7 Ways To Use Linkedin’s Free Messaging Service To Get New Clients And Grow Your Business

Linkedin has been termed as the holy grail of new business opportunities, making genuine professional relationships and building your network.

The recent algorithmic changes of Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest have made LinkedIn the new favourite for marketing professionals.

Linkedin is the world’s largest professional digital platform.

If you are looking for –

– new leads for your business

– want to pitch your ideas to new investors

– connect with fellow professionals in your field

– Finding a new job or opportunity

..then Linkedin is the right place for you.

However, Linkedin is not only about connecting with professionals but initiating and taking the communication ahead and converting it to something fruitful.

Whatever may be the reason, Linkedin is the platform to grow professionally.

Using LinkedIn to spread a word about your business or service is the first step towards growth.

Linkedin has two basic tools to achieve this:

Linkedin Messaging – the free version which can be used for sending a message to your connections.

Linkedin Inmail – The paid version with advance messaging features.

If you are in a B2B market and want to make full use of this professional platform, then Inmail, which is a paid service enabling you to contact anyone on Linkedin, is highly recommended.

However, if you are just starting out you don’t need to opt for the paid version.

In this article, we will look into the free version of the Linkedin messaging service and how we can fully utilise it.

If fully understood and used appropriately, Linkedin can be a powerful lead generation and communication tool for all types of professionals.

Let’s take a look as to how we can use Linkedin’s free messaging service in seven different ways to effectively communicate with fellow members.

Send Message to 2nd or 3rd Degree Connection:

Ok, so the person you want to send a message is not your 1st-degree connection. Worry not. You can send them a connection request with a message in the “Add Note” Section. Please do note that sending random connection requests may lead to a blocked account if someone reports your request as Spam or mark it as “I don’t know this person” or LinkedIn decides you are spamming people with connection requests. Hence, if you are sending a request to someone you just met once, or are doing followup, or have a proposition for them, always use the add a small message in the “Add Note” section to let them know who you are and why you have sent them the connection request.

If you want to connect to someone from the LinkedIn Suggested list in the “My connection Tab”, avoid clicking on the “Connect” Button as it will directly send the connection request without providing the option of “Add Note”.

You need to click on the profile of the person you want to connect and once the profile is open, press the “Connect” button.

You will see a pop up with Add Note Option.

Once you have been accepted by the person, you can send the detailed message directly using the “Message” tab.

Send Direct Message to 2nd or 3rd Degree Connection:

You don’t want to send a connection request to the person whom you want to send a message, or you think the person does not know you and will not accept your request at this time (that can definitely happen), what are the alternatives you have?

The options are pretty simple. Either you take the paid service i.e. Inmail or if you want to send the message for free, try searching for the same person in one of the groups you both are a member of.

Linkedin allows you to send messages to even 2nd and 3rd-degree connections if you are members of the same LinkedIn group.

How to find if you are in the same group?

Click on the person’s profile. You will see if you share any mutual groups in – “Highlight Section”

Click on the mutual groups and it will open a pop-up window showing all the group names. It is advisable to click the group you are most active in.

Once you open the group, go to “Members” and click “See All”

In the search box, enter the name of the person.

Be the first: 

Now you are connected to someone or you have accepted someone’s connection request. What’s Next? Many users think LinkedIn is just another social media platform for cold calling. In fact, it’s the opposite. People in Linkedin want to connect with someone to grow their business network or to approach them later if needed.

If you are a Linkedin user, just go through your LinkedIn and check how many connections you have. From that check how many of them have actually started a conversation with you? You will be surprised to see the statistics.

For e.g., I have a total of 3800+ connections from across my industry. Out of which more than half (~2400) are in my list through connection requests.

Approximately 150-200 connection requests were with a note. Even after connecting with the rest of the request with no notes, I received approximately 100 messages about the reason to connect with me.

That’s just 10-15 % of my connections really wanting to start a conversation with me and have something in mind before connecting with me.

One of the most important rules of professional networking is to start and continue the chain communication.

So next time When you send someone a connection request, send a note along with it.

***For rest of the tips, please follow this link - https://bit.ly/34FPHbc

Please do comment out of these point, which one you found it most helpful. Do share if you have more tips and tricks ????

Happy Networking !!