Tips to Grow Your LinkedIn Network

Recently I hit my 500th connection and had a chuckle. In fact it was a hardy laugh at what that 500th connection was described to be. Number 500 was to be the holy grail of opportunity or El Dorado of success! In fact when I first started recruiting I was encouraged to hit that number quickly, but here I am. Staring at number 500 and…nothing seems different.

For my first 100 connections I was a LION(LinkedIn Open Networker).I connected with anybody LinkedIn suggested. In fact that was what I did with LinkedIn, just connect. I’ve learned a lot since my first 1 connection and every connection since. The most important lesson, connections are meaningless if ALL you do is connect. Instead of focusing on getting that 500+ on your profile, practice building genuine relationships. Here are my 5 tips on relationship building on LinkedIN.

1. Change the automated connection request.

If you’ve been on LinkedIn for any amount of time you’ve received this InMail stating “I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn.” Before sending out the same connection request take a moment to personalize the message. If this is an unknown LinkedIn connection look through their profile to find something about them that would warrant your connection. Start your request with an introduction and reflect what you have learned from their profile in your message. For example

“My name is John Doe and I am new to the sales world. I came across your profile and saw that you have been working as a sales manager for 10 years! I would like to connect with you and learn from your experience.”

If you have met your new connection, remind them were y’all met. For instance, “We met yesterday at the chamber networking event….” Always personalize your invitations to connect in some way.

Here is some additional information on how to customize your invitation:https://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/46662

2. Comment, like, respond

An important aspect of every social network is being social (WHAT???). That means liking, commenting and responding to InMail or comments on your status updates. In fact LinkedIn encourages this through the “keep up with your connections” suggestions. Through this menu you can quickly like and comment on your connections profiles. Outside of this take a moment to scroll through your news feed. Look for interesting articles that were shared or what your connections have commented on. Like and comment to maintain your relationships and grow the reach of your profile. Just a quick note on InMail. You will get spam so respond appropriately.

3. Update your status but…

Yes. Update your status. Share an article that you found interesting with a comment on your thoughts on the article. Celebrate something great at your company or a project you are working on through your update. Your status should provide value to your connections. Constant self promotions and selling doesn’t resonate in real life or online. Another caveat is update your status professionally. Don’t treat LinkedIn like Facebook. It’s great that your kids won an award or you are going to a concert but unless that is directly related to your professional life and personal brand, save it for other platforms.

4. Move the conversation offline

One of the most beneficial tips of LinkedIn happens after you have invested and provided value to your connections online. Organically your relationships will require interactions beyond LinkedIn. Look for opportunities to InMail your connections for phone/video calls. You can be proactive in doing this through the first 3 tips. A couple of ideas are finding common interests or subject matters that you can discuss or providing a solution based on updates statuses or profile changes.

Hitting 500+ is easy! There are articles of individuals achieving it in minutes. LinkedIn is a great professional networking tool but it is useless if you focus on the number of connections you have over the quality of connections. I’ll take 10 engaged connections over 500+ silent ones.

Let me know some your tips for LinkedIn.

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Originally published at recruitingbythehour.wordpress.com on March 14, 2016.