If you are like me, you are probably often having a conversation via email with someone and you say to yourself, “I must remember to invite Sheila to connect on Linkedin” or maybe one of the other main social networks you are active on.
And then you forget.
The challenge is you are probably working within your email inbox every day, however, although it’s something you should be thinking about, that’s likely not the case with your LinkedIn account.
How cool would it be to be able to see someone else’s social media details, even the people that you are both connected to on LinkedIn all from your inbox? Almost the same as sitting across from them and asking to connect.
You can. It’s called Rapportive and is a free download plugin for Gmail. You can download it here.
Once you have installed the plugin, every time you open an email on the right-hand side a box appears. Assuming they are on LinkedIn you see their headshot, headline and then potentially other online presence, such as Twitter or their personal website.
If you are connected it will tell you, otherwise there is a connect button and this pop-up box appears
This is a message you can edit and personalize and send an invitation. Very neat! I would suggest at the least taking out the reference to Rapportive, otherwise, someone might think it a little bit creepy that you might be stalking them.
Personally, most of the time, I will take the time to click on the LinkedIn button instead which takes me to their profile which I can look over and see what they may have there that I can comment on and be even more custom with my invitation.
Either way, this has helped me connect with more people, and more importantly not miss the opportunity to connect because my aging brain lets me down!
If you feel you still need some help I offer live LinkedIn consulting on an hourly basis. We share screens and I show you e