A few weeks ago I was invited by an INachi member to joint the INachi group in LinkedIn.  I joined and did not think much of it.  Three days ago I was invited again by two different realtors in my area to join their LinkedIn groups.  These are realtors who have used me for years as their home inspector.  I joined with both and, again, did not think much of it.

Two days ago I got a phone call from someone in the network of one of the realtors who had seen my name and reviewed my website and boom, I got an inspection.  This realtor says he gets LOTS of referrals and business from his LinkedIn account.  He was glad someone found me through him!

Hey, this thing might work!  So I got busy on my profile, which you can view here:

http://www.linkedin.com/myprofile

I would love for each of you who reads this to join my network (right now I have 7 in my group - a start...).  It is pretty easy (hey, I can do it, which says it all...), free and it can never hurt to have your name and company floating about on networks you know or may not know.  But sooner or later someone will come across you!  It happened for me in two days.

I even got bold and started a new group of graduates from my college.  I found over 60 of them who attended when I did already in LinkedIn!  I intentionally went to a small school - Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) - and my class had only about 150 graduates.  The fact that so many are members of LinkedIn is amazing.  It is getting more popular!

Please feel free to contact me here with your email and I will send you an invite.  Then you can get started building your own network. 

Remember the famous line, I think from a prophet somewhere:

"You can't always get what you want.  But if you try, sometimes, you just might find,
YOU GET WHAT YOU NEED."

Got inspections?  Join me and let's get more...!

John, I just sent you an invite for a connection (already connected to Jay).

Jay, I think you turned off the ability for people to view your connections some how. You might want to turn that back on as it defeats the purpose!

Dominic

Hey guys - in a couple of days I have 32 LinkedIn connections, with more coming.  I contacted everyone I could that graduated from my college my year and a bunch in my Rolodex card file.  In two days I have two inspections.  These came from people who knew someone who was linked to me.  They saw my website and bam! got two inspections.  If anyone else wants to link to me please, feel free!

Count me in!

Julian Benton
julian@halcyonhomeinspection.com

I think that one of the things that has made the LinkedIn thing work is my website.  Thanks to Dominic, I have had people contact me and say something like, "I checked a lot of home inspectors' websites and yours was informative" or (really good) or (showed me a lot of stuff) or (clear) or (the best I saw of any of them...) -- pick your description.  It doesn't hurt to work on your site guys!  I look around our group here and I think we have some great sites!  And our links look soooo good!!

Hey, Dominic - I just submitted a request for a Home Inspector Pro group at LinkedIn.  We can decline if it is accepted by them (and will be) - what do you think?  What logo should we use if we do it?

Your invitation is in the mail.  Find our group and ask to join, knock, and behold and lo, you will be answered.