The Rolodex with a Long Tail

At the time of this writing, LinkedIn is one of the fastest growing companies in Silicon Valley with over 300 Million users with 90 Million users active in the most recent quarter. For me and for many others, LinkedIn is the digital age’s Rolodex. But it is so much more powerful than a conventional Rolodex, because of the long tail.

The long tail concept was introduced by Chris Anderson and Christopher Nissley in response to Amazon’s advantage over the conventional bookstore, including the super-stores of the same period. Amazon could provide its customers any book in print. Bookstores were limited by square footage (the head). And since the total size of the tail was potentially larger than the head, Amazon could serve a much larger market.

The long tail was then applied to key word advertising. While the most common key word pages had very expensive advertising rates, key words in the long tail were much less expensive. While large chains like Home Depot might compete successfully for key words like light fixtures, local enterprises could still gain access by adding the name of their locality: light fixtures Palo Alto.

With the concept explained, let’s return to LinkedIn. A professional can theoretically add an unlimited number of connections via his LinkedIn account. Along the same lines, one could sort their connections in LinkedIn from the most intimate to the least intimate. Those most intimate connects might have been a card in a conventional rolodex years back. But those least intimate connections would probably not have been entered onto a card. And even if they had, reaching out to those less intimate contacts would not be very fruitful, since on the other side of the connection, the weak contact might not even be remembered.

The same problem potentially exists in LinkedIn if not managed well. If all one does is send and accept connection requests, the day you need the person in, there is no record of the connection to reference. One disciple changes all that and gives professionals access to the long tail of their LinkedIn connections. The discipline one must exercise is to send a quick note via LinkedIn email that thanks the person for connecting and references the venue in which the contact was made.

John, thank you for connecting via LinkedIn. I enjoyed meeting you at the XYZ Congratulations on joining ABC company last summer. It looks like you are with a great team. Do let me know if there is anything I can do to help you.

If a LinkedIn search in the future ever brings up John as a good contact for a particular situation, you’ll have more than just a first connection. You’ll be able to reference the context in which you met and possibly even the conversation you had because the two of you have a joint record of meeting. Make LinkedIn your primary venue for every parting thank you message. That way if you or the other party ever changes jobs, the history will not be trapped in the email archives of a company you or the other party no longer work for. Stick with this discipline and you will be able to secure more meaningful interactions from your LinkedIn network.