from AskMyDaddy

You asked

Please tell me if this is spamming or too much to ask. Would it be ok to ask some people with very large networks to pass along my invite to the group to all market researchers in their network. They can sort their contacts by industry so it should be easy. Whether it is ok to ask is another.

MyLinkDaddy writes

I do not recommend that unless a networker is a very good and close friend.

Your request is lazy marketing. It's one thing to ask someone to forward an Introduction, overreaching to ask them for an email address of one contact, and presumptuous to impose on them to work on your behalf like you propose. It's like asking a recruiter to run a search on his database for another recruiter's use, or having a direct marketing company give you one of their lists for free.

It takes a huge amount of networking resources and time to build a large network. They are proprietary, not some communal database. It truly is a special type of a direct marketing list. Would you ask a direct marketer to simply hand over his network to you? For free?

Look at the flip side. Do you think you're the only one with a great [file in the blank with your LinkedIn group, charity, widget, job, business opportunity, low-priced programmer in Bangalore, hangnail, etc.] who has asked to use someone else's network to tell people about it? If I and others suddenly started making our networks available, thousands of people would want to use them.

Lastly, LinkedIn is not intended to be used this way. According to LinkedIn, just because a person is connected to you does not give you permission to contact them. That's why LinkedIn now limits updates to 200 recipients. It's not a problem if you have a small network or are contacting a few people, but it is a huge issue otherwise. A number of people have had their accounts suspended for activities like this.

My advice -

• Secure non-LinkedIn lists for large mailings (commercial mailers, publications, professional organizations, etc.).
• Create a web-based community group (Yahoo group, web site, etc.) and promote that on your email and blog, company, and personal web pages.
• Publicize your interest on your LinkedIn profile so interested parties will find you.
• Build your own large LinkedIn network so you can market to them. See GrowYourNetwork.
• Get a LinkedIn business account so you can contact a fair number of people on a one to one basis. I find I can get 60 Introductions per month out of 15 concurrent Introductions by actively managing them.

MarcFreedman