Sales Tips Tag

Dale Carnegie and Modern Social Networking

Social Media is often touted as the new way of doing business and while many of the tools like LinkedIn and Facebook are new, they are built on fundamental principles of human communication and relationships. No one captured those fundamentals better than Dale Carnegie in his 1936 book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.  Despite being written 76 years ago, this book about interpersonal skills is still popular today.

One section is called “Six Ways to Make People Like You”.  Here are the six principles and how they apply to business networking with LinkedIn:

Become Genuinely Interested in Other People.

This is primarily an internal or attitudinal perspective.  It is reflected in how you approach LinkedIn. Do you see it as a way to increase your network and your value to others or do you view it only as a database to hunt for prospects?

Smile.

This visual cue of openness is best displayed via your LinkedIn photo. Your photo is popping up in more places on LI these days so make a good impression with a business-appropriate headshot.  Your face should fill the frame so you are recognizable in that tiny image… and don’t forget to show some teeth.