Steve: if you read this email me directly at chuck@icontact.com and we can discuss further!

Thanks!

Chuck H.

You are a winner!

This is going to be a perfect addition to those that are spectators to participants in social media by paying it forward. There are a number of people that may not realize that social media is the perfect place to practice Pay-It-Forward. I am looking forward to reading how you have put the two together and established one of the most visible brands in social media.

Thank you for doing what you do. You continue to inspire me.

Greg Hyer
http://www.linkedin.com/in/greghyer
http://www.linkingraleighnc.com

Interesting premise. I look forward to reading more.

Andrew Miller

I read your post in the LinkedIN Q&A, followed the URL to your blog, and took the time to read your article here. I also find LinkedIN to be my most valuable online business tool. As well, I am a big advocate of the Pay-It-Forward model, and have been an active LinkedIN user from its beat release.

I see that you are an 'Open Networker'. I'm not of that model, but I respect that many others are. There was a time when I would only connect with people that I had true face-to-face relationships with. Today I am connected with many people that I have never met in the flesh, but they are all people I "know". People I've built online business relationships or even friendships with, mostly through blogs. Sometimes a stranger will contact me that has several common connections, and the reason they wish to connect is obvious. I will maybe ask 'How do you know so-and-so?' and the threshold for connecting is easy to cross. If a total stranger contacts me for a connection, I will vet them with a reply email asking where they feel our connection can add value— Do they know of a specific project, assignment or business opportunity? Do they want to hire me? Do they hope I will hire them? Or perhaps there is simply a symbiosis in our skills and background where they feel there may be a future opportunity, and it would simply be beneficial for us to get to know each other. That last one gives them broad latitude. In most cases they never reply to my vetting letter at all. That's when I know they are just 'collecting connections' and I decline. If they cannot even extend the courtesy to reply to letter responding to their unsolicited request to connect, then how likely are they to ever be a valuable relationship anyway? On the handful of occasions when they do take the time to write me a courteous reply, I'm inclined to accept.

The few occasions that I have ever send out unsolicited invites to specific people I do not know, but wish to connect with, I always write a professional letter, concise, and let them know specifically why I would like to connect.

These are the techniques that work for me. I have a few hundred connections, not a few thousand, but I feel they are high value relationships. Different methods work for different people. I like to write. I'm told that I write well, and so this medium works for me.

I'm of the "quality over quantity" school of thought with LinkedIN, as I am in many things in life. Another useful technique I have found is that while I read a lot of Q&A, I only reply when I feel I can really add value. You could say I play-to-win. I learned that one of the metrics used by LinkedIN to list users in search results, and top Answerers in Q&A is not your volume of answers or even so much the volume of best answers, but your percentage of best answers. So I only reply to questions where I feel I'm going to give the individual who asks, the reply which gives them the most value. I answer about one question a month, maybe two. I make sure I have at least a half an hour or more to write a quality reply.

On topic, here is my most recent Q&A reply:
Has linkedin generated any freelance projects for your?

In my answer, I say some of what I’ve also said here, as well as some other techniques, and some of the ways I try to pay-it-forward, to be a valuable relationship to those people in my network.

I hope this has contributed something to your conversation.
Happy New Year.

Very truly,
Chris

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Chris Grayson
Art Director / Creative Director
New York City

Blog: GigantiCo

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