Having 500 connections on LinkedIn is viewed as a fundamental milestone. It can have a psychological impact on viewers checking your profile and people tend to make judgments about others based on their number of connections too. There are strategic approaches to help you get to the magic 500.
Tried-and-true methods to reach over 500 connections
There exist several strategies to get to 500 connections on LinkedIn. You must, however, know that LinkedIn has a specific formula regarding connections: even if you have 20,000 connections, your LinkedIn profile will show it as 500. The approaches can be surprisingly easy to implement, even for those who are very selective and prefer to stick to people sharing the same industry or area of expertise.
Using the past, present, and future
Think about adding your existing contacts by reaching out to people from your previous companies, internships, formative experiences, volunteer activities and even your schools. Linking your past with the present in such a manner is already a great strategy to rack up connections. The next step consists in making LinkedIn your contact hub. Connect your email addresses and phone contacts through the platform. This strategy helps you reach out to a large number of contacts at one go.
The next step is to think about the present to build your network deliberately. Start by performing a gap analysis to target the decision makers or influencers in your community. Knowing who is in your network allows you to identify any missing links. This can be done by name, job title, industry, etc. Once you note the missing links, reach out to the individuals through a search rather than the “Connect” button. The reason is that LinkedIn requires that you show you are actually connected via a company or another institution when using the “Connect” button. This criterion does not apply when you are using search. A tip is to avoid generic LinkedIn request; make the effort to customize them.
Another present strategy is to look for LIONS, that is, LinkedIn Open Networkers. This is an option that members themselves choose, ready to accept connections from virtually any other member. To find them, you may perform a search on individual people by adding “LION” in the last name field. To reach out to relevant members, add content to the keywords, title, company and/or location fields.
A strategy for the future is to nurture the habit of reaching out to individuals you would like to have in your network immediately after you meet them. You may keep your LinkedIn app open on your mobile device and add them as soon as you meet. This habit will help you stay up-to-date with your network.
Getting others to help you
You may seek the help of other members to grow your connections list. To achieve fruitful results, you should start by making it easy for people to add you to their own connections. Here are four great tips to do that:
- Add a direct link to your email signature.
- Ask people you meet or know to link to you during presentations. You may also include a slide at the end requesting that the audience members connect with you on LinkedIn.
- Do not forget to add your LinkedIn address on your stationery system such as business cards, letterhead, thank you cards, etc.
- It is also recommended to place a direct link to your LinkedIn profile on your website or portal.
Many professionals are also opting to use a virtual assistant nowadays to help them obtain more connections on LinkedIn. Virtual assistants can handle a panoply of administrative projects as they come with a variety of expertise as well.
Image : Pexels