People are using LinkedIn for a wide variety of reasons. You could be a business owner looking for qualified candidates to join your company. You could be looking to connect with other similar businesses or people in your area working in your industry. You have added all of your personal friends to your LinkedIn network, but you want to expand your reach. You’re asking yourself, “What now?” Well now, you need to grow your network. One of the best ways to make LinkedIn work for you is to have a wide group of connections. This way, more people and companies will know about you and be able to connect with you. So, how do you do this? There are many ways to grow your network, but let’s focus on 6 tips to grow your LinkedIn network and increase your presence.
1.) Post Often
One of the hard and fast rules when it comes to social media is posting frequently, and LinkedIn is no different. Posting often keeps your profile at the top of your connections’ feeds and keeps your content fresh in their minds. Think about your Instagram feed. There are pages you look forward to seeing every day because you are used to seeing their content; they are pages you enjoy and engage with. The same goes for LinkedIn, the more you post, the more visible you are and the more other people are going to want to connect with you. So, post often, and don’t be worried about posting too much, too much is never enough.
2.) Personalize Connection Requests
When you request to connect with someone on LinkedIn, a message pops up giving you the option to add a personal note to your invitation. Always include a personal note. The generic note shows people that you did not put any real time or effort into connecting; it screams laziness. A personal note reminds a person who you are, why you are requesting the connection, and what your connection is in real life. This shows the individual that you took the time to be personal and shows real effort on your behalf.
3.) Join and Engage With Groups
One LinkedIn feature you may not be utilizing is LinkedIn Groups. These groups connect you with other professionals in a similar field, with similar interests and with common goals. By joining these groups, you can cultivate new connections that may help you achieve your goals. Engaging with these groups will get your name out there and other members of the group will know you and be able to recommend you for career opportunities. Ask questions, ask for advice, share your experiences, and gain insights, use these groups to your advantage. If you need some guidance on how to join a group, check out LinkedIn’s group page here.
4.) Add Images
Pictures speak louder than words. And in LinkedIn’s case, pictures speak 11x louder than words. People are 11x more likely to look at a post or a profile when there are images. We, as a collective human race, love looking at pictures. Especially in this fast-paced world, fewer words and more pictures are ideal. This does not mean you should only be posting images, definitely include words, but pictures are very effective to grab a user’s attention. This will keep your connections engaged with you and your content and help to gain more connections.
5.) Add LinkedIn URL to Email Signature and Other Social Media Platforms
There is no shame in self-promotion. Everyone’s doing it. So, in order to grow your network, you need to put yourself out there. Include your LinkedIn URL with your email signature, this makes it easy for people you are already connecting with via email to find your LinkedIn profile and connect with you. Add your LinkedIn URL to your bio on other social media platforms. This is especially important for someone with a fairly new LinkedIn profile, this allows those following you on other platforms to easily connect with you.
6.) Use Keywords in Your Profile
The world of SEO (search engine optimization) is a whole different animal than social media, but it is very important. SEO is what determines if and how people find you on the internet. LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to let people find you, similar to SEO, using keywords. Every word in your profile is important. Do not simply include your main job title; include everything your title encompasses, so when people search for more specific roles, they find you. LinkedIn also allows hashtags on posts, which is another great way to target specific readers to your posts or viewers to your profile.
There are even more ways to grow your LinkedIn audience, but these 6 tips will be a good start. If you find that you are still not getting the results you want out of your connections, and want to grow even more, then reach out and let’s work together.
