LinkedIn and a Mexican Lunch

We attended InternetWorld this week. This is one of the national exhibitions which help us to keep clients informed of the latest trends in online marketing. A keynote speaker this year was Ariel Eckstein, MD EMEA at LinkedIn, and, as we advocate the use this social network, particularly to our B2B (Business to Business) clients, we made a beeline to hear this industry leader.

So what is the connection between LinkedIn and a Mexican lunch? On stage Ariel Eckstein looked very much the typical North American but announced to his audience that he was born and bred in Mexico. He continued to explain that to do business in his home country the very first step is to arrange a lunch meeting. A Mexican business lunch is all about building relationships and getting to know your new business contacts, so over the tacos and fajitas you’ll talk about your family, yourself, your interests and, if you’re lucky, you might get around to talking business at the end of the lunch. But again, you might not!

The Mexican lunch example was used to liken the traditions of this South American business etiquette to LinkedIn, explaining that the trend generated by this increasingly important social networking site is to move from direct transactional business to business organically grown through relationship building.

LinkedIn like traditional business networking has an etiquette and best practice and at Cariad Marketing we run workshops where you can learn how to understand this online tool and how to make best use of it for your particular business. To book your place on a workshop send an email to welcome@cariadmarketing.com or call us on 01992 58 28 24.