• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

People Equation

Leadership Development and Career Success Tips

  • About
  • Services
    • Leadership Communication Coaching
    • Leadership Messaging
    • Writing Services
    • Thought Leadership
  • Portfolio
  • Blog
  • Contact

The Phoneless Business Person

by Jennifer V. Miller

Today I attended a networking luncheon for the newly formed Grand Rapids Entrepreneur’s Club.  This fledgling organization was started by my colleague Cyndi Sullivan.  Years ago, Cyndi and I were on the founding committee for a different networking group; I’ve come to admire her work ethic and positive, pay-it-forward approach to networking. The Grand Rapids chapter is part of a national organization called The Entrepreneur’s Club of America. What’s unique about the format is the guest speaker is a fellow entrepreneur who shares his/her experiences about what it’s like to run a small business.

The featured speaker was Rob Geer, Managing Partner at Management Business Solutions.  Rob was a dynamic speaker. I took notes as he spoke and he gave me permission to share them with my readers.  Many of his ideas were useful to me personally as an entrepreneur. Because this blog is about workplace dynamics, I want to highlight a specific comment that he made about the social media site Linked In. His comments have implications for how knowledge workers are perceived by their peers.

Rob mentioned that a Linked In profile has become a mainstay in American business and I agree.  It’s almost as if the profile has become standard business issue. Would you try to do business without a phone or an email address?  I believe that a LinkedIn profile is fast moving into that category.  Rob says  that before he goes to meet with a new client, he checks out their website and their Linked In profile.  Google indexes LinkedIn, so it’s very easy to find someone either via Google or on the site itself.

Believe it or not, I still have colleagues who don’t use Linked In.  And they are doing their professional credibility a disservice.  If you know of colleague who isn’t on Linked In yet (or who has 2 connections and a sparse profile) please encourage him or her to do so.  It only takes a few minutes and it will do wonders for their public “face”.

Jan 20 2010 · Categorized: Personal Effectiveness, Social Media

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rob Geer says

    January 20, 2010 at 2:27 pm

    Jennifer,
    Thanks so much for the kind words! 🙂 I’ve also put a piece together on setting up your LinkedIn profile that you are welcome to share. It can be found on our website at http://www.mgmtbsolutions.com/professionals.html .
    Rob

  2. Kip Marlow says

    January 31, 2010 at 11:16 am

    Very nice article about Rob’s “talk”, Cyndi Sullivan’s TECA chapter, and The Entrepreneurs Club of America. We believe that these luncheon meetings are a great networking opportunity in a peer to peer fashion, and most of all an excellent teaching tool for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

    Thanks for the kind words.

  3. Jennifer says

    January 31, 2010 at 12:19 pm

    Kip,

    Thanks for stopping by The People Equation. TECA appears to be a well-organized group and I appreciate your encouraging words. I’ll be telling my story of business ownership at the Grand Rapids Entrepreneur’s Club on February 17, 2010. Looking forward to it!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Master the people equation.
Elevate your leadership.

Tips for how to make the most of interactions with your boss, peers and colleagues; show up in a way that’s positive and respectful.

Topics

  • Bad Boss Diaries
  • Book Review
  • Business Management
  • Communication
  • Food for Thought Friday
  • Guest Blogger
  • Human Resources
  • Leadership
  • Learning
  • Office Politics
  • Personal Effectiveness
  • Social Media
  • Team Effectiveness
  • Training Delivery
  • Weekend Reflections
  • Workplace Issues
  • Zen of Jen

The People Equation blog by Jennifer V. Miller is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Footer

Follow the People Equation

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure Statement

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Sign Up

Copyright © 2023 · People Equation