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Building a Network on LinkedIn – Strategies and Tips

When the world was fascinated by Facebook almost twenty years ago, LinkedIn, despite being founded earlier, remained in its shadow. And although both networks are assigned to the same category under the name of "social networking site", the purpose of each of them is completely different. One of the differences concerns building a network of contacts, or rather the purpose and value of this procedure. After years of presence of both platforms on the market, it is safe to say that LinkedIn is today a place where active presence and strategic management of contacts are investments with a high rate of return.

This is primarily because, compared to all the social media known and available to us, LinkedIn stands out with its business character. That is why it is called the world's largest network for professionals, which enjoys the greatest trust of users among all social media.

This is where you can show off your professional experience, education and courses; this is where you can find a job or internship; this is where you can discover a new employee for your company or gain clients; this is where you can share your expert knowledge as well as learn something new; and finally, this is where you can establish and strengthen professional relationships.

What is all this for?

Well, to build and strengthen your personal brand and thus increase your professional development opportunities.

Each of us is a brand today

Even if at first glance you associate the word with a world-famous company, its advertising slogan and logo, in fact in the business world we deal with three main types of brands:

  • companies,
  • product,
  • people.

Each of the above-mentioned, in order to function effectively on the market, needs a well-chosen marketing strategy. But if you invest in just one of them, all three will bear fruit. Do you know which one I mean?

It's about your personal brand, or you. Or more precisely, how others see you, or, to quote Jeff Bezos, what people say about you when you leave the room. It's only on the basis of these beliefs that everyone around you builds opinions about your product and company.

You are the beginning.

Use LinkedIn to strengthen your personal brand

If you want to build a strong personal brand, start with LinkedIn. Of course, other social media also serve to increase online visibility, represent the company, or share knowledge, but this platform is especially important for personal accounts. Why?

First of all, because it is the world's largest network of specialists (the portal has over 985 million users in 200 countries). It is a place created for professional development, allowing you to establish business contacts. Being on LinkedIn "invests time", unlike other portals where you "spend time".

This service generates 3 times more sales leads than Twitter and Facebook, which significantly translates into direct acquisition of potential customers in both the B2C and B2B segments. A personal account is of particular importance here, because, according to statistics, content shared by employees from their individual accounts is up to 8 times more engaging and 16 times more likely to be read than posts published from company accounts.

In a word, LinkedIn is currently the best place on the web to support an individual's business development and build a solid and trustworthy personal brand. Achieving such an effect requires long-term actions that can be summarized in four steps:

  1. Establishing a professional and authentic personal profile.
  2. Establishing a network of valuable contacts.
  3. Creating engaging and valuable content.
  4. Building and maintaining relationships.

Let's assume that you already have a fully completed and professionally presented profile that attracts attention. It shows both a photo of your face and a background photo, your motto or a few words summarizing your professional status, detailed career stages, subsequent positions along with the duties you performed, subsequent steps in education, completed courses, trainings and everything else that you can brag about in the context of professional development.

It's time for the next stage, which is to start building a network of contacts.

How to effectively build a valuable network of contacts?

This involves inviting others to your network as well as inspiring others to connect with you. It's a two-way process - you invite someone, but someone also invites you.

What is the purpose of this?

The answer really lies in reach. If you want your LinkedIn account to help you achieve your professional goals, your profile and the content you post should be seen by as many people as possible. To do this, you need to remember that what affects the range:

  • the content you publish,
  • number of active users at a given time,
  • the number of your first-degree connections,
  • number of active connectors,
  • individual preferences and relationships,
  • user activity.

That's why building a network of contacts on LinkedIn is all about the quality of your contacts, not their quantity. It's not about increasing the number of people in your network for the sake of statistics, but about building authentic relationships that can bear fruit in the future.

So how do you do it right?

Define your goal and specify your target group.

Before you even start building your network, think about who you want to reach and who you should really establish relationships with. What is your goal? Do you want to build an image of an expert and do you want to move within your industry? Are you looking for clients whose needs you can meet? Answers to such questions will help you effectively build your further strategy. Your target group may be:

  • former and current collaborators,
  • former and current business partners and clients,
  • close friends,
  • people in the industry you want to follow,
  • potential customers.

Use advanced search features to find them.

LinkedIn is equipped with a fairly extensive search engine that allows you to specify your preferences precisely. First of all, if you already know what contacts you are looking for, use the filters:

  • basic, i.e. companies, groups, universities, locations, contacts (1st, 2nd, 3rd+ level),
  • advanced, i.e. position, previous company, industry, profile language.

If you want to refine your search even further, here are a few operators to consider:

  • quotation marks – if you enter any word in quotation marks into the search engine, you will limit the results to only that phrase, e.g. by entering “manager” into the search engine, you will see people who perform only that profession,
  • AND – this way you will see results containing two phrases at the same time, e.g. manager AND social media specialist, 
  • OR – you will see results that contain one or more of the terms you entered, which will allow you to get more search results, e.g. social media OR marketing OR advertising,
  • NOT – you will exclude certain phrases, e.g. programmer NOT tester,
  • bracket – you make sure that what is included in it is a priority and taken into account first; e.g. (“programmer” OR “tester”) AND product owner.

You can also search for contacts via:

  • thematic groups – join groups that interest you, read other people’s posts on an ongoing basis and engage in discussions; this way you will be recognized as an expert in a given field and you will also find people whose views you would like to follow,
  • company profile – all you need to do is find the company profile of the company you are interested in and then find people who worked or still work there,
  • Alerts – after creating a query, you can create an alert, which will make LinkedIn send you a notification when there are people who meet your criteria,
  • function People you may know on the page My network, which helps you find connections with recommendations based on similarities between you and other LinkedIn members.

Invest in Sales Navigator.

It is simply one of the paid versions of LinkedIn, available in three different versions. It is used for detailed searches of contacts and is intended to help in acquiring regular customers. Among the many benefits that this solution brings, the most noteworthy are:

  • more precise search filters, such as the size or type of company a given person works for, leads tracking a given person’s company, and even the date of registration on the platform,
  • saving lead lists or company account lists,
  • the ability to send emails from LinkedIn directly to your mailbox,
  • the ability to check platform users for content published in the last 90 days.

This is not a solution we recommend for starting to build a network of contacts. But if you feel that the basic options are exhausted, you can use the free trial version of Sales Navigator. This tool is usually recommended for people in the position of sales managers and recruiters.

Invite people who interest you to your network.

Remember that LinkedIn is not Facebook – you don’t have to know someone personally to add them to your network. Sending friend requests to people you don’t know is perfectly acceptable here.

However, before you send an invitation to a given person, visit their profile and carefully follow it. Read carefully what they publish, take an active interest – react to posts, leave a valuable comment, participate in the discussion under the content.

Only then send the invitation, but always include a message. It doesn't have to be long, the point is to say hello, introduce yourself, and then write why you're sending the invitation.

"Good morning Mr. Jakub,

My name is Piotr Kowal and I have been professionally involved in computer graphics for years. I would like to invite you to my group of friends to be up to date with your publications in this field.

I really hope that someday we will be able to meet in person.

Kind regards,
"Peter"

It is important that such a message is personalized. Find a point of contact with the person, something that unites you. Sometimes it is an industry, sometimes a university, and sometimes interests. If after reading your invitation proposal you decide that you can send it to several people, it is a sign that it needs to be written from scratch.

Also send a message when accepting a contact.

If you have received an invitation to connect, do not limit yourself to just accepting. Send a message to the person who wants to add you to their network. To do this, go to Network, where you will see invitations from other people. Then select See all. You will see the name of the person under it. Message. After clicking, you can write a private message to the person and then accept the invitation. Remember to:

  • say hello and thank you for the invitation,
  • add content related to your common point or just something nice,
  • if necessary, ask a question or add a suggestion to encourage further conversation.

"Hello Karolina,

Thank you for the invitation. I am very pleased to be part of your network. 

As a welcome, I invite you to read my latest article on building a network of contacts on LinkedIn >> [link]

If you have any questions, I'm here to help!
Paulina”

If you personally know someone who invited you and you have had contact recently, It is not necessary to send such a message.

Act systematically and regularly.

Use the 333 technique. It requires a bit of consistency and commitment, but it is a great strategy for acquiring contacts, especially at the beginning. The idea is to:

  • invite 3 new people to your network, 
  • leave 3 valuable comments under the content that interests you, 
  • start 3 private conversations with people who interest you in some way.

After a while, it will become a habit, your network will grow, and your relationships with some LinkedIn members will become stronger.

Remember a few important rules.

  • Building a network of contacts starts with investing in a relationship. Never start a relationship by trying to sell anything.
  • Place your profile information (and a direct link to it) in other places: on your website, blog, or other social media. This will make it easier for others to find your profile.
  • If your LinkedIn friend count is 0, start by inviting people you know: current and former colleagues, or even acquaintances. You can also add your email address and simply import your contacts.
  • Keep your profile up to date and publish your own posts so others have a chance to find you too.

The first step towards success

LinkedIn is a platform created to generate pretexts for contact, where systematic activity is the basis for building a strong and valuable network of acquaintances. It is a path that leads to creating a credible personal brand and achieving a stable position in the business world.

It is also a safety buffer that will help you find both a valuable employee and your dream job, all thanks to the fact that your post with a given advertisement will be seen, commented on and shared by many different people who are part of your network of contacts. 

It's time to start creating and developing it. Because if not now, when?