LinkedIn | Social Signal

A lot of speeches begin with someone introducing you to the audience - reciting your background and qualifications, and then encouraging them to greet you warmly as you head to the microphone.

And once the applause dies down, you're looking at a sea of people who are probably as unfamiliar to you as you are to them. Your first few lines not only have to launch your speech, but establish a rapport and some degree of trust with your audience.

Vancouver blogger and friend-of-SoSi Dr. Raul Pacheco has a post today explaining why he's been skeptical about LinkedIn, the business-focused social network. And on Twitter, he asked for suggestions "if you believe in this social network, or can give me some insight on its value".

If you've been wondering about LinkedIn, too, here's what I suggested to Raul:

A lot of virtual ink has been spilled on the subject of how to increase the size of your network on LinkedIn. And one of the best tips is to write a personal note to prospective LinkedIn connections, instead of relying on the soulless boilerplate default text.

Make it compelling, persuasive, charming and engaging. Remind your potential connection how they know you, and what your relationship means to you, like...

Asked on LinkedIn: Launching a Facebook application?

Consider running a contest -- something with genuine value, ideally a bit witty -- that you advertise on Facebook using smartly-chosen keywords to control where your ad appears. Make sure it's clear this contest is associated with a new recommendation tool. That will bring your target users to you, already primed for positive engagement with your application, without engendering the ill-will that comes from anything that feels spammy.