LinkedIn is the most underrated social network on the web. Period.
I like to think of the social network as Whoville. Once you hear the little whisper from the speck on the clover, you will suddenly see LinkedIn’s potential. If you don’t hear the little whisper, then you don’t understand why some people only write blog posts about LinkedIn.
I only heard that whisper from the speck in the clover recently. I have written over a thousand blog posts on this blog about digital marketing. Less than 10 of those blog posts were about LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is more than an online portfolio of your experience. LinkedIn is a social network that presents opportunities and capabilities that none of the other social networks provide.
One way to tap into LinkedIn is to connect with more people. While it’s easy to reach 500+ connections and call it a day, you can connect with more people and open the door to more opportunities.
Getting more LinkedIn connections is a big factor towards success. Learn how to get more connections now:
#1: Send Invites To The Right People
There are two things to remember about connecting with people on LinkedIn:
- Not everyone will connect with you
- Not everyone is worth connecting with
Sending invites allows you to get connected with people on LinkedIn. However, you don’t want to send invites to random people. You want to send these invites to highly targeted people.
When I connect with people on LinkedIn, I look for social media experts, reporters, and public speakers. I look for the people I can provide value to, benefit from, and engage with.
#2: Write Meaningful Invites
Tell me if this sounds familiar:
“I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”
It’s the generic message that LinkedIn gives you for sending an invitation. Although this generic message can be edited, most people prefer to send the invitation without making the changes.
Make the changes. A generic invitation is never meaningful. A meaningful invitation indicates that you actually know something about the person you are trying to connect with.
For most LinkedIn invitations I send, I spend less than a minute on the person’s profile and use some info from the LinkedIn profile to craft a meaningful invitation. If I want to connect with someone and have that person remember me, I dig a bit deeper. Sometimes I’ll look at someone’s profile and content for 30 minutes just to craft the ideal invitation.
#3: Publish Posts On LinkedIn Every Day
One of LinkedIn’s features is that you can publish posts on LinkedIn in the same way you would publish a blog post. You add a background picture, type the content, tag it based on LinkedIn’s suggestions, and then you’re all set.
Publishing posts on LinkedIn every day allows you to provide value to your connections. Some people in your LinkedIn audience may decide to share your LinkedIn posts—and by sharing, I mean doing something as simple as clicking “like” or leaving a comment.
Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “How am I going to publish a new post on LinkedIn every day when I have so many other things to do?” The answer is to copy and paste the text of one of your old blog posts and make that your LinkedIn post.
This is the most time effective way to create a new LinkedIn post. Most of my LinkedIn posts are just my older blog posts. One of my first LinkedIn posts was called 100 Amazing Blogging Tips. The title may sound familiar. It’s the same exact title and content from this blog post.
Publishing your older blog posts as new LinkedIn posts doesn’t hurt SEO. As long as the content gets published on your blog first, Google will understand and rank your blog higher than the LinkedIn post.
Implementing this strategy also allows you to breath new life into your old blog posts.
#4: Engage With Other People’s LinkedIn Posts
As you begin publishing your own LinkedIn posts, look within your network and begin engaging with your connections’ posts. Leave a meaningful comment and like their posts.
If you like the same person’s content enough times, and that person notices, that person may feel obligated to look at some of your LinkedIn posts and like them.
Repeat the process with hundreds of people on LinkedIn, and we can be talking about hundreds of likes and a few within 24 hours of you publishing your next LinkedIn post. That momentum will help your LinkedIn post get traffic within LinkedIn.
Getting more traffic within LinkedIn opens the door to more potential connections. You can also like the posts written by people you aren’t connected with yet. That way, those people are likely to connect with you when you send the invitation.
#5: Leverage Your Audience
Everyone has an audience that can be leveraged. Whether you have a blog with 50 daily visitors, a blog with 1,000 daily visitors, or no blog, you have an audience. Let your audience—that includes family and friends—know about your LinkedIn account.
The people in your audience are very likely to connect with you on LinkedIn. They already know who you are and have a strong appreciation for what you do. Getting the people in your audience to connect with you on LinkedIn will give your profile a better ranking in LinkedIn’s search engine.
#6: Ask For Endorsements
It is okay to ask for endorsements, but only ask the right people. Friends, family, colleagues, and people you know well on the web are the people who you can ask. Getting enough people to endorse you for certain skills will make your profile look more appealing.
An appealing profile entices people to send you invitations. While sending invitations and getting connected with people is a great strategy, it wouldn’t hurt if people sent you the invitations.
When you ask for the endorsements, make sure you have them set up on your profile. Moreover, choose the best endorsements that fit what you are doing and the skill selection LinkedIn lets you choose from.
#7: Have A Professional Bio
A professional bio should mention your past professional achievements and connect them with what you do now. Strongly emphasize what you provide so people visiting your profile know if you are the right person for them to connect with.
You only want the right people to be connecting with you. If the people connecting with you have no interest in what you do, then what’s the point? A professional bio lets people know who you are.
#8: Personalize Your Bio
Although staying professional is important, many people forget about the personal side. Whether they admit it or not, people are interested in what you do when you are unplugged.
What do you do when you are off of LinkedIn? What are some skills or hobbies you have that don’t relate to your profession?
Adding some personalization to your bio and focusing on the professional aspect creates the perfect blend. The key reason personalization is so important is because people realize you are a human being. Now, they can relate to you.
One thing I mention is that I am a runner. I can’t tell you how many conversations I have had on my social networks about running. I have talked about my fastest times and listened to other people talk about their running stories.
Basically, in a sense, this interaction is one of the runner’s dreams—hearing cool stories and telling our coolest stories in vivid detail.
I would have lost out on this interactions if I didn’t mention I was a runner. Being a runner has nothing to do with my profession, but it sparks conversations and allows me to build deeper relationships with the people in my audience.
#9: Get Recommendations
Recommendations on LinkedIn are the most powerful type of social proof you can get from LinkedIn. In one word, LinkedIn Recommendations are testimonials. Nothing more and nothing less.
The special thing about a recommendation is that when someone leaves a recommendation, that person’s profile is linked to the recommendation. People who view your profile can see who left the recommendation, look at that person’s bio, and engage with that person.
If someone on LinkedIn recommends your consultation services, savvy visitors now have the ability to directly contact your past customer. Since the customer gave you a good recommendation, that customer is bound to say good things to your potential customer.
Word of mouth doesn’t sound as cool as Periscope. But it is as powerful as it has ever been.
#10: Utilize The Right LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups are sprouting in popularity. With their popularity, LinkedIn Groups have also generated success stories. One of the people I interviewed for my book Lead The Stampede tapped into a LinkedIn Group which got her featured on Forbes and amplified her message.
The right LinkedIn Groups are large and related to your niche. If a LinkedIn group has 30,000 members, there is a likelihood of a large audience reading and appreciating your content. There is also a chance that one of those people writes for Forbes.
In Conclusion
LinkedIn is a social network that can bring forth promising results. The people who heard the little whisper early on are now using LinkedIn to generate an astounding amount of sales and traffic.
Hopefully you hear the whisper now, and you seize the moment by getting started on LinkedIn now!
What are your thoughts on LinkedIn? Do you have any tip for getting more connections? What is your favorite LinkedIn feature? Sound off in the comments section below!
