I have been giving a lot of thought to asking for a few LinkedIn “Introductions” recently and it’s one of those anomalies that I’m not sure I really knew how to approach. It is just a virtual introduction through a network that people are on to connect to other like minded individuals, but at the same time you are still asking one of your contacts for a favor. So in deciding whether I would or would not ask for certain introductions I thought about what my criteria would be and felt it was worth sharing.

At the end of the day for me it came down to a simple set of questions that I asked myself before determining if it was appropriate to ask the person I knew for an introduction to who they knew. Here’s how I decided…

1. How badly did I want/need to connect with the end individual? – I start with this because if I couldn’t really say that it was genuinely important (for a variety of reasons) that I get in touch with the individual then there was no point in continuing.
2. How well connected was I to a first person connection to the end individual? – This for me was the logical next question because while I do have a lot of connections on LinkedIn and I would feel comfortable asking most of them for an introduction there are some people I know in a way that would not be appropriate to ask (yet we are connected) and so I had to ask, how is the person I am going to have to ask for this introduction going to perceive my asking? Would they be entirely receptive, mildly so? If they would not be entirely receptive I again felt it really was not worth continuing.
3. Is there a more personal way I could connect with the end individual? – I felt that I should re-ask myself if I could connect to this person in a more personal way before asking for an introduction on LinkedIn, in the end the answer here was always no.
4. How would I feel if the roles were reversed? – This was my final and most telling question because while I think I am a pretty decent person I had to be really honest with myself and ask if the person I was asking for the introduction asked me for one how would I react, feel, and ultimately respond? In the end this question really made the others seem small.

So I chose to ask for a few introductions and tucked others away but I thought the exercise was worth sharing. I also should remind people that they shouldn’t be dismayed if the person you ask for the introduction tells you they don’t really know the person you are asking for the introduction to, even though they are 1st person connected. This is an easy out, there is no doubt, but look at your own LinkedIn connections and tell me you would feel comfortable sending on an introduction to each of them. I certainly could not.

It’s a funny thing, the virtual introduction, for me it really came down to 4 questions but the bottom line was once again only ask of others what you would do for them.

What about you any LinkedIn introduction recommendations or stories worth sharing?

I am not sure how everyone else uses Twitter and whether they take the time to head to people’s profile page but I can tell you I certainly do. I save up my Twitter follow notifications in my in-box and every couple of days I make a point of going to the the profile page of those people who I have recently started following or who started following me. Twitter allows you to personalize your profile to a certain extent by filling out a brief biography, listing a site that you blog on or otherwise etc. However if you do not take advantage of the rest of the landscape offered to you, I would submit that you are missing out on a great opportunity to both personalize your existence on Twitter and more importantly market whatever site, life philosophy or even charity you wish from your profile background picture.

I generally don’t love asking people to come to my site via Twitter (although it is sometimes necessary) but I do believe that when I post something of value or when someone else is kind enough to suggest people follow me, my profile page is my platform (litterally) for letting them know the quick hits of information that I wish to promote at that day in time.

As you can see on my profile I have the three most important pieces of information (my email and two blog sites) I wish to get across easily visible and more importantly easily revisable if I decide I want to promote something else.

The process took me ten minutes. I picked a royalty free photo from istockphoto, edited the sign in Pixelmator and uploaded it to Twitter. Now I have a personalized space, people easily know where to find me and more importantly my 2 blogs are promoted to everyone who visits my profile page. I would strongly suggest you do the same.

We do find these same athletes online, but again their websites seem more like corporate brochures than a place that really offers any insight into their real world.  Other athletes will guest blog on ESPN or at their local sports site, but again that is so cleansed that I often wonder if it really isn’t just a PR guy who gets the player to sign off on the post – if even that. Though I do say that last piece with the caveat that all of the aforementioned athletes (along with countless others) have foundations or charities which they promote online which of course is terrific. Nonetheless I find it extremely refreshing to read and follow athletes that have turned to the Internet in much the same fashion as you or I and let their real personality and feelings come through.

I thought I would give you just a few examples of some athletes worth following online along with a brief notation of just why I find them to be “real”.

Jamal Crawford – New York Knicks – The Crawford Files - This is the story that served as the impetus for writing this post.

On Oct. 16, New York Post writer Marc Berman posted a blog titled “Crawford Doesn’t Want Marbury Around,” referring to embattled New York guard Stephon Marbury. According to Crawford, the story wasn’t true.

Crawford said he confronted Berman and told him, “Well, now I’m going to have to write about you on my blog.”

He wrote: “In typical Berman fashion after he writes something like this, he doesn’t come (to practice) the next day”…LOL. And Berman is actually a good guy, but I guess he needed something to write.”

Crawford’s blog entry drew dozens of online comments from readers, many commented on the role reversal of athletes blogging about writers. “I would’ve had that built-up frustration,” said Crawford of how blogging helps him to vent. “It was fun to get it off my chest. “I thought it was a great idea instead of just doing an interview. (Berman) writes so I can write as well. Some of my teammates thought it was cool.”

Chris Bosh (Twitter)  - Toronto Raptors – CB4 - If you have not seen the YouTube sensation that is Chris Bosh, there are so many videos you just must see. Chris and Baron Davis are even having a contest to see who can put up the funniest clip online.

In the video below Chris makes his bid for your votes to the 2008 NBA All-Star Game. Bosh is an NBA superstar there is no doubt of that and he has the marketing deals to go with it, but his personality shines online.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv7IZP7u9FE

Dontrelle Willis – Florida Marlins – Dontrelle Willis writes at Yardbarker which is a corporately funded sports blog site run along the same lines as Digg. He seems to write semi-regularly and his posts have a nice fun quick hitting style.

Alex Merricks – New York Mets Prospect - This is one of my favorite blogs. Do not be scared off by the fact that it looks like (and is) the home of his management company, there are some really good stories here and there are a few other players that blog at the same site.

Serena Williams – Tennis Star - Serena’s site looks a little corporate but she lends her voice from time to time and she’s outside the basketball scope.

As more and more people enter the Twittesvere (I love making up words) we will see increasing numbers of “followers” on everyone’s list. I have a hundred and twenty something followers today but really what does that mean. I ask the question because I don’t really consider myself to have good “reach” with Twitter yet. Now let me explain what I mean.

Having a ton of followers is very nice, but if they never pay attention to what you tweet, what is the point of having them follow you? I guess they are bound to pay attention to the odd post here or there but that’s not at all the same as being able to have real influence or reach using Twitter. Those people who have that kind of power are the people who have what I would term a “loyal following.” The people following them are loyal in that they will generally at least glance at and skim what that person tweets. It’s not to say their followers go to every url they are sent but I will guarantee you that if @chrisbrogan gets up one morning and tells his list of followers to follow say me @michaelgcohen the next fifteen minutes my inbox will be filled with twitter followers. That’s because someone like Chris Brogan has established himself as a well educated and quick thinking (that is lots of good tweets and blog posts, not for the sake of making them) and his followers now have learned that he doesn’t speak just to be heard.

To have reach is to be able to ask a question and know you are going to get more than one answer. It does not mean that you can never use Twitter for personal gain and the promotion of yourself or your brand, in actuality the more you post outside of those and for the betterment of all, the louder your voice will be heard when you do want to promote something out of self-interest.

This is a repost of something I wrote here – Lots of good comments started there, let’s continue them here.