As a vast networking system, LinkedIn is known to all. People are growing their network day by day and gaining success in engaging different B2B industries all over the nation.
You also want to know how to grow network on LinkedIn, right?
Expanding your connections on LinkedIn can be hard if you do not know the process properly. That is why this guide is for you.
From this guide, you will learn everything possible about LinkedIn networking, how to network on LinkedIn (what to do and what not to do), and many more.
What Does Growing Network on LinkedIn Mean?
LinkedIn network growth actually complies with how you are increasing the number of connections with other individuals. It can be professional (connecting with the industries you are involved with or related fields).
It involves growing your brand by expanding your reach and establishing your brand. By growing your network on LinkedIn, you can tap into a wider pool of job opportunities. Not only that, you can also establish yourself as an industry expert.
This can help you to generate more leads, thus expanding your professional career in the long run. Growing your network on LinkedIn can be a continuous process.
If you are providing proper time, effort, and the right approach, you can build a strong network on LinkedIn.
How LinkedIn Differs from Other Platforms
You have probably heard about some social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, etc., alongside LinkedIn. Do you know how LinkedIn differs from those social media platforms?
LinkedIn is a formal place where you have to be professional while writing engaging content and posts or even when connecting with others.
Unlike other social media platforms, you can find the overwhelming power of LinkedIn when doing business or looking for jobs.
Many businesses do not see the upper side of the management of LinkedIn. You can do digital marketing smoothly on LinkedIn with the right audiences, which you can not do on other social media platforms.
That is the reason why people try to grow a vast network on LinkedIn so that they can build a reputation for their brands.
This platform also helps you to engage with people through B2B marketing, partnership, networking, creating awareness within the brands, and many more.
But for other social media platforms, it can be quite unprofessional if you are looking to uplift a business.
Why Networking on LinkedIn is Essential
Networking is essential for your professional career a lot. If you are new to LinkedIn, you should start focusing on how to grow your network on LinkedIn. Here are some of the reasons why networking on LinkedIn is essential –
- Develops Your Connectivity: With the proper knowledge of growing your network on LinkedIn, you can create a lot of connections all around the world. The connections can be helpful in building up your professional career.
You may even get jobs in your suitable professions by developing the connectivity. This is because LinkedIn provides a platform to connect with people in your industry. These connections can lead you to get job opportunities and collaborations. - Establishes a Brand: As a professional platform, LinkedIn can help you showcase your skills, expertise, and achievements to your connections. If you can build a strong profile with proper guidance, you can easily create a brand.
- Helps Achieving Professional Goals: Professional goals can be getting job opportunities in your own industry or creating a social target. If you are serious about getting a job, you should start networking right away.
How to Network on LinkedIn in the Best Way
If you are already here, that means you have already signed up for a fresh LinkedIn account. But you may be at a loss about how to grow network on LinkedIn account.
There are many ways you can grow your LinkedIn profile containing many connections. With the best research, these below steps can be the most suitable way you can do so.
Profile Completion
Creating a LinkedIn profile does not mean you have completed filling up everything. When you will reach out for connectivity and growth, the other person that you are connecting to will look at your profile. What will be their reaction to your incompleted profile?
An incomplete profile on LinkedIn is just like an incomplete Resume/Curriculum Vitae. As a professional platform, you need to complete your profile first before trying to engage with someone.
Now, how can you build your profile if you are a business and want engagement? Here is a link down below that will help you complete your profile properly for better engagement –
Acknowledge LinkedIn Network System
Before doing any work, you need to understand the process. Similarly to that, you need to understand the LinkedIn network system too. By understanding it, you can easily stand up and gain connections dramatically.
Here is the LinkedIn network system for your better understanding –
- 1st-Degree Connections: 1st-degree connection means people you are directly connected to. It can be either because they have accepted your invitation or vice-versa. There will be a 1st-degree icon next to them.
- 2nd-Degree Connections: People connected to the people(1st degree connections) you are connected with. A 2nd-degree icon will pop up when you see them.
- 3rd-Degree-Connections: People connected to the people of 2nd-degree connections. You will find “3rd” written beside their profile name.
- Followers: People who follow you and your public updates on LinkedIn.
- Members of LinkedIn Groups: When you are in a group, and others are also members of the same group. They are also considered as a part of your network.
- LinkedIn Members: They are also known as “Out of Network”. If there are members who are not listed above, they are known as LinkedIn members. You will have limited visibility of them.
Connect with People
If you are already here, then you have completed your profile with proper data and also learned the LinkedIn network system. The next major thing you need to do is connect with people.
As LinkedIn is a vast network, it provides you with lots of facilities like communities, groups, alumni, resources, etc. Connecting with people became easier because of this vast networking system.
Connecting people means they can be anyone. They can be your known friends, friends of your friends, family members of your family members of different sides, people from the same school but you do not know, etc.
The question is, can you send connection requests to everyone?
You can send connection requests to as many people as possible, but that will become unorganized. The best thing you can do is personalize your connection requests.
There are two ways you can personalize your connection requests. They are –
Search and Filter
When you are trying to look for people of the same profession as you are, you can search on the LinkedIn search bar. Can you guess what may happen?
People all over the world who have the same profession will show up as search results. The number can be more than even a million too! To solve this issue, LinkedIn has a great system of filtering people.
Check out this picture. When you will search by a specific keyword, you will see the “All filters” option beside the search bar. You can select which people you want to see and connect with by clicking on that option.
This method will help you to gain genuine connections and grow your network properly.
Connect with People from Specific Companies
Let’s say you do not want to search for any individual and are looking to connect with individuals from a specific company. You can do it easily too!
If you want to connect with people of a specific company, just go to the company’s LinkedIn profile and select the people option. You can grow your network at a wide range in this way.
Try to Get As Many Endorsements As Possible
As you are growing your network day by day, you will see professionals are just only connecting, not giving you any second thoughts. What can be the reason behind that?
Professionals look for your skills endorsements. The more endorsements you have on your skills, the more active your profile will look. But how can you gain endorsements that much?
Pretty easy. You need to endorse others and ask them to endorse you back. You can do this with your closest friends, co-workers, family members first who are familiar with LinkedIn.
Or you can just ask them to endorse you. Write some short texts explaining why you need it, and you are good to go.
Join Different Relevant LinkedIn Groups
Joining groups can help you tremendously in growing your network, as there will be a lot of members who will see your activity and connect with you.
But can you join any group available on LinkedIn? Will all groups be helpful?
Well, you may look for groups similar to your profession. Joining any type of group will make your LinkedIn hard to maintain. And also, joining inactive groups will help you with limited progress.
That is why joining relevant groups is mandatory. This will help you to find people similar to your thinking abilities. You can share your knowledge and expertise with others and vice-versa.
Do you know that recruiters go to active groups to find active members? They may even find your activity as what they need and recruit you.
Comment on Posts to Grow Engagement
Just go through your LinkedIn feed every day and like, comment, and share posts of different individuals. You may get bored and scroll a lot, but you should stop and read what they want to share.
Commenting on others’ posts can be one of the best ways to grow your network fruitfully. People would ask questions a lot on LinkedIn. Be sure to answer those in the comments section of their post.
Write Posts More Often
If you are thinking you can grow a lot of connections via liking, commenting, and sharing posts, then you must check this section out too. Writing engaging posts will attract an audience to check out your content.
This may help you to grow your connections even stronger than ever. But you need to be sure you are using a professional tone when writing those posts. Show your activity by writing posts every day about anything related to your life.
What Not to Do When Networking on LinkedIn
You are almost set up to grow your vast network on LinkedIn. But for some unknown reason, you may still not reach the peak you seek. Do you know the reason why?
Because you are unknowingly doing some restricted things that are hindering your growth on LinkedIn, let’s learn what we should not do on LinkedIn to get high network volume.
Do Not Send Spam Connect
Many people on LinkedIn do not understand whom to send a connection request to and whom not to. This may create confusion for the other side. Why will that person who does not even know you will accept your connection request?
Find people of the same interests in fields and send them the proper connection requests.
Do Not Spam People
Did you ever get automated subscriptions to request from anyone’s newsletter? Isn’t it annoying?
People try to spam these newsletters for subscriptions. But this can create negative impressions about that person, eventually losing an involved individual.
Also, sending spam messages is also as same as in the previous example. This will only create confusion and ruckus. So, you need to be careful about this part.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What Does 1 2 3 Mean on LinkedIn?
1 2 3 on LinkedIn defines the connection degrees. They are actually known as 1st-degree connections, 2nd-degree connections, and 3rd-degree connections, respectively.
You will also find followers and members of your LinkedIn groups.
- How Do You Message Someone You Want to Network with on LinkedIn?
Messaging someone to connect with on LinkedIn needs to be professional. To message someone on LinkedIn, you need to go to their profile. You will find a message option below the profile picture.
Click on the message button and text that person easily on LinkedIn.
Final Thoughts
As you have learned how to grow network on LinkedIn, you should start networking right now. The more time you will spend on it, the more growth you will see on your profile.
Follow what you must and should not do to grow your LinkedIn profile, and you are good to go. If you still face any issues, you can contact us. We are here to help you out.
