How To Use LinkedIn to Build Your Network
Are you still collecting LinkedIn connections? Too many of us feel the pressure to add MORE people to our networks, in exchange for having real conversations with the people who matter most.
Many of the experts I work with have a case of the "LinkedIn shoulds." 🤨
While social media enthusiasts tell them they SHOULD be growing their networks by a certain percentage week-over-week and month-over-month, they would actually prefer to go deeper with their existing connections.
A big shift I've noticed on LinkedIn over the past few years is our desire for meaningful connections, not just MORE connections.
Building a strategic LinkedIn network never goes out of style.
When you are thoughtful and intentional about the people you add on LinkedIn, you avoid the pitfalls of a bloated network filled with people you know nothing about, who are just trying to sell you something or want another number in their LinkedIn connection collection.
In this "best of" Mondays with Mindi episode rebroadcast, we discuss the nuance of making meaningful connections on LinkedIn without wasting hours a day of back-and-forth DM'ing or getting into conversations that lead nowhere.
Are You Just a LinkedIn Connection Collector?
How many connections or followers do you have?
Has anyone else noticed how completely obsessed we are supposed to be with our popularity, our following, our influence?
And it doesn’t help the obsession that the social selling experts (who are supposed to understand how all of this works!) keep telling us how important it is to have a BIG network and a dazzling organic social presence before expecting ANY revenue, let alone new clients or a new business opportunity!
We're taught to focus on the numbers, add more connections, grow as quickly as we can... and once we've laid the foundation, THEN we can experience business success on LinkedIn.
I get it. This makes complete logical sense from the perspective of "build it, and they will come."
Many of my students and clients come to me with a sense of exasperation because they’ve spent months (and often YEARS) building up a social presence and trying to add new connections who are relevant.
But they still have little to show for it!
When you ask them if they’d be open to messaging someone they don’t know about joining their podcast as a guest or for a call to exchange ideas or explore synergy, they tense up!
They get this terrified look in their eye…
They’ll say things like, “It’s a complete longshot, she’ll never respond to my message…”
I’ll coach them to “just hit send” on that message and see what happens.
You’d be surprised how small your network can be AND still get the attention of those perfect fit prospects, or dreamy podcast guests, or would-love-to-collaborate-with business partners!
Why is it that we lack the confidence to reach out to people UNLESS we have this “mythical number” of LinkedIn connections.
And what is that number anyway?!
Rather than focusing on how many people you have inside your network, what if you could focus on the relationships you already have established inside your network?
What if you did not have to keep adding to your network and could simply find a “happy place” with your network size that gave you the right number of opportunities and evolved organically over time? We’ll talk more about this in a moment.
A Bigger Network is Not a Better Network
We are all striving to show up as the best professional versions of ourselves on LinkedIn.
Too often we measure our success on LinkedIn externally by how many followers we have or the number of people inside our network. I have even seen some people go so far as to put this number inside their headline, like a badge of importance!
The way we think about expertise being linked to external signs of “success” (dare I say # of followers on LinkedIn?) is going away.
Instead, we’re now focusing on the relationships we build with one another, which do not require a high number of other friends or followers to validate us.
The people you want to connect with -- they’re not obsessed with your following, your number of connections, or how many viral posts you have right now.
They are looking for someone who can help them solve their problem.
That’s you, isn’t it?!
As a member of a number of networking organizations, business communities, and professional groups, I get to work with and collaborate with dozens of people every week.
You know one of the common themes I see come up over and over again…
“How can I make LinkedIn work for me? I don’t want to spend a bunch of time on the platform, but I want to have a healthy network filled with the people who matter.”
The good news is that you don’t have to “work to grow your network” by sending out as many LinkedIn connection invitations as possible each and every day, week or month!
And, so take a little pressure off yourself to “grow those numbers”... why not try focusing on your existing relationships instead?
Getting To Know Your LinkedIn Connections
So if the people we want to help and work with do not care much about the numbers of our network, what do they care about?
Our connection to them. Knowing that we understand them and can help them. Or know someone else who can.
When you have connections who are constantly referring other experts to you or telling you they told a friend about you - that’s the sign of a healthy network.
Does this necessarily translate into a massive overnight following? Not usually.
Does this translate into new business opportunities that happen organically over time? Most definitely.
Will you be the first called on to comment as a subject matter expert? Yes, if they trust you.
When you decide to make a career change, who will they think of first? You!
The goal is to convey that we understand at a deeper level exactly what our network wants from us, whether that’s to share a mutual professional connection because we’re in the same industry or that we can help them (or people in their professional network) to solve their problems.
We are all good people doing good business with each other in some way.
So stop worrying about how fast your network is growing, and start thinking about the professional relationships you have with your existing connections.
Are you known for connecting people?
Do you always know what’s happening in the industry?
Can you provide a recommendation?
Would you ask around your network to see if you could help them fill a role?
When your network believes that you are there to help them, inspire them and support them in whatever way makes the most sense, you will build a healthy, strategic network over time.
The numbers will take care of themselves!
But -- this is a choice you will have to make for yourself.
Sometimes, the pull of the numbers is just too strong and addictive. Seeing those numbers deviate from their upward trajectory (or even go down initially if you decide to cull your network!) can be disheartening at times.
You can continue trying to build up your network artificially with the wrong people or just the “cheerleaders” who make you feel good about yourself in the moment but never want to work with or collaborate with you.
OR, you can decide to “let it go” - as Elsa sings in Frozen :-)
The funny part is that when you take this counterintuitive approach, you will one day notice that your numbers start increasing effortlessly and have this snowball effect -- more customers, colleagues, experts and peers start popping out of the woodwork and want to work with you in some way.
So if you’re ready to ditch that stressful obsession with your network size, let’s talk about how to go deeper with your LinkedIn connections now.
3 Ways to Create More Meaningful Connections on LinkedIn
How do you deepen your existing relationships with those people inside your network already? It’s not as hard as you think, especially if you approach the process from an organic perspective.
Let’s discuss a few tactics that will help you navigate those professional LinkedIn connections and ensure that you keep in touch with the right people often enough to maintain that connection.
#1 - Identify Your Inner Circle
Focus on the people who should be in your inner circle of connections. I like to limit these to about 500 people, because if you go any higher than that, it’s going to be difficult to maintain.
Do you need to make a formal list of them? You can, but oftentimes, you will come across them organically on social media.
The key is to be specific about who belongs in your inner circle. Most of the time, these will be colleagues from your company or inside your organization, subject matter experts in your space, industry influencers, contractors or referral sources you work with periodically.
Give them attention when you can and be sure to stay on their radar, which can look different for each relationship.
#2 - Message Your Inner Circle Annually
In a perfect scenario, you’ll want to be in contact via email, LinkedIn DMs, or LinkedIn comments with everyone who’s a part of your inner circle at least once per year. Be sure you know what they’re up to, how you can support them, and update each other on your professional objectives.
This can be a simple LinkedIn message, an email that says “I was thinking of you…” or even an insightful comment on one of their posts or recent professional accomplishments.
Being intentional is the key here! I have some LinkedIn friends who literally have spreadsheets of the people who matter and track how often they touch base with their Inner Circle to ensure they are maintaining a healthy network.
I like to take a more organic approach to this, but I do like to touch base with someone in my Inner Circle on average 1-2x per weekday to ensure I’m keeping up with what they’re doing now and stay on their radar.
#3 - Watch Your LinkedIn News Feed (hit the bell!)
For those of you who like to take a more organic approach to keeping up with your Inner Circle, start hitting the bell on the profiles of those people who matter most to you. This bell is found in the top right corner of each person’s profile just under their header image. When you do this, you’ll receive notifications when these people share a LinkedIn post.
Some people like to create “engagement pods” on LinkedIn to keep up with each other’s content, which does require a bit more thought. There are some cons to this approach, because if LinkedIn thinks you are artificially commenting and engaging on each other’s posts, it will supposedly hurt your post in the algorithm. I’m a bit skeptical, as I recently engaged in one of these pods and saw everyone’s posts at the top of my feed!
If you have a Sales Navigator account, you can even create Lists of people, so you can see their recent LinkedIn activity and news mentions in a separate feed. This will allow you to see ONLY those people you want to engage with and strategically check this feed a few times per week.
There is no right or wrong way to engage with the right people, but when you do, be sure you’re acting like a human and not automating this! I’ve seen some people try to automate with a very generic message to ask how I’m doing -- that’s one of the quickest ways to destroy trust with someone in your network!
Tying this all together, your goal is to create more meaningful 1:1 connections with your LinkedIn network around your areas of passion and expertise by paying attention to their activity and intentionally reaching out, not just trying to get MORE people inside your network for the sake of MORE.
My challenge for you -- take a look at your LinkedIn network and pick 10 people who you would consider Inner Circle - hit the bells on their profiles. That’s it! Just one thing.
What additional questions do you have about creating meaningful connections on LinkedIn? Leave them below in the comments or shoot me a private message. I’m happy to answer them!
If you’re ready to dial in that About section once and for all, so you can start getting new leads or land your next opportunity in 2022, join me inside The 90-Minute LinkedIn Profile program where we’ll get your LinkedIn profile up-and-running in just 90 minutes! We’ll discuss exactly how to make LinkedIn the number one source for new business opportunities using your LinkedIn profile.
