How To: Posting-It-Forward
Why:
Posting-It-Forward will make you and others feel better. People will want to help you.
How:
You have heard the expression pay it forward: performing good deeds without expecting something in return. LinkedIn makes it easy to praise someone digitally.
Make a daily habit of spending a minimum of three minutes to do any of the following:
- Endorse someone on LinkedIn for a skill they have.
- Send a private message with a link to an interesting article and a personal note along the lines of “Hello Sophia. I thought of you when reading this article…”
- In your status updates, shine a light on others. A good guideline to start with is 9 out of 10 of your status updates should not be about you, but about others. Heap praise on others.
- Remember the old adage from networking sage Dale Carnegie—when it comes to networking, it’s more important to be interested (in other people) than to spend all your time trying to get people interested in you.
- If a potential connection or prospect posts an article on LinkedIn, take the time to select the “Like” button for the article and post a positive comment—the more specific the comment, the better. If you have time to post a question about the article, this will elicit a response.
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” ~ John Quincy Adams
Research shows that posting positive items about others increases not only their happiness but your own happiness as well.[i] Post-It-Forward.
According to Psychology Today, there are numerous benefits to paying random acts of kindness forward and helping someone else in need.[ii] Specifically:
- Improves your immune system.
- By contributing towards the greater good, a person’s self-worth and self-esteem improves.
- Encourages one to meet new people, avoid isolation and do new things—even if they are outside one’s comfort zone.
- Positive energy flows helping to squash chronic negativity in the mind.
- Kindness helps relieve stress in the workplace.
“Helping contributes to the maintenance of good health, and it can diminish the effect of diseases and disorders both serious and minor, psychological and physical.” ~ Allan Luks, after surveying 3,296 volunteers
Check out more tips on LinkedIn in Erik Qualman’s new book, How to Sell on LinkedIn.
[i] Fowler James H, Christakis Nicholas A. Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study BMJ 2008; 337 :a2338
[ii] “Pay It Forward.” Psychology Today. Accessed June 30, 2016. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200607/pay-it-forward
