My LinkedIn? Odyssey - 20 years of networking and more...

Today, I celebrate my 20th anniversary on LinkedIn? !

What a journey it has been on during these 20 years. It is always good to look back at the past to pave the road toward the future.

Time to celebrate the China Anniversary

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LinkedIn?will celebrate its 21st anniversary on May 5th, 2024!

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Why did I join again?

I do remember exactly why I joined LinkedIn?!?I was a heavy user of the software called "Plaxo." Plaxo was an online address book launched in 2002 and is somewhat of a networking site.?In 2004, LinkedIn crossed my path, and I saw the opportunity to take my networking to the next level.??For the record

“I am member #488.825!”

Joining LinkedIn? started me on a journey that made LinkedIn? a relationship-building tool and an integral part of my job, daily routine, source of information, and, of course, source of income.?An additional benefit is that I have made some great friends from all over the world.

The milestones on my journey

Unlike many people, I was not invited by anyone, but I started my free subscription from a curious point of view.?Over the years, I have reached milestone after milestone.?Some might see these milestones as vanity numbers but for me, they demonstrated that I am networking with a purpose.?Here are some of the more interesting milestones.

Milestones:

?? 1st Connection:? Zoltan Bus?(Alliance manager at Gartner at that time)

?? 50th connection:?Hugo Lobyn?(a co-worker at Unisys)

?? 100th connection:?Tim Nagels?(then at our communication agency and now a big shot at Microsoft)

?? 250th connection:?Hendrik Deckers?(CEO of CIOnet)

?? 500th connection:?Jan van de Zande?(Then Oracle and now Cronos)

?? 1000th connection:?Bennie Peleman

???2500th connection:?Toon Poppe

?? 5000th connection:?Tom Sweetlove

????7500th connection:?Anja Driesmans -

?10,000th connection:?Jan Vermeesch

?? 15,000th connection:?Stefanie Hoeckman

In 2021, I switched to Creator Mode thus slowing down the growth of connections but kickstarting the growth of Followers.?Today, I have crossed the 16.1K milestone of connections and have over 22K Followers.?

More than ever I concentrate on the fact that LinkedIn? is not a vanity numbers game but a relationship-building tool where I keep to my mantra: “ I only connect with people I have had a conversation with (face-to-face, conference call, phone call, emails, Twitter, or other digital channels)”.

Over the last few years, together with the growth at LinkedIn?, my network growth has increased as you can see from the charts below

So here is the growth path

My networking landscape

As you reach various milestones, it's always good to look back and make an evaluation. It must be said that my focus has been on my home region, which reflects my connections.

LinkedIn? gives you insight into your network (1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree). Looking at my network, here is how it shapes up. The outer ring is obvious more than 100M+ and closer to a few hundred millions.

After doing some math, I concluded that every connection has approximately 683 connections. Of course, everyone brings a different amount.

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Over the last year, my network has evolved more towards sales and recruitment, and my legacy contacts from the ICT industry have become less prominent. When I slice my network by the industry, it is even more widely spread across industries and functions.?

Over the years, the industries have been stable except for IT, which keeps shrinking to make room for other sectors.

I have looked at my target audiences, and here is what the top looks like....

And finally, I also took a look at the seniority level of my 1st-degree connections

How well do I know my network?

I pride myself on posting every day (for the last 5+ years) and keeping my network warm with messages and engagements. I have shared the numbers of the month of March and April 2024 as posts.

My first post dates from October 5, 2009, and discussed “Tools that make social networking simpler and more efficient.”.?In the meantime, I have shared over 26125+ posts on LinkedIn in the last 5300+ days.

Over the last 4+ years, I have limited my posts to mostly one per day.

I wrote 216 articles and 27 newsletters.?The first article (dated October 30th, 2014) was titled “Social Selling is Like Dancing with Elephants” and was about the fact that everyone was a social selling trainer or consultant.?The subject is still valid today when discussing LinkedIn? trainers and consultants.?Look out for an updated version of the article that will be talking about the “Cowboys in the LinkedIn Far West.”

?On January 1, 2022, I started my first LinkedIn Newsletter, The Belgian LinkedIn Monitor. ?We are now at issue 27.

LinkedIn? is my messaging tool

I have exchanged over 136K messages on LinkedIn, which boils down to more than eight messages per LinkedIn connection on average over the time we are connected.?I sent out 63K messages and received 63.5K messages.?

I have drawn up the list of people I collaborate with and engage with via messaging from this list. With Daniel Hall from Peakaboo, LLC, I have established the ultimate list of people who are my superfans by engaging in my posts on #socialselling, #recruitment, and #employeeadvocacy. Of course, these are the people I engage with myself on their content. These days, I am enjoying the posts on?#AI?and?#chatGPT?as they will make LinkedIn even more interesting.

So, what does LinkedIn think of me??Well, there is a file for that which, in my case, says:

·??????I am a recruiter

·??????I am a small business owner

·??????I am at the early stage of my career ??

·??????LinkedIn has my inferred birth year off by 6 years! ?

This data is far from accurate, but I guess that is what LinkedIn thinks...

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What 9 lessons have I learned over these 20 years?

I have made mistakes for sure, but I have benefited from great advice from peers and others, and after 20 years, these are the lessons that come to mind?:

? Lesson?#1: Continue to connect after having a conversation to create value-add relationships for both parties and maintain the conversation myself.

? Lesson #2: Connect with my target audience (and their influencers) or people who can introduce me to them, keeping Lesson #1 in mind.?If they do not accept it, withdraw the invite.

? Lesson?#3: Continue to use introductions to reach the 2nd-degree connections even more.

? Lesson?#4: Continue engaging on my network's content and start conversations from there.

? Lesson?#5: Share my knowledge and experiences through posts, articles, and newsletters. Do not worry about the algorithm. Good content gets read and acted upon.

? Lesson?#6: Continue to babysit my content to start and maintain conversations that build relationships

? Lesson?#7: The power of LinkedIn lies in the DMs where relationships are forged!

? Lesson?#8: Never forget my objectives for using LinkedIn! Build relationships and get visibility!

? Lesson?#9: Data-driven LinkedIn gets me results in want and need!

?“You and I will meet again when we least expect it; one day, in some far-off place, I will recognize your face. I won’t say goodbye, my friend, for you and I will meet again.” – Tom Petty

I look forward to that moment! In the meantime, let's keep track of each other thru

So, what does your journey look like on?#LinkedIn?