Using the power of the ⓥ

Fortunately, because you are vegan, you also have an extra superpower on LinkedIn that no-one else has.  And this is the power of the ⓥ.

You may see the ⓥ symbol or the 🌱 (seedling) icon added to the end of people’s names on LinkedIn.  This usually identifies that they are a vegan professional open to connecting to other vegan professionals.  It’s a bit like an ethical secret society and the ⓥ is our secret wink or handshake.  This is because vegans love to do business with other vegans.  Even if the companies you work at are not vegan businesses, we would rather connect and support other people who view our ethics.  And this isn’t just for doing business, it helps finding mentors and funding opportunities that want to support other vegan and ethical businesses.  I get a growing number of connection requests with the ⓥ  or 🌱 symbol after someone’s name and I usually accept them.  I’ll also send them my opening message after connecting to find out who they are and if I can help them.  Even if they are trying to sell to me I’ll still usually leave with a new friend.  That’s just how us vegans roll.  Just copy and paste the Ⓥ symbol into the LinkedIn search box and marvel at all those vegan professionals you can connect with and tap into their collective knowledge.  Many are not even in vegan businesses but are just proud to let their vegan flag fly.  Just adding it to my own profile doubled the number of connection requests I got.

So to wrap up, you will very quickly know if LinkedIn is right for you or not.  If you’re just looking to sell your product to the general public, stick to social media. If you’re looking for connection to help your business, then the best place to find them is on LinkedIn.