I have a friend who works as a business reporter here in New York, and she’s constantly talking about InMail. Whenever she’s looking to find new sources at a company, she goes to LinkedIn and searches for people who work there. Then she uses InMail — the LinkedIn messaging tool — to connect.
She swears by it. She raves about the scoops she’s gotten from it. And now she’s let me — and you — in on a little secret.
LinkedIn’s got a really powerful set of tools just for journalists, called LinkedIn Executive. It’s what my reporter friend uses. And for one year, Linkedin will give you the keys to try it out for free.
LinkedIn Executive lets you send InMail to anyone, and those messages go directly to that contact’s email inbox — even if you’re not connected with that person. It also gives you more powerful search tools within LinkedIn, including these:
So if you’re a reporter who’s always searching for new sources, you should definitely give it a test run.
Now, the big thing: LinkedIn is hosting a call about Executive this Thursday at 2:15pm Eastern. If you want your free trial, you’ve got to get on this call. It’ll take 35-50 minutes. At the end, they’ll hand out the info about how to get your year-long trial of LinkedIn Executive.
To sign up, go to this LinkedIn page and leave a comment. They’ll send you the call-in info (or the number for the Internet call-in, if you’re not in the US or Canada).
And you can learn more about the LinkedIn for Journalists group right here.
Anyway, get on this call, guys. I’ll be on it, too, on Thursday.
Now get out there and tell some great stories today!