is one of the best samples of the power of networking.
Antar C. Johnson July 16th, 2009
Great way to outline how you can quickly mobilize using LinkedIn as a medium to have a face to face interaction which may produce job leads. I really like the way Kevin Nichols took one medium and expanded on its traditional use in order to help others in his professional network find jobs. Thanks for sharing this timely information and highlighting this resourceful and enterprising young man.
How to organize networking events for free using your LinkedIn network | CITI Recruitment July 16th, 2009
[...] View original post here: How to organize networking events for free using your LinkedIn network [...]
How to organize networking events for free using your LinkedIn network | Job Search Helpers July 16th, 2009
[...] See the rest here: How to organize networking events for free using your LinkedIn network [...]
Jim Horrell July 16th, 2009
Super article, Kevin. One of the linked-in trainers/experts in our area suggests updating your status often to become more visible to the people on linked-in and in your network.
Your article is one example why updating your profile frequently is a good idea.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
Jim Horrell – jrhorrell@live.com
Grayson Hodge July 17th, 2009
what a great story and thanks for sharing it. Our present economic environment calls for this kind of cooperation. It’s nothing more than the basic medieval concept of bartering wrapped in a beautiful package from LinkedIn. Great job.
Trace Mayer July 17th, 2009
‘Medieval bartering’. A spot on description. I bet this was great for Golden Gate University’s brand, look at all the free good publicity they are getting, and because the room was probably unused at that time and a sunk cost it had no cash cost to them. Win-Win.
I have done similar activities for various charity organizations with commercial property I own and would love to help others in the future. Just knowing who needs what and when are the key questions and LinkedIn is another helpful tool for disseminating that.
David Ma July 17th, 2009
Great idea on utilizing LinkedIn’s connections to organize networking events for free and I will like to start a LinkedIn networking group in beautiful Vancouver, BC. The sponsors will get free advertising for their facilities and new quality clients can certainly be gained through these regular events.
Rob Curtis July 20th, 2009
I am just trying to get some visibility here since I am stuck and the customer services section is not helping my particular case…
Hi, I have a duplicate account on linkedin which I am unable to delete since (I think) the email account I mapped it to is no longer functional (i.e. I left the company, silly mistake, I know :) I really would appreciate a response / some guidance since at the moment there are 2 of me on linkedin and unfortunately the thorough notes under he customer services section did not cover my case.
Cheers, Rob
Mario Sundar July 20th, 2009
Hi Rob,
I’ve forwarded your concern to the CS team and they should be in touch with you shortly.
Mario from LinkedIn
audey July 20th, 2009
Hello, I cant seem to find anywhere to report a bug so here it is: To be secure I usually randomly generate a 40-60 character alphanumericsymbol password. whenever I copy paste a password into the change password field, I cant login with that password and have to reset it to something more basic.
Mario Sundar July 21st, 2009
Hi Audey,
I’ve emailed you, so just get back to me with the bug and I’ll forward it to the right internal teams.
Thanks!
Mario from LinkedIn
Destination Talent » Using word of mouth to spread your story July 22nd, 2009
[...] So, if you are a recruitment firm or an ATS provider, do you know how many satisfied customers are willing to recommend your service or product? If so, are you assisting them to share and spread it? LinkedIn is good at amplifying its successes, often giving fans a platform to spread their stories. [...]
Ellen Elwell July 30th, 2009
Since the topic of viral marketing successes has been opened up, does anyone have experiences to share re: Twitter? I have some Mom Blogger promotions to execute as part of a new client website and CRM program. I want to announce them through viral messages to target influentials (starting with Mom Bloggers and spreading to their Fans). I’m being followed on twitter by about 200 Mom Bloggers so far and add more every day. This will facilitate the initial announcement. But I’d really like to know if any of you have tried this yet in any demo segment. My email is ellen@elwellinc.com and my twitter is @EllenZElwell. Thank you!!
Ellen
Jim Bishop August 7th, 2009
I have been helped in establishing two referral clubs using LinkedIn. Being a Director launching a new referral club it is not easy to find the right people to make a new club succesful. With LinkedIn events I manage to get one or two more visitors to most meetings.
I wish a weekly meeting would repost each week!
This is one of three things I do for marketing. I need them all.
Jim
Shannon Boudjema September 9th, 2009
My comments are not specific to your post – however, they are somewhat connected to Events.
I am wondering why LinkedIn is not actively soliciting feedback, or comments from it’s users as to how to improve the Linkedin experience? Product Development, Marketing, Reserach – all areas that would greatly benefit form this – non?
As we use your site there are many times we come across a moment where we wished your site was better equipped, far more helpful or better organized.
When I looked for some sort of feature that would allow me to email my thoughts, ideas (and frustrations) to you, I found nothing available but a laudry list of FAQs. Getting in touch with LinkedIn is no easy feat.
As a matter of fact, I could only find this blog (which I hoped had comments enabled… and am now hoping someone does in fact read these comments) for which to provide some sort of commentary.
SUGGESTIONS:
1. Events function is highly unfriendly. Would love to see the ability to search within specific dates, a far more effective use of “Location” – This function doesn’t recognize my location from my profile, nor does it keep the location I enter once I go to to the next page resulting in over 20,000 potential events.
2. Solicit feedback from your users to better focus and evolve yor audience. You have an audience of fanatics… use them to promote you while also providing you with timely feedback. there should be buttons all over the place asking for feedback.
I did have several more ideas I wanted to share over the last couple of months but have since forgotten them as finding a convenient place to share them is difficult to find.
Thanks for hearing me out on your blog post! ;)
Shannon
Dirk Frey September 15th, 2009
@Shannon – We have a link at the very bottom of every page called ” Help improve LinkedIn. Send us your feedback.” This link allows everyone to provide feedback directly to the Product Managers and is reviewed on a regular basis. I’ve also forwarded your comments as well so the appropriate Product Manager can review them as well. Thanks for your contributions.