Mark Birch has a great post today about using LinkedIn correctly when asking for introductions.  Very timely as I was planning to write about introductions today and now need to write only a fraction because Mark covers everything else (he links to some prior posts which are also worth reading).  And now for my two small additions that may be specific to me but probably will work fairly well for others also.

First, I only make opt-in introductions.  So if you contact me about an introduction, please don’t expect it to happen instantly as I need to check with the other person first.  Second, in order to check with the other person, I need an email that I can forward that explains why I think the introduction would make sense.  If you can’t find the time to write that email or it is poorly written I can’t really make the introduction.  The email also shouldn’t be written as if it came from me (because you won’t hit my voice right).  Ideally I can simply hit “forward,” add a personal line at the top and be done with it.

Looking forward to making more introductions faster!