13 #LinkedIn Tips for Leveling Up Your Connections Game

To celebrate the publication of our new book, Make LinkedIn Work for You, A Practical Handbook for Lawyers and Other Legal Professionals, Alison Shields and I wanted to share thirteen tips to help lawyers and other legal professionals improve their approach to LinkedIn Connections from the book. Pick a few of these and you will have an easy action plan to level up your LinkedIn Connections game and make LinkedIn work better for you.

1. Invite people to connect with you when you speak, in your communications, and even on your business card.

2. Premium account options have additional features that can help you find and add Connections. You can take advantage of a free 30-day trial and, if you purchase a premium account, you can turn it off at any time.

3. Send invitations to second-degree Connections who like or comment on your Posts.

4. If you sincerely like a presentation or article, let the speaker or author know and ask them to connect.

5. If you use Twitter, a great technique is to see who follows you on Twitter and, if it makes sense, send them LinkedIn invitations.

6. Use the “People Also Viewed” results on your Connections’ Profile pages (and your own) to find people who might be good Connections for you.

7. Convert the business cards you receive into LinkedIn invitations while the memory of the in-person meeting is still fresh.

8. Don’t forget that you can cultivate Connections over time: remove, block, ignore or remove invitations, and otherwise manage your Connections to make your Connections list more tailored to your goals.

9. Accepting more of the invitations you receive is an easy way to build your number of Connections. If you are unsure about the inviter, send them a message in LinkedIn to start a conversation before you accept the invitation to connect.

10. Look at your Connections’ connections – if you see someone you’d like to meet, ask if they will make an introduction for you. The introduction doesn’t have to occur on LinkedIn. Or, simply ask your Connection if you can use their name in your LinkedIn invitation to your desired contact.

11. Because many people now have premium LinkedIn accounts, they will see when you have viewed their Profiles. Simply viewing Profiles can be a way to see if someone will invite you to connect with them.

12. In meetings or other events, consider suggesting that people use the “Find Nearby” feature in the mobile app to let everyone easily find and connect to others who are there.

13. Be creative and bold to reach out to people who you would like to engage and know. We are always finding new ways to use LinkedIn to identify potential Connections.

There’s much more great information on taking your LinkedIn use up a level or two in Make LinkedIn Work for You: A Practical Handbook for Lawyers and Other Legal Professionals, by Dennis Kennedy and Allison Shields(available on Amazon).

For tips on improving your LinkedIn Profile, see 15 LinkedIn Tips for Your Profile.