How is Alignable different from LinkedIn?

Oh, let me count the ways. If you’re reading this, you most likely have a LinkedIn profile and have probably had it for about a decade or more. LinkedIn and Alignable are not the same. LinkedIn is for employed professionals and Alignable is for small business owners (SMBs), franchisees, or solopreneurs. Essentially you are promoting your business and networking with other business owners to exchange services, leads, referrals, and genuinely network – all online in a Zoom-like setting. You can meet up in person with people from Alignable but more on that later.

So, are you on Alignable? That’s been a question I’ve been hearing and asking people I’ve met at events the past few months. If you’re not on Alignable, you should read this blog post before investing your time – several hours – and money – about $30 per month – before making this commitment. Yes, there is a FREE version but it’s worth exactly what you pay. A former colleague sent me an invite to Alignable in January of this year and I waited a week before I opened it. I had never heard of Alignable. I thought to myself, what am I getting myself into with this? Is this like Farmville? It is not. I Googled Alignable and saw that it was legit, so I cracked it open and started to check it out. The first question I had was, how long has Alignable been around? I joined Threads like you did but haven’t done anything with it. Vine has come and gone. Is Alignable the same? No, actually they are dumping a lot of money into UI and UX updates to make it a useful platform. Anyway, Alignable has been around for a decade but like Suits, you’re just now hearing about it. The tail of the tape is below.

LinkedIn
2003
Global
900 million, 310 million active users
Network yourself

So when I got around to checking out Alignable, there were some easy tutorials and courses I could take that helped me set up my business profile. I highly recommend you attend one so you look like a professional. The rule of thumb on LinkedIn is not to engage with a profile missing a headshot. I would recommend the same with Alignable, however, the platform has dormant users who are finally learning how to use the platform.

Alignable FAQs

Who should sign up for Alignable? Small business owners and people who sell services to small businesses (insurance, HR, operations, SaaS, etc.).

Should I pay for a monthly subscription to Alignable? If you have clearly defined your business goals and learn how to properly set up your profile then I would recommend paying for one month. Identify the goals you want to get out of Alignable and measure them. I would not recommend the free version as it is getting more and more restricting access and features to only paid members.

Now that I’ve properly set up my Alignable profile, now what? Do NOT send out invites to everyone in your network as it will burn up your very limited amount of connection credits. Look at Alignable as a platform to refer business to others. Alignable wants you to spam the world with membership invites but that is not most helpful to YOU. You have a finite amount of monthly connection credits so you need to be thoughtful and strategic about who you invite. 

I recommend you wait until you meet some people on the platform that you find valuable and then connect with them. What do I mean by someone valuable? Someone who can buy your product or service or someone who can refer your product or service to others. Those are the people to send connection requests to.

What is the most valuable thing on Alignable? Sign up for Smart Connect networking meetings. These are hands down the most valuable thing on the platform and you can’t get these 1-on-1 meetings anywhere else. On LinkedIn you have to make a connection and then if you’re lucky, they will respond to your InMail but then to get a meeting from a cold connection on LinkedIn would take weeks/months and nobody on LinkedIn wants to be sold to. Alignable is quite the opposite.

What is a Smart Connect on Alignable? Smart Connect is a 1-hour online networking event moderated by a remote host who serves up ice-breaker questions to use for the 1-on-1 meetings you’re about to attend. You will meet with Alignable users in a series of 7-minute 1 on 1 meetings. You can talk about the icebreaker question or jump into a more fruitful discussion.

Below is an event available on the ‘events’ tab on my account. It shows the time, how many people are registered and provides a ‘register’ button. Very simple to sign up for as you can sync it with your Google or other calendar. If you’re a paid member, you can sign up for almost as many as you want. If you have a free version you are limited to maybe 3 per month. 

A Smart Connect meeting is in a Zoom format and you are locked in a room for a 7-minute 1-on-1. This is a great concept and they generally go pretty well. However, 7 minutes can seem like an eternity if you are stuck with someone who hasn’t left the house since 2015 and blurs their background because the film crew from Hoarders is in their home. These are like panning for gold, some meetings are gold and some are just dirt. A typical screenshot of the Alignable users you can meet in a Smart Connect.

When I set up my Alignable profile, should I add all my services at once? No. Add your primary service, meet people in Smart Connect meetings and add connections. Once you have 20 – 30 connections, then add 1 service. I recommend this because your network will receive an email of the new service you add. (I also recommend you create a separate email folder for all of the notifications Alignable will send you.) This will organically promote your business to your connections. If you add a service then after you make another milestone of connections, say 50 or 100, add another service you do. My whole point is don’t set it all up at once.

What have I gotten out of Alignable? Alignable has been a valuable resource for me so far. I put in a lot of effort in March, attended 10+ Smart Connects, posted on my profile, added services, attended an ‘in-person’ Alignable event, and submitted some proposals. I have also shared resources, set up referral agreements and enjoyed many conversations. At the writing of this blog I have not closed any new business from Alignable but I have successfully.

If you sign up for Alignable, put in the work or it will be a waste of your time. Learn the platform, sign up for 5+ Smart Connects and see for yourself how it can help you with your business.