How to Grow & Excel on LinkedIn

Are you new to LinkedIn or have you been here a while and haven’t grown the way you’d like to?

If you want to grow and excel here on this professional social media website, I can help you. I have helped tens of thousands of people add connections and have more fun on LinkedIn. I am still helping and this article should aid in that effort. 

There’s a point where every person on LinkedIn has exhausted their natural reach of 1st degree connections. The number varies of course as you might have worked with more or less people than I have depending on size of companies, employment length and the size of the circle of your friends and family. Whatever the number is, most run out far short of the 30,000 1st degree connection limit here on the platform. Yet if you look around there are many, myself included who have reached the maximum connection limit and have continued to build beyond with followers.

So if you are newer to LinkedIn or perhaps wondering how you can build a network and get more out of the social media platform, this article was written just for you. 

The Methods Work

Some think because they are not famous, or perhaps they are from a certain location or occupation they cannot attract a lot of interest from others who would want to connect.  That is simply not true. I don’t care where you are from, what you do for a living or how much money you have in the bank, you can build a great network here, if you’re willing to listen to advice and follow through with putting it into action.

For example, I am not famous, and frankly not all that interesting. I am not wealthy, good looking nor do I come from a silver spoon. If you are a normal professional and lack rock star qualities, I want you to know that you too can build what I have built, which is a great network of professionals to learn from, inspire, engage with and help.

At the end of the day, LinkedIn is what we make it to be. There are over 600 million profiles built here. You don’t have to connect with everyone. Many might not like you or what you represent anyway and vice versa. The key is to find those you can learn from, work with, inspire, help or be helped by who you do get along with and network with them. I will teach you how to do it.

Setting Up Your Profile

Before you reach out to anyone, you really should get your profile set up.  You want a good profile photo and to unlock your security settings so people can view your public profile. LinkedIn is not Facebook and you’re not sharing family secrets here. If you want to build a network, you must allow people to see you and you need to tell a compelling story to draw them in. From your headline to your description you need to create an interesting and dynamic profile that is both accurate and relevant. 

Look at my profile for an example. I have a professional headshot. I have a cover photo that helps communicate what I do and how I help people. My description tells you more about who I am, what I’ve done and what I hope to accomplish moving forward. 

If you were to build one similar, you’ll find it is very helpful in drawing in others who are browsing profiles looking for friendly new people to connect with. Before I maxed out on my connections, I put a short blurb up at the top stating that I accept all connection requests. Why did I do that? Because I wanted those looking at my profile to connect with me. 

The bigger and more diverse your network is, the more you will get out of LinkedIn. I suggest you visit https://profilesthatpop.com/ and watch Jared Wiese’s videos that he shares regularly. They will help you create a great profile that will help you communicate what you do in a way that invites people to read your profile. Don’t forget to send connection requests to everyone you’ve worked with or currently work with. Building your network should start with the ones you know and interact with. That is the foundation of your network. The more you have, the stronger your foundation is.

Profile Tips:

Make sure you have a good cover photo!

Change your security settings to allow people to see you.

Utilize all 120 characters of your headline. Most important things stated first.

Incorporate a Cover Photo. Use https://www.canva.com if you need to build a graphic for free to help maximize the space.

Engaging is the Key to Growth

After you have built your profile or revised it to meet the tips above and you’ve reached out and requested to connect with all of your natural connections, to grow, you’ll need to be social and meet people. There are several ways to do that on LinkedIn.

A)    Comment on Other People’s Posts

There are millions of new posts each day and that gives you millions of opportunities to interact with people you don’t know. You can scroll through your feed for starters. Find posts that you are interested in and make a comment. 

A few ways to engage in a post are: 

1) Compliment the author on the post. 

2) ask a question related to the topic of the author and/or those who’ve commented on the post.

3) add some additional information to the post, thereby extending the conversation. 

Whichever you do, if you are brave, say something to the effect of, “would you like to connect?” Many times the one who asks that will find not only does the person they asked send them a connection request, but many others who read it will as well. No one likes to be rejected but on LinkedIn the one who puts themselves out there as being open to connect will be rewarded.

B)    Post Original Content of Your Own

If you are not afraid to share your own thoughts and experiences, sharing original content is a great way to let others get to know you too. I started doing this in earnest just over a year ago and it made a huge difference to how many people I connected with. I even asked in posts, “Who wants to connect?” and things of that nature. Many want to grow but fear rejection. There are hundreds of millions of people on LinkedIn with just about every type of interest and personality on the planet. If you share your thoughts, you will find some who are likeminded. Be warned however that there are trolls here too and you might find some being critical of what you say and share. I’ve learned to just delete their comments. Such an easy solution and avoids drama.

1)     Share industry news

2)     Talk about your daily challenges

3)     Share mid term and long term goals

Always keep it positive though. You don’t want to be seen as negative or critical as you are sharing on a public forum. Protect your reputation by staying professional at all times no matter if it’s a comment or a post.

C)    Join Groups of Interest to You

Maybe the least utilized advantage on LinkedIn is group membership. Not only can you interact with people by geography or vertical market to build your market in group posts, but you can also directly send them a message, even if you’re not connected directly, as long as you’re in the same group. Watch my video here for instructions on how: https://youtu.be/uyhseDPe2UQ

1)     Engage in comments on posts in the group

2)     Post your own content in the group

3)     Message people you want to connect with directly through the group membership directory

D)   Other Quick Tips

Other tips to increase engagement and find relevant content:

1)     Using hashtags in your content allows others to find your post as feeds get very crowded. It can help you overcome lower algorithm scores and increase who sees your posts.

2)     Use the search bar and type in a hashtag like #ProjectHelpYouGrow and then pick content, company or people, per your preference. If you choose content, it’ll show you posts with that hashtag in it. If you choose company, it’ll show you company pages that have the term and if you choose people, it’ll show you people with that in their title. You can search groups and other things too. Check out the search filters as they are a great help once you get to know how they work.

3)     Toggle your feed from Top to Current and it’ll show you different things. I first started using this on Facebook and it works in much the same way. It’s a good way to find different posts to engage with.

4)     Join the Service Professionals Network if you want to get some additional help building your professional network. Visit https://www.serviceprofessionalsnetwork.com to find the website. I joined and participate in it almost daily. Why? The people help support my posts on LinkedIn and on other sites too like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. It’s free and they believe in #WinWinNetworking just like I do.

Authenticity and Honesty are Key to Long Term Growth

The final step in ensuring you continue to grow and add followers, especially after you max out on the 30,000 1st degree connections is to maintain some humility, to be honest always and to stay authentic. I am a bit goofy at times, I love to make people laugh and I don’t try to impress people with my things. My heart is to help. If you ask any of my connections who know me, they’ll tell you I keep it real. I’m not afraid to share my own warts and many are drawn to it because I’m just a normal person, not a celebrity. Too many are trying to be something they are not. There’s nothing wrong with reaching to become better, I do that daily, but to pretend to have already achieved something is fools gold. 

Simply put, don’t fake it until you make it. Don’t pretend to be an expert or a guru on something to try and cheat the growth process. I added 36,000 connections and followers in less than 1 year by simply doing the things I mentioned above. I have helped thousands of others in the same way. Some people I’ve worked with have added over 20,000 connections themselves in the same period. In the first month of #ProjectHelpYouGrow the group, I helped generate over 1 million connections between members on LinkedIn.

You can grow by creating a professional profile, engaging with others, learning how to find and communicate with people on here and by staying true to who you are as a person.

Helpful References and Resources:

Many people are looking for help on LinkedIn. If you want to help someone and you don’t know where to send them, perhaps this list will be of a good reference guide:

1. Free Job Search Assistance, with job listings, candidate listings, job search blogs, podcasts with industry expert interviews and more, with no ads, or fees and that works all around the world, visit my website at https://ProjectHelpYouGrow.com
2. For help writing a professional resume or cover letter: https://www.jobready2dey.com/
3. For help learning about the job search process: https://jobhuntschool.com/
4. For interview preparation seek out: https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/kirsty-bonner/
5. For military personnel who are transitioning to the private sector: https://militaryvetstone.com/
6. For veterans looking to become a PMP: https://vets2pm.com/
7. For help building your Social Media Network: https://www.serviceprofessionalsnetwork.com
8. For help building a free graphic: https://www.canva.com
9. To get help building your LinkedIn Profile: https://profilesthatpop.com/
10. For Business Tips and Informational videos subscribe to my YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjsuVOVx3vG5jYCH5xPs3bg
11. For help with a new website or app build, or help with marketing campaigns: https://dealersleague.com/