Good morning. I am sure the title got your attention a little bit. This contest will be a little different. You don’t have to answer any questions! In fact it is my strong belief that everyone who enters will thank me because it can help you move your business forward.
A few weeks ago I was the Keynote speaker at the NY/Philadelphia MRA chapter meeting. During my presentation which was entitled 12 Strategies to Move Your Business forward I highlighted staying connected as one of those strategies.
To me there is NO BETTER TOOL than LinkedIn to stay connected to people: Here are 8 reasons that I use LinkedIn:
- I use customized “Tags” to group my contacts
- Export my contacts for targeted mailings
- View my contacts by industry
- View my contacts by geography
- To see who is attending conferences
- To see what books people are reading
- To view contacts by company
- To participate in discussion groups
Ok here is the contest. We will award the top 2 people $100.00 who get the most connections on LinkedIn for a period of one month.
All you need to do is respond to the blog and say you want to participate and include how many connections you have now. We will track that and at the end see how many you have and will award $100 to the 2 people who have added the most connections. Anyone who participates and gets more connections than me during the contest will get a $10 Starbucks gift certificate. The contest will start as soon as you sign up and end on June 11 at 4:00pm CDT. The sooner you sign up the more chance you have to win. Also feel free to LinkedIn to me and I promise to accept your invitation.
Make sense?
Trust me even if you don’t win you will thank me for getting you involved if you don’t believe me just ask Ed Sugar and Amber Jones.
I look forward to having people sign up.
Sarah Kotva says:
Thank you Merrill!! I would like to sign up, I have 83 connections.
Merrill Dubrow says:
Good morning. I wanted to be the first one to respond but Sarah beat me too it. My starting point is 1280 connections.
Good luck to everyone – I hope lots of people enter the contest so they can really understand the value of LinkedIn.
Merrill
Tara Cantore says:
I’m up for the challenge. I currently have 133 connections.
Karyn Picchiotti says:
Count me in, I have 50 connections. This should be fun! Thanks!
Rachel Campbell says:
I am game! I have 189 connections
janet says:
244. This includes both my accounts
Kimberly White says:
Hi Merrill.
I am in!! I have 754 linkedin contacts.
Amber Leila Jones Esco says:
Well, how can I not be in! I have 739 – I will see what I can do to boost that!
Kelly Christine Delaney says:
I’m in – a modest 180 contacts.
Pam Lintner says:
Count me in! Starting point is 183.
Liz Bloom says:
I’m in – I have 173 contacts. Thought that was a lot until I saw Ambers! Who I think was my original 1st Linkedin contact.
Matt Fenwick says:
Hi Merrill, I’m in. I have 54 connections. I am sure I can bump that up.
Stephenie Gordon says:
I’m in. I have 259 connections which i thought was good until i saw Amber’s – geez
Paul Kirch says:
I have 897 contacts. However, I’m trying to be strategic about how I grow, so I’m not expecting to add that many. However, I’ll add my name to the contest.
Phil Ebeling says:
I’m in. Great idea. I have 346 connections.
Karen Bills says:
My network could use some attention – starting point 304 contact.
Great contest!!
Jami Pulley says:
Wow- I see some impressive numbers. My starting point is 268. I’m in.
Amy Sawyer says:
I joined a couple months back and haven’t really made many connections. I’m in! Starting Number- 13
Ellen Klein says:
I’m currently at 65, up 15 since the conference, that should count for something.
I’m game.
Nancy Ashmore says:
I’m in! Starting point for me is 304.
Michael Halberstam says:
391 for me.
Stacey Zontini says:
I’m in. I currently have 48 connections.
John Sadler says:
Starting at an even 100.
Melanie Courtright says:
I have 237. Thanks for the push, Merrill!
Merrill Dubrow says:
Well we are off to a good start. The first 22 people who have agreed to participate in the contest have an average of 262 contacts!
We will increase those numbers for sure!
Enjoy the weekend.
Merrill
Steve Gentile says:
In the words of Bugs Bunny – “A challenge? I LOVES a good challenge”
My point of departure is 257 connections.
Happy Mother’s Day everyone.
steve says:
all in with 654 connections
Jeff Adler says:
I have 617 connections. However, like Paul Kirch, I’m trying to be strategic about how I grow, so I’m not expecting to add that many. However, I’ll add my name to the contest.
Ed Sugar says:
Well, since I was called out by the Master I am in at 937.
Actually MD kicked my butt in late 2009 to make better use of LinkedIn. Before Christmas I had 132 connections. In fact one of my clients challenged me to get to 500 by the Super Bowl (which I did) and to be at 1,000 by the end of June (which looks do-able).
I have led seminars in our company on LinkedIn, as our goal is to have all key personnel have active and robust LinkedIn profiles.
If you are in sales or client management, there is no better tool than LinkedIn. I now probably use LinkedIn more than Google on a daily basis.
Like Paul & Jeff, I am pretty picky who I invite and accept, so I do not think I will be in the running for the big prize. Heck, I just need 63 to meet my June goal.
Melanie Courtright says:
I already have 40 more. That seems like a good start to me, but how are you guys doing?
Merrill Dubrow says:
Melanie,
That is impressive. Here are some increases from some of the participants:
Stacy Zontini – added 67
Amy Sawyer – added 24
Jami Pulley – added 6
And I added 29. Long way to go!
Thanks.
Merrill
Melisa Gipson says:
Hey Merrill, I’m in as well – I currently have 65 connections.
Amber Leila Esco says:
Like Paul and Jeff I don’t want to add just anyone, but I suspect your contest is getting people to try to add me! LOL
Melanie Courtright says:
I added you.
Jocelyn Smith says:
This sounds fun! I have 123 connections!
Kelly Heatly says:
Can I include my Facebook friends to my total? (just kidding)
Melanie Courtright says:
Okay everyone – I have officially added 100 more connections since Friday. No matter what, that’s a win.
Michael Mermelstein says:
I start at 289 – look forward to seeing where it ends up
Jacki Spear says:
Hi Merrill,
I saw and loved that presentation… I’m coming in a little late, but it is not winning that is important, but just the fun of the contest and increasing my network. I am starting at 356. Thanks.
Jessica Cons says:
I would like to join the contest. I currently have 1 contact
Merrill Dubrow says:
Here is a quick upate on the progress on some people:
Merrill Dubrow + 64
Steve Schlesinger +11
Janet Savoie + 56
Liz Bloom + 22
Sarah Kotva +43
Stacey Zontini + 128
WOW! keep up the good work.
Merrill
Karen Dawson says:
This will be a good motivation for me to add more…
I start with 157.
Jeff Drucker says:
I’m in. Time for me to do some networking. I have 82 connections as of 5/18/10, my birthday!
Melanie Courtright says:
I have added 207 connections as of today.
AND I have a couple of appointments with people who apparently have been looking for us, but hadn’t found us yet.
So it may be a bit early to announce officially that you were right about this helping our business. But we’re getting close to being able to say it. Thanks, Merrill.
Merrill Dubrow says:
Quick update on some participants:
Jessica Cons +88
Jocelyn Smith + 76
John Sadler +2
Melanie Courtright +207
Merrill Dubrow +90
Stacey Zontoni +128
Stephenie Gordon +51
Steve Schlesinger +29
Tara Cantore + 35
Terry Salat says:
Good morning Merrill
Would love to participate.
I have 398 connections.
Merrill Dubrow says:
Quick update. I just noticed I got my 1400 LinkedIn connection earlier today!
I have added 120 contacts since the contest began.
Merrill
gary lawson says:
I want a lesson. So far, I have used Linked-in to reconnect with a few folks, check on the background of someone I am about to deal with but develop new business, that hasn’t happened yet. So, forget the starbucks unless it comes with some skill training! Oh, I am in with 273.
Merrill Dubrow says:
Amazing this contest has generated over 3,000 new connections. With a week to go here is where everyone stands:
Name TOTAL ADDED
Phil Ebeling 403
Melanie Courtright 295
Stacey Zontini 281
Nancy Ashmore 266
Janet Savoie 194
Jocelyn Smith 186
MERRILL DUBROW 165
Karen Dawson 157
Jessica Cons 107
Karyn Picchiotti 101
steve Schlesinger 88
Stephenie Gordon 74
Paul Kirch 70
Amy Sawyer 61
Terry Salat 59
Tara Cantore 59
Sarah Kotva 56
Ed Sugar 54
Michael Mermelstein 52
Melisa Gipson 47
Ellen Klein 42
Jami Pulley 41
Karen Bills 39
Kelly Christine Delaney 37
Jeff Drucker 37
Liz Bloom 36
Rachel Campbell 35
Jeff Adler 28
Michael Halberstam 25
Steve Gentile 21
Jacki Spear 20
Matt Fenwick 13
gary lawson 5
John Sadler 3
Pam Lintner 1
Amber Leila Jones Esco DK
Kimberly White DK
Good luck to everyone. there is still plenty of time.
Jessica Cons says:
I started off with 1 connection at the start of the contest and ended the contest with 218. Thank you Merrill!
Stacey Zontini says:
I now have 514 connections.
janet says:
465 My goal at the beginning of this year was 500+ by 12/31. I am well on my way thanks to this contest.
Jeff Adler says:
I am now at 656 contacts, which is an increase of 39 contacts from the beginning of the contest. That translates to an increase of about 10 contacts per week, which translates to an annual growth rate of about 500 contacts per year. I am very happy with that — I don’t think I want to grow faster than that!
Merrill Dubrow says:
I currently have 1483 contacts which is an increase of 203 new contacts.
Look forward to seeing the results.
Thanks for participating.
Merrill
Pam Lintner says:
Hi Merrill – I’m up 194 and inching higher. Thanks for inspiring us all to do great things with this!
-Pam
Kim White says:
Hi Merrill.
I will log onto to your link when I get home but in the mean time, here are my counts:
Original number of contacts: 754
Current number of contacts: 985
Pending invitations: 303 (I wish that more of them had been accepted in time.)
Total new ones: 231
Thanks for the push to get this done.
I have been in touch with some people/companies with some interesting opportunities.
Have a great weekend.
Kim
Melanie Courtright says:
Hi, Merrill. 639.
Melanie Courtright
DMS Insights | AOL Business Intelligence
Liz Bloom says:
Hi Merrill. Hope you’re doing well. I have 211 connections.
Thanks,
Liz
Steve Gentile says:
Hi everyone – welcome to another productive week!
284 fantastic people !
have a great week.
Steve
Phil Ebeling says:
Thanks, Merrill, for making it fun to do something that often feels “important-but-not-urgent.” My 346 cantacts grew 456… to 802. In the process, I connected with a lot of former colleagues.
jocelyn Smith says:
I now have 359 contact Jocelyn
Stephenie Gordon says:
I ended the contest with 385 contacts in total
Amy Sawyer says:
I now have 75 contacts in LinkedIn.
Terry Salat says:
I ended with 491 connections
Tara Cantore says:
I now have 214 connections
Sarah Kotva says:
I now have 140 connections in total
Michael Mermelstein says:
I now have 355 contacts
Ellen klein says:
I now have 110 connections…..
Karen Bills says:
I ended the contest with 348 connections in total
Rachel Campbell says:
I now have 285 connections.
Miachael Halbertstam says:
I have 432 connections in total
Gary Lawson says:
I now have 282 connections
jacki Spear says:
I ended with 377 connections
Jami Pulley says:
I now have 340 connections
Jeff Drucker says:
I now have 122 connections
John Sadler says:
I have 103 connections
Karen Dawson says:
I have 316 connections
Karyn P says:
I have 161 connections
Kelly says:
I have 218 connections
Matt Fenwick says:
I ended with 74 connections
Melissa Gipson says:
I have 120 connections
Pam Lintner says:
I ended with 200 connections.
Nancy Ashmore says:
I ended with an even 600 connections
steve says:
777 connections as of this morning
Amber Leila Esco says:
761 as of this morning
Ed Sugar says:
Won my bet with my client as I am at 1,002 today
Jami Pulley says:
I have 344. Thanks Merrill!
Paul Kirch says:
I ended up with 981 contacts. Which, considering they were still strategic, I’m happy with the number.
Merrill Dubrow says:
Congrads to Stacey Zontoni for winning the contest and Phil Ebeling who came in second. Stacey and Phil will receive $100.
In addition Stacey Zontini , Phil Ebeling, Melanie Courtright, Nancy Ashmore, Jocelyn Smith, Kimberly White, Janet Savoie and Jessica Cons will receive a $10 starbucks gift card for getting more new connections than I did.
Collectively we made 4,382 new connections! WOW!
Here is the final leader board:
Stacey Zontini 466
Phil Ebeling 456
Melanie Courtright 402
Nancy Ashmore 296
Jocelyn Smith 236
Kimberly White 231
Janet Savoie 221
Jessica Cons 217
MERRILL DUBROW 203
Karen Dawson 159
Stephenie Gordon 126
steve Schlesinger 123
Karyn Picchiotti 111
Rachel Campbell 96
Terry Salat 93
Paul Kirch 84
Tara Cantore 81
Jami Pulley 72
Michael Mermelstein 66
Ed Sugar 65
Amy Sawyer 62
Sarah Kotva 57
Melisa Gipson 55
Ellen Klein 45
Karen Bills 44
Michael Halberstam 41
Jeff Drucker 40
Jeff Adler 39
Liz Bloom 38
Kelly Christine Delaney 38
Steve Gentile 27
Amber Leila Jones Esco 22
Jacki Spear 21
Matt Fenwick 20
Pam Lintner 17
gary lawson 9
John Sadler 3
Merrill Dubrow says:
I currently have 2403 connections on LinkedIn and the total is growing everyday!
Great tool!
Merrill