The 6 Secrets to Exponentially Expand Your LinkedIn Network
Build Your Credibility Through Valuable Connections
It was an average day, just like any other. I wasn’t actually planning to exponentially expand my LinkedIn network. I got up, made coffee and checked my phone for any urgent messages before I sat down to eat. Normally, I do not check social media in the mornings. I’m a big fan of putting healthy boundaries around social media – even though my business is heavily networked on LinkedIn. But, today … I got a notification that flexed that boundary for good reasons.
LinkedIn is vital for any professional regardless of where you are in your career. At this moment, it is the #1 professional networking platform in the world. Based on some recent changes, LinkedIn is emphasizing community, connections, and credibility. While a few things are frustrating (such as downplaying external articles), LinkedIn has the power to expand your credibility – if you know how to leverage the platform.
Because I’ve been on LinkedIn for many valuable years, I was able to spot a trend happening with a LinkedIn ‘influencer’. In the space of around an hour, while I ate breakfast, prepared coffee, and started my workday – I set the stage to expand my network exponentially. I was actually able to gain over 25% LinkedIn connections in a single day.
1. The first step to expanding your LinkedIn network
You have to be very clear on whom you want to expand your network with. Do you want to connect with fellow colleagues, potential hiring managers, or possible clients? Regardless of your reason – you have to be very clear with your target. If you are considering ‘selling’ to people on LinkedIn, don’t bother.
LinkedIn is an excellent social media tool for expanding your credibility and reaching more people. One of the main reasons LinkedIn is so great for credibility building is because you are not necessarily constrained by the functions of your role. You aren’t even constrained by your geographical location – LinkedIn is worldwide! The tremendous value of this became clear to me at a critical point in my professional career.
Early in my career, I was frustrated that I was unable to express the complete view of my expertise at work. While I was able to leverage a portion of my abilities, I had a lot more to offer! I was also aware that my expertise would go unnoticed if I didn’t share it with a larger audience. LinkedIn gave me that audience and allowed me to share my professional expertise with the world.
Your network expansion target will need to be clear first before you can find a good source to help you with your endeavors. This will become more obvious in a minute.
2. How to pick your LinkedIn ‘influencer’
While there are several ways to reach a larger pool of professionals on LinkedIn: the best way is to follow a relevant influencer. The term ‘influencer’ is used loosely here. I admit that it’s a bit over-used. The formal use of LinkedIn Influencer is long since gone and was originally randomly selected. Regardless, there are many professionals that, for various reasons, have been able to gather a large following. These are the people you want to follow in your relevant target or niche.
The type of influencer you choose will determine the type of professionals you connect with. If you are looking for colleagues to connect within your profession or industry – perhaps using a Group is the best way to do this. You definitely want to connect with anyone you meet at a professional meeting or conference. Regardless, following influencers, thought leaders, and trending industry disrupters are probably the fastest way to get a broader network outside of your immediate professional realm.
3. When to leverage an influencer’s post
What posts to target largely depends on the professional you are following and what they post. If you are a Tech professional and want to make your mark in Big Data or Bitcoin, for example, then you probably want to follow influencers and disruptors in this area of expertise. If you are an HR Professional, you might want to keep tabs on those who are making waves in your niche. The same process applies to any profession.
There is a right way and a wrong way to interact with an influencer post. If you want to expand your network, you have to be intentional about what you say and when. I’ve found that it’s best to wait until more people interact with a post before you add your content. For example, if your influencer has around 500,000 followers, I recommend waiting until they have at least 200-300 comments before chiming in.
If you jump in too early, your addition to the stream will be buried. If you wait too late, no one will see it because it’s old news. However, I’ve found that waiting later is better than early if you are following a significant influencer on LinkedIn. Typically, around 10-15% of someone’s total follower count will engage unless it was a complete bomb of a post. You can also comment twice if you found that your original comment was a bit premature – it’s likely not too many people will notice much.
4. Key tactics when engaging with an influencer post
What to say in your comment is critical! If you give a three-word response, you will see no engagement. On the other hand, you don’t want to try and take over the post either. Most people give the verbal equivalent to a ‘thumbs up’ which isn’t helpful unless you are just trying to keep up your LinkedIn activity score. On the other hand, I’ve also seen terrible spammy comments and replies to other’s comments trying to sell something – which is, well … ‘ick’.
- Be specific
- Be relevant
- Be valuable
- Be brief
Avoid: spammy content, blatant selling, negative retorts, or off-topic comments. Whatever you do, don’t be an internet ‘troll’ and try to make the influencer look bad (because YOU end up looking bad). Do NOT add links to sell a product or a service! If you want to do that – post your own original content, but avoid burning bridges with potential connections by being a tick.
Focus on: appropriate comments, quick stories, accolades, or other valuable information with relevant hashtags. Include a link if it is to value-added sharable content such as a blog post (not to a sales post or product). If you want to connect with people – say so!
For example, I was able to add 30 new contacts in one simple post like this like the one below. If you want to connect with people, be authentic about it. Normally, I am much more engaged, but this time I was traveling with limited cell signal. I was able to like and respond with a slight delay. It was a pleasant surprise when I received a lot of connection requests!
If you want to see real results, don’t just comment and leave. Make sure you like and/or comment on replies to your post. Be sure to reach out and connect with everyone that commented or liked your post. Not everyone will connect with you and that’s fine! But, if you don’t put forth the effort – it’s not likely that other people will. The only time that is a possibility is if you share tons of relevant free information on LinkedIn and you said so!
What I was able to accomplish in the space of an hour while I ate breakfast and started my workday is solely because some of the thought leaders I follow like to post ‘follow me’ or ‘connection’ requests. This is a great idea and a wonderful way for those with a lot of followers to pay it forward.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:
I saw a trending post (like the one above) by a key influencer in my niche. This was a ‘connection’ post so it was critical to leverage it quickly. For the most part, you want to interact with something like this every single time they post. Unless they have a smaller following, you will most likely be engaging with a completely new stream of people. Therefore: because of the type of post, I was able to use the following tactics:
- Comment with relevant, specific, valuable and brief content. I also mentioned that I was open to connections and why!
- Send connection requests to other potentially valuable contacts that had also commented on the post.
- Customize each connection request with a short message referring to the original influencer post so I was some ‘rando’ reaching out.
I also watched my inbox throughout the day as some professionals like to send direct InMail messages. It’s important to respond as quickly as possible – even to a simple “thank you” message. Any delay will sour the first impression. Now, if you are traveling – don’t sweat a brief pause in your response. A real delay is days or weeks – not hours.
5. Why you should expand your network on LinkedIn
One of the questions I see pop up in many ‘follow me’ streams is, “What do I gain from adding more connections?” This is a classic reaction from professionals who have no idea how to leverage an online platform for networking. You see, these people don’t think beyond the connection itself to the next critical step – engaging their network.
Most people just connect with a ton of people and then expect some mysterious magic to happen that expands their credibility. It doesn’t work that way! They forget that connecting to people is just a part of the process. If you rely on your connections to engage with you without any catalyst at all, you will be very disappointed.
Expanding your network on LinkedIn is a critical piece of the online credibility process. The more connections you have, the broader your reach is when you SHARE VALUABLE CONTENT. Having +500 connections is a good benchmark for ‘appearing active’ on LinkedIn if you are job seeking. However, if you want to expand your credibility on LinkedIn, the more people you can reach – the broader your influence!
6. How to further your influence on LinkedIn
Connections alone are pointless if you do nothing with them. Most people are dumbfounded what to do with the connections that they have. For some, it’s perfectly natural to want to be careful about whom you add to your network. I get it, it’s disappointing to accept a connection request only to receive a super spammy InMail a few minutes later! On the other hand, it’s not like you have to respond to that message either.
If you want to develop your credibility, expand your influence, and further your engagement with your connections on LinkedIn, ADD VALUABLE CONTENT on the platform. This is a ‘must-do’ for bloggers and thought-leaders. However, if you don’t like writing, don’t worry. The point is to share useful information that is relevant to your niche. Create and share long-form posts, external article links (be sure to add a short comment from your perspective), videos you find useful, or motivational/relevant photos.
People want to know who you are! What are your lessons learned, what do you find useful, relevant, inspiring, motivational and helpful to achieve your goals? Most importantly, show others how you are relevant to their career journey.
If you are a speaker, share where you are speaking next and what you will be discussing. Give your network a snapshot or key takeaways from your presentation. One of the biggest mistakes I see speakers make is simply saying “I’m speaking at XXX” with a selfie. No one really cares! Yes, that validates that you are a speaker (congrats!), but you are adding NO VALUE to your connections.
Share ‘lessons learned’ stories from a project you did. Keep in mind any Non-Disclosure Agreements or any legal issues with your current workplace. If you are a consultant, be cautious that whatever you share is upbeat for your clients and that you have their permission! We don’t want to air dirty laundry on LinkedIn but stories are gold.
The key to success is getting started
Go find your influencers, your industry disrupters, thought-leaders and follow them. See who their followers are that are valuable to expanding your network. Don’t be afraid to reach out with a meaningful message. People are more likely to respond to well-thought-out authentic questions.
Another useful way to learn more about someone is to schedule a ‘virtual coffee chat’. Be respectful of the other person’s time and be up-front about any agenda you might have. Be prepared to return the favor for their time and try your best to add value to the other person.
Whatever you do – don’t forget that LinkedIn is a very powerful platform for expanding your influence and credibility beyond your workplace boundaries. Even years ago, after expanding my influence, I actually landed two great jobs completely through LinkedIn! Whether you are a professional or a consultant looking to further your network – LinkedIn is an amazing tool to further your success.
A little bit about me …. my name is Erin Urban (LSSBB, CPDC), I’m a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, a keynote speaker, a certified career growth and leadership development coach with almost a decade of mentoring and coaching successful professional transformations.
